I was going to sit down and make a “best of” list for the year, but it struck me as so cliché that I couldn’t go through with it. However, being the sentimental type, I wanted to at least write something about what pop culture has brought me this year. What I decided on was to create a list of the best things I have experienced this year, not necessarily what was released this year. This is not THE year in review; it is MY year in review.
Favorite movie: Scream (1996)
Early in the year buzz started to generate over the not film in the Scream franchise, Scream 4. I have never been a fan of horror movies, but I decided to give the first film a try for no other reason than I was bored and unemployed. I absolutely loved the film and was sucked in from the first couple minutes. Scream has been lauded for being “self-aware” and “meta”, but what I really enjoyed was the simple nature of mystery blended with a great amount of suspense. This was not the torture porn that horror films had become by the time I was a teenager, but a suspenseful film that built slowly and didn’t settle for shock value.
Favorite TV Show: The West Wing (1999-2006)
In 2010, I fell in love with Aaron Sorkin’s writing. The Social Network came out and I followed Sorkin from that to his most recent television show Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip. In 2011, I continued from Studio 60 to probably Sorkin’s most well-known work, The West Wing. The West Wing is a workplace drama about the individuals who serve on the staff of the President of the United States. The show centers around the presidency of Josiah Bartlett and his closest political advisors. This show is a lot of things, but above all else it is smart. Not only is it a crash course in the American political system, but it is 156 episodes of the witty dialogue that I have only ever seen pulled off by Aaron Sorkin and Joss Whedon. Fast paced and funny, I spent the entire year watching and rewatching this show as it fostered a political ideology I didn’t even know I had. If you have any interest in politics then this show is a no-brainer and if you don’t, then give it a try- it might surprise you.
Favorite Video Game: Batman Arkham City (2011)
Now we move into the current items. I keep decently up to date when it comes to video games so I don’t have a golden oldie to dust off for you. I played a lot of good games this year. Portal got a sequel and I started and finished 2011 by playing an Assassin’s Creed title, but one game stands out as the last word of the year. I spent the entire week between Christmas and New Year’s playing Arkham City until I had not only completed the main story but obtained every achievement, found every secret, and unlocked every stupid piece of concept art. The game let me perfectly live out the fantasy of every 10 year old boy and be The Batman in all his glory, from the stealthy ninja, to the martial arts master, to the great detective. Then when all that was done and I had logged many hours playing the game, I was very sad that there was no more to do. Sure there are extra challenge maps and I could play the game again on a higher difficulty, but that stuff is just icing. The cake was gone and I was left still wanting more and that, I think, is the best compliment I can give the game. I get bored of games rather easily, but somehow Arkham City (and its predecessor Arkham Island) managed to make patrolling the streets as Batman fun well after the game’s finale.
Favorite Book (Fiction): Ready Player One (2011)
Ready Player One takes place in the not too distant future where the real world has become secondary to the virtual reality, in which most people spend the majority of their lives. This virtual landscape, built by Jame Halliday, an eccentric video game designer who grew up in the 80’s, becomes the backdrop of an epic quest when the designer dies, leaving his estate to whomever can follow his clues to the hidden easter egg he placed in the virtual world. When finding the egg becomes necessary in order to stop the virtual world from being ruined, a small group of everyman nerds must put their knowledge of obscure 80’s trivia to the test and battle through almost every established nerd subgenre ever invented. This book is a wild ride and is custom-made for geeks of any kind. I especially recommend the audiobook read by geek-god Wil Wheaton.
Favorite Book (Non-Fiction): Public Parts (2011)
In this treatise on all things public, Professor of Journalism Jeff Jarvis explores what it means to live a public life. Proponents of privacy are a dime a dozen but Jarvis is the first person who has ever articulated the other side of the argument. Jarvis uses examples and observations from his own life to paint a picture of a better future that can be built if issues of privacy are balanced with the benefits of living in an open and public society. I do not read non-fiction nearly often enough but I am a fan of Jeff Jarvis because of his position as a regular host of a podcast called This Week In Google. Jeff uses himself as a living, breathing example of how living life out in the open can be pretty great and with people sharing more and more of their lives on the internet, it is genuinely nice for someone to outline how this sharing can lead to a better world.
That’s it; my year in review. Some items I should have found years ago and some were unexpected gems that brightened my 2011. What was your favorite entertainment moment of 2011? What TV show, movie, book, or video game made the year just a little bit more fun? Let me know in the comments and have here’s to an even better 2012.
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