Year in Fandom Meme

[rachelmanija]

Polite request: If you hated anything I loved, here is not the place to share. Enjoyed with caveats is fine. Shared delight is welcome, and/or chime in with your own favorites!

Your main fandom of the year?

I'm not sure I've really been involved in fandom per se this year. Yuletide? Black Sails? Stephen King?

Your favorite film watched this year?

Baahubali 2 and The Last Jedi. The former is available on Netflix, along with Part 1, and I recommend the hell out it.

Your favorite book read this year?

This was not a great year for me getting a lot of reading done. But I did read some new-to-me books that I loved. I'm probably forgetting some, but favorites that come to mind are The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King, The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Greg Sestero and Tom Bisson, and Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me by Bill Hayes - the latter highly recommended to get in hardcover, as it's a beautiful physical object. I am also listening to Bruce Springsteen's autobiography, Born to Run, on CD read by himself, and enjoying the hell out of it. I only wish I could have listened to or read it when I was much younger, because his desperation to make his skills match his ambition and fear that they never would really resonated with me.

Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?

The Low Highway by Steve Earle, and some Bruce Springsteen live albums, Hammersmith Odeon, London '75 (2CD) and Live in Dublin: Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band.

Your favorite TV show of the year?

This was a great year for new or new-to-me TV. I adored Better Call Saul, Black Sails, The Good Place, Legion, and The Punisher. (I have not yet finished Better Call Saul, Black Sails, Orphan Black, so please no spoilers for the final or latest season.)

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?

The Punisher. I am not recommending this to anyone who thinks they'll hate it, because they probably will hate it. I am not recommending this to anyone who thinks it will anger and offend them, because it probably will. I will just say that given that the comics character is one of my least favorite ever, I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I loved the show and its version of Frank Castle. Sometimes things just get to you on an emotional and personal level, and this show really got to me.

Please do not comment to say that you can't see it because it will anger and offend you. Let's just take that as read.

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

The Runaways TV series. The casting looked so great. The acting is very good. And the writing and directing is so, so inexplicably boring. I am baffled by how a creative team that got the casting so right could so utterly and completely miss what made the comics so fun, which was 1) the fact that they are fucking RUNAWAYS, 2) the premise that it's about kids who discover that their parents are supervillains, 3) it's about the CHILDREN OF SUPERVILLAINS, not their parents, 4) the speed at which events happen and plot twists pile atop each other. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to not have the kids run away, have half the show be about their parents, put in some mysterious conspiracy rather than supervillains, and pace the show at the speed of molasses in February?

I realize that very similar things are probably said by fans of Punisher comics, only "WTF is up with the ratio of talking to shooting people?" "Why is there so much talking about feelings, what the hell?" and "WHERE IS THE SKULL SUIT?" but I am not a fan of the comics so I'm OK with that.

Your fandom boyfriend of the year?

It feels very inappropriate to call Captain Flint my boyfriend, so Frank Castle. Honestly I think we would get along very well, though long-term relationship prospects look dim.

Your fandom girlfriend of the year?

REY. I love the women of Black Sails, but I also love my continued existence. I do realize this should also rule out Frank Castle, but sometimes you just have to live dangerously.

Your biggest squee moment of the year?

About one-fourth of the entirety of The Last Jedi and Baahubali 2, almost all of which is hugely spoilery. Pretty much every appearance by older!Devasena in the latter, but the moment she appears in the spyglass is probably my single biggest of the year.

The most missed of your old fandoms?

Saiyuki.

The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?

Stranger Things and Dark Matter .

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?

Black Panther looks AMAZING. So does A Wrinkle in Time.

Comments

[chomiji]

Saiyuki

T-T

[loligo]

That reminds me that I need to finish watching Baahubali 2! The kids were totally into it until the tragic love story got set up. Chuckles said, "Nope, we read Romeo and Juliet in English this year. I see where this is going. I'm out!" And that was that. I was still loving it, but it's just not as fun to watch a glorious epic by yourself. Maybe I can carve out some time from the enforced family togetherness during Xmas break...

[rachelmanija]

You should! Some of the very best moments are towards the end.

[kore]

Aww, Saiyuki. What was it way back when, the week of Saiyuki squee? That was great.

I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I loved the show and its version of Frank Castle

I did not expect to like the character AT ALL in Daredevil S2, but holy crap Jon Bernthal knocked it out of the park. He is scary expressive.

I thought you saw Hamilton this year! Or was it last year?

Dark Matter is AWESOME. I have basically spent like two years at this point (I think) waiting for Black Panther.

[rachelmanija]

I saw Hamilton this year, but I got obsessed with it last year. Or possibly the year before.

Jon Bernthal is fucking amazing as Frank Castle. He's even better on his own show.

Dark Matter is next on my to-watch list, I think. Man do I have a lot of TV to catch up on.

[kore]

I haven't even seen Orphan Black or Black Sails or S1 of Sleepy Hollow yet /o\

[rachelmanija]

Do you want possible warnings on the first two? They have a lot of usually warned-for content.

[kore]

rydra_wong wrote up tons of stuff about Black Sails, is there anything in particular that might get me about Orphan Black? (Total squicks: eye injury, graphic rape, extreme violence, animal harm. I can deal with drug/alcohol abuse fine)

[rachelmanija]

Orphan Black: somewhat graphic rape, a TON of forced medical experimentation, some gynecological, somewhat graphic violence, and eye injury. I forget if there's animal harm or not.

[kore]

....oh, dear. Well people have praised Tatiana Maslany so highly I could maybe do my Hands Over Eyes Til T Says It's Over routine. I have to leave the room if there's animal harm, tho. //utter wimp

[rachelmanija]

I think it's pretty watchable that way. You could always bail if any animals show up. I don't recall there being any at all, other than... oh wait... there is a hallucinatory talking scorpion in a couple episodes of one of the later seasons.

[zeborah]

There is also a lab rat (or mouse?) in season 5, including at least one scene where it's harmed though I don't recall how graphically it's shown. I think it's brief enough to be easily skippable.

I feel like there may be other animals (and *possibly* harm to them, I don't recall this clearly) also in season 5. But mostly it's the humans who get harmed...

[lilacsigil]

I cannot wait for Black Panther, I'm so excited.

[rachelmanija]

Me too! Those are some of the best trailers I've seen in my life. Hope the movie lives up to them.

[sartorias]

Bahubali 1 and 2, huge faves of mine, too!

[mllelaurel]

It's funny, you had the same exact reaction to The Punisher as my girlfriend. :) She was originally just going to watch it for completionist reasons/so I didn't have to, like she did with Iron Fist, but wound up surprisingly emotionally invested. I haven't seen it yet, but with her input and yours, it's looking quite likely.

Shame about Runaways. I had high hopes for that one.

[rachelmanija]

"Surprisingly emotionally invested" definitely sums it up. It sort of sneaks up on you.

I think some people are liking Runaways more than me. I'd say it's at least worth checking out the first couple episodes.

[osprey_archer]

I read The Disaster Artist in part because of your recommendation and I LOVED it, so thank you for that. Such a fascinating trainwreck! Still haven't seen the movie version; I hear they filed some of the rough edges of Tommy Wiseau, which is a filmmaking decision I can understand, I guess... but that weird controlling mean streak that sometimes flares up is part of what makes him interesting!

I also saw the first season of The Good Place this year and loved that, although I still haven't seen the second. Watched it for Kristen Bell, stayed because everyone else is just as amazing as Kristen Bell.

[rachelmanija]

Oh, great! Glad you enjoyed them.

I just saw the movie and while it's very funny, it smooths over a lot of the edges and makes it a less complex story. They got the mean streak but they cut the insane controlling/stalking aspects.

[osprey_archer]

Do they take out the part where Tommy installs a chin-up bar in Greg's room? I was super looking forward to the visual of Tommy Wiseau brainstorming as he does chin-ups, while Greg attempts to ignore him and sleep.

[rachelmanija]

They cut it! It would have been so hilarious, too.

[osprey_archer]

NOoooooooooooooooooo

Well, forewarned is forearmed, I suppose.

[melebeth]

Another SW friend of mine (who is involved with a Marine) and I want to teach a course on PTSD that is based on The Punisher. It was SO GOOD.

[rachelmanija]

Wasn't it great? Perfect last scene and last line.

It would be really good for teaching purposes. It definitely inspired some intense conversations in my own therapy.

[melebeth]

It really felt like a treatise on the many faces of PTSD. It was so real and so smart. Brutal but honest.

[nenya_kanadka]

not have the kids run away, have half the show be about their parents, put in some mysterious conspiracy rather than supervillains

Omg why would you ever? !

[thomasyan]

I haven't seen The Last Jedi yet. I hope I love it!

I liked Baahubali 1, but found the story a bit disjointed, and like you and others, found the wooing sequence too creeptastic. Baahubali 2 was a lot more enjoyable: I knew the characters and their motivations, the story was shown more linearly, and either I was more used to the style of the special effects or they were done better, so the battle scenes didn't drag on too long. I felt the women also had more to do, and less agency was stolen from them.

The Good Place was great! I missed the first season when it first aired, so I had to patiently wait for it to become free on streaming services. It was worth the wait, and the second season was terrific, too.

Legion was so much fun. I also enjoyed The Punisher a lot; it might have also helped me that I was unfamiliar with the source material.

(I have the last season or more of of Orphan Black, Twin Peaks, and The Leftovers waiting for me. Maybe others, too....)

[dhampyresa]

Who the hell thought it was a good idea to not have the kids run away, have half the show be about their parents, put in some mysterious conspiracy rather than supervillains, and pace the show at the speed of molasses in February?

I KNOW RIGHT

The show changed so much of what I loved about the comics. Why are they in school together? WHY ARE THEY STILL IN SCHOOL AND NOT RUNAWAY YET? Why does Nico need a reason to be Goth >:[

[tessercat]

I just finally finished season 2 of Dark Matter, after getting distracted in the middle of it with 4 seasons of Lost Girl because of the shows sharing certain amazeballs members of their casts.

Also playing Toronto-spotting in TV shows is fun for a change (I often saw signs up around downtown for crew and cast of Lost Girl on site).

Also REY. YES. And everything.

Happy New Year!