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The #ToddyAwards 2023: Favorite TV/Streaming Shows

December 12, 2023
Television Show of The Year: The Last of Us Let's be honest. NOTHING came close this year to this video game adaptation of the Naughty Dog phenomenon. Granted, the track record for video game movies and TV shows hasn't been the best (read: Halo, Monster Hunter, Alone in the Dark, etc.). But this time around, HBO did it right. They gave the reigns of the project to Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and shadowed him with Naughty Dog Co-President Neil Druckmann to keep the integrity of the game's story intact. What we got was a tight 9 episode ride that was more a character study, than…

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The #ToddyAwards 2023: Favorite Movies

December 10, 2023
Movie of The Year: Godzilla Minus One I’m surprised as anyone that a new Godzilla movie would take my top spot as movie of the year. And don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of good movies this year. But there was something about this movie and stepped above the rest. The thing that separated this one from other monster movies, is that instead of relying on Godzilla, the movie focused on refugees trying to rebuild a life in the aftermath of the American bombing of WWII. A failed Kamakazi pilot builds a makeshift family with a woman and an…

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My Favorite Movies of 2023 (So Far…)

June 24, 2023
In my younger years, I was one of those pretentious, film majors whose film lists read like someone's "least likely to watch" list. But over the years, my need for critical cinema has slowly faded away and been replaced with any and all movies that find a way to entertain me. My attention-span is non-existent and most movies these days either have me reaching for my phone, or falling asleep. But still there are small number of movies that peak my interest and keep me entertained throughout. And I should I'd share what my list is at this midpoint of…

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ToddyAwards2022: Albums

January 10, 2023
This was a hardest list to build for me. The truth is I don't listen to "albums" anymore. Back in the day, when you purchased an album from your favorite artists, it was like an event. You'd expect to have an experience-- listen to the music take you on a journey from start to finish. And if you didn't have to skip over any joints, that was an epic win. But the state of the business, thanks to streaming release have been about bundling 3 or 4 singles with a bunch of other content. These days it's all about the…

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ToddyAwards2022: Binge ReWatch of The Year

January 7, 2023
I don't know why I can't get enough of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. It was the first MCU-centric television show out the gate. But over the years and after more popular shows release on Neflix, Disney+ and other streaming services, AoS has become something of a bastard stepchild compared to the other shows. It doesn't help that the people at Marvel are very ambiguous on whether this show is even canon with the movies (at this point the consensus is probably "no"). In truth, this show is hands down my favorite of the MCU shows, even after all these years.…

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ToddyAwards2022: Songs

January 6, 2023
It's that time of year again. This was a good year for my type of music. This playlist clocks in at 179 songs and all of them are bangers. Enjoy. My favorite song of the year isn't in the playlist below because Black Star didn't release their 2022 album "No Fear of Time" on streaming services. So it's listed below as a separate stream No Fear of Time – Black Star feat. Yummy Bingham http://www.todd.digital/todd2022/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/9.-No-fear-of-time-w-Yummy-Bingham.m4a Best of The Rest

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ToddyAwards2022: Movies

December 22, 2022
Thanks to COVID, 2022 was the year I stayed away from the cinema. Nearly every movies I got the privilege to watch was in my own home (with the exception of Wakanda Forever). Even with a ton of movies to watch at home, the picks seemed to be slim for me. Gravitating more toward streaming shows, I appreciated having more time to spend with characters and stories, instead of the typical 90 minutes of movies. But still, there were a few that creeped in that I enjoyed. Action and horror, as usually were the bulk of my favorites, with a…

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ToddyAwards2022: Shows

December 21, 2022
To say that 2022 was the year that streaming and television shows surpassed motion pictures in quality and quantity is an understatement. In the aftermath of the 2-year COVID lockdown, a lot of media companies pushed their prime content to television to satisfy their captive audience. And with the proliferation of streaming services, the need to release content to counteract churn has sent a flood on shows that make it almost impossible to watch everything you think is interesting. Normally for these lists, I like to keep it to a tight "10" picks. But in 2022, containing yourself to that is…

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ToddyAwards2021: Albums

January 11, 2022
I wasn't that big on albums this year. There were tons of singles that I loved but I feel I'm not really into full alums anymore. There's too many projects that broaden the songs, attempting to capture the biggest audience as possible. So when you find an album with a good number of songs that fit together, it's a strange thing. This year, a lot of 'albums' suffered from the Spotify effect: shortening the number of songs and the length of tracks to get as many full listens as possible. And this seems to have benefited more than a few…

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ToddyAwards2021: Shows

January 8, 2022
Thanks to COVID, 2021 was the year of streaming. And media companies realized with so many captive eyeballs available (due to sheltering in place) that they needed to up their content game to capture those eyeballs. What we got was a ton of tv and streaming shows that rivaled motion pictures in visual quality and storytelling. Netflix doubled down on new content to retain their #1 spot online, Paramount, HBO, NBC, CBS and others entered the competition to streaming income, as well as Apple putting its best foot forward with excellent shows exclusively to their TV+ platform. My list could have…

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ToddyAwards2021: Movies

January 8, 2022
It's that time again! When I think I'm going to skip a year of The Toddy Awards, I get a bunch of emails and social DM's asking for them. So... let's get this started with movies. I thought 2021 was going to be anemic with the spread of COVID shutting down movie theaters across the world. But the influx of 1st run streaming movies punched up the number of motion pictures I got to see last year. My initial list of movies was almost 30 strong. Cutting it down to a tight 10 took a few rounds, as my top…

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ToddyAwards2021: Songs

December 21, 2021
It's that time of year again! And man... was this a great year for music. Overall, there was a lot of quality music in all genres. This year for me? Neo-soul seems to make a quiet comeback, along with the official emergence of lo-fi beats.  Some of my stand out artists this year? Jean Deaux, Lucky Daye, Brainstorm, Tyler The Creator, Napolés, Moonchild, Men I Trust, quickly quickly, Kruangbin, Wun Two, and Flughand. 

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