Our favorite shows and movies that we watched in 2022:
Abbott Elementary
Our whole family has enjoyed this quirky mockumentary about an elementary school in Philadelphia.
watch Abbott Elementary
Borgen and Occupied
I’m putting these two shows together because they are first a Danish political drama and then a Norweigan one. (Borgen first aired back in 2011 in the US. And they just followed up with an additional season.) We kind of enjoy the subtitles, and it’s fascinating to be introduced to a different type of democracy. Even more, given the current political instability vis a vis Russia’s role in Europe, we are riveted by the power dynamics that seem all too prescient from Occupied’s 2019 debut.
Don’t Look Up
Don’t Look Up is another political drama, although this one is a satire enjoyed first by Peter and me but also (repeatedly) by William. It was written as a parable about our failure to combat climate change, and it reads now like a parable about our failure to effectively mobilize against Covid-19. What interested me most, though, was the broader critique it offers of a society that has forgotten and neglected our spiritual and relational lives for the sake of personal profit and desire.
Encanto
I was a little late to this Disney movie, but everyone in our household enjoyed it, and I loved the prompt to think about how we all break apart if we are valued for what we do instead of who we are.
watch Encanto
CODA
CODA, a Best-Picture-winning film, which doubles as a coming-of-age story and a reflection on life in a family as a child of Deaf adults (aka CODA), is not a perfect reflection of life with disability. But it does capture:
The tension of both wanting to conform and wanting to reject a society designed as if disabilities don’t exist (or shouldn’t exist).
The desire to protect family members with disabilities from a world that seems primed to reject them and the need to enter into that world.
The hope that human relationships and love can actually overcome painful social barriers…
What were your favorite shows and movies in 2022?
More with Amy Julia:
- Favorite Books for Kids and Adults That We Read in 2021
- 9 Non-Fiction Books I Loved in 2021
- Friday Favorites and AJB Recommends
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