Year-End Round-Up 2013
Dec. 30th, 2013 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
earlgreytea68Favorite Album This Year: Shout Out Louds’ Optica. Driving into Boston one day this summer, WERS happened to play “Illusions.” And that was it. That was all it took. I was hooked. I went home and downloaded the entire album and it has been on CONSTANT REPEAT ever since. I love almost every song on this album. It’s impossible for me to pick a favorite. I loved this album so much that I ended up going back and downloading every single Shout Out Louds song ever. They’re all good, but I really think Optica is their pinnacle. The album is just perfection.
Most Listened-to Song This Year: Kitten’s “Cut It Out.” There’s something so bouncy about this song. When the weather’s nice and the windows are down in my car, I throw this song onto repeat and let it bounce me all the way to work. (Making a late run at the title: Haim’s “Forever.”)
Song I Did the Most Writing to This Year: Bombay Bicycle Club’s “Leave It.” When I got obsessed with Bombay Bicycle Club’s “Shuffle” last year, I went and downloaded their entire back catalog, just like I did with the Shout Out Louds. “Leave It” was the real star of that for me, and it was the primary writing song of “Letters, Resolved.” So, if you’re curious where all that angsty longing comes from in that story, it’s this song, apparently. Runner-up: Shout Out Louds’ “Fourteenth of July.” I listen to all of Optica a lot when I write N&N, but this is the song I’m most likely to associate it with the mood of the story, for some reason. If I really need to get myself back into N&N mode, it’s this song I listen to.
Song I Was Most Happy to Encounter on the Radio This Year: Zedd’s “Clarity.” Okay, so, you’re going to think I’m crazy. But. In my head, I have this whole story about this song. Which is that: While Sherlock was on his extended sabbatical, he started writing ridiculous sappy poetry about John and putting it on some terrible Tumblr blog. And then some of it gets turned into a dance song with a driving beat and Sherlock is all like, “What the hell, that song is about *missing the love of my life,*” but it’s all disguised by the fact that it just sounds like a song you’re going to jump around on the dance floor to. But these lyrics are so Johnlock it’s ridiculous, and you will never convince me they weren’t written about John and Sherlock, so there. (Incidentally, then![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
azriona started writing an AU where *John* was the songwriter and I was like, “OMG. What if *John* wrote the sappy poetry and posted it to some alternate blog and then someone turned it into a dance song?” Can you just imagine the scene where John tells Sherlock he wrote that for him, and Sherlock is like, “*That*? You wrote *that* for me??”)
Best Concert I Attended This Year: Someone randomly gave me tickets to go see Bernadette Peters in concert this year. I like musicals and stuff, so I was excited to go see her, especially as I have her on several soundtracks. But Bernadette Peters *live* was…amazing. She literally moved me to tears. I was sitting in my seat crying. I have never heard anyone sing that way, be able to reach into my heart and pull it out. If you ever get the chance to see her in person, do it.
Favorite / Best Movie I Saw This Year: The World’s End. I didn’t see many movies this year. Partly because I no longer live in a place where there are people around me who want to see movies, and partly because I no longer live in a place that really even shows movies. So “The World’s End” easily takes home both best and favorite. I thought it was hilarious, personally, but I also thought that it was poignant. Well-made and affectionate and clever and fun. What more can you ask for in a movie? (Also, I very luckily got to attend a Q&A about the film with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright, so that may have influenced me a bit.)
Movie I Didn’t Get to See Even Though I Was Going to See It out of Devotion to a British Actor: “The Fifth Estate.” I know it was supposed to be terrible, but Benedict Cumberbatch was supposed to be good in it (and I have a really weird attraction to him with that hair, because I have Issues). But, anyway, my plan to go see it was foiled by the fact that I now live in a place that doesn’t have movies. So, sorry, Benedict.
Best Eight Seconds of Film This Year: That first shot of Benedict Cumberbatch in “Star Trek into Darkness.” I feel like that was in the movie entirely as a special little gift for me.
Best Sixty Seconds of Television This Year: If you have seen something better than Benedict Cumberbatch reciting R. Kelly lyrics—no, don’t even pretend that you have.
Favorite TV Show of the Year: “The Mindy Project.” I don’t know why more people aren’t watching this show. Every time I see people talking about it, they talk about what a mess it is. I don’t get why. I think it’s hilarious. Plus, I basically *am* Mindy Kaling. I identify with her so much more than I do most of the other women on television. Like, for instance, Jess on “New Girl” kind of makes me want to gnaw my arm off with her wide-eyed girliness, but Mindy on “The Mindy Project” says and does things and I’m like, “OMG, that is totally me.” It’s, like, ridiculous. Plus, Mindy and Danny are my favorite non-Sherlock couple on television right now. I find the show effervescent and charming and comforting. Like, it’s nice to know I’m not alone here. It’s like having a friend drop by to have a glass of wine with you and chat. If you are not watching this show, please do watch it! It’s wonderful!
Best Show of the Year: “Cabin Pressure” aired a fourth series this year that should have made every other sitcom in existence go and hide behind a couch in embarrassment that they belong to the same genre. I started listening to “Cabin Pressure” because of Benedict Cumberbatch, yes, but who knew it was going to grow into genuinely one of the best shows ever. It’s a sitcom, yes, and it’s very funny in a recognizable sitcom way (there’s an episode where one of the characters has to climb into a tree to get cell phone reception and then gets stung by bees living in the tree, which, frankly, almost sounds like the plot to an episode of a Disney show), but it’s also funny in a more complex, subtler way that is a reward for having paid attention and stuck with it and taken the characters into your heart. Yes, it’s funny when Martin Crieff climbs the tree and gets stung by bees, but it’s funnier in the context of the overall episode, of Douglas trying to teach Arthur about teasing, of poor Martin trying to cling to his dignity. I still think the funniest line of that episode is when Carolyn tells Martin she’s taking the cost out of his pay and Martin retorts, “I’d like to see you do *that.*” And that’s a line that’s only funny when you know—because you’ve been listening to the show all along—that Martin makes nothing. Just like “Timbuktu” is rewarding as the conclusion of a trilogy. Just like “Vaduz”’s “green truck!” gag is funny because you know the yellow car gag that came before. But what really makes this show the best of the year for me isn’t just that it’s funny, but that it has such heart. More heart than American sitcoms these days almost ever let themselves have (or American dramas, really, for that matter). These characters love each other. They don’t say it; they show it, which is so much better. They band together to help Martin in “Wokingham;” they have real conversations about each other’s hopes and dreams and wants in “Xinzhou.” And all in the middle of still being hilarious. The best episodes of “Cabin Pressure” are almost the episodes where nothing happens and they just sit around and talk to each other, and that’s the sign of good characters to me. And speaking of those characters: the development arc over the course of the entire series is astonishingly good. Martin’s speech in “Yverdon-les-Bains” is one of the best speeches ever written, a lovely recognition by the character of exactly how far he’s come; countering it with Douglas’s “supreme commander” speech—exactly echoing the *very first episode* of the show—is so pretty that you could weep. “Cabin Pressure” ended on the cliffhanger of the year, and I still have no idea how I want it to resolve itself. All I can say is: Well done, John Finnemore. Seriously, seriously well done.
Best TV Show of the Year: I watched hours and hours and hours of television this year, and it all came down to seven minutes and thirteen seconds in which “Sherlock” showed all of the rest of them how it’s done. There is nothing about the minisode that is not epically perfect: Anderson showing remorse over what, from his perspective, looks like having driven a man to suicide; Lestrade banging his head on the table; “He didn’t solve *all* my cases”; the deduction about the flake in the ice cream, and that dramatic silhouette shot of Sherlock at the end of it; Sherlock’s drumming fingers on the table; John, fragile and holding it together only just, pouring himself a drink, still wishing Sherlock wasn’t dead; and Sherlock, on the screen, smiling and winking. The brilliant thing about the minisode was that at the end I was like: JUST GIVE IT TO ME ALREADY. And here’s the thing: Even though I’ve been desperate for this season for two years now, I’m…worried about Mary. Not terribly excited about her, I admit. She’s a weird little blip in the actual canon, quickly discarded as “in the way” by Doyle (in my opinion), and I’m nervous about the insistence on her, and the brilliant thing is that they didn’t shove her down my throat in this minisode. They gave me what I wanted. They gave me *my show.* And I’m still nervous about this season, but, right now, “Sherlock” is still my favorite, and I’m going to savor it for a little while longer.
Least Satisfying Finale: “Burn Notice.” I felt like this show completely lost its way in its final season. It went stumbling around, dismantling Michael’s character and sticking us with a bunch of new characters none of us cared about (getting rid of Adrian Pasdar, the only one of the new characters I *did* care about, was just one in a long line of mistakes). And then the resolution—the ending of the entire show—was so anticlimactic, such a letdown. Everything Michael and Company had been through over the course of the show, and the ending was…separating all of them and sending Fiona and Michael off on their own? With a child? With very little explanation of how that could even be possible? Whatever, show.
Finale I Hated So Much That I’m Furious I Ever Even Watched the Show: “The Hour.” Oh, God, two seasons’ worth of watching, and THAT WAS HOW IT ENDED WHAT. Ugh, I will never get over how terrible that was. I want that bit of my life back. Mostly so that I can tell myself not to get invested in those characters.
Biggest Waste of a Show Idea: “The Originals.” Here’s the thing: For a long time, the original vampires were basically the best thing about “The Vampire Diaries.” Yeah, sure, there was still Damon, gamely making one-liners and trying to be interesting while being surrounded by holier-than-thou sticks in the mud like Elena and Stefan. And there’s Caroline, being awesome because Caroline is awesome. And there’s Katherine, yes, who is also awesome when the writers forget that they like to think she’s the EVIL WOMAN. But most of the time everyone was a thousand times more interesting when they had a run-in with an Original. Klaus was fascinating on the show, a good foil to both Salvatore brothers that allowed Damon to escape the labeling of “Bad Boy” that the show so consistently throws onto him. Plus, he had very real chemistry with Caroline, and their slow-building relationship was one of the reasons to watch the show: watching Klaus try to figure out why he liked her so much, watching Caroline try to resist liking him back. Elijah was also awesome, with his sense of honor acting as a veil over his menace. (In fact, Elena was mostly only interesting in the inexplicable trust she was willing to place in Elijah.) And then there was Rebekah, who eventually overtook Caroline as my favorite female character on the show. I really felt for Rebekah, I was rooting for her to find the life she wanted. So, on paper, building a show around Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah seemed like a good idea. But “The Originals” is a mess. Instead of adding Caroline to the mix (which they so should have done, because her college storyline with Elena on TVD is just a waste of everyone’s time), they added Hayley, who doesn’t have much chemistry with anyone on the show and just spends a lot of time pouting and having to be rescued. Klaus is inexcusably terrible to his brother and sister for absolutely no reason, and yet, instead of daggering him and getting rid of him, we’re supposed to believe that Elijah and Rebekah keep forgiving him because of how much they love him. Or something. I’m not really clear on what the dynamic is supposed to be there. It’s a complete mishmash. All the show has accomplished is making me really hate Klaus for being cruel all the time for no reason (I guess the writers think I’m supposed to feel bad because he’s tortured? Or something?) and making me really hate Elijah and Rebekah for not having backbone enough not to put up with Klaus’s behavior.
Worst Episode of Television This Year: “Pretty Little Liars”’s Halloween episode. I know: PLL never makes sense. It’s true. But the Halloween episode was just a *travesty.* Moving beyond the tragedy of them apparently making my favorite character on the show A, there was the fact that the episode was a mess of nonsensical proportions. NOTHING about it made sense, not even weird PLL internal sense. What was with the random supernatural elements creeping in all of a sudden? I know they were trying to promote “Ravenswood,” but, really, it turned the entire episode into a 60-minute commercial for “Ravenswood” (which made me vow never to watch “Ravenswood”). No matter how ridiculous PLL has always been, there has never been any suggestion that A is, say, a ghost, or anything supernatural like that. So the ridiculousness of Hanna disappearing by BEING TURNED INTO A MARBLE STATUE WHILE SPENCER WAS HOLDING HER HAND WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? And there was that house, which made no sense and was apparently situated in the middle of a cemetery that was also in the middle of a park because yeah, that’s how towns are set up, and yet also somehow it was too far away from the party going on in the middle of the park for anyone to notice that that house was creepily set up as *literally* a haunted funhouse of doppelgangers in which people were being murdered WITH WINDOWPANE GUILLOTINES. (If you don’t watch PLL, you’re going to think I’m making this up. I’M NOT.) And then there was the whole weirdness of HANNA LEAVING HER BOYFRIEND IN RAVENSWOOD TO PROTECT A GIRL THEY’D MET THAT NIGHT AND HAD, LIKE, ONE CONVERSATION WITH. WHAT? Like *Caleb* is the end-all and be-all of protection? I mean, I know these girls never go to the police but GO TO THE POLICE. DON’T LEAVE YOUR BOYFRIEND THERE. WITH A STRANGE GIRL YOU DON’T KNOW. WHAT IF YOUR BOYFRIEND DOESN’T WANT TO STAY IN CREEPY RAVENSWOOD WITH RANDOM STRANGE NEW GIRL? Least artful way of setting up a spinoff *ever.*
Biggest Softie of the Year: Steven Moffat, for writing two episodes of “Doctor Who” that made very little sense but were complete love letters to his Doctor.
Best Tumblr Posts I Saw This Year: Sometimes Tumblr makes me laugh until I cry. Here are some of my favorite posts of the year: this one, this one, this one, and my all-time favorite Tumblr post.
Favorite Quote of the Year: From “The Mindy Project”: “I really thought that I changed. But I didn’t. I just got good at pretending to like things that I don’t like.”
Most Listened-to Song This Year: Kitten’s “Cut It Out.” There’s something so bouncy about this song. When the weather’s nice and the windows are down in my car, I throw this song onto repeat and let it bounce me all the way to work. (Making a late run at the title: Haim’s “Forever.”)
Song I Did the Most Writing to This Year: Bombay Bicycle Club’s “Leave It.” When I got obsessed with Bombay Bicycle Club’s “Shuffle” last year, I went and downloaded their entire back catalog, just like I did with the Shout Out Louds. “Leave It” was the real star of that for me, and it was the primary writing song of “Letters, Resolved.” So, if you’re curious where all that angsty longing comes from in that story, it’s this song, apparently. Runner-up: Shout Out Louds’ “Fourteenth of July.” I listen to all of Optica a lot when I write N&N, but this is the song I’m most likely to associate it with the mood of the story, for some reason. If I really need to get myself back into N&N mode, it’s this song I listen to.
Song I Was Most Happy to Encounter on the Radio This Year: Zedd’s “Clarity.” Okay, so, you’re going to think I’m crazy. But. In my head, I have this whole story about this song. Which is that: While Sherlock was on his extended sabbatical, he started writing ridiculous sappy poetry about John and putting it on some terrible Tumblr blog. And then some of it gets turned into a dance song with a driving beat and Sherlock is all like, “What the hell, that song is about *missing the love of my life,*” but it’s all disguised by the fact that it just sounds like a song you’re going to jump around on the dance floor to. But these lyrics are so Johnlock it’s ridiculous, and you will never convince me they weren’t written about John and Sherlock, so there. (Incidentally, then
azriona started writing an AU where *John* was the songwriter and I was like, “OMG. What if *John* wrote the sappy poetry and posted it to some alternate blog and then someone turned it into a dance song?” Can you just imagine the scene where John tells Sherlock he wrote that for him, and Sherlock is like, “*That*? You wrote *that* for me??”)Best Concert I Attended This Year: Someone randomly gave me tickets to go see Bernadette Peters in concert this year. I like musicals and stuff, so I was excited to go see her, especially as I have her on several soundtracks. But Bernadette Peters *live* was…amazing. She literally moved me to tears. I was sitting in my seat crying. I have never heard anyone sing that way, be able to reach into my heart and pull it out. If you ever get the chance to see her in person, do it.
Favorite / Best Movie I Saw This Year: The World’s End. I didn’t see many movies this year. Partly because I no longer live in a place where there are people around me who want to see movies, and partly because I no longer live in a place that really even shows movies. So “The World’s End” easily takes home both best and favorite. I thought it was hilarious, personally, but I also thought that it was poignant. Well-made and affectionate and clever and fun. What more can you ask for in a movie? (Also, I very luckily got to attend a Q&A about the film with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright, so that may have influenced me a bit.)
Movie I Didn’t Get to See Even Though I Was Going to See It out of Devotion to a British Actor: “The Fifth Estate.” I know it was supposed to be terrible, but Benedict Cumberbatch was supposed to be good in it (and I have a really weird attraction to him with that hair, because I have Issues). But, anyway, my plan to go see it was foiled by the fact that I now live in a place that doesn’t have movies. So, sorry, Benedict.
Best Eight Seconds of Film This Year: That first shot of Benedict Cumberbatch in “Star Trek into Darkness.” I feel like that was in the movie entirely as a special little gift for me.
Best Sixty Seconds of Television This Year: If you have seen something better than Benedict Cumberbatch reciting R. Kelly lyrics—no, don’t even pretend that you have.
Favorite TV Show of the Year: “The Mindy Project.” I don’t know why more people aren’t watching this show. Every time I see people talking about it, they talk about what a mess it is. I don’t get why. I think it’s hilarious. Plus, I basically *am* Mindy Kaling. I identify with her so much more than I do most of the other women on television. Like, for instance, Jess on “New Girl” kind of makes me want to gnaw my arm off with her wide-eyed girliness, but Mindy on “The Mindy Project” says and does things and I’m like, “OMG, that is totally me.” It’s, like, ridiculous. Plus, Mindy and Danny are my favorite non-Sherlock couple on television right now. I find the show effervescent and charming and comforting. Like, it’s nice to know I’m not alone here. It’s like having a friend drop by to have a glass of wine with you and chat. If you are not watching this show, please do watch it! It’s wonderful!
Best Show of the Year: “Cabin Pressure” aired a fourth series this year that should have made every other sitcom in existence go and hide behind a couch in embarrassment that they belong to the same genre. I started listening to “Cabin Pressure” because of Benedict Cumberbatch, yes, but who knew it was going to grow into genuinely one of the best shows ever. It’s a sitcom, yes, and it’s very funny in a recognizable sitcom way (there’s an episode where one of the characters has to climb into a tree to get cell phone reception and then gets stung by bees living in the tree, which, frankly, almost sounds like the plot to an episode of a Disney show), but it’s also funny in a more complex, subtler way that is a reward for having paid attention and stuck with it and taken the characters into your heart. Yes, it’s funny when Martin Crieff climbs the tree and gets stung by bees, but it’s funnier in the context of the overall episode, of Douglas trying to teach Arthur about teasing, of poor Martin trying to cling to his dignity. I still think the funniest line of that episode is when Carolyn tells Martin she’s taking the cost out of his pay and Martin retorts, “I’d like to see you do *that.*” And that’s a line that’s only funny when you know—because you’ve been listening to the show all along—that Martin makes nothing. Just like “Timbuktu” is rewarding as the conclusion of a trilogy. Just like “Vaduz”’s “green truck!” gag is funny because you know the yellow car gag that came before. But what really makes this show the best of the year for me isn’t just that it’s funny, but that it has such heart. More heart than American sitcoms these days almost ever let themselves have (or American dramas, really, for that matter). These characters love each other. They don’t say it; they show it, which is so much better. They band together to help Martin in “Wokingham;” they have real conversations about each other’s hopes and dreams and wants in “Xinzhou.” And all in the middle of still being hilarious. The best episodes of “Cabin Pressure” are almost the episodes where nothing happens and they just sit around and talk to each other, and that’s the sign of good characters to me. And speaking of those characters: the development arc over the course of the entire series is astonishingly good. Martin’s speech in “Yverdon-les-Bains” is one of the best speeches ever written, a lovely recognition by the character of exactly how far he’s come; countering it with Douglas’s “supreme commander” speech—exactly echoing the *very first episode* of the show—is so pretty that you could weep. “Cabin Pressure” ended on the cliffhanger of the year, and I still have no idea how I want it to resolve itself. All I can say is: Well done, John Finnemore. Seriously, seriously well done.
Best TV Show of the Year: I watched hours and hours and hours of television this year, and it all came down to seven minutes and thirteen seconds in which “Sherlock” showed all of the rest of them how it’s done. There is nothing about the minisode that is not epically perfect: Anderson showing remorse over what, from his perspective, looks like having driven a man to suicide; Lestrade banging his head on the table; “He didn’t solve *all* my cases”; the deduction about the flake in the ice cream, and that dramatic silhouette shot of Sherlock at the end of it; Sherlock’s drumming fingers on the table; John, fragile and holding it together only just, pouring himself a drink, still wishing Sherlock wasn’t dead; and Sherlock, on the screen, smiling and winking. The brilliant thing about the minisode was that at the end I was like: JUST GIVE IT TO ME ALREADY. And here’s the thing: Even though I’ve been desperate for this season for two years now, I’m…worried about Mary. Not terribly excited about her, I admit. She’s a weird little blip in the actual canon, quickly discarded as “in the way” by Doyle (in my opinion), and I’m nervous about the insistence on her, and the brilliant thing is that they didn’t shove her down my throat in this minisode. They gave me what I wanted. They gave me *my show.* And I’m still nervous about this season, but, right now, “Sherlock” is still my favorite, and I’m going to savor it for a little while longer.
Least Satisfying Finale: “Burn Notice.” I felt like this show completely lost its way in its final season. It went stumbling around, dismantling Michael’s character and sticking us with a bunch of new characters none of us cared about (getting rid of Adrian Pasdar, the only one of the new characters I *did* care about, was just one in a long line of mistakes). And then the resolution—the ending of the entire show—was so anticlimactic, such a letdown. Everything Michael and Company had been through over the course of the show, and the ending was…separating all of them and sending Fiona and Michael off on their own? With a child? With very little explanation of how that could even be possible? Whatever, show.
Finale I Hated So Much That I’m Furious I Ever Even Watched the Show: “The Hour.” Oh, God, two seasons’ worth of watching, and THAT WAS HOW IT ENDED WHAT. Ugh, I will never get over how terrible that was. I want that bit of my life back. Mostly so that I can tell myself not to get invested in those characters.
Biggest Waste of a Show Idea: “The Originals.” Here’s the thing: For a long time, the original vampires were basically the best thing about “The Vampire Diaries.” Yeah, sure, there was still Damon, gamely making one-liners and trying to be interesting while being surrounded by holier-than-thou sticks in the mud like Elena and Stefan. And there’s Caroline, being awesome because Caroline is awesome. And there’s Katherine, yes, who is also awesome when the writers forget that they like to think she’s the EVIL WOMAN. But most of the time everyone was a thousand times more interesting when they had a run-in with an Original. Klaus was fascinating on the show, a good foil to both Salvatore brothers that allowed Damon to escape the labeling of “Bad Boy” that the show so consistently throws onto him. Plus, he had very real chemistry with Caroline, and their slow-building relationship was one of the reasons to watch the show: watching Klaus try to figure out why he liked her so much, watching Caroline try to resist liking him back. Elijah was also awesome, with his sense of honor acting as a veil over his menace. (In fact, Elena was mostly only interesting in the inexplicable trust she was willing to place in Elijah.) And then there was Rebekah, who eventually overtook Caroline as my favorite female character on the show. I really felt for Rebekah, I was rooting for her to find the life she wanted. So, on paper, building a show around Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah seemed like a good idea. But “The Originals” is a mess. Instead of adding Caroline to the mix (which they so should have done, because her college storyline with Elena on TVD is just a waste of everyone’s time), they added Hayley, who doesn’t have much chemistry with anyone on the show and just spends a lot of time pouting and having to be rescued. Klaus is inexcusably terrible to his brother and sister for absolutely no reason, and yet, instead of daggering him and getting rid of him, we’re supposed to believe that Elijah and Rebekah keep forgiving him because of how much they love him. Or something. I’m not really clear on what the dynamic is supposed to be there. It’s a complete mishmash. All the show has accomplished is making me really hate Klaus for being cruel all the time for no reason (I guess the writers think I’m supposed to feel bad because he’s tortured? Or something?) and making me really hate Elijah and Rebekah for not having backbone enough not to put up with Klaus’s behavior.
Worst Episode of Television This Year: “Pretty Little Liars”’s Halloween episode. I know: PLL never makes sense. It’s true. But the Halloween episode was just a *travesty.* Moving beyond the tragedy of them apparently making my favorite character on the show A, there was the fact that the episode was a mess of nonsensical proportions. NOTHING about it made sense, not even weird PLL internal sense. What was with the random supernatural elements creeping in all of a sudden? I know they were trying to promote “Ravenswood,” but, really, it turned the entire episode into a 60-minute commercial for “Ravenswood” (which made me vow never to watch “Ravenswood”). No matter how ridiculous PLL has always been, there has never been any suggestion that A is, say, a ghost, or anything supernatural like that. So the ridiculousness of Hanna disappearing by BEING TURNED INTO A MARBLE STATUE WHILE SPENCER WAS HOLDING HER HAND WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? And there was that house, which made no sense and was apparently situated in the middle of a cemetery that was also in the middle of a park because yeah, that’s how towns are set up, and yet also somehow it was too far away from the party going on in the middle of the park for anyone to notice that that house was creepily set up as *literally* a haunted funhouse of doppelgangers in which people were being murdered WITH WINDOWPANE GUILLOTINES. (If you don’t watch PLL, you’re going to think I’m making this up. I’M NOT.) And then there was the whole weirdness of HANNA LEAVING HER BOYFRIEND IN RAVENSWOOD TO PROTECT A GIRL THEY’D MET THAT NIGHT AND HAD, LIKE, ONE CONVERSATION WITH. WHAT? Like *Caleb* is the end-all and be-all of protection? I mean, I know these girls never go to the police but GO TO THE POLICE. DON’T LEAVE YOUR BOYFRIEND THERE. WITH A STRANGE GIRL YOU DON’T KNOW. WHAT IF YOUR BOYFRIEND DOESN’T WANT TO STAY IN CREEPY RAVENSWOOD WITH RANDOM STRANGE NEW GIRL? Least artful way of setting up a spinoff *ever.*
Biggest Softie of the Year: Steven Moffat, for writing two episodes of “Doctor Who” that made very little sense but were complete love letters to his Doctor.
Best Tumblr Posts I Saw This Year: Sometimes Tumblr makes me laugh until I cry. Here are some of my favorite posts of the year: this one, this one, this one, and my all-time favorite Tumblr post.
Favorite Quote of the Year: From “The Mindy Project”: “I really thought that I changed. But I didn’t. I just got good at pretending to like things that I don’t like.”
