Best of 2022
Music
Heart Worth Breaking, The Midnight
This is my favourite song of the year. I’ve been a fan of The Midnight since I discovered them in 2019 and this song is pure 90s nostalgia.
Other highlights from my 2022 playlist:
LA Late At Night, Timecop1983 & Waves_On_Waves
The Widow Maker, Carpenter Brut featuring GUNSHIP
Midnight FM, Prizm
Machine Guns and Peacock Feathers (Carpenter Brut remix), Ulver
Ghost, GUNSHIP featuring Power Glove
Only When It’s Dark, Miami Nights 1984 & GUNSHIP
Dystopia Now/Dystopia Now radio edit, Mental Minority
Books
When the Sparrow Falls, Neil Sharpson
Atomic Anna, Rachel Barenbaum
The Half Life of Valery K, Natasha Pulley
The School For Good Mothers, Jessamine Chan
The Glass Hotel, Emily St. John Mandel
Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel
Fairy Tale, Stephen King
How High We Go In The Dark, Sequoia Nagamatsu
TV/Streaming
Andor season 1
Rogue One is my favourite Star Wars movie and Andor is my favourite show. It shows the evilness of the Empire without the Sith or Jedi the simple “magical bad guys vs magical good guys”. I like seeing how ordinary people get caught in the machine that is the Empire and how they react; by standing up, joining in, or trying to stay out of it. Stellen Skarsgård’s monologue as Luthen Rael was chilling:
The Mandalorian season 2
Formula 1: Drive to Survive season 4
House of Cards seasons 1-5
Narcos seasons 1-3
Narcos Mexico seasons 1-3
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
Stranger Things seasons 1-4
The Boys season 3
The Peripheral season 1
The Expanse season 6
Movies
All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
This was different from the 1930 version (which I watched in Social Studies 11). The original movie is different, showing how propoganda spurred a generation into joining up even as their parents protested or tried to forbid it. Its ending is also different. It examines the futility of war in a different (but no less heartbreaking) way. The 2022 version did a better job showing how the Treaty of Versailles made Germany susceptible to a leader like Hitler and how it led to WWII.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Movie
Dune (2021)
Disappointments
TV/Streaming
MotoGP Unlimited
Everything about this was bungled: the launch (missing key countries) initially only available in dubbed English, the focus…it could have been what DtS was for Formula 1. It’s especially disappointing as the MotoGP movies were so good.
Watch instead:
Faster: the Rossi and Biaggi rivalry in the 2-stroke 500cc era.
Faster and Faster: Gibernau becomes Rossi’s biggest rival, Rossi leaves Honda for what’s considered the worst factory team on the grid.
Fastest: Rossi in search of his 10th title, with one of the greatest combacks – at the time! He breaks his leg and has the same surgery I did (with a much faster recovery time!)
Hitting the Apex: covers the 2013-2014 season including Valentino Rossi at his height, the new young gun Marc Marquez, and the death of rising star Marco Simoncelli.
The Book of Boba Fett
Some of it was good (Boba and the Sand People, The Mandalorian season 2.5) and some was awful (the scooter gang; really…what the fuck was that?!)
Watch instead: Andor
House of Cards season 6
This is because Kevin Spacey is a preditor and had to be written out of the show. I understand and applaud the Producers’ actions, but it’s a disappointing end to a great show.
Movies
Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor: Ragnarok breathed new life into the character. This was an unenjoyable mess.
Watch instead: What We Do In The Shadows
Books
The Cabin at the End of the World, Paul Tremblay
Started off okay, but the end was…well the book ended. The ending wasn’t satifying or well-executed enough for what it was trying to do. M. Night Shyamalan is directing a movie based on the book which could be good or just as meh.
Read instead: Moon of the Crusted Snow, Waubgeshig Rice
Between Two Fires, Christopher Buehlman
It felt like everyone had this on their to be read pile so when it became available at the library I snapped it up. Medieval horror sounds interesting! Many people commented about how scary the book was but I found it boring.
Read instead: Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell, Nathan Ballingrud
Anticipating in 2023
TV/Streaming
The Bad Batch season 2
Ahsoka season 1
The Mandalorian season 3
Star Wars Visions season 2
The Three Body Problem
Formula 1: Drive to Survive season 5
The Peripheral season 2
The Boys season 4
Into the Spiderverse 2
Music
GUNSHIP
It’s been a long time since their last album Dark All Day but the band has reported that there’s an album and more (a second album or EP) coming this year.
The Midnight
Heroes just came out in Autumn 2022, but the band hinted at new material coming in 2023.
Books
Moon of the Turning Leaves, Waubgeshig Rice
The Ferryman, Justin Cronin
Episode Thirteen, Craig DiLouie
The Deluge, Stephen Markley
Camp Zero, Michelle Min Sterling