Ireland’s on a golden streak, and six other lessons 2023 on screen taught me

I spent 2023 watching brilliant series and films, middling streaming efforts and downright baffling shows. But as I look back at the past 12 months I see that all of that time staring at the telly or cinema screen taught me some important lessons. So, as we round up 2023, here’s what the year on screen taught me – and what it might mean for the year ahead.

Things will always get worse

In January I joined much of the rest of the world in getting emotionally attached to The Last of Us (Sky Atlantic). But while I adored watching the parental relationship develop between the handsome-but-damaged Joel (Pedro Pascal) and the damaged-but-heroic Ellie (Bella Ramsey), each episode piled on the grimness. The pair were making their way through a postapocalyptic landscape, so I wasn’t expecting sunshine and daisies. But on this show, every time things reached what I thought was a new depth of grimness, there was even more waiting around the fungus-infected corner. Sadly, this served as a metaphor for how 2023 went as a whole, and probably prepared us in particular for how the world would look from October onwards. Thanks, guys.

Never trust the ‘next Game of Thrones’

At the ripe old age of [redacted], I have to now accept that any show promising to be the “next of Game of Thrones” will (a) not be the next Game of Thrones and (b) will not be for me. If anything, it will be hanging on to the coat-tails of a series that itself got maddeningly worse the longer it went on. This year I watched the second season of The Wheel of Time (Prime), which is Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’s bajillion-dollar fantasy series based on the Robert Jordan books. I couldn’t make head nor tail of the whole thing, despite frantic googling and having watched season one. It turned out that even an infinite budget couldn’t make the series great.

Weird and imperfect beats perfect

One of my most enjoyable streaming experiences of 2023 was also one of the most frustrating. And, reader, I’m fine with that. A Murder at the End of the World (Disney+) made some odd choices, such as its dual serial-killer timelines, which never quite gelled. But it was written and directed by the daring pair of Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, who were also behind the weird cult hit The OA (which Netflix canned after the second of five planned series). This meant that any moments that missed the mark were balanced by a clever teasing out of ideas around the future of AI and climate change. Plus, Emma Corrin was delicately charismatic in the lead role of the ultrasmart hacker Darby. As much as some of the series made me think “Huh?”, it still felt fresh and compelling. This series showed that I don’t ask for perfection; I just want to feel as if the programme-makers are exploring new ideas. Risk-taking feels rare in the streaming world these days, but perhaps this was a sign of things changing.

‘Appointment streaming’ rules, okay

For a few months, Thursday evenings became my me time, where I’d ditch my phone and catch up on the latest episodes of A Murder at the End of the World and Slow Horses. It was less “appointment TV” and more “appointment streaming”. To avoid the infinite scroll on streamers, I’ve done less binge-watching this year and more leaning into the joys of deliberate catching up with multiple weekly streaming series. Treating the episodes as if they’re only available at a specific time helps me carve out the space to watch them, and actually pay attention too.

The intermission needs a comeback

As much as the history of film is littered with epics that I have watched and loved, I still get antsy when I hear a new movie is over the three-hour mark. Killers of the Flower Moon (206 mins) might be directed by the beloved Martin Scorsese and tell an important and captivating tale, but by 2½ hours in I was chewing on unpopped popcorn kernels and jiggling my restless legs. Same with Oppenheimer (181 mins). As much as I relish seeing film-makers justifiably take whatever time they need to tell a story, part of me yearns for the days of the intermission. Steve McQueen has a 4½-hour documentary, Occupied City, coming out in February; each screening will include a 15-minute interval. Could it set a trend? Me and my restless limbs can only hope so.

Big screen still beats small

We’re fully ensconced in the era of streamers financing huge film productions, but 2023 saw another shift in the cinema-release-vs-streaming debate. Apple brought Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon to the big screen thanks to a partnership with Paramount Pictures, while the excellent arthouse streamer Mubi continued to give outstanding films such as How to Have Sex some time in cinemas instead of going straight to streaming. But, because streamers understandably want to draw their viewers back to the small screen, sometimes any theatrical-release periods can feel frightfully short. Watching Maestro (Netflix) at the Light House during its brief cinema run proved to me for the umpteenth time that the big-screen experience will always beat the home experience. Sure, we can’t all make it to the cinema, but why not give more films the chance to be watched as the movie gods intended?

Ireland’s on a golden streak

Maybe 100 years from now we’ll discover the government put an experimental drug in the water that boosts film-making and acting capabilities. Or maybe we’re just a country that gently yet firmly punches above its weight in the film world thanks to a combination of talent, self-confidence, charm and funding. Either way, 2023 will be remembered for Ireland’s slew of Oscar nominations, gold statuette for An Irish Goodbye, the global success of An Cailín Ciúin and Paul Mescal’s muscular takeover of Hollywood. I was lucky enough to be in Los Angeles to cover this year’s Oscars and the awe towards Irish film from within the industry was palpable. Thanks to Irish involvement in Oppenheimer, All of Us Strangers, Saltburn and Poor Things (for starters), as well as the official Irish Oscars entry, the documentary In the Shadow of Beirut, the 2024 awards season is also shaping up to have a green tint. Olé!