My favorite non-movie things of 2024

Including the final journey to the Dark Tower, ‘Sopranos’ fades to black, and nuclear war.

Dec 20, 2024

Well, we’re almost out! I’ve released my list of my 10 favorite movies of 2024 as well as my runners up. Tomorrow, we’ll have one last Saturday with Santa and there will also be one final post before the holidays before I take a much-needed break. But, as I usually do, it’s time to release my list of my favorite non-movie things from the year.

You’ll notice this is fairly book heavy. Usually, I have a stronger selection of TV shows to choose from, but this year I just did not seem to find the time to watch much TV (my wife and I are still making our way through season three of The Bear). But there’s still good book and album selections on here that I wanted to celebrate, as well as a family experience that I’ve been thinking about since we returned. So, enjoy! Hopefully this gives you some things to delve into in the coming year!

“The Dark Tower” by Stephen King

In the early days of the pandemic, I purchased a collection of Stephen King’s fantasy series, figuring that as a completist I should probably give it the old college try, even though I’m not a fantasy fan. I’d always dismissed the Dark Tower books as King’s indulgence, a side project his publishers put up with as long as he kept cranking out the horror hits. Instead, as I’ve written before, I think this might be his magnum opus and the piece that unites all of his writing. It’s a unique and weird mix of fantasy, Western, sci-fi, horror and metafiction that takes some major swings in its final books and mostly connects. The final novel is an emotional farewell to these characters, with a note-perfect final chapter. I applaud King for pulling off something that is so strange, rich and moving. I’ve saved the side novella The Wind Through the Keyhole for later so that I can revisit these characters down the road, and King recently hinted he’s playing around in Mid-World once more, but for now I’ve seen the end of the Dark Tower saga and it’s one of my favorite things ever written by my favorite author.

Disney World/Universal Orlando

In May, we took a family trip down to Orlando with the kids. And while it might seem like it’s stretching to include a vacation on my list of favorite pop culture things, as a movie nerd, I not only loved spending time with Kelly and the kids at the parks, but I loved immersing myself in some of my favorite movies and worlds. I know a lot of fathers come back from Disney World exhausted and broke – and I did, too. But they also describe the experience as misery, something I can’t imagine. I loved exploring Star Wars world just as much as the kids did, and I could spend days in Harry Potter land or Springfield at Universal Studios. It was a highlight of the year to ride Velocicoaster with my son or take my daughter – in full princess regalia – to meet Cinderella (the only time I’ve seen her starstruck), but I have to admit that even I got a little emotional watching fireworks outside the castle, sitting in a show that was one of Jim Henson’s final creative projects, and, yes, even meeting Chewbacca. I don’t have the cash or the time to be a Disney Adult…but I understand the impulse more than I ever did. (And a big thank you to Michaela at Chronicle Travel Co. for helping us plan such a memorable trip).

Saviors by Green Day

I’ve liked Green Day for a long time – this summer, my wife and I saw them in concert for what has to be my fifth time so I could hear them play Dookie and American Idiot in their entirety. And while I’ve liked a lot of the albums they’ve put out since American Idiot, I think Saviors is their first bona fide great one since that rock opera. Instead of making an epic statement like they did in the early aughts, the band just goes loud and angry at the ways Americans self-medicate, be it through capitalism (“The American Dream is Killing Me”), anger (“One-Eyed Bastard”), alcohol (“Dilemma”) or nostalgia (“Corvette Summer”). It’s a fast, loud and angry screed during a year in which I kind of needed it, and I wasn’t surprised to see several of its songs atop my Spotify Wrapped.

“Nuclear War: A Scenario” by Annie Jacobsen

The best book I wish I never read. Jacobsen’s meticulously researched bit of speculation literally kept me awake at night. Drawing on interviews with policy makers, military officials and others in the know, Jacobsen asks what would happen if the United States was the victim of a nuclear strike. She lays out the possibilities as they unfold minute-by-minute, taking into account the very possible rash decisions, miscommunications and damning policies (such as “launch on warning”) that could spell the end of the majority of life on earth in as few as 90 minutes. Don’t worry: most of us would be gone before we even knew a single missile had been launched. It’s a chilling reminder of the evil of these weapons and the reality that civilians don’t factor into the calculus of empires.

What We Do in the Shadows

There are several TV shows I love that I haven’t kept up with this year – I still need to get up to date on Shrinking, The Bear, Only Murders in the Building and Girls5eva … and that’s just the shows I regularly watch. I don’t know why I’m bad about keeping up with TV; maybe because it’s a several week commitment instead of a two-hour one that the movies demand, and it’s honestly hard to secure the TV when we only have one in the house and my eldest doesn’t go to bed long before me. But I did make sure I’ve been tuned in to FX’s vampire mockumentary as it completes its final season. There’s not a ton to say; if you’ve loved spending time with Lazlo, Nandor, Natasha, Collin Robinson and Guillermo from the start, this is just as darkly uproarious as ever. Guillermo’s job with finance bros is good for many laughs, and I loved both the subplot where the vampires fear their neighbor is possessed (he’s actually in the thralls of March Madness) and where they go to war with a TV show filming in their neighborhood (Matt Berry lauding a “sweated shirt” is one of his many great pronunciations). When Shadows debuted, I wondered how it could ever be as good as the movie on which it sprung; as it nears the end, it’s become its own weird, hilarious thing that is just as good.

The Sopranos

Like The Dark Tower, this was another project I began during the pandemic (actually, I may have started watching David Chase’s series in 2019). It took me awhile to plow through all seven seasons, for a few reasons. One is that while I loved spending time with Tony and his family (and Family), I often needed long breaks between seasons. Unlike Breaking Bad, this isn’t a show that takes place in a morally black-and-white universe, and watching these people do very bad things sometimes made me feel icky. But also, The Sopranos is not a show to be binged but to be savored and digested. This isn’t a plot-driven and serialized show but rather a character study about family, the American dream, the state of our souls and whether it’s possible to change1. In the end, it’s possible that James Gandolfini may have given the best performance I’ve seen in any medium and this show takes mobster pulp and marries it to the richness of Shakespeare, and may be the greatest TV drama ever made.

The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast

I’m a Saturday Night Live nerd, and as we approach the 50th anniversary of the show, I’m sure I’ll be in heaven with all the deep dives coming. I also think the Lonely Island is one of the greatest comedy creations of the last 25 years. So I was in the tank for this weekly podcast before it even started. And yeah, it’s great to hear Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer talk with Meyers about such viral hits as “Lazy Sunday,” “Dick in a Box” or “Dear Sister” (every episode usually tackles one digital short). But almost as fun is listening to the three geek out over the other sketches that aired in a given week and talk about the challenges and frustrations of making live comedy. Sometimes, an episode might only devote 10 minutes to a Digital Short and spend the rest of the time lavishing praise on Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig or whoever made them laugh that week. It’s great fun for pop culture dorks like myself.

Conan O’ Brien Must Go

Conan O’ Brien is the most indefatigable, prolific and funniest people working. His podcast, Conan O’ Brien Needs a Friend is a consistent listen and this year he proved he can do anything when he delivered possibly the greatest Hot Ones episode ever (he’s also going to host the 2025 Oscars). In the middle of it, he launched his new Max series, in which he visits fans around the world. From playing as a Viking in Norway to learning the tango in Argentina, CoCo brought his weird and self-deprecating sense of humor to new nations and delivered consistently funny results. I can’t wait to see where Season 2 takes him.

“The Kingdom, The Power and the Glory” by Tim Alberta

There are certain books over the last few years that I’ve described as helping me “see the Matrix” in post-Trump evangelicalism, revealing a sordid foundation in American Christianity that existed years before MAGA. Those books include Jesus and John Wayne as well as Jemar Tisby’s The Color of Compromise. Add it it Alberta’s The Kingdom, The Power and the Glory, which hits extremely close to home. Alberta’s father pastored a church not far from us – in fact, I have family members who attend there and I heard Alberta’s father preach on several occasions – and his son deals with the rise of Christian nationalism that began to spread in the congregation and across the country. Alberta’s book profiles several Christian leaders to understand this perversion of the faith, unpacking it with a sadness at what has been lost and a hope that maybe there is change to come. I highly recommend pairing this with the documentary God and Country.

Warriors by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Eisa Davis

How do you follow-up Hamilton? For Lin-Manuel Miranda, that answer seemed to be to diversify. In the years following the musicals release, Miranda has been content writing bangers for Disney musicals, taking on minor roles in other people’s movies, and trying his hands at direction (reminder that Tick, tick…BOOM is great). But this fall, he delivered his first major work since Hamilton with this concept album based on Walter Hill’s 1979 action-drama. While that might raise some eyebrows, the result is fantastic, and I can’t wait to wade back in once Christmas music season is over. An adrenaline-soaked rock opera – that, not for nothing, would play like gangbusters on the stage – Warriors brings in a variety of rappers, R&B artists and pop stars for a fusion of hip-hop, theater and punk that’s also a celebration of New York and a metaphor for a divided nation. By flipping the genders of the protagonists, Miranda and Davis turn a story of masculinity into one that has more resonance in a post-#MeToo world, and give in an emotional resonance that is hard to shake. Whether it’s as good as Hamilton probably depends on your tastes, but it’s of a piece with that and In the Heights as an engaging, funny and entertaining project that only Miranda can do.

“Hymn Time in the Land of Abandon,” Over the Rhine

This one came out in the fall, but I’ve only just heard it in recent weeks (I’m listening to it as I type this, as a matter of fact) because it’s a vinyl-only recording, unavailable right now on Spotify. That’s probably the correct choice. This is not an album that should be disposable; it needs to be listened to intentionally, on a physical medium, with the scratches and warmth of vinyl. The husband-and-wife team of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist have long been among my favorite songwriters, and their Christmas show each year (where I picked up this album) is an annual tradition. This album of old hymns – which they called “the quietest gospel album ever made” – is a work of simplicity and beauty. Their instrumental and vocal takes on “All Creatures of our God and King,” “The Love of God,” “How Can I Keep from Singing” and “Be Still My Soul” move me to tears – at the same time, they celebrate timeless music while mourning a purity that has been lost over the years. It’s not a minor work at all, but rather one of their most emotional and deeply moving projects.