Year-End Round-Up 2014
Dec. 27th, 2014 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
earlgreytea68OH MY GOD HOW IS IT ALREADY THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN????
Favorite Album This Year: Atlas Genius’s “When It Was Now.” I actually downloaded this album in 2013 and was fond enough of it, but for some reason it really strongly clicked with me in 2014. And no album that came out this year even came close. I genuinely couldn’t pick a favorite song on this album, so I’ve just linked you to the title track. You should listen to all the rest. If you really want to know, “Centered on You” was one of my Arthur/Eames theme songs when I first started writing them, so it’s definitely worth a listen, too. But they are all worth a listen! The only other album I listened to anywhere near as much this year was BB Brunes’ “Long Courrier,” which was part of my rising obsession with French pop music. But that album’s even older! (Well worth a listen, though. Try this one and this one, too.)
Most Listened-to Song This Year: Josh Ritter’s “Change of Time.” I feel like I found this song through the finale of “The Blacklist” (which is a show, btw, I watch entire for James Spader deliciousness) and I was so immediately in love with it that I downloaded it and spent many car rides to and from work playing it on constant repeat and shouting that bridge at the top of my lungs BECAUSE I LOVE THAT BRIDGE. And then the way the next line is about the dreamer opening their eyes to find their lover there in front of them. I don’t know, that song kills me. Late French run at the title: Julien Dore’s version of “Moi Lolita.” The original version of this song is just fine, but there’s something about the background instrumental on Julien Dore’s version that kills me, especially from 2:50 onward as it hits that climax and he’s spitting the lyrics into the microphone. It makes this song feel very haunting and it slips under my skin and I love it.
Song I Did the Most Writing to This Year: Really I think this title could have gone to “Change of Time,” which was my main theme song for the early part of Inceptionlock (especially the part, which you guys still haven’t gotten to, when Arthur and Eames *finally* manage to get around to the kissing), but I listen to “Change of Time” a lot independent of writing, too, so instead I decided to give this to Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s version of “La Valse a Mille Temps.” Like, first of all, yes, JGL is annoying and sings songs. Second of all, he sings really awesome versions of songs. After JGL introduced me to this song, I went in search of it, and no other version I could find even comes close to how awesome he makes this song. I stumbled upon this song over the summer and got SO OBSESSED with it that I spent one day holed up in a hotel room (I happened to be traveling) listening to it on repeat and writing, like, something ridiculous like ten thousand words. It was absurd, but it got Inceptionlock, which had been kind of meandering under the weight of its plot, to the finish line. I’m hoping it performs the same magic with the Inceptionlock sequel I’m slogging through now. (Stick with the song – it starts slow but builds to awesomeness.) Late Run at the title: Airborne Toxic Event’s “Wrong.” I had a brief fling with Airborne Toxic Event years ago, and this is their newest single, and Spotify played it for me (Spotify was a new discovery of mine this year. After years of warring moodily with Pandora, I am very, very pleased with it) and I got totally obsessed and it was Arthur’s theme song in “Lucky,” which meant that, for the week when that fic was being written, I played it A LOT. If I’d written “Lucky” like a normal person instead of a lunatic and taken more than a week with the fic, then “Wrong” would have been played a lot more.
Song I Was Most Happy to Encounter on the Radio This Year: I thought this year was a really good year for radio-common songs. Maybe because I only listen to the radio a few months a year, when I’m home, because I’m too lazy to keep changing my presets all around. But I have to split this title among many, many songs that I was always happy to hear and never got sick of and added to my playlists: MAGIC!’s “Rude” (and I don’t even like reggae, so this song is some kind of witchcraft); Ingrid Michaelson’s “Girls Chase Boys”; and Charli XCX’s “Boom Clap.” Honorable mention to Taylor Swift for having the earwormiest songs in history this year. I am ridiculously fond of “Blank Space” right now.
Pop Culture Phenomenon That Went Completely Over My Head This Year: Sam Smith. I find him…draggy. This probably means I am dead inside.
Favorite / Best Movie I Saw This Year: “The Drop.” I’m not much of a movie-goer. I never have been. But this year was the year of “Inception” for me (more on that later), and so it was also the year of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy for me. I was very, very, very slow to the Tom Hardy thing but for some reason I got it in my head that I had to go see “The Drop” because I heard it was an awesome movie and I did enough research to know it wouldn’t upset me (even though it looks totally not like my type of movie) and it had Tom Hardy and a puppy, and so I forced someone to go see it with me. And I liked it so much better than I ever imagined I would. I’ve tried to think why, and part of it was Tom Hardy bundled in winter clothes and playing around with a puppy a lot, but I really found it very moving and affecting and it’s stuck with me in a way I didn’t expect. I think I just really liked what it had to say about faith. Which is probably a weird thing to say about a movie as violent as that one was, but I thought it was about how faith is really hope, getting up each morning and just hoping. Frequently our movies about hope and faith don’t look like that one, and I thought it was a story really effectively told. Plus: Tom Hardy, lots of layers, playing with a puppy. (And Tom Hardy is *amazing* in this movie. The more I dip into TH and JGL back catalog, the more respect I have for how really tremendously good they are as actors. The more it makes sense to me that they took two barely written characters and spun them out to so much more than was on the page [sometimes literally – that “darling” certainly came out of nowhere]; they are acting their hearts out in every single scene of that movie.)
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Movie That Was Much Better Than I Thought It Was Going to Be: “Battle of the Five Armies.” I have never been a Tolkien fan. I saw the first Lord of the Rings movie and just didn’t care for it and never saw the rest. Then Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch went and got themselves cast in these Hobbit movies and I resigned myself to having to see them. And of course Benedict Cumberbatch isn’t really in this last one and Martin Freeman is, as usual, in, like, twenty minutes of the movie (for a title character, that Hobbit fellow is almost never around), but it didn’t matter because this movie had Lee Pace riding around on a moose and wearing a fabulous coat and rolling his eyes at Gandalf (I also don’t like Gandalf, so I was tickled to death to finally find a character on the canvas who agreed with me) and LEE PACE IS AWESOME THE END.
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Movie That Was As Good As I Thought It Was Going to Be: “The Imitation Game.” I was caught unaware by “The Drop” and surprised by “Battle of the Five Armies” but “The Imitation Game” was just as good as I thought it was going to be. Beautifully acted and wonderfully told, and I grew fond of every single character on the canvas.
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Preview I Hope Never to See Again: “Unbroken.” I don’t see very many movies. I went to see “The Imitation Game,” and saw a very, very, very long extended preview for “Unbroken.” Then I went to see “The Hobbit”—a very different sort of movie that otherwise shared no trailers with TIG—and again saw the trailer for “Unbroken.” And it has been in, like, every single commercial break all month. So I’m really okay with taking a break from all that promotion.
Movie That Is Going to Win Next Year’s “The Things I Do for British Actors” Award: “Mad Max: Fury Road.” There I am, innocently sitting in the movie theater waiting for “The Hobbit” to start. And then Tom Hardy shows up on the screen and he kind of looks ridiculously hot and I’m like, “OH MY GOD NOW I HAVE TO DO SEE THIS STUPID MOVIE BECAUSE OF THISE WHOLE INCONVENIENT TOM HARDY THING I AM SUFFERING SUDDENLY.” My guy friend who was with me was like, “Sweet! Someone to see that movie with!” Sigh. Make it worth it, Tom Hardy.
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Preview That Looks Awesome: “Kingsman.” I am going to watch this movie and basically imagine that Colin Firth is playing Mycroft Holmes, because that makes me happy.
Photograph That Means I Will Also Find Myself Watching This Movie, Too:
No further explanation needed.
Best Moment on Television This Year: The John/Sherlock hug in “The Sign of Three.” Or, wait, was it the stag night? I CAN NEVER DECIDE. All I know is: I never expected either thing to happen, and no matter what happens with this show from this point on, I will always be pleased that we got these two moments.
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Second Best Moment on Television This Year: The Office/Hobbit skit on “Saturday Night Live.” When they announced that Martin Freeman was going to host SNL, I was like, “PLEASE LET THERE BE AN OFFICE SKIT.” AND THEN THERE WAS. AND IT WAS AWESOME.
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Best Episode of Television This Year: “The Sign of Three.” This seems so long ago to me now that I actually had to look up to see if it happened this year. And it did. This episode, you guys. This. Episode. I have my issues with how S3 ended (more on that later), but I cannot deny that TSoT gets more and more and more brilliant the more you watch it. It is an impeccable episode, top to bottom, the best, I think, that “Sherlock” has ever had. It is actually, to me, one of the top five episodes of television I’ve ever seen. I don’t think it has a single sour note, not a single bit I find dull or cringeworthy or pointless. It is laugh-out-loud hilarious in places, and heartbreaking beyond belief in other places. And it is such a perfect *Sherlock* episode. TSoT is an episode all about how Sherlock might be an obnoxious arsehole but he’s such an emotionally vulnerable one that you can’t even deal with him. And neither can John. The awkward disconnect between them by the end of the episode makes you squirm in your seat with frustrated sorrow for them. They go from hand-on-knee intimacy to a very sweet hug to Sherlock walking off alone, bundling himself into his coat of armor. I’m very glad “Sherlock” won its Emmys this year, but I will never understand why it didn’t win them for this magnificent masterpiece of an episode. Maybe HLV was showier? Maybe TSoT’s impact really came from having to be a fan of the show all along? I don’t know. All I know is I feel like you’d be hard-pressed to find a better-crafted episode of anything anywhere, a more moving or affecting emotional arc than the one Sherlock reveals in these 90 minutes, and basically, for me, this is where the “Sherlock” season ended, on this incomparable high. Because, well, more on HLV later.
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Most Fun Episode of Television This Year: “Time Heist.” I didn’t really enjoy this Doctor as much as I expected to, but I thought he had a lot of really quality episodes, with a lot of secondary characters that I adored. This one was my favorite. Because, what the hell, I was busy nursing my Inception obsession and then they gave me an episode all about elegant thieves stealing things. What wasn’t to love? It made me wish “Doctor Who” was more about the Doctor leading a gang of thieves around and less about the Doctor being…whatever he was…all season.
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Second Most Fun Episode of Television This Year: “Last Christmas.” Oh, wait, remember that time Doctor Who got all Inception-y in “Time Heist”? And then remember the time THEY DID A SECOND INCEPTION-Y EPISODE AND MADE IT EVEN MORE INCEPTION-Y? Whenever the Doctor started babbling about dreams-within-dreams, I was like, “No. Seriously. Does Moffat read my fanfiction? WHAT THE HELL?” You know what would have solved “Last Christmas”? Arthur and Eames showing up with a PASIV and totems. Although I loved the book idea and might steal it. And I also loved Santa and his elves. It’s a very near thing—Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy showing up vs. Santa and the elves saving the day. I mean, it’s a huge credit to Santa and the elves that the race is so close! Inception stuff aside, I really loved this episode. It was breezy and fun and hilarious, and terrifying and clever and haunting, and full of more fabulous secondary characters, and I loved it.
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Most Satisfying Shipping Moment of the Year: Mindy and Danny kiss on the plane on “The Mindy Project.” (I couldn’t find a version of this not in a fanvid, so skip to 2:37 if you just want to see The Kiss). This is one of those ships that I didn’t realize how much I shipped until they kissed and I literally said out loud, “Yes!” And then jumped onto the Internet because squee unshared is hollow squee. (I could have given this award to basically everything from most of TSoT, except then, well, you know.)
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Most Satisfying Television Moment of the Year, Period: All of “Sherlock”’s Emmy wins. Sure, Benedict and Martin weren’t even there, and they won for my least favorite episode of the show ever, and now probably they’ll strive to make every episode like “His Last Vow,” and that will be sad for me, but I didn’t expect them to win, and it was such a complete and utter shock that I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it. Four serial suicides and now a note—it was Christmas, and I literally broke open champagne that night.
Worst Episode of Television This Year: “His Last Vow.” Oh, look, I finally get to complain again ABOUT THE THING I’VE BEEN COMPLAINING ABOUT ALL YEAR. Ugh, you guys, I hate this episode. I haaaaaaaaaate this episode. I hated it the first time I watched it. Then I watched it again and hated it more. Now I don’t watch it because it just upsets me too much but I read transcripts and watch selected scenes for fic research and OMG I HATE IT EVEN IN LIMITED DOSES. I hate it more the more I think about it. So I try not to think about it. It’s no coincidence that I’ve written less Sherlockfic after this episode. I have no idea how to deal with any of the things going on in this episode. I am hoping, desperately, that it’s all going to become somehow mysteriously clear with the next episode, and I will understand how Mycroft allowed an assassin to get close enough to his brother to literally kill him (whatever with the surgery remark, the best scene in this episode, hands down, is the scene where Sherlock literally dies and then pulls himself back to life on the power of his love for John Watson, so if they wanted me to think Mary didn’t mean to kill him, they shouldn’t have made such a huge, undeniable deal over the fact that Mary actually did kill him YOU SEE WHAT THIS EPISODE DOES TO ME???), and I will understand how Mycroft then allowed Mary to continue living after that (and living well), and I will understand how John thought it was totally okay to get back together with Mary and also totally okay to just let Sherlock go off, and I will understand if Sherlock really thought that it’s okay and perfectly normal to be shot by your best friend’s wife for literally doing nothing wrong, and I will understand WHAT IN GOD’S NAME ANY OF US ARE SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THE WATSON BABY. Maybe the next episode will make HLV make more sense to me than it currently does. Because right now I’m slogging my way through the events of HLV again in the Inceptionlock fic and mostly all Arthur and Eames do is stand around and go, “…This is insane. You realize that, right? This is all insane.” And Eames is kind of like, “Is it okay to kill the people your significant other cares about? Because I’ve had issues with Cobb all along, you know…” And I’m kind of like, “OMG I HAAAAAAATE HAVING TO WRITE ABOUT THE EVENTS OF THIS EPISODE.” This episode makes me want to bash my head against a wall. That’s how much I hate this episode.
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Most Improved Show: “New Girl.” I really liked “New Girl” its first couple of seasons. And then Jess. I mean, that’s basically the best way I can describe it. I just got sick of Jess. Which is alarming to me, because then people told me I’m a lot like Jess, and I was like, !!!!! And I know Zooey Deschanel is JGL’s BFF or whatever but I just could not handle any more *Jess.* “New Girl” this season, however, has been phenomenal. I feel like they’ve kind of dialed Jess back a bit, which makes me happier, because it’s the ensemble of the show that shines. And I’m glad we’re done with the Nick/Jess romance. The episode where Winston’s police inspector person showed up to judge their loft was hilarious. Possibly the funniest episode of television I saw this year.
Cleverest Show Idea: “HitRECord.” Thank you, Delta, for having this show on your limited entertainment options. I mean, otherwise you’re kind of annoying, but you had “HitRECord,” and I watched it not because, at the time, I really had a JGL thing but because I had an Arthur-from-Inception thing and there was nothing else on and I was like, “Fine, I’ll watch this.” And then, as a result, I developed my JGL thing. The show is ridiculously charming because JGL is ridiculously charming, but it is also *so smart.* In my “real life,” I deal with copyright law issues, and I have been fighting for the importance of collaborative forms of creativity (like fandom!) and getting to see an actor I admire stand up and say, “This is how we should create: by talking to each other and having fun with each other and listening to each other and making things together,” was just…weirdly kind of emotional? I feel a lot like I stand in rooms and talk to people about these things and they wrinkle their noses and purse their lips and want to know why we don’t do “real” creation, by which I guess they mean why don’t we lock ourselves up in a garret in Paris and never talk to anyone else or something? And JGL’s like, “Whatever, here’s my Emmy for working with every random person who wants to log on to my website.” In a year when it felt like every time I turned around Benedict Cumberbatch was saying something that irritated me about fanfiction, it was a relief to have “HitRECord” show up in my life. It’s not a show about fangirls. But it’s a show that takes a step closer to making “fangirls” just artists like everyone else. And we need that.
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Favorite New TV Show: “Selfie.” I *adored* “Selfie” and I do not know why I was apparently the only person watching it. The pilot was kind of stupid but many, many pilots are kind of stupid and many, many sitcoms take a little while to find their feet. I usually give new shows a few episodes before I make up my mind and I fell more in love with “Selfie” with every episode that aired. Everyone on the show was charming and had great chemistry with each other and I thought all the social media stuff was hilarious. I cannot believe this show didn’t make it just a little bit lit longer, and I blame all of YOU, okay?
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Best New Ship: Henry/Eliza on “Selfie.” There’s this moment, in one of the few precious “Selfie” episodes we were given, when Eliza is trying to coach Henry on how to catch himself a lady, and she goads him into grabbing her by the waist, and Henry is like, “No, no, no,” and then suddenly does it, and OH MY GOD IT WAS SO HOT I LOST MY BREATH. (It’s around the :34 second mark of that video, if you also would like to get all hot and bothered.) John Cho and Karen Gillan really shone together and I am so sad we didn’t get many, many episodes of that fabulous chemistry.
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Ship That Took Me Entirely by Surprise: Clara/Twelve on “Doctor Who.” I didn’t go into the Twelfth Doctor expecting to ship him with Clara. I’ve always liked Clara, but I never shipped her with Eleven. I also didn’t go into the Twelfth Doctor expecting not to really care for him. But, unexpectedly, it took me a very, very, very long time to warm to Twelve, and what really saved him for me was how awesome his every scene with Clara was. He and Clara sparked for me, I thought they were ADORABLE together. I am so relieved she’s sticking around because I’m still uncertain enough about Twelve that I need her as a safety net.
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Best TV Show of the Year: “Mad Men.” I have long been worried about the end of “Mad Men.” I am terribly fond of Don Draper, and I thought surely nothing good was going to happen to him. In fact, I debated not watching this latest season of “Mad Men,” because I wasn’t sure I wanted to watch Don self-destruct, because I preferred to remember him as a little bit dazzling, or at least as the hope of that. “Mad Men” totally and utterly surprised me with the thread of optimism through this season. For the first time, I began to wonder if maybe the trajectory of the whole series wasn’t Don’s self-destruction but Don’s self-destruction and then redemption. I AM ON BOARD FOR THIS. I so hope I’m right, because really I want it to be that you can get a happy ending and still be a “serious” show.
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Ending That Was Supposed to Be Happy That I Found Bittersweet: “Cabin Pressure.” There were many things about the “Cabin Pressure” finale to love: Arthur’s ice cream van jingle, Martin getting to pretend to be Douglas, the final archenemies word game, even the final line. And yes, I enjoyed the otter joke, and I liked the “Martin du Crieff” bit. And I liked how everyone got to be involved in the final scheme. But I finished the episode and was just…so sad. I know that Martin got the happy ending he was supposed to get, but I will forever be sad that the MJN crew isn’t together anymore.
Most Surprisingly Satisfying Finale: “White Collar.” I’ve been so-so on these last few episodes of “White Collar.” To be honest, I thought the previous season, with the Rebecca storyline, was a better, stronger season overall, and I was much more interested in all the emotional drama they explored there (was it partly because I thought they did “female inserted into a bromance and threatening one against the other” much better than “Sherlock” did? Yeah. Probably). In comparison to that, I didn’t really care much about this whole Pink Panther / Keller nonsense. That said, I found the finale unexpectedly compelling. And, for some reason, even though it ended with them separated, much as the “Cabin Pressure” finale did, it didn’t bother me as much with “White Collar.” There was Peter, with his wife and his baby, knowing that Neal was alive somewhere, free and flourishing. And there was Neal, in Paris, the world as his oyster again. This show always needed to end with Neal becoming free, and I realized as I was watching that Neal needed to be free of EVERYTHING, even Peter, to have the truly happy ending. I wouldn’t have said that I wanted that, but when I got it, I was suddenly, like, “Awww, that’s perfect!” (And I assume Mozzie knows he’s alive, right? I mean, Mozzie deliberately planted the seeds for Peter to realize it, right?) Again, the show took a faked death and an estrangement between BFFs and just seemed to do it much, much, much better. Ahem.
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Weird New Ship I’m Totally Behind: Bonnie/Damon on “The Vampire Diaries.” Who knew that TVD would stick Bonnie (who bores me to tears) and Damon (who’s my favorite despite everything because he’s basically the only character left on the show with any spark left to him, aside from Enzo) in 1994 together, keep playing 90s songs as an endless soundtrack, make them live the same day over and over…and I would kind of fall in love with them? It’s basically a fanfiction trope, the whole make-them-live-together-and-watch-them-become-adorable, and I really didn’t expect it to work, but somehow I’m rooting for them now.
TV Death This Year I Will Never Get Over: Aiden on “Revenge.” OH MY GOD THIS. I knew he was doomed, I knew it, and I was bracing myself for it, because I just loved him so much and the way he loved Emily and the way he looked in a trench coat but OH MY GOD HIS DEATH WAS A THOUSAND TIMES WORSE THAN I WAS PREPARING MYSELF FOR IT WAS HORRIBLE. I want Emily to take Victoria *down* for that one. Every time I think they’re trying to make Victoria sympathetic, I think, “REMEMBER WHAT SHE DID TO AIDEN? AND THEN TO EMILY AFTERWARD? THAT WAS SO EVIL.”
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Thing Everyone Else Already Knew Was Awesome That I Just Caught Up with This Year: “Inception.” YOU GUYS. I saw this movie years ago, okay? Not when it came out in the theaters, but shortly after it was released on DVD. AND IT WAS JUST ALRIGHT. IT LIT NO FIRES IN MY LIFE. WHY DID YOU ALL NOT TELL ME THAT THERE WAS THIS FANDOM OUT THERE MAKING IT BETTER? I still don’t think the movie is all that great. I mean, it’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve watched it several times now and I remain heartily tired of the plodding Cobb plotline. BUT. When you watch that movie and ignore Cobb and decide that it is The Epic Love Story of Arthur and Eames, the movie becomes brilliant. It’s actually alarming how very well it works that way. Every part of the plot becomes more interesting if you’re reading it through a shipper lens. Eames actually becomes the hero of Inception, being the character who actually achieves inception, instead of Cobb, the character whose subconscious sabotages inception and causes massive chaos while Eames is like, “Whatever, get out of my way and let me work here.” And Arthur, who is supposed to be Cobb’s sidekick, theoretically, falls into position as the person who makes Eames better, pushing him onward (and vice versa). Arthur and Eames take that movie and run away with it, once you’re actually watching for it. Is it any wonder that so many Inception fics have them embarking on a professional dreamsharing partnership once the movie ends? Who wouldn’t want to work with them? If you watched “Inception” and were meh about it, I share your view. You should watch it again and just admire Joseph Gordon-Levitt running around in all those ridiculously gorgeous clothes he wears in this movie. That second-level dream suit. And the way the waistcoat gets bunched up and the shirt starts to be untucked during the fight. My God. Eames would've killed to see that.
Best Tumblr Post: This one. I’d loved this post before I feel into the “Inception” rabbit hole. From inside the rabbit hole, I love it even more.
Favorite Quote of the Year: It’s an old quote but it’s such a good one that I’m ashamed I didn’t notice it my first time through the movie. “You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling,” Eames tells Arthur. It’s pretty much their definitive ship line (given how little they talk to each other in the movie), and it’s an undeniably good one just for general life. I feel like this is the quote I most see emblazoned on Inception-y merchandise (what little exists) and with good reason. You shouldn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darlings. Late runner-up: The Doctor’s “You know what the big problem is, in telling fantasy and reality apart? They're both ridiculous.”
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Best Book I Read This Year: “The Night Circus.” For some reason, I long resisted reading this book. It finally got recced to me by so many people that I gave it a try and OH MY GOD. Such a great book. So atmospheric, so compelling, with characters that will stick with you. I loved every single person who walked onto the page. This book is magic. Go and read it.
Best Thing That Happened This Year: I became a published author. Twice. :-)
Favorite Album This Year: Atlas Genius’s “When It Was Now.” I actually downloaded this album in 2013 and was fond enough of it, but for some reason it really strongly clicked with me in 2014. And no album that came out this year even came close. I genuinely couldn’t pick a favorite song on this album, so I’ve just linked you to the title track. You should listen to all the rest. If you really want to know, “Centered on You” was one of my Arthur/Eames theme songs when I first started writing them, so it’s definitely worth a listen, too. But they are all worth a listen! The only other album I listened to anywhere near as much this year was BB Brunes’ “Long Courrier,” which was part of my rising obsession with French pop music. But that album’s even older! (Well worth a listen, though. Try this one and this one, too.)
Most Listened-to Song This Year: Josh Ritter’s “Change of Time.” I feel like I found this song through the finale of “The Blacklist” (which is a show, btw, I watch entire for James Spader deliciousness) and I was so immediately in love with it that I downloaded it and spent many car rides to and from work playing it on constant repeat and shouting that bridge at the top of my lungs BECAUSE I LOVE THAT BRIDGE. And then the way the next line is about the dreamer opening their eyes to find their lover there in front of them. I don’t know, that song kills me. Late French run at the title: Julien Dore’s version of “Moi Lolita.” The original version of this song is just fine, but there’s something about the background instrumental on Julien Dore’s version that kills me, especially from 2:50 onward as it hits that climax and he’s spitting the lyrics into the microphone. It makes this song feel very haunting and it slips under my skin and I love it.
Song I Did the Most Writing to This Year: Really I think this title could have gone to “Change of Time,” which was my main theme song for the early part of Inceptionlock (especially the part, which you guys still haven’t gotten to, when Arthur and Eames *finally* manage to get around to the kissing), but I listen to “Change of Time” a lot independent of writing, too, so instead I decided to give this to Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s version of “La Valse a Mille Temps.” Like, first of all, yes, JGL is annoying and sings songs. Second of all, he sings really awesome versions of songs. After JGL introduced me to this song, I went in search of it, and no other version I could find even comes close to how awesome he makes this song. I stumbled upon this song over the summer and got SO OBSESSED with it that I spent one day holed up in a hotel room (I happened to be traveling) listening to it on repeat and writing, like, something ridiculous like ten thousand words. It was absurd, but it got Inceptionlock, which had been kind of meandering under the weight of its plot, to the finish line. I’m hoping it performs the same magic with the Inceptionlock sequel I’m slogging through now. (Stick with the song – it starts slow but builds to awesomeness.) Late Run at the title: Airborne Toxic Event’s “Wrong.” I had a brief fling with Airborne Toxic Event years ago, and this is their newest single, and Spotify played it for me (Spotify was a new discovery of mine this year. After years of warring moodily with Pandora, I am very, very pleased with it) and I got totally obsessed and it was Arthur’s theme song in “Lucky,” which meant that, for the week when that fic was being written, I played it A LOT. If I’d written “Lucky” like a normal person instead of a lunatic and taken more than a week with the fic, then “Wrong” would have been played a lot more.
Song I Was Most Happy to Encounter on the Radio This Year: I thought this year was a really good year for radio-common songs. Maybe because I only listen to the radio a few months a year, when I’m home, because I’m too lazy to keep changing my presets all around. But I have to split this title among many, many songs that I was always happy to hear and never got sick of and added to my playlists: MAGIC!’s “Rude” (and I don’t even like reggae, so this song is some kind of witchcraft); Ingrid Michaelson’s “Girls Chase Boys”; and Charli XCX’s “Boom Clap.” Honorable mention to Taylor Swift for having the earwormiest songs in history this year. I am ridiculously fond of “Blank Space” right now.
Pop Culture Phenomenon That Went Completely Over My Head This Year: Sam Smith. I find him…draggy. This probably means I am dead inside.
Favorite / Best Movie I Saw This Year: “The Drop.” I’m not much of a movie-goer. I never have been. But this year was the year of “Inception” for me (more on that later), and so it was also the year of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy for me. I was very, very, very slow to the Tom Hardy thing but for some reason I got it in my head that I had to go see “The Drop” because I heard it was an awesome movie and I did enough research to know it wouldn’t upset me (even though it looks totally not like my type of movie) and it had Tom Hardy and a puppy, and so I forced someone to go see it with me. And I liked it so much better than I ever imagined I would. I’ve tried to think why, and part of it was Tom Hardy bundled in winter clothes and playing around with a puppy a lot, but I really found it very moving and affecting and it’s stuck with me in a way I didn’t expect. I think I just really liked what it had to say about faith. Which is probably a weird thing to say about a movie as violent as that one was, but I thought it was about how faith is really hope, getting up each morning and just hoping. Frequently our movies about hope and faith don’t look like that one, and I thought it was a story really effectively told. Plus: Tom Hardy, lots of layers, playing with a puppy. (And Tom Hardy is *amazing* in this movie. The more I dip into TH and JGL back catalog, the more respect I have for how really tremendously good they are as actors. The more it makes sense to me that they took two barely written characters and spun them out to so much more than was on the page [sometimes literally – that “darling” certainly came out of nowhere]; they are acting their hearts out in every single scene of that movie.)
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Movie That Was Much Better Than I Thought It Was Going to Be: “Battle of the Five Armies.” I have never been a Tolkien fan. I saw the first Lord of the Rings movie and just didn’t care for it and never saw the rest. Then Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch went and got themselves cast in these Hobbit movies and I resigned myself to having to see them. And of course Benedict Cumberbatch isn’t really in this last one and Martin Freeman is, as usual, in, like, twenty minutes of the movie (for a title character, that Hobbit fellow is almost never around), but it didn’t matter because this movie had Lee Pace riding around on a moose and wearing a fabulous coat and rolling his eyes at Gandalf (I also don’t like Gandalf, so I was tickled to death to finally find a character on the canvas who agreed with me) and LEE PACE IS AWESOME THE END.
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Movie That Was As Good As I Thought It Was Going to Be: “The Imitation Game.” I was caught unaware by “The Drop” and surprised by “Battle of the Five Armies” but “The Imitation Game” was just as good as I thought it was going to be. Beautifully acted and wonderfully told, and I grew fond of every single character on the canvas.
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Preview I Hope Never to See Again: “Unbroken.” I don’t see very many movies. I went to see “The Imitation Game,” and saw a very, very, very long extended preview for “Unbroken.” Then I went to see “The Hobbit”—a very different sort of movie that otherwise shared no trailers with TIG—and again saw the trailer for “Unbroken.” And it has been in, like, every single commercial break all month. So I’m really okay with taking a break from all that promotion.
Movie That Is Going to Win Next Year’s “The Things I Do for British Actors” Award: “Mad Max: Fury Road.” There I am, innocently sitting in the movie theater waiting for “The Hobbit” to start. And then Tom Hardy shows up on the screen and he kind of looks ridiculously hot and I’m like, “OH MY GOD NOW I HAVE TO DO SEE THIS STUPID MOVIE BECAUSE OF THISE WHOLE INCONVENIENT TOM HARDY THING I AM SUFFERING SUDDENLY.” My guy friend who was with me was like, “Sweet! Someone to see that movie with!” Sigh. Make it worth it, Tom Hardy.
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Preview That Looks Awesome: “Kingsman.” I am going to watch this movie and basically imagine that Colin Firth is playing Mycroft Holmes, because that makes me happy.
Photograph That Means I Will Also Find Myself Watching This Movie, Too:
No further explanation needed.
Best Moment on Television This Year: The John/Sherlock hug in “The Sign of Three.” Or, wait, was it the stag night? I CAN NEVER DECIDE. All I know is: I never expected either thing to happen, and no matter what happens with this show from this point on, I will always be pleased that we got these two moments.
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Second Best Moment on Television This Year: The Office/Hobbit skit on “Saturday Night Live.” When they announced that Martin Freeman was going to host SNL, I was like, “PLEASE LET THERE BE AN OFFICE SKIT.” AND THEN THERE WAS. AND IT WAS AWESOME.
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Best Episode of Television This Year: “The Sign of Three.” This seems so long ago to me now that I actually had to look up to see if it happened this year. And it did. This episode, you guys. This. Episode. I have my issues with how S3 ended (more on that later), but I cannot deny that TSoT gets more and more and more brilliant the more you watch it. It is an impeccable episode, top to bottom, the best, I think, that “Sherlock” has ever had. It is actually, to me, one of the top five episodes of television I’ve ever seen. I don’t think it has a single sour note, not a single bit I find dull or cringeworthy or pointless. It is laugh-out-loud hilarious in places, and heartbreaking beyond belief in other places. And it is such a perfect *Sherlock* episode. TSoT is an episode all about how Sherlock might be an obnoxious arsehole but he’s such an emotionally vulnerable one that you can’t even deal with him. And neither can John. The awkward disconnect between them by the end of the episode makes you squirm in your seat with frustrated sorrow for them. They go from hand-on-knee intimacy to a very sweet hug to Sherlock walking off alone, bundling himself into his coat of armor. I’m very glad “Sherlock” won its Emmys this year, but I will never understand why it didn’t win them for this magnificent masterpiece of an episode. Maybe HLV was showier? Maybe TSoT’s impact really came from having to be a fan of the show all along? I don’t know. All I know is I feel like you’d be hard-pressed to find a better-crafted episode of anything anywhere, a more moving or affecting emotional arc than the one Sherlock reveals in these 90 minutes, and basically, for me, this is where the “Sherlock” season ended, on this incomparable high. Because, well, more on HLV later.
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Most Fun Episode of Television This Year: “Time Heist.” I didn’t really enjoy this Doctor as much as I expected to, but I thought he had a lot of really quality episodes, with a lot of secondary characters that I adored. This one was my favorite. Because, what the hell, I was busy nursing my Inception obsession and then they gave me an episode all about elegant thieves stealing things. What wasn’t to love? It made me wish “Doctor Who” was more about the Doctor leading a gang of thieves around and less about the Doctor being…whatever he was…all season.
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Second Most Fun Episode of Television This Year: “Last Christmas.” Oh, wait, remember that time Doctor Who got all Inception-y in “Time Heist”? And then remember the time THEY DID A SECOND INCEPTION-Y EPISODE AND MADE IT EVEN MORE INCEPTION-Y? Whenever the Doctor started babbling about dreams-within-dreams, I was like, “No. Seriously. Does Moffat read my fanfiction? WHAT THE HELL?” You know what would have solved “Last Christmas”? Arthur and Eames showing up with a PASIV and totems. Although I loved the book idea and might steal it. And I also loved Santa and his elves. It’s a very near thing—Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy showing up vs. Santa and the elves saving the day. I mean, it’s a huge credit to Santa and the elves that the race is so close! Inception stuff aside, I really loved this episode. It was breezy and fun and hilarious, and terrifying and clever and haunting, and full of more fabulous secondary characters, and I loved it.
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Most Satisfying Shipping Moment of the Year: Mindy and Danny kiss on the plane on “The Mindy Project.” (I couldn’t find a version of this not in a fanvid, so skip to 2:37 if you just want to see The Kiss). This is one of those ships that I didn’t realize how much I shipped until they kissed and I literally said out loud, “Yes!” And then jumped onto the Internet because squee unshared is hollow squee. (I could have given this award to basically everything from most of TSoT, except then, well, you know.)
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Most Satisfying Television Moment of the Year, Period: All of “Sherlock”’s Emmy wins. Sure, Benedict and Martin weren’t even there, and they won for my least favorite episode of the show ever, and now probably they’ll strive to make every episode like “His Last Vow,” and that will be sad for me, but I didn’t expect them to win, and it was such a complete and utter shock that I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it. Four serial suicides and now a note—it was Christmas, and I literally broke open champagne that night.
Worst Episode of Television This Year: “His Last Vow.” Oh, look, I finally get to complain again ABOUT THE THING I’VE BEEN COMPLAINING ABOUT ALL YEAR. Ugh, you guys, I hate this episode. I haaaaaaaaaate this episode. I hated it the first time I watched it. Then I watched it again and hated it more. Now I don’t watch it because it just upsets me too much but I read transcripts and watch selected scenes for fic research and OMG I HATE IT EVEN IN LIMITED DOSES. I hate it more the more I think about it. So I try not to think about it. It’s no coincidence that I’ve written less Sherlockfic after this episode. I have no idea how to deal with any of the things going on in this episode. I am hoping, desperately, that it’s all going to become somehow mysteriously clear with the next episode, and I will understand how Mycroft allowed an assassin to get close enough to his brother to literally kill him (whatever with the surgery remark, the best scene in this episode, hands down, is the scene where Sherlock literally dies and then pulls himself back to life on the power of his love for John Watson, so if they wanted me to think Mary didn’t mean to kill him, they shouldn’t have made such a huge, undeniable deal over the fact that Mary actually did kill him YOU SEE WHAT THIS EPISODE DOES TO ME???), and I will understand how Mycroft then allowed Mary to continue living after that (and living well), and I will understand how John thought it was totally okay to get back together with Mary and also totally okay to just let Sherlock go off, and I will understand if Sherlock really thought that it’s okay and perfectly normal to be shot by your best friend’s wife for literally doing nothing wrong, and I will understand WHAT IN GOD’S NAME ANY OF US ARE SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THE WATSON BABY. Maybe the next episode will make HLV make more sense to me than it currently does. Because right now I’m slogging my way through the events of HLV again in the Inceptionlock fic and mostly all Arthur and Eames do is stand around and go, “…This is insane. You realize that, right? This is all insane.” And Eames is kind of like, “Is it okay to kill the people your significant other cares about? Because I’ve had issues with Cobb all along, you know…” And I’m kind of like, “OMG I HAAAAAAATE HAVING TO WRITE ABOUT THE EVENTS OF THIS EPISODE.” This episode makes me want to bash my head against a wall. That’s how much I hate this episode.
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Most Improved Show: “New Girl.” I really liked “New Girl” its first couple of seasons. And then Jess. I mean, that’s basically the best way I can describe it. I just got sick of Jess. Which is alarming to me, because then people told me I’m a lot like Jess, and I was like, !!!!! And I know Zooey Deschanel is JGL’s BFF or whatever but I just could not handle any more *Jess.* “New Girl” this season, however, has been phenomenal. I feel like they’ve kind of dialed Jess back a bit, which makes me happier, because it’s the ensemble of the show that shines. And I’m glad we’re done with the Nick/Jess romance. The episode where Winston’s police inspector person showed up to judge their loft was hilarious. Possibly the funniest episode of television I saw this year.
Cleverest Show Idea: “HitRECord.” Thank you, Delta, for having this show on your limited entertainment options. I mean, otherwise you’re kind of annoying, but you had “HitRECord,” and I watched it not because, at the time, I really had a JGL thing but because I had an Arthur-from-Inception thing and there was nothing else on and I was like, “Fine, I’ll watch this.” And then, as a result, I developed my JGL thing. The show is ridiculously charming because JGL is ridiculously charming, but it is also *so smart.* In my “real life,” I deal with copyright law issues, and I have been fighting for the importance of collaborative forms of creativity (like fandom!) and getting to see an actor I admire stand up and say, “This is how we should create: by talking to each other and having fun with each other and listening to each other and making things together,” was just…weirdly kind of emotional? I feel a lot like I stand in rooms and talk to people about these things and they wrinkle their noses and purse their lips and want to know why we don’t do “real” creation, by which I guess they mean why don’t we lock ourselves up in a garret in Paris and never talk to anyone else or something? And JGL’s like, “Whatever, here’s my Emmy for working with every random person who wants to log on to my website.” In a year when it felt like every time I turned around Benedict Cumberbatch was saying something that irritated me about fanfiction, it was a relief to have “HitRECord” show up in my life. It’s not a show about fangirls. But it’s a show that takes a step closer to making “fangirls” just artists like everyone else. And we need that.
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Favorite New TV Show: “Selfie.” I *adored* “Selfie” and I do not know why I was apparently the only person watching it. The pilot was kind of stupid but many, many pilots are kind of stupid and many, many sitcoms take a little while to find their feet. I usually give new shows a few episodes before I make up my mind and I fell more in love with “Selfie” with every episode that aired. Everyone on the show was charming and had great chemistry with each other and I thought all the social media stuff was hilarious. I cannot believe this show didn’t make it just a little bit lit longer, and I blame all of YOU, okay?
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Best New Ship: Henry/Eliza on “Selfie.” There’s this moment, in one of the few precious “Selfie” episodes we were given, when Eliza is trying to coach Henry on how to catch himself a lady, and she goads him into grabbing her by the waist, and Henry is like, “No, no, no,” and then suddenly does it, and OH MY GOD IT WAS SO HOT I LOST MY BREATH. (It’s around the :34 second mark of that video, if you also would like to get all hot and bothered.) John Cho and Karen Gillan really shone together and I am so sad we didn’t get many, many episodes of that fabulous chemistry.
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Ship That Took Me Entirely by Surprise: Clara/Twelve on “Doctor Who.” I didn’t go into the Twelfth Doctor expecting to ship him with Clara. I’ve always liked Clara, but I never shipped her with Eleven. I also didn’t go into the Twelfth Doctor expecting not to really care for him. But, unexpectedly, it took me a very, very, very long time to warm to Twelve, and what really saved him for me was how awesome his every scene with Clara was. He and Clara sparked for me, I thought they were ADORABLE together. I am so relieved she’s sticking around because I’m still uncertain enough about Twelve that I need her as a safety net.
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Best TV Show of the Year: “Mad Men.” I have long been worried about the end of “Mad Men.” I am terribly fond of Don Draper, and I thought surely nothing good was going to happen to him. In fact, I debated not watching this latest season of “Mad Men,” because I wasn’t sure I wanted to watch Don self-destruct, because I preferred to remember him as a little bit dazzling, or at least as the hope of that. “Mad Men” totally and utterly surprised me with the thread of optimism through this season. For the first time, I began to wonder if maybe the trajectory of the whole series wasn’t Don’s self-destruction but Don’s self-destruction and then redemption. I AM ON BOARD FOR THIS. I so hope I’m right, because really I want it to be that you can get a happy ending and still be a “serious” show.
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Ending That Was Supposed to Be Happy That I Found Bittersweet: “Cabin Pressure.” There were many things about the “Cabin Pressure” finale to love: Arthur’s ice cream van jingle, Martin getting to pretend to be Douglas, the final archenemies word game, even the final line. And yes, I enjoyed the otter joke, and I liked the “Martin du Crieff” bit. And I liked how everyone got to be involved in the final scheme. But I finished the episode and was just…so sad. I know that Martin got the happy ending he was supposed to get, but I will forever be sad that the MJN crew isn’t together anymore.
Most Surprisingly Satisfying Finale: “White Collar.” I’ve been so-so on these last few episodes of “White Collar.” To be honest, I thought the previous season, with the Rebecca storyline, was a better, stronger season overall, and I was much more interested in all the emotional drama they explored there (was it partly because I thought they did “female inserted into a bromance and threatening one against the other” much better than “Sherlock” did? Yeah. Probably). In comparison to that, I didn’t really care much about this whole Pink Panther / Keller nonsense. That said, I found the finale unexpectedly compelling. And, for some reason, even though it ended with them separated, much as the “Cabin Pressure” finale did, it didn’t bother me as much with “White Collar.” There was Peter, with his wife and his baby, knowing that Neal was alive somewhere, free and flourishing. And there was Neal, in Paris, the world as his oyster again. This show always needed to end with Neal becoming free, and I realized as I was watching that Neal needed to be free of EVERYTHING, even Peter, to have the truly happy ending. I wouldn’t have said that I wanted that, but when I got it, I was suddenly, like, “Awww, that’s perfect!” (And I assume Mozzie knows he’s alive, right? I mean, Mozzie deliberately planted the seeds for Peter to realize it, right?) Again, the show took a faked death and an estrangement between BFFs and just seemed to do it much, much, much better. Ahem.
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Weird New Ship I’m Totally Behind: Bonnie/Damon on “The Vampire Diaries.” Who knew that TVD would stick Bonnie (who bores me to tears) and Damon (who’s my favorite despite everything because he’s basically the only character left on the show with any spark left to him, aside from Enzo) in 1994 together, keep playing 90s songs as an endless soundtrack, make them live the same day over and over…and I would kind of fall in love with them? It’s basically a fanfiction trope, the whole make-them-live-together-and-watch-them-become-adorable, and I really didn’t expect it to work, but somehow I’m rooting for them now.
TV Death This Year I Will Never Get Over: Aiden on “Revenge.” OH MY GOD THIS. I knew he was doomed, I knew it, and I was bracing myself for it, because I just loved him so much and the way he loved Emily and the way he looked in a trench coat but OH MY GOD HIS DEATH WAS A THOUSAND TIMES WORSE THAN I WAS PREPARING MYSELF FOR IT WAS HORRIBLE. I want Emily to take Victoria *down* for that one. Every time I think they’re trying to make Victoria sympathetic, I think, “REMEMBER WHAT SHE DID TO AIDEN? AND THEN TO EMILY AFTERWARD? THAT WAS SO EVIL.”
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Thing Everyone Else Already Knew Was Awesome That I Just Caught Up with This Year: “Inception.” YOU GUYS. I saw this movie years ago, okay? Not when it came out in the theaters, but shortly after it was released on DVD. AND IT WAS JUST ALRIGHT. IT LIT NO FIRES IN MY LIFE. WHY DID YOU ALL NOT TELL ME THAT THERE WAS THIS FANDOM OUT THERE MAKING IT BETTER? I still don’t think the movie is all that great. I mean, it’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve watched it several times now and I remain heartily tired of the plodding Cobb plotline. BUT. When you watch that movie and ignore Cobb and decide that it is The Epic Love Story of Arthur and Eames, the movie becomes brilliant. It’s actually alarming how very well it works that way. Every part of the plot becomes more interesting if you’re reading it through a shipper lens. Eames actually becomes the hero of Inception, being the character who actually achieves inception, instead of Cobb, the character whose subconscious sabotages inception and causes massive chaos while Eames is like, “Whatever, get out of my way and let me work here.” And Arthur, who is supposed to be Cobb’s sidekick, theoretically, falls into position as the person who makes Eames better, pushing him onward (and vice versa). Arthur and Eames take that movie and run away with it, once you’re actually watching for it. Is it any wonder that so many Inception fics have them embarking on a professional dreamsharing partnership once the movie ends? Who wouldn’t want to work with them? If you watched “Inception” and were meh about it, I share your view. You should watch it again and just admire Joseph Gordon-Levitt running around in all those ridiculously gorgeous clothes he wears in this movie. That second-level dream suit. And the way the waistcoat gets bunched up and the shirt starts to be untucked during the fight. My God. Eames would've killed to see that.
Best Tumblr Post: This one. I’d loved this post before I feel into the “Inception” rabbit hole. From inside the rabbit hole, I love it even more.
Favorite Quote of the Year: It’s an old quote but it’s such a good one that I’m ashamed I didn’t notice it my first time through the movie. “You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling,” Eames tells Arthur. It’s pretty much their definitive ship line (given how little they talk to each other in the movie), and it’s an undeniably good one just for general life. I feel like this is the quote I most see emblazoned on Inception-y merchandise (what little exists) and with good reason. You shouldn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darlings. Late runner-up: The Doctor’s “You know what the big problem is, in telling fantasy and reality apart? They're both ridiculous.”
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Best Book I Read This Year: “The Night Circus.” For some reason, I long resisted reading this book. It finally got recced to me by so many people that I gave it a try and OH MY GOD. Such a great book. So atmospheric, so compelling, with characters that will stick with you. I loved every single person who walked onto the page. This book is magic. Go and read it.
Best Thing That Happened This Year: I became a published author. Twice. :-)
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no subject
Date: 2014-12-29 03:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-29 01:52 pm (UTC)Someone there completely dropped the ball, and that was a crime.
(But then again - the same could be said of Sherlock. For a show about characters that rely on the wonders of technology, there were some fantastic tie-ins that they could have used and they didn't really pay much attention to the details within. I.E., John's blog.)
no subject
Date: 2014-12-30 03:30 am (UTC)