May in Review

Happy summer, everyone! Truly cannot fathom that it’s already June. The reality that I’ll be moving in a few months for grad school is really starting to stare me in the face, but I’m trying to let my excitement outweigh my fear. Regardless of how things are changing, though, tv, movies, and the Popcorner will remain, so let’s jump right into things.

Today’s feeling: Assured 😌

Ted says goodbye but Your Father’s back and he won’t leave

May saw a lot more activity in the TV arena than in April, with an extra week of stats as well as a few more premieres. It’s always interesting to see what shows make it on this chart, whether I was expecting them to or not. Something like Queen Charlotte is almost a guarantee, but Silo wasn’t on my radar until recently. It’s a nice way to gauge people’s interests and see what sticks out amongst the constant swarm of new television.

Ted lassos another win with some new teammates

After its finale episode’s release, Ted Lasso takes home its second Serpent 🐍 crown, while The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Citadel hop into the snake pit. Lasso’s just a week shy of tying with Star Wars: The Bad Batch for the title of Marathoner 🏃🏾‍♀️, so we’ll see whether it manages to rein in yet another crown.

I’m still meeting Your Father

Back again for the second half of its second season, How I Met Your Father lands on the chart in the 4th week of May. I don’t know how long it’s going to take Hilary Duff to meet these kids’ father, nor did I understand why it took so long for Ted Mosby to meet his kids’ mother, but viewers were and continue to be very eager to find out so. Happy for you guys.

Wakanda really is Forever

I hate 5-week months because they compress my charts. I especially hate them during a month when there’s a lot of movement on the charts because it makes them look too busy. Unfortunately for me, May was a 5-week month with movies constantly coming and going.

The amount of information is delicious, but the look of it leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste, kind of like bad chocolate.

A Man Crowned Otto

The Tom Hanks vehicle, A Man Called Otto, which premiered in theaters early this year, is the singular Serpent 🐍 this month, his crankiness possibly scaring off the other contenders.

Just as I predicted, The Guardians came and went for the first week of May, everyone getting their fill before a tissue-filled screening of the Vol. 3. There was also many theatrical releases hitting streamers in May, including my personal favorite of the bunch, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

The frogs are fighting

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever could have secured its 4th consecutive Serpent crown but instead was attacked by fellow fallen Serpent and Leap Frog 🐸, Knock at the Cabin, and was forced to grow its own frog legs. Sabotage and missing week aside, this movie has been on here for 4 months, y’all. That’s a looong time, especially for a movie and especially for a movie that was in theaters and made $900 million worldwide during its run.

It’s common to see movies that performed fairly okay in theaters have their own kind of renaissance once they hit streamers — Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse is a great example of this — but it’s different for this to happen with a movie that was as successful as Wakanda Forever was. Now, the data that I use for these charts don’t represent the FULL picture of streaming habits amongst consumers, but it’s still impressive either way.

Theaters are packed and streamers are stacked

I’m drowning in movies, folks. It’s only the beginning of June and I’ve already seen two of this year’s best releases. I’m exaggerating with that first one, but I fully mean it for the second!

The rest of the month probably won’t hit the same highs for me but there’s still a ton to look forward to. Harrison Ford steps back into familiar shoes once again in Indiana Jones: The Dial of Destiny, coming June 30th. Pixar’s gifting us another lesson on human connection with Elemental on the 16th, which I anticipate will perform better than last summer’s Lightyear 😬.

The animated feature I’m looking forward to, though, is Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken, partly for its story and vibrant colors, but also to see Jaboukie Young-White’s character’s strangely oblong head in action. The shape of it is just really funny to me, but his stunning curls make up for it.

But it’s HOT outside, and nobody wants to be drenched in sweat trying to go see The Flash, so, let’s take a look at what’s coming straight to your screens at home.

I was talking to a friend the other day about shows we’re watching and told her that I only have the capacity to watch one new series at a time. Which is true, but only for shows that drop all at once. I find that it’s harder for me to both start and finish full season drops for whatever reason. Commitment issues, probably.

Anyway, I will be starting Never Have I Ever’s last season soon and will be watching that until Secret Invasion drops on the 21st. Oh, and also Glee! Still rewatching Glee. Almost to season 4 🙏🏾.

Extraction 2 seems to be the most highly anticipated of the new streaming movies this month (depending on if you’ve seen Avatar already and according to its box office, I’m sure you have). I didn’t watch the first Extraction and don’t plan to, but I’ll watch this one. Idris Elba’s in it, I like Chris Hemsworth, I like action movies, and there’s supposedly a 21-minute long take, which is sick. Why not?

I’m very much looking forward to Netflix’s other release, Nimona. Based on a popular graphic novel, this movie was originally meant to come out in 2020 from Blue Sky Studios, FOX’s animation department. In 2019, FOX was acquired by Disney, and the release date was pushed back to 2021, then to 2022. In 2021, Blue Sky Studios was dissolved, and the movie was canceled, with 75% of it already finished. Finally, in 2022, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Netflix and Annapurna Pictures picked up the project and set its June 2023 release date. Fingers crossed that it was all worth it!

🎤 What are you enjoying this June?

That’s it for June! Let me know what you’re watching or not watching this month and we’ll do it all again in July 🖖🏾.