The Extratextuals

I love lists. Love seeing other people’s lists, and love making my own. So Bob Rehak’s circulation of “The Alphabet Meme” grabbed my attention, and I had to play.

Follow the second link there for the full rules, but the basic point is to list your best/favorite film of each letter of the alphabet. I’m breaking the original rules a bit to get Star Wars and Lord of the Rings into only one competition each, but, hey, we play fast and loose over here at The Extratextuals. Also, as with all these lists, this is what I feel at this moment in time; ask me next week, and I’d likely give different answers. So don’t add Of All Time to the list. I feel particularly conflicted right now about leaving out Breakfast Club, Citizen Kane, Exotica, Fargo, Hoop Dreams, and Heat). That said, appropriately the list begins with a legitimate Of All Time favorite:

After Life

Batman Begins

Cinema Paradiso

Donnie Darko

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

The Godfather II

Hook

The Insider

Jacob’s Ladder

Kagemusha

The Lord of the Rings trilogy

The Manchurian Candidate (Sinatra, not Denzel)

Naked

Once Upon a Time in the West

Pleasantville

Quiz Show (hey, Q’s are hard)

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Star Wars trilogy (first one, not the Jar-Jar one)

Trainspotting

Unbreakable

The Vanishing (the Dutch/French original)

Wonderland (by Michael Winterbottom, not the American one)

X-Men 2

Young Guns

Zelig

lists alphabet meme, best films, list

List fever continues, as I now try to sort through the best characters in television history. Inevitably, some make the cut because of superb writing, some need the actor to do all the work, while others find a more perfect union. The complete list after the fold, this time in reverse order, from 50 to 1.

Read more…

lists characters, lists, television

Via Ken Levine’s neat blog, I see that AOL came up with a Top 50 TV Comedies, Ever list. Their top 10 — The Simpsons, Seinfeld, All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore Show, Cheers, M*A*S*H, The Cosby Show, Roseanne, I Love Lucy, and Friends — are all quite deserving in their own ways. But from there on, there are some seriously dodgy choices. Namely:

• though the list’s title doesn’t specify sitcoms, there are no non-sitcoms. No Jon Stewart, no Stephen Colbert, no Kermit
• it’s all American. I’m really tired of this oversight when lists don’t specify nationality. American TV’s good enough that its best shows could flood many a list anyways, so why do they have to play such games to fill all the spots?
• some whacked-out choices and rankings. Married with Children? Gee, let’s just add Andrew Dice Clay’s standup specials, shall we? Malcolm in the Middle does the dysfunctional family so much better, as do Arrested Development, Family Guy, and The Simpsons.

For further grumbling about the rankings, go to Levine’s blog and read the comments.

I decided, though, to take things into my own hands, and make my own list. More after the fold
Read more…

lists comedy, lists