Year-In-Review, This Is Not (Final Entry)
Ten entries were promised in this spur-of-the-moment series. Alas, the seventh one (this one) is going to be the last. Apologies for not being able to deliver on that promise (cue my favorite sarcastic question: “What else is new?). Here’s the deal. I wanted to write ten and I had ten things on my draft. Well, nine, after a quick consideration. Then after finishing last night’s entry, I reviewed the list. Nope. The remaining three items would not qualify, as in I don’t really have enough things to say about them to merit a separate post for each of them. Then, instead of trying to find a replacement, or three, I decided to give it up. Fact is, 2011 was not an awesome year. Not in TV, not in movies, not in music, and certainly not in my life. So, let’s get back to my roots and analyze what sucked. (Of course, there are always gems among the bunch but let’s focus on the disappointments).
Let’s begin with Hollywood, the place where executives keep cranking box-office-hit wannabes hoping one of them would be the next Avatar. The superhero movies, with the exception of Captain America, ended up disappointing. Thor? Ew. Too weird. Green Lantern? When even Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively can’t save the movie, you know it’s a disaster. Transformers? After the second one, I wondered how I had ever stomached Michael Bay’s films. The Green Hornet? I saw it twice (don’t ask) so I refuse to delve into that nightmare once more. Luckily, I found X-Men: First Class to be refreshing, due to the cool Michael Fassbender. The final Harry Potter film and the latest installment of Pirates of the Caribbean did not disappoint but they did not impress either. On the animated front, I quite enjoyed Kung Fu Panda 2 and absolutely adored Rio, but didn’t quite get Smurfs (no matter how hilarious Hank Azaria’s Gargamel was). To be fair, there are a lot of movies I haven’t seen yet. On the top of that list is Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, followed closely by French silent movie (no, I’m not kidding) The Artist, then The Muppets and We Bought A Zoo.
When it comes to television, I have more patience, unlike TV networks, who have been so eager to pull the plug on so many hopeful series. To be fair, most of them deserve their fate or were not expected to last long. The new Charlie’s Angels certainly was a disaster. Other than the new series that I’ve reviewed, only Once Upon A Time turned out to be a winner. Prime Suspect, which is gritty and funny (yeah, seriously), has been cancelled. Another one that I adore, Pan Am, looks to be going the same way, if ABC lost their guts. The returning shows are doing okay and settling nicely into their age (ha ha) although I do wish Grey’s Anatomy hadn’t ended the way it did last year; thank God it returns this Thursday! The British shows are still going strong: Downton Abbey treating us all to a bonus Christmas episode on top of the already splendid second season it gave us. Sadly, Spooks, that gold standard in espionage TV series, ended after ten years. What a sad ending. Here’s hoping the TV writers will keep working hard and do better than the lazy screenwriters in Hollywood.
The Line-up of Spooks for Series 10
Music? Well, judging from the fact that LMFAO was such a big hit, just one thing: dance music still ruled. Yay! They’ve given us such gems as “Cheated”, numerous badly written songs by Rihanna, and Taio Cruz’s (who has amazing vocals but insists on staying in this genre) “Hangover“. I’ve provided links to the lyrics if you’re interested in knowing how inspiring the are. Maybe I’m just not capable of having fun. Who cares?
My life? Well, suffice it to say that I had to learn an important lesson the hard way (yet again): everything changes. I could elaborate but I’d rather not. I need to learn how to move on. And book those Wicked tickets.
