Movies
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 1
The seventh movie in the Harry Potter series is out this year and it's the first part of the final tale in the series. Movies six left us with quite and ending; Snape had killed Dumbledore and Harry found out that he must now take out the last six Horcruxes before he can actually vanquish the evil Lord Voldemort. This movie starts almost immediately with Harry going into hiding as his old home is no longer a safe haven from the Death Eaters and he spends almost the entirety of the movie on the run. Outside of one or two moments, this means this is definitely the darkest movie of the bunch yet; the trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione get into some truly tense situations, such as when they're forced to sneak into the ministry of magic to retrieve a Horcrux, or when a group of Death Eaters walk right past them in a forest coming practically face to face with the trio who are protected only by an invisibility charm. So to say the film is tense is a bit of an understatement. And things only get worse as the movie goes on, ultimately ending with the group barely escaping capture and Voldemort coming into possession of the ultimate weapon.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
It was already on my list of favorite comics, but the movie adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim series came out this past summer and it was awesome. This is a film that had one truly harrowing task to accomplish; adapt and condense a six volume graphic novel series into one two hour movie. Well it does that job well and then some, because this is one of the best comic book adaptations that's ever been put to film. Watching this movie almost feels exactly like I'm reading the comic book, with sound effects and art coming directly from the book and a few scenes being put together almost panel for panel from the book. Still, to tell all six books worth of material in the time they had, this movie had to have a few key differences from the books and it did have those. Thankfully, all of these changes work as well as you'd hope they would and the movie is an all around joy. If you're a fan of the book or not, you'll probably enjoy this one.
Catfish
Catfish was a cool little documentary I saw this year, which some of you might remember me posting about during the summer time; for those of you who don't know, this was the "other" facebook movie from this year and it was quite and awesome little experience. Now, part of why I loved this movie was that I saw it under the pretense that I had no idea what this was before I saw it; a friend asked me if I wanted to see it and I had nothing better to do so I went. What followed was a two hour documentary about a guy meeting a girl on facebook and the adventure that comes from that. It's funny, it's exciting, and at times it can even have you one the edge of your seat, but most of all it was just so much different than anything I could have expected it to be. So if you haven't seen this movie yet, toss it on the Netflix queue, because it's pretty awesome.Television
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Always Sunny season 6 aired this series and this is a show that I continue to love with each an every episode. So what was great about this season? There was also a two parter that spoofed such topics as the sanctity of marriage, an episode about public pools, and Sweet Dee even got pregnant! The show also continued to show it's love for the city it takes place in by highlighting local celebrities big and small; Ryan Howard and Chase Utley of the Philadelphia Phillies and Preston and Steve, the core duo of this city's finest morning show all made appearances as themselves in two different episodes. This season also featured the television premier of the Christmas special. Sadly this season is already over, but that's okay; I got season 5 on DVD for Christmas this year!
The League
Another fantastic FX series I watched this year was "The League" which follows the hilarious misadventures of a group of friends as they take part in on of man's favorite yearly pass times, fantasy football. And while fantasy football may be the prominent thing that brings these men together, you don't have to care about football to love this series. This series is crude, obnoxious, and politically incorrect, and it's the perfect thing to follow Sunny in that Thursday night line-up.
Community
On the network side of things, NBC's Community has quickly become one of my favorite things to watch on Thursdays. Each and every episode is an awesome spoof of something and the cast and characters are a blast to watch. notable episodes from this past year are the season one finale, which spoofed romance movies, the paint ball episode which spoofed post apocalyptic movies, the claymation Christmas special episode, and the Halloween episode which spoofed zombie movies. This is currently the best show on NBC and it's just one of the many elements that is making Thursday night my favorite night for television.
No Ordinary Family
One of the best new shows on TV right now is ABC's No Ordinary Family. The show follows a family of four as the find themselves gaining their own superpowers after surviving a plane crash. What's great about it is that it's essentially "The Incredibles" meets "Heroes" in all the best ways possible. You've got the dad with super strength, the mom with super speed, the daughter who can read minds, and the son who is a super genius, but each finds that their new gifts can be a bit more of a curse than a gift. Each week the family faces a new problem, with the kids usually dealing with some social problem, the dad facing some kind of criminal, or the mom finding something new about their powers out. There's also an ongoing plot with the Mom's boss as the bad guy trying to throw her off of the truth behind their powers with the help of his own Psychic hit man that keeps getting bigger and better. We're at the half way point of the season, so if you haven't started yet, try to catch the reruns currently playing because this show is awesome.
Lost
While No Ordinary Family is getting off to a fantastic beginning, Lost came to a pretty controversial ending this past spring; the ending was a bit hard for some to take as there was a lot of things that never ended up being explained. For me, however, I loved this season for bringing an for this group of characters in a way that I loved. There were the flash sideways that turned out to be something that I really wasn't expecting, there were some truly great character moments, and when it all ended I actually shed a tear for that final moment of the series. This was one hell of a ride and I'm glad that it ended in a way that satisfied me.
The Hub
Okay, so the Hub isn't a TV show; it's a cable network. Still, it just launched this past Fall and it's already well on it's way to being one of my favorite networks ever. From the great older shows it's picked up (Doogie Howser, The Wonder Years, Classic Transformers, Classic GI Joe, Batman Beyond, the old Adam West Batman) to the newer stuff if airs (Transformers Prime and GI Joe: Renegades), this channel is fantastic. And it's still young, so hopefully that means it'll only get better, because if the programming it started with is this good, imagine what it might do down the line.
The Walking Dead
And finally, I love The Walking Dead; this TV adaptation of Robert Kirkman's beloved comic is violent, thrilling, and one of the best new shows airing on TV right now. The show follows the plot of the comics as we follow Rick and the other survivors as they try to find their way out of the zombie apocalypse. Of course the first season is already over after six episodes, so if you haven't started up yet, you've got all the time in the world to catch up before the next season.
Oh and before I go, here's two things to add to my list of animation because I'm an idiot and forgot to list them:
Ugly Americans
Ugly Americans is the latest animated show to air on Comedy Central and it is by far one of the best original shows the network has ever picked up. We follow the adventures of Mark Lilly and the rest of the workers at the New York Department of Integration, which works to get all sorts of monsters and demons integrated into modern society. Mark is one of the few recurring humans in the cast with the rest of the cast consisting of great characters such as Randal the zombie, Mark's Roommate, Leonard, the Wizard, who shares and office with Mark, and Callie, Mark's girlfriend, who's a demoness from hell. To tell you how good this show is, there have been a few episodes that I've felt were actually better than the episode of South Park that premiered right before it.
Archer
Archer is yet another fantastic show from FX, though unlike the other great shows, this one is animated. From the studio that gave the world Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo. Archer is about Sterling Archer and the other employees at ISIS, a spy agency run by Malory, Archer's mother. It's also really funny and one of the best animated aimed at adults on television today. It's witty, it's raunchy, and if you haven't watched it yet you're missing out. The first season is available now for streaming on netflix and it's only 10 episodes long, so it's not like you've got much of an excuse otherwise.
And that's part 3 of the 2010 Round-Up. Come back next time when I get around to talking about the video games I played this year.
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