The 25 Best Things I Read, Watched, and Heard in 2018

Need a new TV show, movie, podcast, or book? Here’s 25 to get you through the new year…

2018 was a year to forget in many ways, but it was also packed with a litany of excellent television, movies, books, and podcasts. Some were good for a laugh; others made us think. Some helped us escape the world we were stuck in; others helped us face 2018 head on.

I didn’t watch or read everything — how could you possibly? — so this is not meant to be exhaustive. It’s not a Top 25, nor is it ranked or arranged in any particular order. It’s simply 25 books, TV shows, movies, and podcasts I loved in 2018. Here’s last year’s list if you’re still catching up…

Black Panther

Black Panther was the best and most memorable movie I watched in 2018. On its surface, Black Panther was just another Marvel superhero movie. A good one, sure, but one like the other thousand that came before and will surely come after. But Black Panther was different than the rest because it gave us an African hero and back story. Everything about Black Panther was different. The actors were different. The characters were different. The setting was different. The music, the storytelling, same, same, but different. The story Black Panther told was good and fun. The way it told its story was a breath of fresh air in 2018 and something I hope every kid young and old took in.

The Americans

Six slow-burning seasons of The Americans finally culminated this spring with a finale that was more sizzle than pop, but that is in no way a criticism of this excellent FX show. The series finale brought us back to the “START” with the showdown we’d waited six seasons for. I dare not say much for fear of spoiling, but I’ll never forget that garage scene or that train moment, and I’ll never hear “With or Without You” the same again. Rarely if ever has a show stuck the landing so well.

I, Tonya

I can still hear Nancy Kerrigan screaming “Whyyyyyy?!!” as she’s attacked by fellow ice skater Tonya Harding in the lead-up to the 1994 Winter Olympics. I, Tonya is the Office-style faux documentary featuring Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding, breaking the fourth wall with dark comedic interviews as she gives her side of the story. Robbie’s Harding is fascinating and superbly acted, moving this film into the pantheon of great sports movies.

Waco

The big trend in 2018 is apparently taking stories from the 90s and dramatizing them for audiences a la The People v. O.J. Simpson. Paramount’s Waco was less cooky and more heartbreaking, the true story of David Koresh and the 51-day 1993 standoff between his Branch Davidians and the FBI in Waco, Texas. I’m a sucker for these 90s stories as someone who grew up in the 90s and heard about O.J. and Tonya Harding and Koresh without ever really getting the full story. This story was crushing.

Mozart in the Jungle

Only the fourth season of Mozart in the Jungle came out in 2018, but I binged the whole quirky series. Nothing I watched this year was as silly and delightful. Mozart is an adaptation of a real-life oboist trying to make it as a young professional playing high-profile gigs with the New York Philharmonic. Gael Garcia Bernal is absurd and unbelievable as the maestro and inevitable love interest of lead character Hailey, and the chemistry was wonderful. I found the show one day looking for something easy to background watch while working, then devoured every ridiculous morsel over the weekend.

The Wilderness

I consider myself apolitical, but it was impossible to ignore politics in 2018, and “The Wilderness” podcast was a helpful lens through which to view it. Pod Save America’s Jon Favreau tells the story of the history and future of the Democratic Party, and in particular, its failure in the 2016 presidential election. Favreau was Obama’s speechwriter, so when he talks about the legacy Obama has left, his words carry real weight. Wilderness considers topics like race, inequality, and immigration. Whether you consider yourself Democrat or Republican, you’ll find this a fascinating and enlightening listen.

The Florida Project

Florida Project is the heartbreaking story of Moonee, a six-year-old living in the ironically-named Magic Castle hotel in the shadow of Disney World. Moonee is played wonderfully by Brooklynn Prince, who loses her innocence early as she mooches from tourists, steals, and fights to survive homelessness in the wake of a single mother doing everything she can to provide while never quite doing enough. Moonee’s mom really tries, and so does hotel manager Willem Dafoe, but the system is broken as Moonee’s childhood is wasted just miles away from a dreamland where more privileged children come year round to experience a world Moonee can never imagine.

Trust

Trust’s narrator Brendan Fraser tells us the real-life tragedy of the Getty family and the abduction of John Paul Getty III in 1973. Set mostly in the gorgeous Italian countryside, Trust features outstanding cinematography and even better acting from names like Hilary Swank as the determined mother and Donald Sutherland as stingy old tycoon J. Paul Getty. The story Trust tells is wild, but it’s the way the story is told that takes your breath away.

Everything Is Alive

Few things caught me so off guard in 2018. The first episode of Everything is Alive is called “Louis, Can of Cola.” Our narrator interviews the fictional Louis, a generic can of Coke. Over 20 minutes, he asks Louis what it’s like to sit on the shelf for months, how he longs to hear that fizzling crack as his top is opened, what it’s like to know your destiny is to be consumed. I was absolutely mesmerized and stunned by the ending. So too with the interview with Tara, the bar of soap, and with Chioke, the grain of sand. Every time I listen to this podcast I’m caught off guard and wish I had thought of it first.

Everything Sucks!

Everything Sucks! was Freaks and Geeks but in the 90s. Like F&G, Everything tells the story of a bunch of high school misfits, these ones in drama and AAV club, as they navigate the ups and downs of high school drama. The 90s music is ubiquitous, as are the pop culture references, and if you went through high school in the 90s like me, the nostalgia factor will be through the roof. Unfortunately, this delightful little Netflix dramedy was cancelled after one season. Perhaps it was a little too much like Freaks and Geeks.

Mr. Holland’s Opus

An oldie but a goodie, Opus features Richard Dreyfuss in the titular role as a high school music teacher struggling to make an impact as a musician and at home while pouring everything into his students. The moment Dreyfuss finally connects with his deaf son moved me to tears, but nothing compared to the gift his students gave him at retirement as decades of students came back to celebrate the symphonic opus Mr. Holland worried he’d never been able to write: the students themselves. My dad retired after 42 years as a teacher in 2018, and it was so special to celebrate 42 years and several generations of students he’d impacted. Sometimes timing is everything.

Succession

Succession was one of the most ridiculous shows on TV in 2018, the story of a modern-day Arrested Development family of mega-millionaire buffoons who can’t get out of their own way while trying to figure out a succession plan for the family business and an aging father that isn’t ready to turn things over. Every character on the show would be an unbelievable over-the-top caricature if we didn’t already happen to have an uncomfortable replica of the Roy family living in the White House. Succession’s characters — Roman, Greg, Shiv, Tom, and others — are unbelievable, despicable, and yet weirdly addicting. It’s like if you take Billions but make the characters all terribly unlikable and awful at what they do. I couldn’t stop watching.

Atlanta

No episode of 2018 television stuck with me more than “Teddy Perkins.” I think I watched it four or five times and then scoured the internet for any podcast or article I could find to help me unpack the many layers of Donald Glover’s masterpiece. Atlanta tells a different story in each episode, whatever story Glover feels his audience needs, and I need all of them. “Teddy Perkins” is the haunting remix of Michael Jackson’s upbringing with Get Out, every horror movie ever, childhood prodigies, and maybe Glover’s childhood too. If I close my eyes, I can still see and hear every word.

HALFTIME BREAK

I watch a lot of television. Here are 10 other shows I enjoyed in 2018…

• Nobody does a cold open like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and they outdid themselves with a brief, outrageous cancellation only to be cold-opened a couple days later by an NBC revival. Whew.
• It wasn’t as good as in the past, but This Is Us is always good for a hearty Tuesday night cry, and new fall hit A Million Little Things is giving it a run for its money (and its tissues).
• Superstore is delightful and quirky, but my favorite part might be the intermittent three-second cutaways to random customers doing totally weird but utterly believable things in the knockoff Walmart store.
• The struggling marriage arc on Black-ish was poignant and well-told, but “Purple Rain” with each character singing Prince was a special kind of brilliance only Kenya Barris could pull off. Barris did it again with his spin-off Grown-ish which tells the story of the Johnson’s oldest daughter Zoey off at college and debuted Season 2 Wednesday night on Freeform.
• The Chi was heartbreaking and personal, having lived in the Chicago burbs half my life. It showed how one innocent kid in the wrong place at the wrong time can set off a ripple effect that sends an entire community down the wrong path, a pattern of systemic brokenness.
• I’m a year late to Big Little Lies, but I appreciated the story of women overcoming their violent pasts to realize what they had against the backdrop of the sins of mothers and fathers being set in their children.
• Good Girls tried to be a ladies’ version of Breaking Bad and came up predictably short, but I enjoyed it anyway as the show embraced the comedic story of three women just trying to make it.
• 2018 saw the continued rise of excellent lead female TV characters, like Frankie Shaw in Showtime’s SMILF highlighting the day-to-day struggles of a single mom just finding time to head to the store or trying to date. Shaw is a fresh version of Shameless’s Emmy Rossum, another favorite.
• Billions is an annual guilty pleasure, and I loved the rise of the non-binary Taylor along with the ever incredible Maggie Siff.
• Nothing in 2018 was quite like Nanette. Hannah Gadsby’s comedy set turned into a reflection on life as Gadsby quits comedy before our eyes and leaves us thinking about life, the universe, and everything else.

Killing Eve

BBC gave us Killing Eve, the story of an MI5 officer who begins tracking the intriguing, psychopathic assassin Villanelle only to see the two find an increasing intrigue and borderline obsession with one another. Sandra Oh’s Eve is complicated while Jodie Comer’s Villanelle is hypnotizing as the duo plays the most fascinating game of cat-and-mouse on TV in 2018. “That scene” — when the two first finally meet face-to-face — was one of the best-acted of the year and Villanelle the most fascinating villain in a long time.

Fleabag

Fleabag was my second Phoebe Waller-Bridge vehicle for the year, since she also wrote and produced Killing Eve. Here she is writer-producer-actor playing the eponymous Fleabag, trying to navigate modern-day London as a an angry and confused young British woman. Fleabag is a bitter and biting antihero, the sort of character we usually only welcome if played by a man. The show is shocking and relevant, and Fleabag was one of my favorite new characters.

The Good Neighbor & Kidding

Mr. Rogers passed away 15 years ago, but 2018 gave us his story by book, movie, and television. The Good Neighbor was one such biography about one of the gentlest men we’ll ever know. It tells the story of Fred’s upbringing, his wife, his background, and his ginormous heart. It was a heart-warming and nostalgic read, right up until I binged Showtime’s Kidding about two-thirds of the way through one weekend. Kidding is a different take on Mr. Rogers altogether. Jim Carrey plays the Rogersesque Mr. Pickles, gentle lover of children struck by ironic tragedy when he loses his own son. The always-terrific Carrey vacillates between genteel television icon and tortured soul whose personal life is falling apart off the screen. Kidding made me wonder what happened off-screen for Fred Rogers; Good Neighbor told that story.

The Good Place

There may not be a better show on television than NBC’s Good Place, a deep treatise on ethics and philosophy packaged weekly into a tidy 22-minute sitcom. Michael Schur moves the series along at lightning speed, like he never knows if he has more than four episodes left. Good Place is always moving, always trying something new, and always teaching. The best episode in 2018 was “Janet(s),” which had better earn D’Arcy Carden an Emmy. A mostly bottle episode, Carden played five different characters, herself and our usual four heroes, with astonishing accuracy (though her Jason was best). As always, it was brilliant and unlike anything else on television.

The Affair

Argue about Lost all you want, but the magnificence of the show was the way the storytelling used flashbacks to frame the island story. It’s that innovative storytelling that drew me to The Affair, a tangled story about the extramarital relationship between a failing author and a small-town waitress. Each episode is two episodes in one, dual half-hours of the same story told by two not-so-omniscient narrators. The genius lies in the subtle but clear shifts in framing and blame-shifting. Who noticed who first? Who made the first move? The viewer never knows because each narrator is biased. All truth is relative’ it’s only what you remember. That storytelling took it up a notch with “409,” which told the same story twice from the same cratering narrator, who no longer even has the sense to be honest with the story she tells herself. My head is still spinning.

The Jeselnik and Rosenthal Vanity Project (JRVP)

If you don’t already know Anthony Jeselnik, I’m not entirely sure how to describe him. You know how some stand-up comedians find that line between funny and uncomfortable and straddle it oh so carefully? Jeselnik spots the line and gallops past it as far as he can go. Gregg Rosenthal is an NFL Network personality who happens to be Jeselnik’s college best friend and lets him get away with way too much. Together the two talk sports without really ever talking sports in a hilarious redux of a cult classic podcast (whispers *RJVP*). Bring headphones.

American Fiasco & We Came to Win

I consume a whole lot of sports media I didn’t include here, but these two podcasts were something different. They used the 2018 men’s World Cup as a backdrop to tell stories. We Came to Win told ten individual stories like that of David Beckham’s red card, a misunderstood Zaire national team, and the iconic Diego Maradona. American Fiasco told just one story: the story of American failure at the 1998 men’s World Cup, an eerie backdrop to the 2018 men failing to even reach the World Cup finals. The beauty of soccer is in its storytelling, and these stories were told wonderfully.

Origins with James Andrew Miller

No one has the inside scoop on ESPN like James andrew Miller, and Chapter Two of this podcast told the story of ESPN’s beginnings as a media mogul. Miller dives deep into the creation of SportsCenter, Pardon the Interruption, College Game Day, and 30 for 30 and does it with surprisingly candid interviews from every key ESPN personality past and present, from Kornheiser to Simmons to Olbermann to Berman. He also brings us to the present with a look at ESPN’s social media policy and interviews with Jemele Hill and recently-retired ESPN president John Skipper. If you’re an ESPN or sports junkie, you’re sure to eat this stuff up.

Chuck Klosterman X & Chuck Klosterman IV

Klosterman has been a favorite author since his Grantland days (RIP) and ridiculous, meandering podcasts with Bill Simmons. K-X was my favorite yet, a collection of essays on sports and pop culture. There’s interviews with Kobe Bryant and Tom Brady, the irrational need to watch sports live, and a rock-and-roll Value Over Replacement Music (VORM) formula by which to rank every rock band in history. K-IV told a gripping fictional story of a woman that literally fell out of the open Dakota sky one day to land on the hood of Chuck’s car. As always, it’s weird but good… just like Klosterman.

Liturgy of the Ordinary & Word and Table

I began attending a new church and became a member in 2018 and was eager to learn more about the Anglican tradition. I devoured the entire Word and Table catalogue as it went through bite-sized 20- and 30-minute snippets of Anglican tradition and theology. I also loved Tish Harrison Warren’s book about the sacred practices of everyday life in Liturgy of the Ordinary. Liturgy and tradition is new to me, but Warren brought life to banality of daily life. Suddenly there was deep meaning to the daily ritual of brushing my teeth, losing my keys, checking my email. She even got me to make my bed!

16 Shots

We now have an entire podcast genre dedicated to the true crime stories of Black American men shot and killed by police. I already wrote about Philando Castile last year. 16 Shots was about the fatal shooting of Laquon McDonald on the streets of Chicago. Let me try that again. It was about white police officer Jason Van Dyke murdering a Chicago teenager in cold blood, then seeing his crime covered up by the corrupt police and city. I’m sick of listening to podcasts about Black men being shot. I’m sick of there being so many dead Black men that I can’t remember whose name is which, whose justice we’re chanting for. We need to do better. We need to do so much better.

Believed

One lasting memory from 2018 was the prosecution and sentencing of Olympic gymnastics doctor and sexual predator Larry Nassar. Yet it was not Nassar that stuck with us but rather the faces and voices of the empowered women who came together years after being abused to have their story heard. To finally be believed. Believed told the stories of Rachel Denhollander, Kyle Stephens, and other women who had the courage to not be silent, in part because someone finally dared to believe them. This podcast was graphic and difficult but important for me, a man. Not because it could have been my sister or my daughter but because it was these women. Nassar was wholly at fault, but so was an entire system of failure to believe women that came forward, a system set up to silence their voices. All men should listen to this podcast, and we must start believing women who have the courage to speak up. I cannot speak for women, but they may need to hear this podcast too — perhaps for another reason entirely. “Little girls don’t stay little forever.”

What else did you listen to, read, or watch in 2018? Let me know what I missed in the comments below!

Follow Brandon on Medium or @wheatonbrando for more sports, television, humor, and culture. Visit the rest of Brandon’s writing archives here.

Shouts to some of my favorite TV and culture readers Brianne, Jody, Curt, serge, Lindsey Jo, Todd, Jim, Luke, Matthew, David, Gutbloom, Allan, Sam, Dan, Beth, Richard, Nick, Charles, Ryan, Jordan, Leron, Kayt, Adam, and more!