Best and Worst of Entertainment 2016 Edition: 5th Year Anniversary Special

[Clappy]

It's that time ag...wait what?  It's only halfway through November?  Is this thread being made too soon?  Do I really want 2016 to be over that badly?

Most of you guys should know by now that I absolutely love the year end time.  Where we rank the best of media from movies to music to television.  It's the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas got nothing on year end lists...okay that's an over-exaggeration.  But this year, this annual thread is special to me.

It was back in 2012 where I came up with this silly idea to share my favorites and least favorites with everyone on SBC and constantly reminded people to join in and make it a group effort with only Wumbo joining in (love you mang <3).  But it wasn't until 2014 where the group effort really started to grow as more and more members joined in on the fun and I could stop inserting that silly reminder on the first post and the views constantly went on the rise as we all became far more vocal and open to sharing our thoughts on yearly entertainment and it made me very proud of the togetherness of this annual thread.  I know it may sound silly to you guys, but this yearly thread is just special to me and I seriously appreciate how much it has grown in five years.

So to celebrate five years of ranking year end movies, music, and television, I'm going to do something special to start off the festivities before the usual drill in December.  I'm going to go back in time and do entertainment retrospectives on my past lists.  Just for fun.  It's going to be more of a commentary retrospective on if I still agree or disagree with my choices and on each category as a whole.  Do the movies of 2012 still hold up?  Is the music of 2013 really as bad as I said it was?  Why has television gotten that much better in recent years?  You know along those lines.  So sit back and enjoy if you want.  Or come back in December as I start ranking my 2016 year end lists.

Whatever you chose to do is up to you, but feel free to join in on the fun as always or sit back and relax and enjoy the ride.  

[WhoBibbles]

THAT TIME OF THE YEAR <333333333333333333333

wooooooooooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

 

I'm gonna try to be less biased for my lists, I PROMISE  

[Clappy]

So without further ado, let me start with my retro rewind of Best and Worst of Entertainment with the one that started it all:

...a similar topic to this in 2011?  I honestly don't even remember such a thread and I have a pretty good memory of threads on here.  Especially entertainment related ones.  Anyway, where do I start?

I guess with the fact that I barely elaborated on anything.  I'm so much prouder of all the other ones due to having far more effort put into them.  That's the main complain that I have with all these lists from this year.  Individually on the other hand:

Music:

Jesus Christ, Clappy.  Your lists were so video heavy back then.  I'm glad that I decided to borrow from Wumbo's Billboard retrospectives and use the spoiler tags recently because that shit crashed my iPhone to the point that I had to type this out on my laptop lol.  As for these lists, they were before I switched it up to just using the Billboard year end list.  I actually revised this list with that format in my Clappy vs Billboard Hot 100 thread and I'll be honest.  I'll never get those worst lists for this year right.  This one because of the old format and beating down a poor Disney channel pop artist that really didn't deserve all that fury lol and the revised one for basically bashing Rihanna the entire time.  Don't get me wrong, all the songs on both lists are still pretty bad in their own right down to the number one.  Birthday Cake is still the worst song of 2012 no matter which way I look at it.  It's straight up repulsive and annoying.  As for the best list?  I'm definitely proud of my revised list more so but damn those are all good songs on my old one, even the Katy Perry one that didn't make my revised best list.  Although my number one hasn't held up well five years later.  Blame it on being a transitional phase band from my metal/christian rock phase.  Nothing against the genre.

 

Movies:

No real complaints about my worst list, although wow look at all those domestic box office bombs.  I forgot so many movies on this worst list even existed.  I'm so glad Sam Worthington is no longer a real leading man (until Avatar 2 shows up because James Cameron).  That blandness comment is right on the money lmao. But that number one worst movie is also right on the money.  Fuck The Devil Inside supremely hard for not only barely even being a movie but for definitely the worst movie ending of the 2010s.  I wonder how that website is doing five years later?

But that best list though...CHRIST ON A CRACKER.  The Amazing Spider-Man?  Pitch Perfect?  Ted?  What the fuck are these choices doing here?  Yes the box office hits of this year are VERY good, but these three have not aged well.  At all.  Two of the three are perfectly okay, but Pitch Perfect I can't stand anymore.  Honestly, replace all three of those choices immediately with Silver Linings Playbook, Lincoln, and Safe House.  ASAP.  Most cringeworthy list from the 2012 edition.

 

TV:

I'll be honest here.  I'm not proud of how I wrote the television lists from this year and 2013.  It wasn't until 2014 where I really found my comfort zone critiquing this format of entertainment.  It clearly shows for me, maybe not you guys, but definitely obvious that I have no idea how to structure my thoughts.  My worst list is fine.  I can't stand any of those shows on that list, especially Superjail which I still don't see the appeal for (sorry fam, I know I'm stepping on eggshells with that).  That best list though...yikes again.  More so for including Total Drama Revenge of the Island, which was one of the worst seasons of the Total Drama series.  That was definitely my inner fanboy getting the best of me.  And I know what you are thinking about some of the best list choices so let me clarify:

-The Voice was actually very good at this point in time.  It wasn't until the following years where the show became the unbearable judge focused mess that it is now.

-Same goes for The Big Bang Theory.  Yes the backlash was starting at around this point with the constant syndication, but it was still pretty good back then.  Although that comment about back and forth between this and How I Met Your Mother was super false.  How I Met Your Mother >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The Big Bang Theory....except for the final season.

-New Girl is a surprising number one in hindsight but it was DAMN GOOD it's first season.  It wasn't until 2013 where New Girl took a sharp nosedive in quality before working it's way back up again in 2014.

-One more nitpick that will appear on TV lists in the next few retrospectives.  The Walking Dead and South Park were unfairly ranked super high due to fanboying.

 

 

So yeah, that was the first Best and Worst of Entertainment.  Was it my best work?  Hell no.  I was super proud of it back then though and I'm still very proud of how it set the foundation for what are the years to come.  Oh and one more thing.  I actually finished on time for a change with this one before the year ended.  Don't expect that ever again for these threads.  

[Wumbo]

(now if I could only finish my 1975 list before I get started on this one)

[WhoBibbles]

If u want any of my thoughts on your picks for your previous lists, I'd be happy to answer them

TV

- FOP was still good to me in 2012 tbh. Flawed but still fun. Meet the Old Parents could have been a great series finale really. Too bad we had to have season 9 and I just stopped watching the show after watching Chole's introduction episode. Unlike Family Guy, there's no reason for me to talk about this show nor i have time to torture myself. Although if i torture myself, I get miserable. CAN I HAVE MY GODPARENTS NOW PLEASE?

- I can see why Superjail is still not your cup of tea. It's not a show for you if you hate unnecessary gore. Although I enjoyed it so much due to how zany and fast paced it was. So i didn't mind violence FOR THE MOST PART. Warren is still one of my fav characters to this day lol.

- Gravity Falls should have bern a bit higher

- imo Regular Show was at it's peak in 2012. Season 3 is still my favorite season to this day.

- I've grown like season 16 more tbh. It's still not amazing but Faith Hilling, Jewpacabra, Butterbals, Cartman Finds Love, Raising the Bar, Insecurity, Facetime and Obama Wins are such great episodes for this season.

Movies

- Chronicle is amazing, no doubt on that. Same as Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Wreck It Ralph, 21 Jump Street. Ted wasn't a great comedy to me but it had it's moments and tbh I cared about the message and sweetness much more than it's humor. So i consider it as good but not great. I still have to revisit Amazing Spider Man cuz I'm not sure if i liked it or not back when i saw it in theaters with my brother and cousin. Rest? Never seen. Oops.

 

Can't wait for 2013-15 commentaries.

[Clappy]

Honestly, I've got nothing else better to do right now.  So let's take a look at the year end lists that I'll be honest, are the ones that I have the biggest gripes with.  

2013 was a rough year for me and I was not happy with how these lists turned out.  So have fun while I sit back and nitpick probably my weakest set so far!

Music:

Oh Clappy.  Sweet naive Clappy.  At least you finally realized what spoiler tags are.  Otherwise, what the hell was your 2013 worst list?  Your best list was perfect.  Wouldn't change a thing.  But that worst list though...

-If I got one thing right about my number one choice, it was what I told terminoob afterwards explaining my reasoning behind it.  It didn't take long to completely forget The Fox by Ylvis existed.  Like a bad joke, it was easily out of my subconscious.  But good fucking lord was I just so sick of this terrible joke in record time.  

-I've stated multiple times that I wish I could re-rank my worst song of the year to the song that truly deserved that title, "Come and Get It" that boring sloth of a song.  

-While we're at it, just get rid of The Fox entirely and place it in honorable mentions.  Love Me by Lil Wayne should be on there instead at nine.  How the hell did I forget that song entirely when writing up that list?  What a disgusting piece of shit of a song. 

Seriously though, the 2013 worst songs from that year were pretty terrible in hindsight.  So bad that it made me overlook how damn good the rest of the 2013 hits where when it came down to it.  The hit songs from this year were so good, honestly some of the best from this decade.  I think I was way too hard on 2013 as a whole when it comes to music.  I think my pessimism at the time really showed when it came to judging not just music, but 2013 as a whole this year.  With how bad of a personal year it was for me, it really shown on me when it came to judging everything around me. 

 

Movies:

-No problems with my worst list persay...although the number one choice I got entirely wrong...three years later.  I don't regret placing 47 Ronin as my number one worst movie at the time.  I don't regret walking out of it at all.  It was inexcusably bad at the time and I couldn't finish what I started.  I just couldn't...until years later when it was on basic cable.  I decided to finish what I started and...it was still bad, but not as bad as I thought it was years ago.  Would I still place it on my worst list if I could redo it?  You bet.  But it doesn't deserve to be number one, no.  Not by a long shot.  A Haunted House should hold those honors.

-Tacking on those dishonorable mentions so late was not fair and I'm sorry it took so long to get to it.

-Speaking of dishonorable mentions....move Star Trek Into Darkness from honorable mentions to dishonorable.  That last third of the movie still pisses me off to this day, fuck it to hell.

-Also as much as I love the MCU, Thor: The Dark World doesn't deserve to be near any best lists..or worst lists for that matter.

-Otherwise, the only problem I have with my best list is....no not Frozen.  I still love Frozen to this day and it's honestly the second best movie from 2013 to me still.  What's the real number one?  Gravity.  Love Gravity so much and while American Hustle is still pretty good...it's not great let's be honest here.  It's still in my Top 10 from this year though, but I think I overrated it a tad there (although termi's "I'm Clappy's Favorite Movie" line still cracks me up to this day).

-Fun friendship note, but this was the year I realized OMJ goes to the movies at least once a week for Cruiseday.  And this was also the year that I started persisting @Old Man Jenkins should start doing best/worst lists for these threads...and I'm still waiting today old mang.  

TV: 

-Wow was I harsh on 2013 Phineas and Ferb.  Was it formulaic?  Yes.  Did I think almost all of Season 4 was disappointing?  Pretty much.  But good lord, it's not one of the worst shows from 2013.  Remove that entirely and replace it with the best show of 2012.  New Girl was awful for almost all of 2013.  That's what happens when you mess with a good thing too much and New Girl certainly turned into stereotypical romantic comedy territory fast in 2013.  Thank god it rebounded because it was so hard to watch.

-No other problems with the rest of that worst list, although Family Guy should be higher and The Simpsons lower on there.  Total Drama All Stars should be higher than both though.  Worst season of the show no doubt.  Can't fucking stand a single minute of it outside of Heather and Alejandro finally getting together.

-The best list is nothing too major, although I would rank Regular Show lower on the best list and Gravity Falls higher...much higher.

-Once again, my South Park/The Walking Dead biases are showing as I was heavily into both shows at the time.  I do agree with the reasoning for cementing The Walking Dead at the top spot though because it was the best season of that show.  Although I do agree with number two.  Yes.  This was a huge comeback year in my books for Survivor.

-And once again as I said with 2012, these explanations for TV sucked.  Condensed versions my ass.  I just didn't know what to say.  That will surely change though next year.

 

Yeah 2013 was not my best writing when it came to my lists and I wasn't nearly as invested writing them.  But have no fears my friends.  2014 was the year that definitely kicked this thread off into what it is today and I can't wait to tackle that soon because I have A LOT to say.  

[Old Man Jenkins]

54 minutes ago, Clappy said:

-Fun friendship note, but this was the year I realized OMJ goes to the movies at least once a week for Cruiseday.  And this was also the year that I started persisting @Old Man Jenkins should start doing best/worst lists for these threads...and I'm still waiting today old mang.  

[SpongeOddFan]

Pretty good on both 2012 & 20013 retrospective commentary, Claps.

Can't wait to read more on your thoughts on rest of 2014 & 2015 retrospectives.

[President Squidward]

I have a suggestion for what we should review this year...

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

...commercials.  

 

 

 

[Clappy]

9 hours ago, President Squidward said:

I have a suggestion for what we should review this year...

  Reveal hidden contents

  Reveal hidden contents

  Reveal hidden contents

...commercials.  

 

 

 

Worst Commercial of 2016:

No other one is even close tbh.

[WhoBibbles]

2013 Movies

- Honestly I still think Into Darkness was good, the third act was flawed but I still enjoyed this movie as a whole.

- Wolverine was good imo. I mean again, just like Into Darkness, third act was flawed (for different reasons ) but before that I got sucked in the story and I enjoyed serious tone of the it. Although the ending credits left me curious, HOW DID XAVIER COME BACK FROM DEATH DSKEOWKEOPWJFIROEKJF

- Monsters University was better than Descipable Me 2

- I still like Thor: The Dark World but yeah, not one of the stronger Marvel movies. I'm excited for Ragnorak cuz it'll be a buddy superhero movie, Hulk and Thor, ultimate BFFs.

- Iron Man 3 was good but I agree, the ending was like what. That's it?

- Catching Fire wasn't amazing to me but I really liked that one for sure. Best of Hunger Games movies

- The Conjuring, This is the End and Furious 6. God bless.

- I still consider Frozen as a good movie but It had some issues but not enough for me to not enjoy this.

- eh I wasn't fan of Gravity tbh. I can see the appeal but after second viewing, I just got myself bored. Yeah, I love space adventures but most of time, it was just characters floating around the space and at times, my head got dizzy for that tbh. It had excimentment tho, especially during last minutes and I love the characters but that's just it really. :/ 

2013 TV

- I like season 4 of Phineas and Ferb. Honestly repetitiveness didn't bother me too much cuz there are plenty stuff that I enjoy so much but imo season 4 stayed away from formula moreso than other seasons to me, so yeah.

- Total Drama All Stars wasn't too bad to me. I dunno. I suppose It was just easier to sit through this season because it was short. I agree that stories were extremely flawed and most of characters were just there but Alejandro, Mal and Heather were great stuff man and even with all that said, challenges make me entertain to a bit tolerate story flaws. I still think Action is the worst cuz it really hurted some of my favorite characters worse than here and it just dragged on.

- Family Guy, hmmmm. I'm mixed about the show that year. Episodes like Space Cadet, Brian's Play and Quagmire's Quagmire (yeah, gonna disagree on that  ) were great but on the other stand, we have stuff like Turban Cowboy, Call Girl, The Giggity Wife, A Fistful of Meg and Vestigial Peter UGHHHHHHHH. For Brian's death and come back, I have mixed thoughts on that, we'd be here all day for that discussion lol.

- Sanjay and Craig had great episodes for me but also horrendus stuff but I thought what I've seen season 2 were mostly good. I enjoyed and disgusted by watching this show but in the end, I just lost interest. Moving on.

- 2013 wasn't exactly a strong year for Regular Show imo but it still had tons of lit episodes.

- Yeah, we can all agree that I need to watch more of Broklynn Nine Nine. It's such a funny as fuck show that I need hell of a catching up to do.

- Season 17 started off shaky but it got better for sure. Still it wasn't particually a great season but a good one.

[Wumbo]

Welp, I may as well go over my music retrospectives each year, starting with the two that have already been done.

2012: Oh man, the year I first forayed into music criticism. What a fun year that was, both for music and for me. I must have had like at least five separate threads telling you all what I thought about music, and why it mattered. Problem is, I was way, way too hard on current rap music. I admit, my biases got the better of me and I could have done better the whole way through 2012. But y'know, just starting out, you live and learn. I like to think my music tastes have evolved since then and I've become more open to all different kinds of music.

Anyway, about that Top 10 list. Like Clappy, I was not using the Billboard charts to quantify songs of 2012 at the time. So naturally, the difference between this list and my 2012 list I did earlier this year is staggering. Lots of songs that I personally had heard, but were not even close to being Billboard hits. In a way, I'm proud of that list as my one anomaly in not sticking to Billboard conventions, and I still think every song on that list is awesome. Well... most of them, anyway. As for my worst list? Well, that was when I made my infamous "worst songs ever" list, most of which came from 2012, most of which were by Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj. Yeah... bias galore there. Like I said, I think I got better with this sort of thing, but it's still cringetastic to look back on it now. Like I said, you live and learn. Looking at my music criticism I did in 2012 and looking at my new 2012 lists this year, I think I've come a long way and refined my tastes (well, as much as you can with pop music, anyway). Gotta start from somewhere, I say.

2013: Now here's where I actually did start looking at the year-end charts for my year-end wrap-up. And like any stupid kid with too much Internet would do, I went balls-out and decided to rank every song of 2013 on the year-end chart. Now, ranking them proved to be a feasible task that I continue monthly to this day (...give or take). Talking about each one, however? That was a stumbling block that I wouldn't wake up to until a the end of next year, but more on that later. Let's look at my Top and Bottom 10!

Bottom 10:

Holy crap, I was waaay too hard on Avicii. Don't really know what I was thinking there. I still think this song's kind of useless, but not nearly bad enough to be in the Bottom 10.

Oh yeah, Anna Kendrick had a music career once. Fuck this song and that movie.

The rest of my list I think is pretty unchanged from my thoughts now. Maybe "U.O.E.N.O." deserved #1 over "Harlem Shake", but it's like picking between breaking your right or your left arm. If I could change anything, I would probably put that godawful "Cruise" remix on my list in place of Avicii. Other than that, I think I did a surprisingly accurate job as far as looking back on it goes.

Top 10:

"kind men in white suits" ha ha, crippling mental health issues are funny, wumbo

I think I pretty much nailed this list all the way through, with one glaring exception. And surprisingly enough, it ain't the Fall Out Boy song. "Same Love" definitely did not deserve to be #1. I've alluded to this many times ever since doing that list, and to this day it's the only #1 pick I've actively regretted.

You have to understand it in context though. At the time, Macklemore was this superstar who got big off his own independent label and seemed to be releasing rap songs that were like no other. And right at the top of that list would have to be "Same Love", where in a notoriously homophobic genre a rap song about supporting gay marriage comes out. And in my Top 10, I lambasted people who thought the song was corny and pandering. But looking back on it now? ...yeeeeah, they're right. They're totally fuckin' right. "HAVE YOU READ THE YOUTUBE COMMENTS LATELY" is still a line I quote not because of its depth or emotional impact, but because it's funny as hell. Somehow, I don't think that was the intent, and you can definitely see this song as a failure because of that. Perhaps Macklemore bit off more than he could chew here, and it shows in many lines of the song.

That said, it's not irredeemable. If there's one saving grace of this song, it's Mary Lambert on the chorus, who gets across the fear and discomfort that many LGBT people feel due to stigmatization in society. And we didn't even have to hear a story about her thinking she was gay in the third grade jesus christ macklemore you really are an idiot

If I could do it over, I'd put "Get Lucky" at #1, no question. The pop charts are honestly too good for that song, and we were lucky to have it in 2013. Looking back, 2013 wasn't nearly as bad a year as we previously felt. That honour goes to next year, which we'll get to soon.

So, are the lists perfect? Not by any stretch of the word. But honestly, I'm surprised how well they do hold up. Most of the worst songs still suck, and most of the best songs still rock. A couple changes here and there, and they wouldn't stray too much from my thoughts today. Seeya in 2014!

[Joe Biden]

tbh I should've done lists for 2015's music because I COMPLETELY half-assed my TV shows list last year

[Clappy]

7 hours ago, Dr. WhoBob said:

2013 Movies

- Monsters University was better than Descipable Me 2

- Iron Man 3 was good but I agree, the ending was like what. That's it?

- Catching Fire wasn't amazing to me but I really liked that one for sure. Best of Hunger Games movies

2013 TV

- Total Drama All Stars wasn't too bad to me. I dunno. I suppose It was just easier to sit through this season because it was short. I agree that stories were extremely flawed and most of characters were just there but Alejandro, Mal and Heather were great stuff man and even with all that said, challenges make me entertain to a bit tolerate story flaws. I still think Action is the worst cuz it really hurted some of my favorite characters worse than here and it just dragged on.

- Family Guy, hmmmm. I'm mixed about the show that year. Episodes like Space Cadet, Brian's Play and Quagmire's Quagmire (yeah, gonna disagree on that  ) were great but on the other stand, we have stuff like Turban Cowboy, Call Girl, The Giggity Wife, A Fistful of Meg and Vestigial Peter UGHHHHHHHH. For Brian's death and come back, I have mixed thoughts on that, we'd be here all day for that discussion lol.

-I've come to accept my DM2 > MU opinion is unpopular lol.

-Iron Man 3's ending is still a massive let down although it humanized Tony Stark's character more as we've seen the MCU continue.

-Honestly Catching Fire was a great adaptation of the book, which was my favorite of the entire Hunger Games series.  It was excellent although that logo at the end is still hilariously stupid.

-Mal had potential as a character but they fucked it up.  Badly.  Of course Mike was going to come out on top in the end of that personal struggle, but it still doesn't resolve the fact that without those personalities, Mike is a boring character.  Honestly that is my main problem with nearly ALL of the ROTI characters.  They're supremely boring especially all the ones they brought back minus Lightning.  And they somehow made the original characters even more boring and ruined nearly all of them...except Heather and Alejandro.

-Brian's death may have been a cheap copout and yeah his character was already pretty unsalvagable, but I'll give Family Guy all the credit in the world for at least trying something to change it up.  Even if it was for only three episodes.

 

[Clappy]

15 minutes ago, Fred Rechid said:

tbh I should've done lists for 2015's music because I COMPLETELY half-assed my TV shows list last year

I'm still to this day surprised you didn't do one tbh.  Looks like you can redeem that mistake this year.  

And I'm glad you're offering insight too @Wumbo.  I agree especially with what you stated about the bad and good songs from both years still being as bad and good as I remember too.  Even if I want to make some changes to them, they still do hold up for me too...minus one or two exceptions from the 12/13 years (as stated lol).  As I (and you too) get to these next two years, I feel that these are the ones that still hold up the best for me.  Can't wait to see how you feel about your next two as well.

[Joe Biden]

2 hours ago, Clappy said:

I'm still to this day surprised you didn't do one tbh.  Looks like you can redeem that mistake this year.  

Coming soon to a blog near you

[WhoBibbles]

12 hours ago, Clappy said:

-I've come to accept my DM2 > MU opinion is unpopular lol.

-Iron Man 3's ending is still a massive let down although it humanized Tony Stark's character more as we've seen the MCU continue.

-Honestly Catching Fire was a great adaptation of the book, which was my favorite of the entire Hunger Games series.  It was excellent although that logo at the end is still hilariously stupid.

-Mal had potential as a character but they fucked it up.  Badly.  Of course Mike was going to come out on top in the end of that personal struggle, but it still doesn't resolve the fact that without those personalities, Mike is a boring character.  Honestly that is my main problem with nearly ALL of the ROTI characters.  They're supremely boring especially all the ones they brought back minus Lightning.  And they somehow made the original characters even more boring and ruined nearly all of them...except Heather and Alejandro.

-Brian's death may have been a cheap copout and yeah his character was already pretty unsalvagable, but I'll give Family Guy all the credit in the world for at least trying something to change it up.  Even if it was for only three episodes.

 

- I agree. Iron Man 3 had the best portray of Tony Stark. And i appreciate how the movie dealt with Tony's PTSD.

- I still like Catching Fire. It's just at times slow pacing at times and some similarities to first movie kind of bothered me. I appreciated how maturer and darker this movie was. Characters are more interesting, direction is far better, no shaky cam and addition of one of my baes, Finnick

- I still enjoyed Mal and the mystery of him and Mike. Gotta agree that most of Revenge Island characters are uninteresting but I thought Mike was fun at times.

- I can't give my thoughts on Brian's death here. I'm gonna make a blog about it cuz I've been meaning to talk about it. I'll let ya know

[Clappy]

Y'all ready for this?

 

FINALLY!  MORE THAN TWO PEOPLE PARTICIPATING!

Yeah this was the year I finally felt this thread starting to take off.  As we had up to five people participate in this group effort.  It was awesome to watch this thread reach over 100 posts.  Made me one happy Clappy...because 2014 sure didn't.  This was such an irrelevant year for entertainment.  I mean good lord, music was terrible.  Most of the mainstream movies were on autopilot for at least a hour and thirty minutes.  TV...tv was okay.  But enough with the preamble because I have A LOT to say about how these lists held up.

 

Music:

-Good freaking lord.  That worst list still holds up today...except for the giant countdown numbers.  Thank god those didn't continue on my part.  I remember it took nearly over ten pages to write about all those songs and you know what?  I'm damn proud with how well written that was.  My choices were presented strongly, although some of the context wasn't as elaborated on fully because I already stated my opinions for some of the choices in my review thread.  If I could make just one addition in hindsight?  Blame it on the Todd effect, but Black Widow really was as terrible as he stated it was.  I can't believe I overlooked that.  Add it to the dishonorable mentions because I don't utterly hate it nearly as much as my Bottom 10, which I still hate all the same.  Great worst list.  Probably my most detailed one to date.

-As for the best list?  It's pretty embarrassing how devoid of quality music 2014 was.  I remember saying that this best list isn't as strong as it was for the rest of the 2010s and it shows.  I still like/love all my best list choices but this best list doesn't match up to 2015's to the point that my best of 2014 was barely in my Top 20 of 2015.  Although I probably would bump Shake It Off higher on that 2014 best list because it really did grow on me a lot the following year the more I heard it.

-With that last sentence in particular, it makes me question this year.  Is 2016 worse than 2014?  Because I don't consider myself as embarrassed for my potential best list since I've been crafting it as we speak.  I know of 95% of the Year End List for 2016 thanks to this online music site I've been going to and the best list contenders I have, I'm not that embarrassed by.  Yes the potential worst list has A LOT of contenders because I hated so much of this year, but I don't want my hatred of 2016 hit music to overshadow the good because the 2016 good is definitely better than 2014's good.  So we shall see as the rest of the year wraps up to see what my final judgment call is...for me anyway.

-In conclusion for 2014 though, no real problems with any of this list.  Near perfect to my standards tbh.

 

Movies: 

-Yeah I'm mixed on how my worst list turned out.  I didn't share trailers like I initially planned on.  I didn't use the larger font like I initially planned on.  And why the hell is The Interview on there at 5...okay let me rephrase this.  At the time, it sure felt like the fifth worst movie of 2014.  But after rewatching it for probably my best SBCinema episode ever, let's take it off there entirely.  I appreciated it more after rewatch although it's still a bad movie in terms of just being disappointing with all the good talent involved.  But I'm damn proud of my Amazing Spider-Man 2 stance.  That movie is so much worse than number ten.  It has not aged well at all.  It's a clusterfuck of a superhero movie and I'm glad Marvel finally put a stop to whatever the hell Sony was going to do with that Spider-Man universe because it was going to be such a huge trainwreck based off of all the rumors that are finally leaking about the Amazing Spiderman Cinematic Universe.  Move that up to number five instead of ten and insert God's Not Dead at number ten instead.  Yes I still find it hilariously bad, but good lord is it a terrible movie all the same.

-That best list though...where do I start?  First of all, I'm glad I delayed the 2015 best list to include my quest of watching all the best picture nominated movies because I missed out on some real gems in 2014.  Whiplash in particular.  If I could redo my 2014 best list, Whiplash automatically shoots to the top spot over The LEGO Movie.  The LEGO Movie is really damn good, but Whiplash is better.  Everything else that is ranked though, I have no problems with their positioning.  Hell not even ranking Guardians over Winter Soldier because Guardians was so much better than it had any right to be.

No.  My problems with this best list is two honorable mentions.  Boyhood can go fuck itself.  That indie darling is not revolutionary.  It's a home movie down to all the clumsy editing and directing.  I was way too nice to it in 2014.  Same goes for Mockingjay Part 1.  Absolutely nothing happened almost the entire movie and just like the book it's based on, it just sucks the life right out of you in the most boring possible way.  Those two oversights should be redirected off my honorable mentions list.

 

TV:

-No real problems with my worst list.  At the time, I don't know if a whole channel deserved to be ranked at number two, but with how often Lifetime was on at my house during the time, it deserved a massive fuck off.  Honestly, I'm glad how much discussion my number one choice sparked.  I thought it was ballsy of myself to place The Fairly Oddparents at the number one spot, but everyone agreed with me that the show was such a shell of its former self that it's the most embarrassing product Nickelodeon has to offer right now.  And honestly, I watched some of the Chloe episodes from 2016 and it's even worse now than it was back in 2014.  So be prepared for me to bring this up again.  Probably in even more detail again in one month.

-That best list though...yikes.  I was flip flopping between The Walking Dead and South Park again?  Will this favoritism stop?  Although let's be fair here.  The Walking Dead should have been number one a second year in a row.  S4 Pt 2/S5 Pt 1 were nearly the high points of the entire series and it should have been repeat champ.  No contest.  South Park Season 18 though...it has not held up well because of the same reason I gave it the number one: continuity.  Matt and Trey did not wrap up the continuity of this season well.  At all.  The holograms plot just straight up sucked.  I hated how this season ended because there was plenty of good in this season to not warrant such a crappy ending.  I would probably still place this on the best list for sure though.

But here comes the controversial choice on this best list: Breaking Bad.  Don't get me wrong, I adore this show and still do today, but it wrapped in 2013.  Should I have included it on my 2014 best list?  In hindsight with the rules that I've set for it...probably not.  But good lord do I have no regrets doing it.  I wish I got into this show while it was on the air.  It deserves all my praise and respect.  So if anyone has any problems with this choice still today, they better call Saul....bitch.

 

Yeah I enjoyed rereading these lists despite a few questionable choices here and there, but nitpicking my own lists aside, I'm enjoying revisiting all these threads.  It's just making me want to fast forward two more weeks to post 2016...but I should slow myself down.  I've got one more list to knockout and while it may be recent, I do have just as much to say about it as any of these other ones.  2015, you will get yours shortly.

 

[Burgerpants]

why the fuck did i post that big ass wall of music videos

[Wumbo]

Time to keep up with the Clappses and post my thoughts on 2014.

...

...

It sucked.

Like, holy damn, did it suck. Music-wise, anyway, but since that's my forté, so to speak, that's what I'm going off of. But yeah, most of my problems with my best list of 2014 is that I struggled to make one in the first place. Looking back, there are maybe three or four songs worth salvaging from 2014's year-end. I'm dead serious. That's it. This year was a garbage wasteland for pop music, and if I am to remember it fondly, the only way I can is to remind myself that this was the year I made my baby, the year-end retrospective topic, a recurring thing.

Ah, but it didn't come without its bumps, no sir. Round about when I did 2011, I figured that it would be best to simply post the Top and Bottom 10, rather than go through 20 or so songs I put in the middle saying basically the same thing. "It's alright." "It's boring." It gets tedious after a while, even in the most fun of years. Extremes are always more fun to talk about than mediocrity. I also opened up the floor for people to ask me where I put certain songs and why if they didn't see them on the Top or Bottom 10. It wasn't a perfect system yet (that comes later), but it was what I had. I also started out by doing these bi-monthly, rather than every month. Realizing that I would be an old, old man by the time I finished this at this pace, I decided to amend this for 2015. But again, we'll get to that when we get to it. Let's focus on the meat of these retrospectives, the Top and Bottom 10s of this dreadful year for music.

Bottom 10

I had no shortages when choosing a Bottom 10 for 2014. Most years, I have to make nasty cuts to allow for a Top 10. This year, it felt like I couldn't cut down the bad songs enough. I guess, ultimately, what ended up pissing me off the most about this year was just its empty void of shallowness. And again, it's not like there were a shortage of songs to choose from that fit this criteria. But even so, I like to think I made the right choices for me. I look at my list today and I think that even with all the bullshit 2014's music offered us, this was the shittiest of the crop to me. It's kind of a weird bad list, admittedly. Most of these songs you wouldn't think of when you think of the worst songs of 2014. But to me, therein lies the problem. These songs left zero impact on the collective consciousness, there is no reason to listen to them a second time, and I'm perfectly happy with my worst list as it stands. Okay, maybe "Show Me" could have been my #1 pick. But still. The crappiest songs from a crappy-ass year? I think I got 'em.

Top 10

One of the toughest things to do is to make a Top 10 list for songs in a year that not only is not good, but I don't think even tries to be good. I have serious issues with my Top 10 list, but for the first and hopefully only time, I blame the lack of material.

Like, most of these are not great songs. Some of them are passable. Maybe good, even. But to sit here and pretend like I'm wading through masterpieces (as I apparently chose to do in the pre-amble to this list) is fundamentally flawed. Seriously, "Bang Bang" made my list? Dear Christ, what was I thinking? Even in a year so devoid of good music, that song sucks. And I... I, uh... okay, I'm looking over my picks right now and I have no idea what the fuck happened to my video embeds. But ANYWAY...

Here, let me make a shortlist of songs worth salvaging on this year-end: "0 to 100" (still my #1 pick), "Chandelier" (gets better every time I hear it honestly), "Ain't It Fun", "Sweater Weather", "Come With Me Now". There. There's my Top five. Because that's all this year deserves. Seriously, holy fuck.