**I usually try really hard to keep this blog in chronological order of when I’ve watched things but I am currently 1 post behind and had to get this one out today because it is the last day of the year so bear with me! I’m sure this bothers me more than any of you.

My new year’s resolution for 2023 was to start this blog. I know that’s more of a goal than a resolution, but I had been thinking about it for a while and finally decided to get myself to pull the trigger. I have always enjoyed consuming entertainment and then deep diving into the things I watched by reading articles and listening to podcasts and then having in depth discussions about it all with the people in my life. I’ve also always liked to write and had enjoyed maintaining an old blog following my study abroad experience. Having this outlet for my extensive thoughts on everything I was watching seemed like a natural extension of my interests.

I don’t know if I even had any expectations going into this, but writing this blog has been so different from what I could have ever thought. Difficult and stressful and rewarding and fulfilling and fun in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I feel like I’m finding my voice and my process as I go, and it has been such a learning experience. But I have the best time doing it and I’m so proud of each and every post. That’s all that really matters to me. I set out to do this for myself. For my own enjoyment as a hobby. The fact that anyone at all even reads anything I write is borderline unfathomable to me. I love to hear from anyone that reads anything on here that they liked what I wrote or agreed with my thoughts or didn’t agree and think my reviews are terrible or whatever anyone might think. I want to hear it all. Any and all feedback and opinions are welcome and appreciated. At the end of the day, I just want to spark conversation. Entertainment is one of my favorite topics, I could talk about it for hours (if you’ve read this blog or know me at all you are probably familiar with that fact). So getting to discuss it in any way, getting other people to think about their opinions on things, and hopefully inspiring people to see and watch more movies and shows that maybe they wouldn’t have previously is more motivation for me to keep doing this. 

Some people have said to me that they aren’t sure if they should read these reviews if they haven’t yet seen the movies or shows. If you want to go into something totally uninfluenced, then you should. It’s better that way sometimes. But if you’re worried about spoilers, I really do make an effort to keep these posts spoiler-free (or with any spoilers clearly indicated so you can skip them) and just give my overall thoughts and recommendations. I ultimately mean these reviews to help you decide if you want to see something or not.

I have so many ideas that far exceed the bounds of this website. I have negative knowledge about technology and specifically web design, so my output is limited for now, but my goals for the future are to take this blog above and beyond where it is currently. (Any web designers out there please call me 🙂 Or email I guess is how you would contact me through this site…) 

To anyone reading this right now, to anyone who read just one post on here, to anyone who spent 0.5 seconds glancing at the home page, thank you so much for an amazing first year of ITISTFB (I Think I’ve Seen This Film Before if that wasn’t clear… we may have to work on the nickname in 2024). It means the absolute world ❤

Okay now that the sappy stuff is over, let’s talk about this year in entertainment! Even setting aside the writers and actors strikes, it has been an interesting one. An absolutely fantastic year of movies and an okay year of television in my book. I’m ending the year having seen 56 new movies and 30 new seasons of television (new meaning new to me, aka anything I have not seen before. Not necessarily new to the world) resulting in 55 posts on this blog. I thought writing this blog would result in me watching more things, but it has actually had the opposite effect. My movie-watching is fairly comparable to last year but my television-watching has been greatly reduced. I don’t know if I can necessarily blame that on the blog, there are a bunch of other factors involved, but, in general, working on the blog causes me to sit with things for longer to properly process and analyze them instead of just immediately moving onto the next. While I do find myself constantly feeling like I’m racing to watch as much as humanly possible (or actually even more than humanly possible), I have to remind myself it is about quality over quantity and I have greatly enjoyed (most of) the hours I’ve spent consuming content this year. So, here are my top 5 movies and top 5 shows of 2023 (in no particular order because I could not possibly make those decisions) that I would highly, highly recommend to any and all reading.

Top 5 Movies:

1. Past Lives
2. Barbie
3. Oppenheimer
4. Eras Tour Movie
5. Killers of the Flower Moon

(and my second tier top 5 because there were too many good movies this year to leave it at that):

6. Air
7. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse
8. American Fiction
9. Priscilla
10. The Holdovers

Top 5 TV Shows:

1. Succession season 4
2. Daisy Jones and the Six
3. The Bear season 2
4. The Crown season 6 (**I haven’t finished this yet but I will soon and there will be a post to follow)
5. Loki season 2

As we end 2023, I’m so excited for all of the movies and TV that 2024 will bring. My watchlist never gets any shorter. It’s already shaping up to be a really competitive awards season and I’m also excited to see many of the amazing content and performances and work from this year get honored. It truly has been a knockout year for movies with more great content than could possibly be rewarded. And what a gift that is for all of us viewers! Thank you again to everyone who has watched along with me this year. It’s been so special. Here’s to bigger and better in 2024!