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So, I haven't posted anything in months, but I'm just going to jump in and do my annual pop culture meme, because trying to talk about anything else is too much. I wish all of you reading this health and happiness in 2020.
Which TV shows did you let go of in 2018? Most of the shows I let go of I let go because they ended - Elementary (which ended very well!) Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (which ended as I expected it would), iZombie (which had a mess of a final season, in my opinion), and Jane the Virgin (which I had mixed feelings about!). I think I’m also done with Legends of Tomorrow after bingeing S2-3, because in S4 they seem to have invested the most in characters I care the least about. In short, I appear to have at least temporarily broken up with the CW.
Which TV shows did you start watching in 2018? I’m just going to list the ones I stuck with, not the ones I watched for a few episodes then dropped: Russian Doll, Stumptown, Schitt’s Creek, and Roswell, New Mexico.
Which TV shows did you mean to get into but didn't in 2018? Why? There are definitely shows I’d like to see, but in most of those cases, I don’t subscribe to the right services. I’ll never see Good Omens or the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel or Fleabag because I’ll never subscribe to Amazon. I dropped HBO early in the year, so missed out on Watchmen and His Dark Materials and S2 of Succession. I don’t have have Disney+, so no Manadalorian. The Morning Show and Dickinson both sounded flawed but interesting, but I don’t subscribe to Apple, so ::shrug::
Which TV show impressed you least in 2018? Honestly, if something is not interesting/impressing me, I usually just decide it’s not for me and move on. Like I said above, I thought the final season of iZombie was a mess, full of underbaked plot threads. I really wanted to like the new Nancy Drew series, but wow I did not like a single character on that show, including Nancy (I’ve only watched the first three episodes, so maybe it improves!). Oh, and Perfect Harmony seemed like a show that might fill the cheesy sitcom-loving part of my heart, but…woof. I could talk about The Good Place here, and how I feel like it’s been treading water a lot this season, but I’m hesitant to judge it too harshly until I see how it ends.
Which TV shows do you intend on checking out in 2019? …I have no idea. I’m not even sure what’s coming out that’s highly anticipated. Picard, maybe? But that’s on CBS All Access, and guess what, I don’t subscribe!
Which TV show do you think you might let go of in 2018 unless things significantly improve? The Magicians is the show I’m holding in a limbo state at the moment. I LOVED S2-3, and I haven’t watched S4 but of course know all about the big character death at the end of the season. I don’t know if I’m upset about the death of the character* or just monumentally irritated by the way the showrunners handled some publicity around that character in the earlier part of the season (in the Year of Our Lord 2019 it’s nearly unforgivable to tease a fan-favorite queer relationship when you know half of the pairing is going to be dead at the end of the season. Didn’t The 100 just go through this a couple of years ago???) Anyway, I keep seeing commercials for S5 and thinking “oooh, I want to watch that,” so I guess I’m kind of waiting to see if it’s going to be worthwhile to continue with, or if I just need to stop while I still have a lot of affection for the show.
*I AM upset about the death of the character! I liked him! I was attached to his story! But if the actor was set on leaving, I’m not 100% sure what other options the writers might have had other than killing him off. But I am also mentally in a place where I just don’t want to see characters I care about die, so. Maybe I’m not feeling completely rational about it.
Which TV shows do you think you’ll never let go of no matter how crappy they get? Nothing is safe from being dropped by me! However, since Bojack Horseman, The Good Place, and Schitt’s Creek are all about to air their final episodes, I’ll probably stick with the three of them until the end. :-)
Your favorite film you watched this year? I only saw three movies in the theater this year: Captain Marvel, Avengers Endgame, and Knives Out. The Marvel movies were both enjoyable, but Knives Out was better. I also really liked A Simple Favor, with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, which I watched on Hulu.
Your favorite book read this year? I had a pretty good reading year! Favorites included the memoirs Educated by Tara Westover and Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, and Catch & Kill, Ronan Farrow’s expose about the Harvey Weinstein investigation and the attempted burying of the story by NBC. For fiction, I really enjoyed Daisy Jones and the Six (the rise and fall of a Fleetwood Mac type 70s band) by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts (sort of an adult Westing Game) by Kate Racculia, Nothing to See Here (aimless young woman becomes the nanny to the stepchildren of a high school friend. When the children get upset, they spontaneously combust, so that’s awkward) by Kevin Wilson, and The Starless Sea (big fat portal fantasy, with cats, pirates, and metaphors (the pirate is a metaphor)) by Erin Morgenstern.
Your favorite album or song to listen to this year? I never have an answer to this. Spotify says I listened to a lot of Jenny Lewis and Vienna Teng and songs from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and that all seems about right.
Your favorite TV show(s) of the year? Russian Doll, The Magicians, Bojack Horseman. Schitt’s Creek, once I got past the rocky first season. Roswell, New Mexico, because it has A+ kissing and pining, which not enough television shows have. Stumptown, a procedural detective show with a sense of humor and a likeable damaged protagonist played by Cobie Smulders. Also, I watched many, many episodes of Bob’s Burgers and Friends in syndication, because while I don’t have a million streaming channels, I do have basic cable.
Your favorite online fandom community of the year? I think only someone in a fandom can answer this question.
Your best new fandom discovery of the year? Not a lot of discovering this year.
Your fandom that made an unexpected comeback this year? The only thing I can think of is Veronica Mars, and I was never really in the VM fandom to begin with, though I’ve always liked the first two seasons pretty well. (I’ve never watched the third!) I did watch the fourth season, and that was a thing that happened, huh? I like the idea of Veronica Mars, Grown-Up Detective, but some of the execution fell flat for me, and even as a non-shipper, I thought the ending was some Grade-A bullshit, a lazy and thoughtless way to treat the show's most devoted fans.
The most missed of your old fandoms? I’ll always miss the Buffy fandom, but I’m not sure I’d ever want to go back to feeling that way all the time, if that makes sense.
Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year? Who has time to anticipate anything, what with the world being on fire (literally, in some places)? Uhh, anyway, Happy New Year!
Which TV shows did you let go of in 2018? Most of the shows I let go of I let go because they ended - Elementary (which ended very well!) Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (which ended as I expected it would), iZombie (which had a mess of a final season, in my opinion), and Jane the Virgin (which I had mixed feelings about!). I think I’m also done with Legends of Tomorrow after bingeing S2-3, because in S4 they seem to have invested the most in characters I care the least about. In short, I appear to have at least temporarily broken up with the CW.
Which TV shows did you start watching in 2018? I’m just going to list the ones I stuck with, not the ones I watched for a few episodes then dropped: Russian Doll, Stumptown, Schitt’s Creek, and Roswell, New Mexico.
Which TV shows did you mean to get into but didn't in 2018? Why? There are definitely shows I’d like to see, but in most of those cases, I don’t subscribe to the right services. I’ll never see Good Omens or the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel or Fleabag because I’ll never subscribe to Amazon. I dropped HBO early in the year, so missed out on Watchmen and His Dark Materials and S2 of Succession. I don’t have have Disney+, so no Manadalorian. The Morning Show and Dickinson both sounded flawed but interesting, but I don’t subscribe to Apple, so ::shrug::
Which TV show impressed you least in 2018? Honestly, if something is not interesting/impressing me, I usually just decide it’s not for me and move on. Like I said above, I thought the final season of iZombie was a mess, full of underbaked plot threads. I really wanted to like the new Nancy Drew series, but wow I did not like a single character on that show, including Nancy (I’ve only watched the first three episodes, so maybe it improves!). Oh, and Perfect Harmony seemed like a show that might fill the cheesy sitcom-loving part of my heart, but…woof. I could talk about The Good Place here, and how I feel like it’s been treading water a lot this season, but I’m hesitant to judge it too harshly until I see how it ends.
Which TV shows do you intend on checking out in 2019? …I have no idea. I’m not even sure what’s coming out that’s highly anticipated. Picard, maybe? But that’s on CBS All Access, and guess what, I don’t subscribe!
Which TV show do you think you might let go of in 2018 unless things significantly improve? The Magicians is the show I’m holding in a limbo state at the moment. I LOVED S2-3, and I haven’t watched S4 but of course know all about the big character death at the end of the season. I don’t know if I’m upset about the death of the character* or just monumentally irritated by the way the showrunners handled some publicity around that character in the earlier part of the season (in the Year of Our Lord 2019 it’s nearly unforgivable to tease a fan-favorite queer relationship when you know half of the pairing is going to be dead at the end of the season. Didn’t The 100 just go through this a couple of years ago???) Anyway, I keep seeing commercials for S5 and thinking “oooh, I want to watch that,” so I guess I’m kind of waiting to see if it’s going to be worthwhile to continue with, or if I just need to stop while I still have a lot of affection for the show.
*I AM upset about the death of the character! I liked him! I was attached to his story! But if the actor was set on leaving, I’m not 100% sure what other options the writers might have had other than killing him off. But I am also mentally in a place where I just don’t want to see characters I care about die, so. Maybe I’m not feeling completely rational about it.
Which TV shows do you think you’ll never let go of no matter how crappy they get? Nothing is safe from being dropped by me! However, since Bojack Horseman, The Good Place, and Schitt’s Creek are all about to air their final episodes, I’ll probably stick with the three of them until the end. :-)
Your favorite film you watched this year? I only saw three movies in the theater this year: Captain Marvel, Avengers Endgame, and Knives Out. The Marvel movies were both enjoyable, but Knives Out was better. I also really liked A Simple Favor, with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, which I watched on Hulu.
Your favorite book read this year? I had a pretty good reading year! Favorites included the memoirs Educated by Tara Westover and Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, and Catch & Kill, Ronan Farrow’s expose about the Harvey Weinstein investigation and the attempted burying of the story by NBC. For fiction, I really enjoyed Daisy Jones and the Six (the rise and fall of a Fleetwood Mac type 70s band) by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts (sort of an adult Westing Game) by Kate Racculia, Nothing to See Here (aimless young woman becomes the nanny to the stepchildren of a high school friend. When the children get upset, they spontaneously combust, so that’s awkward) by Kevin Wilson, and The Starless Sea (big fat portal fantasy, with cats, pirates, and metaphors (the pirate is a metaphor)) by Erin Morgenstern.
Your favorite album or song to listen to this year? I never have an answer to this. Spotify says I listened to a lot of Jenny Lewis and Vienna Teng and songs from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and that all seems about right.
Your favorite TV show(s) of the year? Russian Doll, The Magicians, Bojack Horseman. Schitt’s Creek, once I got past the rocky first season. Roswell, New Mexico, because it has A+ kissing and pining, which not enough television shows have. Stumptown, a procedural detective show with a sense of humor and a likeable damaged protagonist played by Cobie Smulders. Also, I watched many, many episodes of Bob’s Burgers and Friends in syndication, because while I don’t have a million streaming channels, I do have basic cable.
Your favorite online fandom community of the year? I think only someone in a fandom can answer this question.
Your best new fandom discovery of the year? Not a lot of discovering this year.
Your fandom that made an unexpected comeback this year? The only thing I can think of is Veronica Mars, and I was never really in the VM fandom to begin with, though I’ve always liked the first two seasons pretty well. (I’ve never watched the third!) I did watch the fourth season, and that was a thing that happened, huh? I like the idea of Veronica Mars, Grown-Up Detective, but some of the execution fell flat for me, and even as a non-shipper, I thought the ending was some Grade-A bullshit, a lazy and thoughtless way to treat the show's most devoted fans.
The most missed of your old fandoms? I’ll always miss the Buffy fandom, but I’m not sure I’d ever want to go back to feeling that way all the time, if that makes sense.
Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year? Who has time to anticipate anything, what with the world being on fire (literally, in some places)? Uhh, anyway, Happy New Year!