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Best TV series/mini series - Chernobyl hands down. Chilling, enraging, moving and terrifying with outstanding acting and visuals all round.

Worst movie (does Netflix count?) Six Underground. W.T.F?
Even Ryan Renolds looked bad. Incomprehensible with such a mixed tone I just gave up.

epronovost wrote:

 cuda1179 wrote:
Worst movie by far this year: Charlie's Angels. It makes the previous reboot look Oscar worthy by comparison.

Was Charlie' Angels ever good? From my point of view it was always a sort of bad action-comedy cop show that only survived on its sex-appeal for a mature male audience.

No, it wasn't ever good. I'd almost respect it more if it was more of a parody movie, kind of like the reboot of CHIPs. Now, that movie was hilarious in a B-movie sort of way.

Yeah, the tongue-in-cheek reboots seem to do a little better - 21 Jump Street comes to mind as well.

 Gordy2000 wrote:
Best TV series/mini series - Chernobyl hands down. Chilling, enraging, moving and terrifying with outstanding acting and visuals all round.

Oh man, I forgot all about this. Very strong contender for the number one slot.

Chernobyl ... forgot that. Yes, that was terrifyingly awesome.

Thejn you remember the underlying events were real. I remember watching them on TV.

 cuda1179 wrote:

 Ouze wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
Worst Comic Series: the Punisher 2099 relaunch seems pretty terrible so far.

Having just finished Doomsday Clock, I'd like to retract that above statement.

I feel that part of the letdown of Doomsday clock was that they had 3-4 months between issues, they over-hyped the heck out of it, and the ending was less than "OMFG!!!". If this was a monthly release as a general crossover it would have been all right.

I was generally alright with how it ended. I was also rather amused by him listing off future DC reboots and a Marvel crossover. The horribly delays in its writing was unforgivable though. The first couple issues Were monthly, but they keep getting further and further apart.

And now that I think of it, Rise of Skywalker. Still haven’t seen it but it deserves some recognition for so massively turning me off that I have no interest in seeing a Star Wars movie. That’s gotta be some kind of screw up.

Really struggling to remember movies from this year I actually enjoyed enough to rate.
We watched Crawl, really enjoyed that.
Did the Brolly movie come out this year or last year. I really enjoyed that as a mix of very cool animation and an 80's movie plot, you didn't really have to have all the back ground out side of the move itself. Oh, nearly forgot to put 3 from hell on my list. I really enjoyed that and followed the production stuff on social media, the movie does kinda drift all over the road but I really enjoyed seeing just how nuts Baby really is and it's really on display in this movie. If Rob Zombie makes another cool I'd love to see it if not then fine as well.
Mostly i have enjoyed old movies this year most everything new has been a let down. The new Star Wars, Joker definitely let downs.
Shows, Legion was my favorite this year and I like how it ended and hope that at some point there will be more.
I couldn't get through the first episode of Stranger Things season 3.
Best Album. That's a difficult one. I wouldn't put Tools new one very high on my list I had much higher expectations.
I found a lot of new music this year. Rammstein, Sabaton for sure at the top. Sturgill Simpson as well. Runner up would be the Psychostick's Zombie Claus song/video which is brilliant.

Worst? Maybe some indy stuff I got from Band Camp.
It's hit or miss.

I don't really consume a lot of media out side of reading through the news headlines and articles or trailers for shows and movies.
I just saw a clip from the Witcher and may give that a try.

I managed to complete one of my comic collections this year after lord knows how many years. I had been missing the last 6 or so issues of the Maxx and was thrilled to find them and reread everything from start to finish. I then discovered a Batman and the Maxx cross over which I am currently into and waiting for the last two books to be released. Not sure this cross over needed to happen but I like those characters and Sam Kieth's art. Sadly the coloring is all digital and I don't like that or glossy paper it's printed on. Still, better than kindle.

I really enjoyed Endgame. I have generally enjoyed all the MCU films with maybe one or two exceptions, and I thought that was a pretty good capstone to the entire run.

Aside from that, I haven't really kept up to date with things. I don't watch series, as I don't have the time.

Video game wise, I have been playing and enjoying No Mans Sky quite a bit actually, which I did not expect to be the case. But that came out a while ago, so I guess I will go with Void Bastards.

The show I enjoyed most this year was s2 of End of the [Expletive Deleted] World.

The worst - as in 'biggest disappointment' - show I saw this year was HBO's Chernobyl. Just dross from start to finish.

I don't watch a lot of new stuff, so... I saw s8 of GoT, 'cause of an ex, and I did think it was terrible but I've always thought GoT was terrible so it scarcely registered. The Last Czar was crap, despite the happy ending. s3 of Stranger Things was pretty crap. The problem is that I don't know when most of what I watched was released.

When did The Bletchley Circle come out? That was good. Dream/Killer was good. Wild, Wild Country was good. The Devil Next Door was good. The Confession Killer was good. s2 of Mindhunter was much better than s1, which was already decent.

 LordofHats wrote:
And now that I think of it, Rise of Skywalker. Still haven’t seen it but it deserves some recognition for so massively turning me off that I have no interest in seeing a Star Wars movie. That’s gotta be some kind of screw up.

I felt the same way about the Harry Potter movies until a friend commanded me to watch one. Nah, he worked on the series and said I should see one before passing judgement...

...then again, would one dare take that chance on Cats?

Two pages in and "Holmes and Watson" doesn't make ANYONE'S worst of the year list?

The Good stuff.

Top Film: Avengers: Endgame - Brilliantly crafted, full of great scenes and emotional pay offs all wrapped up in corherent whole. Its amazing that Disney can turn out such quality and yet still vomit up the Last Jedi.
Captain Marvel was excellent, Jumanji 2 was great fun as was Hobbs and shaw

Top TV show -The Expanse.
High Castle was just as good for much of its run but final season dropped a bit and last few minutes were.........just wierd. The penultimate epsidoe however was just awesome. Should have ended there.
I Zombie also was a gem of a series from start to end.
Killing Eve S2 was still very good. (although they can l)

I didn't watch any bad films at the cinema - not bothering with latest Star Wars for instance undoubtadly helped - Jumanji 2 was on instead - great fun!

 Just Tony wrote:
Two pages in and "Holmes and Watson" doesn't make ANYONE'S worst of the year list?

That was forgettable when they announced it.

Worse than bad media is boring media. Its really a worse sin than offending fans.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
The show I enjoyed most this year was s2 of End of the [Expletive Deleted] World.

The worst - as in 'biggest disappointment' - show I saw this year was HBO's Chernobyl. Just dross from start to finish.

 Just Tony wrote:
Two pages in and "Holmes and Watson" doesn't make ANYONE'S worst of the year list?

It's got to be bad enough to rate intense dislike while - and this is a difficult line to walk - not appearing so terrible that from the trailer you don't immediately decide to skip it. I think they ran into problems with the latter. I can't remember even a single person I know saying they viewed it.

Man I forgot abot a bunch of this stuff.. Goes to show how unforgettable most of the garbage passed off as entertainment was this year!

Best TV Show - Knightfall season 2 - Don't judge me.

Best Mini series: Chernobyl - I cant remember last time I watched something so intently and couldint wait to watch more episodes. (witcher was really good too but dragon...)

Worse TV show: GOT Final season. I'll just leave it at that.

Worse mini series: That marvel thing cloak and dagger was it? God that was aweful and painful and didn't watch more than 10 minutes but it was enough

Best animated TV show: Vinland Saga. Japan once again shows us that it understands the animation market better than anyone! Id say it was even better than AOT season...

Worse animated Tv show: Just google an anime site and click on 99 things that are not vinland saga lol.

Best Movie: Hellboy - Don't judge me. I like my hellscapes to be showing it how it is..

Worse movie: Captain marvel

 Argive wrote:
Worse mini series: That marvel thing cloak and dagger was it? God that was aweful and painful and didn't watch more than 10 minutes but it was enough

Mini series? It’s had two full seasons.

First season was basically teen angst, much like Runaways. Not good, but not bad enough to register on my radar beyond "not really my thing". Well, beyond the references and flashbacks to the MCU Evil Corporation (TM).

Best movies seen this year: Joker. Us. Dr. Sleep.

Wasted time: Uncut Gems. Motherless Brooklyn. Rise of Skywalker.

Walked out of: Terminator. Knives Out. Jumanji 2.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Excommunicatus wrote:
The show I enjoyed most this year was s2 of End of the [Expletive Deleted] World.

The worst - as in 'biggest disappointment' - show I saw this year was HBO's Chernobyl. Just dross from start to finish.

Spoiler:

No, that's correct. Chernobyl was supposed to be a historical drama that got basically all the facts and the science completely wrong, from what people did (the investigation and trials were basically 100% fiction) to how radiation works.

They had an opportunity to make a compelling and accurate account of what happened and said 'feth it, not exciting enough, let's make stuff up'.

I hadn't watched it, but that is very disappointing.

 Da Boss wrote:
I hadn't watched it, but that is very disappointing.

Yeah I don't have HBO but I was following articles on the show when it came out. Forbes has a pretty good breakdown https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2019/06/27/how-hbo-got-it-wrong-on-chernobyl/#7b02a63b9ce8, and the most telling excerpt follows:

So who did die?

According to the IAEA, the United Nations Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Development Program, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Environment Program, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, the World Health Organization, and the World Bank, and the governments of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, the actual fatalities were:

- 2 immediate, non-radiation deaths

- 29 early fatalities from radiation (ARS) within 4 months from radiation, burns and smoke inhalation,

- 19 late adult fatalities presumably from radiation over the next 20 years, although this number is within the normal incidence of cancer mortality in this group, which is about 1% per year, and

- 9 late child fatalities resulting in thyroid cancer, presumably from radiation.

These are serious results from a horrible accident, but they don’t rise to the level of hundreds of disasters from chemical explosions, dam failures, coal-mining disasters, or even the thousands of Americans who die every year from food-poisoning.

Keep in mind this is the WORST nuclear disaster in history and we cannot attribute even 100 deaths to it. It was never going to explode like a bomb or cause dramatically increased cancer rates in the Ukraine and/or Europe.

I haven't watched Chernobyl yet, but in fairness, the writer did at least do a companion podcast where he talks about a how and why they changed and made stuff up for the sake of a cohesive narrative TV-streaming miniseries, where the sources disagreed, etc, he sounded relatively open about it.

I'm not sure how that changes anything, honestly.

Several other production companies have managed to make compelling and accurate shows about Chernobyl, what does it say about this guy and his crew that he and they feel they have to resort to outright fiction to make it viewable? Who doesn't he trust? Himself, or his audience?

There is a BBC show called 'Surviving Disaster - Chernobyl' which stars Adrian 'Vivian' Edmondson as Valeriy Legasov, which is less than an hour long, which imparts all the same factual information, which does not feel the need to invent characters with superpowers and which is vastly superior to HBO's stab in the dark.

Best Flim: The only new movie I saw at the cinema was Endgame, so wins by default (although really its Roadhouse as part of the 80's thing at my local, so so dumb but all kinds of fun)

Worst Film: ChiPs, or it might awesomely meta as I suspect like at lot of 70's telly the show was fup awful and the movie reflects that

Best Telly: Dark Materials, veered into Who territory from time to time but solid otherwise, honorable mention to Worzel

Worst Telly, Thrones is too easy a target and S7 pointed to the downhill path, so going to pick on Preacher, all kinds of dreadful (Lucifer got off with a warning by doubling the cuddlesome hobbit factor)

 Excommunicatus wrote:
There is a BBC show called 'Surviving Disaster - Chernobyl' which stars Adrian 'Vivian' Edmondson as Valeriy Legasov, which is less than an hour long, which imparts all the same factual information, which does not feel the need to invent characters with superpowers and which is vastly superior to HBO's stab in the dark.

Thanks for reminding me the title of that mini-series. I remember watching this episode and thoght it was a really good mix of drama and documentary (dracumentary?). I would like to show it to my students in history of the 20th century. It covers well the most famous industrial accident of the century even though this seat should belong to something like the Bhopal disaster which killed between 3000 to 16 000 people.

Nyet problem, tovarishch

epronovost wrote:
like the Bhopal disaster which killed between 3000 to 16 000 people.

Now that is the drama we need, but given the specific villains in that story, I'm not sure it would happen.

From what I remember?

Good Omens was pretty damned superb. Not a completely perfect retelling, but given they were adapting Gaiman and Pratchett, an absolute bang up job. And it was mostly the footnotes that were dropped, so one can understand.

Terminator Dark Fate. Has its detractors, but I’m not one of them. It’s a superb follow up, with some cool ideas which for me worked. Perhaps not up there with the first two, but still comfortably the third best Terminator film.

End Game. Absolutely mind blowing. So many cast members, all given their moment to shine, and shine they do. That final battle is still one of my go-to mood lifters. Just a very satisfying pay off.

Spider-Man, Far From Home. A good palette cleanser following End Game. Spidey shines, and nice to see them keep the ‘standard high school movie’ vibe from Homecoming. And a memorable villain, who could quite easily do a Loki and pop up again, in a number of possible ways.

Walking Dead, first half of season 10. Very much a return to form. Highly effective villain seems to have refreshed the cast, giving them something to bounce off. Further time jump also helps, as it gave them new narrative opportunities to explore here and there, rather than the sadly overused ‘it’s safe until it’s not, RUNAWAY’ plot of the first few seasons.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
I'm not sure how that changes anything, honestly.

Several other production companies have managed to make compelling and accurate shows about Chernobyl, what does it say about this guy and his crew that he and they feel they have to resort to outright fiction to make it viewable? Who doesn't he trust? Himself, or his audience?

There is a BBC show called 'Surviving Disaster - Chernobyl' which stars Adrian 'Vivian' Edmondson as Valeriy Legasov, which is less than an hour long, which imparts all the same factual information, which does not feel the need to invent characters with superpowers and which is vastly superior to HBO's stab in the dark.

On the flip side, this is partially based on USSR records right? Trustworthy source there...
Also isn't the entire region still quarantined off?