Since Alabama Liberal’s inception, I’ve been doing this annual countdown. This year’s countdown is not only the most belated (sorry) and longest (nearly 300 movies reviewed in one article is partly why it took so long), but also possibly the best year for movies since I started. It is extremely rare to have a handful…
Category: Entertainment Editorial
The Co-Star Rebecca Ferguson Dissed Revealed
Recently, a rich, powerful, celebrity white woman used a press tour for an upcoming mega-budget movie to whine about past mistreatment from a star who used to be bigger than her when she started out in her career. I actually don’t think this is important–at all–and also think beautiful white women might be fascinated to…
All 2023 TV Shows Ranked from Worst to Best
Note: It is now impossible for any one human to watch all TV shows in a given year, especially all the bad ones. This list is 70-odd shows that I had a reasonable expectation would be good, and I ranked/graded them only on the basis of what I actually watched vs. hypothetically lousy shows I…
The Best TV Characters of 2023
Farewell to the best character on a bad show: Raymond “Red” Reddington (James Spader) from “The Blacklist”…Most of this list are either good characters on great shows or great characters on good shows, but Red stands out as being a truly terrific character let loose on a police procedural dull enough it could’ve been on…
The Worst TV Characters of 2023
Better late than never, right? We may be a full month into 2024, but I’ve done a countdown of the best and worst TV characters of the year ever since Alabama Liberal’s inception (many, many years ago), and it’d be a shame to miss it now. After all, I watched several lousy TV characters last…
The 2024 Movies I’m Most (and Least) Anticipating
Alabama Liberal is taking much longer than usual on the annual list of movies ranked from worst to best (2024 is now in its second month, and I’m still a week out from getting 2023’s list finished). In the meantime, I’ve put together a 2024 movie preview to get you looking at brighter days freed…
Is the Phenomenal Box Office of “Sound of Freedom” a Money Laundering Scheme?
In a Summer of movies that have largely “underperformed” (to put it charitably), there’s one movie that has exploded expectations so thoroughly, its box office graph looks more like the performance of Bernie Madoff’s hedge fund. Of course, I’m referring to the over 100-million (so far) grossing “Sound of Freedom.” Many box office prognosticators (or…
“The Blacklist” finale: Goodbye to a Great Character (On a Bad Show)
Like most “Blacklist” viewers, I had not actually seen the show in years. To be honest, I’m struggling to remember exactly when I stopped watching the series, but it was probably somewhere between the end of season 2 or 3. [I know I didn’t make it to Mr. Kaplan’s “turning” on Red–an event I’m only…
Reviewing, Grading, and Ranking the “Succession” Seasons From Worst to Best
I had planned to post this article right after the “Succession” series finale, but the bleak finale (combined with “Barry”‘s equally hopeless ending that aired right after it) was a little too harrowing to review immediately after it was over. I can’t say I’m entirely surprised that it ended in a depressing place (some of…
“Succession”‘s Apocalyptic Series Finale Made “Barry”‘s Look Upbeat, and Confirmed Kendall was Always Surrounded by Assholes
“Succession”‘s series finale was so bleak it made “Barry”‘s bruise-black finale (which aired right after it) look downright sunny in comparison. More than half of “Barry”‘s main cast was killed or wrongfully convicted for murder–with Hollywood even giving them the full villain treatment, which is probably worse than death for most of Barry’s limelight-obsessed characters–and…
Predictions for “Succession”‘s Series Finale
“Succession” is widely thought of as TV’s Best Drama (winning that very award the last two times it was up for it at the Emmys). There’s going to be a serious hole in quality to fill when it, “Barry,” and “Ted Lasso” all end over the next week. So let’s look at how it might…
All 2022 Movies Reviewed, Graded, and Ranked From Worst to Best
Note: More than ever, it would be truly impossible to watch all the movies that came out in a modern calendar year. I’ve seen well over two hundred 2022 movies, but there were still a dozen major ones I would’ve loved to have seen before finalizing this countdown–although, frankly, I doubt it would’ve made much…
Actresses that Could Play Pauline Kael in Tarantino’s Final Film “The Movie Critic”
Rumors are flying that Quentin Tarantino’s final movie will be called “The Movie Critic,” and that it’s about Pauline Kael in the late-70’s, possibly about her experience going from movie critic to Paramount studio consultant (for a few months). None of this is confirmed, but if Quentin’s final movie really is about Pauline Kael (and…
