snowystingray | Entries tagged with year in review

Now that it's June and all, I figure it is an appropriate time to finally finish up my long-abandoned TV of 2009 round-up post. (It's not so bad, is it? June? January? June? January? Whatever, they start with the same letter.) Time consuming though it may be to write up, and perhaps tedious though it may be to read, I do like to have it for personal reference (laaaaame, but true!). So I am just going to slam through these mofos and finish this TONIGHT, OR ELSE. I've got three hours to meet that goal, and clock starts... now! (This might mean that pictures will have to wait until later, though. Also, spoilers for the most recent episodes of: Robin Hood, Royal Pains, Spooks, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Stargate: Atlantis, Stargate: SG-1, and The Prisoner.)

( TV of 2009, part the third and last. I PROMISE. )

HEY, GUESS WHAT, I FINISHED ON TIME! Hey, guess what else? My life is so sad and TV-centric that writing up a brief chronicle of my viewership turns into an all-consuming chore, ahahaha whhhhyyyyyyy. Okay, I'll probably update this with appropriate picspams in time (which coming from me probably means next January or something).

I am never going to finish this recap, am I? I don't know why I'm so demotivated this time around; in years past, it has always been my favorite bit of my year in review. Possibly I am just getting bogged down... um, yes, you can probably see why I needed to implement that "no new shows" rule. So, anyway, TV I Have Seen! Spoilers for: House, Legend of the Seeker, Leverage, Life on Mars, Lost, Mad Men, Merlin, NCIS, Psych, Pushing Daisies.

( TV of 2009 )

WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, this post is done for now and it's not even 1:30AM yet. I had to cut myself off at Robin Hood or else... yeah. Hmm. Badness would ensue; I'll save that for a later date.

New to me TV of 2009. Keep in mind that this is with a self-imposed moratorium on picking up any new TV shows during the fall season, so... this is significantly less unwieldy (significantly more... wieldy...er?) than it might otherwise have been. Spoilers for: American Idol, Ashes to Ashes, Big Wolf on Campus, Chuck, Crusoe, Dollhouse, Farscape

( TV of 2009 )

Aaaand I decided to cut this off because I'm cold and hungry and lazy and will probably never ever never get through the whole thing if I decide to do it as one behemoth of a post (...I am only about a quarter of the way through my shows -- and then you know I'm going to blab like twice as long over Lost and twenty times as long over Robin Hood). So expect future installments soon, picking up with... House! Which I literally never write about any more! And yet somehow I still watch every episode because it is impossible for me to drop a fandom. (PLUS WHAT WHAT WHAT MONDAY'S EPISODE WHAAAAT.)

Once again, this list is a complete copy/paste job from facebook. How would I ever remember anything that happens in my life if the internet didn't keep track of it for me?

( Films of 2009 )

Now all that is left is my TV of 2009 post... which, if previous years are anything to judge by, will probably take me like a week solid... um, the silver lining to my current unemployment, I guess?

Just got through with the Cranford Christmas special -- boy but that series does not cut back on the high mortality rates, does it? On the whole I don't think this was as well put together as the original but, still, high old lady hilarity all around and yay Tim Curry and yay Jodie Whittaker. Overall, though, I'm rather disappointed with Masterpiece Theatre's spring line up. Bahhhhh to Austen encore (well, I will admit that the Northanger Abbey movie was extremely adorable, but epic do not want to the new Emma mini. BECAUSE THAT'S JUST WHAT THE WORLD NEEDED, RIGHT?); Small Island sounds interesting, so I guess I will bide my time until April.

To continue my 2009 review, ( Books of 2009! )

In doing my Year in Fiction recap last time, I had the most fun -- and blew the most time! -- doing my TV post; and, as 2008 began drawing to a close, I sincerely looked forward to going through the same process again in putting together a TV of 2008 retrospective. Yet once work actually began... I. Wow. Holy balls, guys. I WATCH SO MUCH FRIGGEN TV. When exactly did that happen? Looking over my post from last year I felt a bit ridiculous about how many new fandoms I had picked up, but between now and then my list has just about tripled. Um. Err. Yeah. Oops? I apologize in advance for the rather epic nature of this post, then. Definitely not dial-up friendly. Spoilers for the most recent seasons of: American Idol, Big Wolf on Campus, Chuck, Crusoe, House M.D., Legend of the Seeker, Life on Mars, Lost, M*A*S*H, Mad Men, Merlin, The Middleman, Psych, Pushing Daisies, Stargate: Atlantis, Stargate: SG-1, Star Trek: DS9, Star Trek: TOS.

( Television of 2008 )

For the third and final part of my Fictional 2007 review, I bring you my year in television shows. This post has been an embarrassingly long time in the making (as evidenced by the fact that I did the first two within the same day and yet have been adding onto this one for the better part of the week), because, wow. I don't think I quite realized just how many new TV shows I've picked up on the wayside. I remember a few years ago making an agreement with myself to limit my major TV fandoms to only House and Lost, because I was HUGELY invested in both of those and didn't think I could make room for another obsession of a similar caliber. And then somehow I justified watching a few summer shows, some reality TV, maybe some educational programming... and holy bejeebies where did all these fandoms come from? I also blame the fact that, through some installation mix-up or something, I've been getting full cable (70+ channels) at school for the past semester despite the fact that I only pay for basic (about 15 channels); and being the terrible person that I am, I've decided to milk the mistake for as long as I can (and, ooh, spooky coincidence -- my Comcast bill literally just popped up in my inbox as I typed this. Weirdly enough, this is one bill I don't get annoyed at paying; instead, I get excited about having another month of TV!!! :D Yes, I am in desperate need of a life).

Caution: contains lots of large-ish images, as well as spoilery discussion of the most recent seasons of Lost, House, Robin Hood, Psych, Star Trek: TOS, Star Trek: DS9, American Idol, and Pushing Daisies

( Part Three: Television )

At the beginning of 2007, I had a vague idea of going for 100 new movies in one year, but only made it to 61. Sigh. I think I might make a similar goal for this year; I don't really anticipate making it, but there's no harm in trying. Because I watched a lot more movies than I read books (does that mean I get my license revoked as an English major?), I'm not going to attempt an individual review for each of them; instead, I have a list of everything I watched with a few brief thoughts throughout.

( My Fictional 2007 Part 2: Films )

In typical lazy me fashion, I'm waiting until the first week of the new year is almost over to usher out 2007 properly. The majority of the memes circling about seemed to be more focused on real life events, which. Blah. I'm guessing you probably don't want to read about mine (I don't even want to read about them), so here instead is my Fictional 2007: A Year of Books, Movies, and TV Shows.

( Part One: Books )

...And you know, it would probably make things a lot easier if I just posted about these things as I read them, instead of waiting until the last minute to throw all my thoughts together. At this rate, I think I'm just going to split movies and television into separate posts, because otherwise this could go on for quite some time. So look for parts two and three in the near future!

Since everybody else is doing it... 2006: A Year in Movies! I'm not even going to bother with an lj-cut for this, because I barely went to the movies this year. That's right, I only managed to make it to the movie theatre nine times this year. Nine! I will admit that I went into a period of movie-depression after Phantom of the Opera left theatres, but by the time I felt like going to the movies again I was up at school, stranded thirty minutes away from the closest decent theatre without a car. So I suppose the elements were against me this past year... I am the sort of person who keeps every. single. stub. so thankfully I have all of them here carefully organized to help me recreate my movie going experience, starting back in January.

Jan. 1, Adam's Rib. I did get an early start, didn't I? Okay, I know this isn't exactly a new movie, but I did go see it at the cinema so it still counts. I always try to make it to at least two films during the Tampa Theatre's Classic Film series, and I was absolutely thrilled that they included this one. Hardly anybody went -- their loss! It's a funny thing, but even though Katharine Hepburn is without a doubt my favourite actress, none of her films are in my all-time favourites, with this movie as the single exception. Every time I see it, it just seems to get more clever and more wonderful.
Feb. 26, Beyond The Rocks. Another one at the Tampa Theatre; definitely not new, as it came out in 1922. This was a bit of a birthday present, fitting nicely into my budding obsession with Rudolph Valentino. It really showed me what a difference the score can make in a picture. When I went with my dad, it had a live organ accompaniment that was sweet, romantic, and rather on the comical side. I didn't think it was the best movie ever, but it was a fun time. I caught the movie on TCM a few months later, with the score that was included on the DVD. It's dreary, depressing, and just all around blah, and the movie really suffers for it. It's incredibly disappointing that now everybody will have to watch it that way. Too bad, because I found it pretty entertaining the first time around.
Apr. 1, Ice Age 2. I guess the movie was okay, but it was accompanied by the most awkward/embarrassing date in the history of EVER and I'd just rather not think about it.
Apr. 28, Lucky Number Slevin. Incidentally, I think this was the first Rated-R movie that I ever saw in theatres. What a milestone! I'll go ahead and say upfront that I only watched this for the Josh Hartnett, but I went with two guys and I can't really answer for their motives. On the off chance that somebody still wants to see it, I'll stay spoiler free and just say that I liked it.
May 26, X-Men 3. To be honest, I really do not remember this movie at all. I think that says a lot more than anything else I could have written about it.
Jul. 6, Pirates of the Caribbean. This was the first time I got truly excited about a movie in ages. It was also the first time I finally made it to a midnight showing. Okay, so nothing can ever match up to the brilliance of the first movie, but it was still a whole lot of fun, and three cheers for lots and lots of Norrington.
Jul. 12, Pirates of the Caribbean. A second viewing, to watch the movie with all of the non-crazies who didn't want to go at midnight.
Jul. 16, Casablanca. Boy, I sure do love the Tampa Theatre, don't I? Gone with the Wind is usually my ubiquitous classic of choice, so this was actually my first time seeing Casablanca on the big screen. I think the best part of it was seeing it as part of an audience, surrounded by people who all clearly loved it. Laughing, gasping, sighing, crying together... It's a lot different from when I usually try to force somebody into watching it with me, and the greatest show of emotion they give is a yawn.
Dec. 14, Casino Royale. A delicious popcorn movie (even if I am too cheap to actually pay for the popcorn), and although the romance got a little heavy handed, I did like it. The only other major flaw was the worst theme song ever. Seriously. I confess that up until this summer, I had never seen an entire James Bond movie. I watched Octopussy on TV, because, come on. Who wouldn't want to watch a movie with that title? And also Louis Jourdan is in it. Anyway, I'm afraid that's the only Bond I have to compare it to, and I actually liked that movie in a campy sort of way.

You know, writing about Casablanca got me thinking... I am 100% sure that I went to see Gone with the Wind this year, because I go with my dad every summer. And yet I cannot seem to find the ticket stub. How frustrating! Oh well, I think I do still have the program, so I guess that brings my total up to an even ten. Argh, but wait! I have plans to go see The Muppet Movie at (you guessed it) the Tampa Theatre on New Year's Eve, so I guess that will bring it up to eleven. Too bad, I do so love round numbers! But I also love Kermit, so I guess it's a fair trade.