Ostmodern staff picks of 2018
TV, films, podcasts, books, video games and other things that kept our studio inspired last year.
Just before Christmas swooped in to replace our memories of 2018 with images of infinite desserts, we sent out a survey to colleagues.
Our plan was to find out what people at Ostmodern had immersed themselves in during the year: what entertainment caught their attention the most; what inspired them.
From designers, to developers, user insights researchers, IT, project managers, QA engineers, to commercial and studio management, we received dozens of responses with exciting recommendations.
The diversity of our suggestions reflects the many different — and delightful — minds of our teams. Often these same survey choices have been argued furiously over in our kitchen and at our desks.
For readers outside Ostmodern, you might find reasons here finally to watch that film you’ve heard so much about last year. We believe this list shows how some of what we value outside of work strongly influences the way we create and innovate throughout the year. It also represents how important it is for us to surround ourselves with great content and captivating experiences.
We’ve trimmed some of the answers, mostly for brevity. Some of the suggestions shown here weren’t necessarily released in 2018. We’ve included those that were, but we wanted to focus on what we watched, listened to, etc in 2018, regardless of release date.
We’ve also included some explanations of why people liked their choices. Quotations that follow each pick are from the people that selected them. Enjoy!
Watched in 2018
TV Series
- Informer (2018-):
“great writing, authentic take on inner city life, real issues from a second generation immigrant perspective.”
- Better Call Saul (2015-);
- BoJack Horseman (2014-):
“Marvellous. Some totally unforgettable episodes.”
- Sharp Objects (2018):
“Amy Adams in a terrific turn. Dark, oppressive southern gothic. Great hypnotic watch.”
- Narcos: Mexico (2018-):
“thrilling, sometimes terrifying, ride”
- Detroiters: Season 2 (2018):
“Two words: belly laugh. Incredibly underrated comedy gold (so underrated it just got cancelled). Permanently among the best on-screen friendship duos I’ve ever seen.”
- Castle Rock (2018-):
“Like Fargo if Stephen King wrote it.”
- Hyori’s Bed and Breakfast (2017-):
“It’s about a Korean couple living on an island and sharing simple moments with guests visiting them. There’s something appeasing and inspiring about observing their simple life and their culture.”
- Altered Carbon (2018);
- The Deuce: Season 2 (2018):
“Any fan of The Wire will find strong similarities between these two shows by creator David Simon. Best writing of 2018.”
- Patriot (2015-):
“It’s as if Wes Anderson and the Coen Brothers got together to make an Amazon series. Can’t recommend it enough if you enjoy deadpan humour, depressed characters and spy dramas.”
- Inside №9 (2014-);
- Godless (2017):
“An advertisement for why 4K TV is great, why you should visit New Mexico, and how Westworld could have been so much more ethereal.”
- Mindhunter (2017-):
“An unexpected, beautifully filmed, terrifyingly darkly hilarious, compelling and cerebral story of FBI agents trying to understand the compulsion and behaviour of a new breed of murderer in the late 70s”
- The Defiant Ones (2017):
“Fascinating look behind the scenes of 90s hip hop”
Films
- Phantom Thread (2018):
“Straight in as one of my top, all time favourite most wonderful of films. Full of beauty, obsession and real love.”
- Annihilation (2018):
“Brilliantly tense, disturbing and atmospheric sci-fi. Great soundtrack by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury”
- The Square (2017):
“pretty unsettling but always gripping”
- Revenge (2018):
“It’s one of those independent films that wasn’t necessarily good but you could feel that the director was trying something different.”
- Isle of Dogs (2018);
- Tully (2018):
“It’s like ‘Juno’ but for grown-ups. Very, very good story. Hurts a bit in the end. The good kind of hurt. I was sad it had to end.”
- A Quiet Place (2018):
“Far more visceral and smart than you’d have thought.”
- BlacKkKlansman (2018);
- Hereditary (2018):
“Totally nuts. There is an incredible filming technique used which makes real size scenes appear as miniature, plus some scary, wacky occult goings on which seem believable for the first time since the 60s”
- Lady Bird (2017);
Videos
“Relevant in the #MeToo era, one of the rare moments in 2018 when someone made a good joke about it and everyone was fine with it because it was SNL.”
“Russian Nike ad I really enjoyed”
Apple Holiday ad
“Obviously.”
Erste Christmas Ad 2018: What would Christmas be without love?
Read in 2018
Books
- Feel Free (Zadie Smith, 2018);
- Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (John Carreyrou, 2018);
- Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman, 2011):
“Very mind opening book, makes you rethink a lot of our everyday behaviours and the way we make decisions.”
- How to Fix the Future (Andrew Keen, 2018):
“Following on from The Internet is Not the Answer, Keen’s attempts to identify ways to address the current social issues and imbalances brought about by the political climate, social media and tech giants.”
- The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu (Charlie English, 2017):
“great narrative non-fiction”
- A Walk in the Woods (Bill Bryson, 1998):
“Good for some easy, laugh-out-loud reading.”
- Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life (William Finnegan, 2015):
“simply magnificent tale of travel, politics and surfing”
- The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson, 1959):
“A sublime and chilling ghost story. Extremely unnerving and deeply sad.”
Articles
“How a modern, progressive, creative TV show gets made, pulling from people from beyond the world of LA LA LA LA pomp.”
“Incredible realisation by funny person David Mitchell. Kept me chuckling all the way through.”
“The airbnb design research team put together a set of guiding principles and exercises to help designers maintain perspective. It’s from late 2017 but it’s always a good one to reference. I don’t think it’s anything particularly new, but it does actually do a good job of getting its message across, unlike many UX articles. The principles it describes should form part of every UX designers outlook. In general the airbnb blog has had some good content throughout the year.”
“Food for thought.”
Played in 2018
Podcasts
“Italian Football podcast, talks about history and current seasons in the top league”
“always the first podcast I open because of who the interviewers get and because the conversations always spark off lots of thoughts”
“refreshing look at the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal”
“Recent but already highly recommendable. Lovely to hear Conan having some deep, long conversations with other funny people.”
“usually listen to it when I don’t feel like thinking and need a distraction — three guys watch a bad movie and then talk about it?”
“Great guests and never fails to make me smile.”
“Architecture and design podcast, has some very interesting episodes.”
“Always and forever my favourite podcast.”
“It’s reckless talk amongst 3 men, I find it comical, but some think it’s pointless”
“Very witty and funny analysis of bizarre things in the world.”
“Very entertaining, yet rich and densely packed interviews related to tech and social change.”
Video Games
- Subnautica (2018):
“So involved and believable it will give you an existential crisis.”
- Super Mario Odyssey (2017);
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018):
“Removes the need to leave the house, go on holiday and proves that games>TV shows as time sinks.”
- Hearthstone (2014);
- Samurai Gunn (2013):
“frantic multiplayer death-match game”
Apps
“Refined, detailed, comprehensive sports app”
“With a little bit more tweaking this would be one of the best apps you’ve ever used”
“Looks good, useful and the sign in process is super easy! What? I know! Right? Super easy to discover and find concerts, buy and retrieve tickets. Lovely interactions and UI. Also present and visible as a brand at concerts rather than just an app. More classical please though!”;
“the product manager writes hilarious release notes”
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