Take THE VANGUARD which is as bad as Jimmy Dore -- the hosts mortal enemy -- when it comes to hypocrisy. They love to rake Mr. Dore over the coals but they never seem aware that they are so often just as guilty as Mr. Dore. Mr. Dore wanted the Green Party to gift their presidential nomination to Jesse Ventura -- someone who did not want to run for the nomination -- and he was appalled by the way the DNC rigged the nomination for Hillary Clinton in 2016. THE VANGUARD was just as guilty in 2023 of trying to bypass the nomination process only they wanted to gift The Green Party's presidential nomination to Cornel West. Their pretense to care about issues -- especially LGBTQ+ issues -- was especially hypocritical when it came to Marianne Williamson who sat down with a transphobe and they praised her for dismissing the issue of trans rights and moving on to a different topic.
Or take Katie Halper, the laughable Katie Halper, the hypocrisy queen.
Ugh. Forgetting people like that, we are left with YOUTUBE programs worth watching.
And it was a good year for streaming YOUTUBE shows. There are ten programs that stand out to me. For instance?
We had some really great comedy, for example.
Matteo Lane followed up 2022's very popular comedy special THE ADVICE SPECIAL (over three million streams) with HAIR PLUGS & HEARTACHE (2.5 million streams so far in the last six months).
The actress Kerry Washington continued her popular online series STREET YOU GREW UP ON and ended 2023 discussing that topic with Jane Fonda.
Philippe Benhamou popped up on my radar with his excellent explorations of the works of various female singers including Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick but my favorites in his series were the ones on Diana Ross' albums -- especially these three.
AZB was the TV and movie commentary show and, yes, love story that I fell in love with.
That is their latest. I have not watched it yet. I am sure everything is fine but Zach Patton-Garcia has moved back in with his mother and it is just makes me a little nervous. Zach and Alastair Patton are still married. But Alastair Patton is on a military deployment and I can remember spouses, during Vietnam, going back to their parents when the other was deployed. I will be happy when Alastair deployment ends. I have enjoyed their moving to a new house and their coverage of TV shows and look forward to the return of that when Alastair returns from his deployment.
Zach hosts MY BLOODY JUDY with Ian Carlos Crawford and it looks mainly at horror films and shows. I have enjoyed their discussions about SCREAMS and the latest EXORCIST film but I really enjoyed their coverage of PARAMOUNT+'s WOLF PACK such as in the video below.
BURN IT DOWN WITH KIM BROWN was a political show I enjoyed in 2023.
And I also enjoyed THE MAJORITY REPORT in 2023.
THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA is a news program covering Palestine.
The assault on Gaza resulted in some first rate coverage on DEMOCRACY NOW!
Lastly, JUST JACK AND WILL WITH SEAN HAYES AND ERIC MCCORMICK is a weekly look at an episode of the classic sitcom WILL & GRACE with Sean Hayes (who played Jack) and Eric McCormick (who played Will) and often a writer for the show or a guest star or a director.
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[Ruth also covered programming for the years 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008.]
2023 end of the year pieces: Rebecca's "sexiest men of 2023," "2023 in film (Ann and Stan)" and Stan's "2023 in film (Ann and Stan)," Mike's "Idiot of 2023," Ruth's "Ruth's Streaming Report." Martha & Shirley's "2023 in books (Martha & Shirley)." Kat's "2023 in music" and our "2023: The Year of Touch Grass."
