To put it simply, I watched very few movies this year. Whether it was simply a down year for movies or this was caused by the quarantine, I didn’t go to the movie theater at all in 2020. I still found myself consuming a lot of media, despite not watching a single movie. With that said, here is a list of my five favorite pieces of media produced in 2020. 

#5. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

Although the multiplayer was incredibly frustrating at first, the 2020 release of Call of Duty has grown a lot on me. I have sunk far too many hours into this game, especially the zombies mode, which I fell in love with. Call of Duty has always been an incredible time sink for me, and this was only strengthened by the quarantine. If you haven’t played it yet, I definitely recommend this game to pass the time in any future quarantines. 

#4. Outer Banks

To say Outer Banks is any sort of cinematic masterpiece is a blatant lie. From all objective views, this show was not very good. However, I found myself totally sucked in when it was released. Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes’ performances in this show were phenomenal, only improved when coupled with the great supporting leads of Johnathan Davis, Rudy Pankow and Madison Bailey. Outer Banks created a perfect storm of classic teenage dramas: attractive characters, adventure with a hint of romance, plenty of drama and an admittedly predictable storyline. I would recommend this show to anyone bored enough to go down the rabbit hole that it will create.

#3. Football/Fantasy Football

Along with half of America, I can’t get enough of the 2020 football season, especially playing fantasy football. Fantasy football is a more recent creation where players draft NFL players and get points based on how well they do on a week-to-week basis. With enough injuries to shake up even the most stable teams and COVID-19 taking players out left and right (including all of Denver’s quarterbacks on week 13), this year is definitely an interesting one for viewers and fantasy team owners alike. This season of football has brought many twists and turns that make it especially interesting. 

#2. TikTok

TikTok is a video sharing app produced by ByteDance, a Chinese development company founded by Zhang Yiming, that limits the length of videos to one minute. The shorter videos are addicting to all teens who, like myself, have a quickly shrinking attention span. On top of this, TikTok has billions of videos and content creators to consume. There truly is no shortage of videos to watch. TikTok has consumed much more of my time than I would like to admit, earning it the number two spot on this list.

#1. The Last Dance

If you couldn’t tell already, I’m a huge sports fan. This ESPN documentary about the 1997-1998 Chicago Bulls basketball team was a healthy dose of fan service to NBA viewers. The primary focus of this documentary is well-known basketball player Michael Jordan and his role on the team. Just like every ESPN documentary, this was produced beautifully and was the savior of my second semester of school. If any sports fans haven’t seen this yet, I would highly recommend it.

Overall, I would say this was a down year for the release of movies and all other forms of media alike. However, with the long hours spent in quarantine, almost everyone found something new to watch or play and pass the time.