2013 In Review

2013 had a lot of new (to me) things in the realm of television/Netflix.  Plus, I changed jobs, so that led me a lack of discounted used books from Hastings and on to getting to explore my two favorite Half Price Books on a regular basis. 

I joined the ever growing trove of Whovians, so in a matter of three months I met Nine and Rose, met Ten, lost Rose and then met Eleven and Amy.  I also met Sherlock and John Watson and am now even more in love with Martin Freeman.  I have yet to begin The Walking Dead, but am excited to start Breaking Bad at some point soon.  Battlestar Gallactica is also a new favorite.

Most Memorable Current Series Episodes:
1. New Girl - Table 34: Jess and Nick kiss, and she does my favorite/most relatable Jess speech.  It was the moment I had been waiting for since I watched the first season on Netflix and then struggled to catch up for the third season.  They are by far, my favorite television couple.  Also, the whole moonwalking away thing--hilarious.











2. Sleepy Hollow - The Golem: Man, if you aren't watching this, you need to get caught the fuck up.  It's got a slow build, but it packs a punch.  This was the last episode of 2013.  Frankly, the week they skipped due to the World Series, I was screaming at Fox because I absolutely could not wait to see the next episode.  It really does start off slow, the pilot starts with a lot of actual action, but the plot unfolds perfectly through The Golem.  I have to say, that when I found out Ichabod had a kid, I was quite surprised, and I had a brief moment of, Awww. 

3. Doctor Who - The Rings of Akhaten: It was hard to pick this one, as I'm just not sold on Clara yet and I was honestly still reeling from losing Amy and Rory.  In fact, this episode and Angels Take Manhattan were shown back to back (I think, I might have dozed off) on Christmas day, which made it even more difficult to like Clara.  Mind you, I do like her.  I'm just not sold on her.  Yet.  Anyway, I did love the part where Eleven offers up the sum of all his experience as a Time Lord, it just wrenches the heart.


Movies!
Man, I am behind on movies.  I have to be taken, and that doesn't happen often.  Anyway, my list:

1. Iron Man 3 - Love, love, loved it!  Though, I did (willingly) sit between two comic book nerds who argued the nuances of the movie versus the comic book.  Thankfully, they didn't do it during the movie, else they'd of been broken in half.  I've never read the comic books, but I loved the movie itself.  They just keep piling depth onto Tony Stark and RDJ just does it brilliantly!

2. Superman  - Several people I spoke to afterwards had issue with this particular Superman, but I liked it.  I guess I don't have that issue with continuity or sticking to a story I already know, as I grew up knowing about Superman, watching Lois & Clark, and the animated cartoons.  So, I am not bothered when things change.

3. Star Trek: Into Darkness - This was bloody good.  I mean, seriously fantastic.  Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan was amazing.  And of course, there was Simon Pegg who makes a perfect Scotty.  I know a lot of Trekkies got their knickers in a knot over the whole continuity issue.  But, for me, I consider it cannon.  It isn't that difficult to believe that Spock changed things.  And I totally get the fact that Abrams made it into a huge, action packed THING, but it was still amazing.  I loved it.  I'm one of those people that don't get overly bothered by things that are and aren't cannon.  I just have a hard time dealing with movies versus books.

I know I missed a lot of great movies, but I just don't make it to the movies that often.

Books!

My number of books for 2013 was quite low.  Again, Netflix.  I've no intention of giving it up, but I do intend to devote more time to reading.  I mean, it's not like I'll catch up on Supernatural in time for it coming back on shortly.  And BSG isn't going anywhere...

Best book of the year... Had to be Ready Player One.  I've never gone too deeply into science fiction, but this one really just hits you with the immense amount of nerdiness AND a pretty heavy dose of sci-fi.  Granted, I still roll my eyes as the unnecessary amount of stress placed on the Art3mis-Wade/Parzival relationship.  I guess it was pretty spot on, love and teenagers often don't make for the best recipe, even in the real world.  I should just shut up and be glad that Wade recovered enough from their temporary break up to save the world.  But, I still can't get over his Lloyd Dobler behavior.

My best discovery of the year, that would be the Dark Tower graphic novels.  I love getting more back story on Roland and what happened to his original ka-tet.  I' nowhere near finished, as I'm trying to get them all in hard cover without paying full price at B&N.