January in Review

Checking In

Hello! Welcome to The Popcorner, a monthly look at the most popular shows and movies on streaming. I’m Davan, the editor here at Flixed, and I’ll be your host on this journey. I’m also a writer of sorts and a lover of excessive media consumption, so this should be a fun ride for all of us. I thank you in advance for indulging me with this newsletter and I hope you learn something as you read, even if it’s just what the Showtime logo looks like.   

Today’s feeling: Thankful 😊

What have we been watching?

The biggest release this past month was the premiere of The Last of Us, already raking in high praise from critics and general audiences alike in just its first few episodes. This show, of course, is based on the game of the same name, with this first season covering the first game and season 2 said to be covering part of the second game, The Last of Us Part II. I remember way more from the Let’s Plays that I watched of the second game than I do the first, so this season is basically all surprises for me. But HBO rarely disappoints and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the show so far.

You won’t see it on the TV chart, though. The data that we’re using only tracks streaming originals and TLOU was made for cable, not streaming. Let’s just assume it’d be number one every week if it was eligible.

Velma, another HBO-adjacent release, was definitely buzzy online, to say the least. I didn’t watch it because I’ve grown increasingly bothered by creators insisting on making adult shows in high school settings, but it seems like audiences didn’t care for it either, despite enough views making its premiere the most-watched animated series on HBO Max. Enough hate-watching! Studios don’t care if you liked it or not, they just care that you boosted the view count.

So, what else did we watch this month? Drop it in the poll below! I’m in the middle of binging Ted Lasso and it's as delightful as I assume Ted’s biscuits are.   

Weekly top 10s for TV

Every month, I’ll talk through the TV and movie sections with some awards, usually recognizing works that have lasted on the charts for quite some time.

Our first of these awards is The Serpent 🐍, which is for anything that stays on the chart for the entire month. Our winners from last month—Wednesday, Tulsa King, and Mythic Quest—didn’t make it for another lap around the track, and secede their crown to Star Wars: The Bad Batch and National Treasure: Edge of History.

Our next award, The Marathoner 🏃🏾‍♀️, goes to whichever work that's been on the chart for the most amount of total weeks. This is more of a legacy award, so even though our current TV champion, Mythic Quest, dropped out of the chart this month after 9 weeks (!), it’ll still hold the title until something else lasts longer. National Treasure is at 7 weeks, though, and seems keen on taking it. I’m also being slightly convinced to check it out, so, don’t underestimate charts as a great marketing tool.

Criminal Minds earned a Leap Frog 🐸 award, bouncing back onto the chart in week 2 after falling off at the end of last month’s. Only for it to fall off again in favor of Criminal Minds: Evolution. Which, I recently found out, is not a reboot of the show but just the title of the 16th season. Not confusing at all, really.

Weekly top 10s for movies

January was a lot more consistent than December, as far as movies staying on the chart. Just like last month, one of our Serpents 🐍, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, immediately dropped from the chart in the first weekend of January. Continuing its streak for another month, Bullet Train lives up to its name and maintains its Serpent status, with The Menu, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and Top Gun: Maverick joining the ranks. A bit of crowd-pleasing comfort to start the new year, it seems.

Bullet Train also holds the Marathoner 🏃🏾‍♀️ title for movies, at 9 weeks on the chart so far. But if you’ve ever been on the Shinkansen then you know this isn’t all that surprising. It’s not the fastest train in the world for nothing!

We had a couple of Leap Frogs 🐸 this month, with Ticket to Paradise bouncing back onto the chart from December and The Banshees of Inisherin taking a dip underwater in week 3. Neither lasted though, with Ticket dropping back out in the next week and, as I’m writing this, Banshees dropping out last week.

What’s on the schedule this month?

Here, we’ll take a look at what’s to come and what we’re excited the most about. This graphic is more of a curated selection than a complete list of every release for the month, so just think of it as Chef’s Special Menu, with me as Ralph Fiennes and you as my lovely diners. Complete with all the theatrics but less of the…well, I wouldn’t want to spoil the movie for you, now would I?   

Love is sorta in the air this month, with a few romantic films coming just before Valentine’s Day, as well as a lot of returning TV. Carnival Row and Wu-Tang: An American Saga are coming to a close, with their final seasons dropping halfway through the month. Meanwhile, sci-fi dramedy Hello Tomorrow! and docuseries Murder in Big Horn will premiere, greeting our screens for the first time.

This isn’t streaming but my most anticipated release is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, of course. And as it is Black History Month, I will only be rooting for Kang. I was going to root for him regardless, though, because Jonathan Majors is a revelation, so this is just an extra incentive.

What are you guys anticipating this month? Let me know in the poll below and I will catch you all again in March! 😊