earlgreytea68 | Year-End Round-Up 2018

Comfort Television of the Year: I watch so much television and I realized this year that I’m watching a lot of it automatically, without really paying attention, just to have something to do. Except for my comfort television. That’s what I look up for. We really needed comfort television in 2018 and we’ll probably need it in 2019, too, so here are my top recs: Martha and Snoop’s Pot Luck Dinner Party. This is what I watched the day after the 2016 election and it has never let me down since then. What all these recs have in common is that the people on them seem to genuinely like each other and IT’S SO GREAT, MORE SHOWS WHERE PEOPLE LIKE EACH OTHER, LET’S DO IT. Nate and Jeremiah by Design. Let’s be honest, everyone, this is the closest you can get to watching “Coming Home” (Arthur and Eames’s show in “Dream Bigger”). Nate and Jeremiah are a happy couple who seem to genuinely love each other and they make me so happy. Get a Room with Carson & Thom is the platonic version of Nate and Jeremiah by Design. It’s a little much sometimes, but still, again, THEY SEEM TO LIKE EACH OTHER, AND THAT’S SO GREAT.

Really the Only Other Television Show Worth Mentioning This Year: DYNASTY. Why am I apparently the only person watching Dynasty???? I never see anyone else mentioning it! And I love it so much! It’s ridiculously outrageous but it knows it and it’s having so much fun with it! I love how it moves quickly, so that you’re not being tormented by ~~secrets hanging over everyone’s head for six years. It just gets them out in the open and moves on to the next plot. Also, it features a happy gay couple who is by far the best part of the show, I love them so much. EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH THIS RIDICULOUS SHOW WITH ME. Runner-up: Charmed. This is actually a great little show! I never watched the original, but I was looking around for things to watch and decided to give this a try. (I am also watching “Legacies” and all I can say about that show is: HOW IS MATT BASICALLY THE ONLY CHARACTER TO REALLY SURVIVE MYSTIC FALLS TO HUMAN ADULTHOOD? HOW?????) It’s been an unexpected delight! I love all the characters, and I want the people in charge of the wardrobe on this show to come and dress me, please. I especially appreciate the trope of the Wise British Mentor being trotted out again. Is a wise mentor even a wise mentor if they’re not British, I ask you?????

Party I Showed Up at Ten Years Late: Fall Out Boy. I have a friend who was in bandom years ago and tried to get me into it and Idk, it didn’t click. And then, in September, a writer I subscribe to happened to write a bandom fic featuring Gabe Saporta. I kind of liked Gabe, so I went on a Gabe fic splurge, ran out of fics where he was a featured character and started in on fics where he was a secondary character. And fell so hard for Pete Wentz on the very first fic I read that I had to spend an entire weekend digging deeply into Who the Hell Is Fall Out Boy. FALL OUT BOY IS SUPER ANNOYING, IS WHO THEY ARE. Like, I am a person who a few months ago could name maybe one Fall Out Boy song, and now I think I can sing along to their entire discography. And the more I read about the Fall Out Boy story, the more I began to realize that IT’S THE TROPIEST STORY YOU CAN FIND. It’s so tropey that I realized my own band story can unwittingly be read as an FOB spin-off, like, that’s how tropey their story is. But aside from Pete and Patrick’s determination to hit every single trope with delightful glee (and I’m convinced, in the case of Pete, an LJ veteran, self-aware glee), what I most like about the whole Fall Out Boy story is how it’s really about seizing one’s chance and making it your own. Pete Wentz on a fateful day met a sixteen-year-old kid. Pete had no remarkable musical talent but he had the personality of a lead singer; Patrick had a tremendous musical talent and zero desire to be the lead singer. And Pete saw his chance and took hold of it fiercely and capitalized on every single one of his strengths, while stepping aside to let Patrick shine to cover his weaknesses, and vice versa. And there’s so much luck, in finding someone whose skills are so complementary to your own, but there’s also such determination in holding onto that person and actually exceeding what your potential should have been, becoming greater as a unit than either of you would ever have achieved apart. Ugh, Idk, THEIR STORY IS SO GREAT, it even has the rocky break-up and then the triumphant emotional reunion. AND I SHOWED UP TO THIS PARTY JUST IN TIME FOR A GRAMMY NOMINATION. It would be impossible for me to really make you any FOB song recs because I would be like ALL OF THEM, so what I will do is just leave you with this one. This is a band that finishes every concert with a song that is explicitly about the relationship between Pete and Patrick. “Me and Pete,” Patrick sings at the end of every concert, and I CAN’T EVEN WITH THEM. (Okay, wait, I lied, I also give you this one, my true absolute favoritest Fall Out Boy song, their last single before their hiatus that ENDS WITH A MEDLEY OF THEIR HITS SUNG BY ALL THEIR FRIENDS AND PETE GOING DOWN ALONE WITH THE SHIP, WHATEVER, FALL OUT BOY.)

Song I Listened to the Most This Year: Witchcraft by Graveyard Club. The thing about the bandom thing is that it happened at the perfect moment for me. I was about a year into writing my own band story, and immersing myself in band fic helped to add layers to my story that I’d been neglecting (not least the entire burgeoning subplot about Matt’s voice but also my realization that Matt’s a cunning strategist and also learning the fact that BANDS CAN GO SO FAR AND NO ONE EVEN BLINKS PETE USED TO LITERALLY KISS AND CUDDLE PATRICK ONSTAGE AND EVERYONE WAS JUST LIKE “OH, THOSE SILLY KIDS,” so, like, Matt writhing around on Patrick’s piano? Thank bandom for that. ANYWAY.). So I spent most of my year writing my band story and I discovered this song fairly late in the year and just embarked on listening to it non-stop. The singer of this band is who I would cast if I could voice-cast Matt, I can’t believe how much he sounds like the Matt in my head, I’m addicted to him. Runner-up: Bring It (Snakes on a Plane) by Cobra Starship. This song is such a great way to start your day, okay?

Song I Did the Most Writing to This Year: A Slow, Slow Death by Los Campesinos! This is the song around which the rest of my band story writing list is built, and it’s the one I listen to when I need to find my way back into the story. I have a Pavlovian response to it: Whenever I hear it, I miss Matt and Patrick *so* much. Runner-up: Ouija by Graveyard Club. This was actually my original Matt’s-voice discovery song, and it tends to be the theme of their happier scenes for me.

Song I Was Happiest to Encounter on the Radio: God, I was so bored by the radio, like, all year this year. Idk, nothing stood out to me. The best I can do for this is that Girls Like You by Maroon 5.

Album of the Year: Snow Patrol’s Wildness. It was so long between Snow Patrol albums that I forgot how magic they are. This one is a huge delight that reminded me of why I’d always loved Snow Patrol. BEST WRITING MUSIC IS ALWAYS SNOW PATROL. Runner-up: BTS’s Love Yourself. I tried all year to get into K-pop, because it seems so awesome, but I admit I struggled, and I’m still not entirely sure if this is an album or…something else? Idk. But anyway, I loved it and I listened to it on repeat while I was finishing up the novel I had to write this summer. THANKS, BTS.

Album of the Year, Fall Out Boy Edition: Mania (however it’s styled, thanks, FOB, for still being you). Shhhh, I was SO GOOD at keeping them out of the other music categories that I had to give them a special shout-out here. But they had an album come out this year and I couldn’t just ignore it because it’s SUCH A GOOD ALBUM. I have no idea what my favorite Fall Out Boy album is but I do know I went through a phase where I couldn’t stop listening to “Young & Menace.” And the fact that this album means that I can jump straight from Pete lyrics in “Saturday” that go “I read about the afterlife but I never really lived” to Pete lyrics in “Young & Menace” that go “I lived so much life I think that God is gonna have to kill me twice” is just…the most beautiful arc ever. Thanks, Pete. I’M GLAD YOU’RE SO HAPPY YOU WRITE LOVE SONGS NOW (they’re totally love songs, “Last of the Real Ones” is SUCH A GREAT LOVE SONG).

Best Concert I Went to This Year: Snow Patrol. I drove five and a half hours to watch them open for Ed Sheeran (who, once upon a time, I watched open for Snow Patrol). And they were fantastic, and played “Run,” and it was so great. It would have been greater if the bored girls behind me hadn’t literally been watching YouTube videos while I was trying to listen to the opening band, but, you know, whatever. SNOW PATROL WAS STILL WORTH THE DRIVE.

The Weird Coincidences of My Life This Year: I actually watched that Ashlee + Evan show this year, because I used to love Ashlee Simpson. I think Autobiography is a great album, okay? I still listen to it. Anyway, I watched almost the whole season before suddenly being like, “WAIT A SECOND, THAT KID IS PETE WENTZ’S KID.” It’s been a weird few months.

Best Book I Read This Year: All Our Stars Aligned (Put Love on Hold) by two_ravens and xaritomene. I tried so hard with books this year, I really did. I kept starting them and then putting them down in disgust when they frustrated me. So, the best I can tell you is that the best book I read this year is this Regency fic, so, if you like Regency romance, that’s what I recommend.

Happiest Movie I Saw in the Theater: Love, Simon. I saw an unusual number of movies this year, maybe to make up for not watching as much television. This was the one that made me happiest. I had a super-miserable day the day I went to go see this and I loved it so much. Happy movies with happy endings had such a lovely resurgence this year. I am here for the return of the rom-com. Speaking of.

Best Rom-Com I Saw This Year: Venom. Who knew???? I’m actually not a comic book movie fan, and I wasn’t going to go see this one, except everyone kept saying it was not like a comic book movie and Tom Hardy was hot in it. So I went to go see Tom Hardy be hot. Imagine my surprise to see him gracing this beautiful rom-com. And he said he’d never do another rom-com after “This Means War”! Silly Tom Hardy!

Best Superhero Movie I Saw This Year: Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. As I said above, I’m not a superhero movie person. I just don’t enjoy them as much as it seems like everyone else does. Whenever I see one the best I can say about it is that it was fine. But I saw this preview in front of “Venom” and for some reason it appealed to me, so I went to see it, and I honestly loved it. It was hilarious and charming and sweet and I just loved it. Miles Morales was wonderful, the meta was great, and it had so much heart. I recommend it highly.

Movie with the Best Clothes This Year: A Simple Favor. There is nothing in the universe better than Blake Lively’s suits in A Simple Favor. The end.

Movie Most Crying Out for a Fall Out Boy Remake: Dumplin’. Okay, but, here me out. Like. How much do I want someone very somberly delivering the line, “You know that Pete Wentz wisdom: She said, Why don’t you just drop dead.” (Dumplin' was delightful, you should watch it.)

Best Podcast I Listened to This Year: Mine. :-)