Favorite movies (and tv shows) of 2016

    Hey, I feel like starting a movie discussion. :) What have been your favorite movies of 2016?


    Since I usually watch movies at home and not in the cinema I am a couple of months behind. But my favorite so far is SWISS ARMY MAN. I love its unique approach that's heartwarming, funny and surprising. A feel good movie which combines fart humour with philosopy. Check it out if you haven't yet!


    Another favorite of mine was the South Korean zombie movie TRAIN TO BUSAN. A lot of action! It has been a good year for zombie movies anyway, another good one being THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS.


    Oh, and I can't help but mention THE GREASY STRANGLER. You love it or you hate it... It's annoying and gross and awesome in a very strange way.


    When it comes to tv shows I loved the final two episodes of this season of Game of Thrones. And Stranger Things was a lot of fun.


    What were your favorites?

    Love some movie talk!


    On the superhero front, Marvel hit hard with the brilliant Captain America: Civil War, proving you can make a big superhero movie without a global destruction event (X-Men: Apocalypse ironically came out a month later disappointing everyone) and Doctor Strange was a mind-bending LSD trip mixed with Bumblesnuff Crispysnitch's great performance as the Sorcerer Supreme.


    DC continued their trend of having good films ruined by panicked last minute editing. Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice brought a brilliant new Batman with Ben Affleck (even though everyone complained he killed people, even though EVERY OTHER BIG SCREEN BATMAN HAS KILLED), Gal Gadot finally and excellently brought Wonder Woman to the big screen and Henry Cavill's Superman was also there. Suicide Squad was pretty good, with Margot Robbie making Harley Quinn a household name and Jai Courtney making me cry with his amazing Captain Boomerang. Jared Leto's Joker was also there for a few seconds.


    From some movies that take themselves too seriously, to my favorite superhero movie of the year: Deadpool! Ryan Reynolds did the performance of his career, hitting every note, breaking every 4th wall and fucking everyone up!


    I'll keep the superhero TV brief


    Arrow got good again
    The Flash battled Alchemists and Speed Gods
    Legends of Tomorrow teamed up with the JSA and are battling the Legion of Doom
    Supergirl finally let her cousin on TV and he was given more to do 2 episodes than Cav-El got in a movie
    Gotham still is on...
    Lucifer is amazing and everyone should watch it
    Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. got really good, bringing in Ghost Rider, LMDs and Shotgun-Axes
    Daredevil returned, with an amazing take on The Punisher and also did... ugh.... Elektra...
    Luke Cage was amazing until, we met Diamondback...
    I never watched Preacher...


    Roll on 2017, can't wait for The Lego Batman Movie!

    In no particular order:
    - Sing Street
    - Green Room
    - La La Land
    - The Nice Guys
    - Hell or High Water
    - Moonlight
    - Arrival
    - Swiss Army Man
    - Kubo and the Two Strings
    - 10 Cloverfield Lane
    - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

    I don't think I actually saw any new movies last year. I've been really looking forward to Rogue One and Kubo & the Two Strings but I somehow haven't managed to get around to either.


    As far as TV goes, South Park and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia were as strong as ever and Stranger Things was genuinely brilliant. Black Mirror had one excellent episode but the bigger budget and over-Americanisation really left me cold this time round, particularly as one episode had basically the same plot as one from season 2. I still like it, but I no longer think it's untouchable like I used to.


    And fucking hell yeah, Game of Thrones delivered this season. I was really disapponted by season 5 but I thought this year was at least the strongest since the Sean Bean days, if not ever. It's no exaggeration to say that the last two episodes this year are possibly the best examples of "TV Drama as serious art" I've ever seen - I didn't know Miguel Sapochnik before but he's clearly one hell of a director. The battle scene from "Battle of the Bastards" is better than I ever thought would be possible on the small screen - in fact it's better than any from Hollywood either, come to think of it.

    Speaking of "Black Mirror": I am currentle binge watching all of its epsiodes and it's a really fun (well... fun in a depressing way...) show. The mixture of fresh ideas, dark twists and a sometimes cheesy production reminds me of the better days of "The Outer Limits" which I loved in the 90s. If I ignore my nostalgia "Black Mirror" offers a higher quality though. And of course it toches many important subjects of our times. I enjoyed most of its episodes so far and am currently in the middle of season 3.


    My favorite epsiode might be "Shut Up and Dance" from season 3, but season 1 and 2 have their highlights as well (15 Million Merits, The National Anthem, White Christmas and now of course The Waldo Moment). It's difficult to pick one. There are a lot of episodes with great ideas, but in my opnion they often mess up the ending (Playtest), sometimes by wanting to explain to much or doing so in form of a strange speech (this ruined "Nosedive" for me, which I really liked in the beginning for its portrait of social media behaviour). So in my opinion some episodes could be shorter... but that's just a minor complaint.


    @Caribou: What are your favorite episodes?

    I think a lot of its appeal for me was how prescient it was right from the moment it started, but now the world has turned upside-down a lot of its ideas seem kinda tame. My favourite episode, "The National Anthem", was brutally nihilistic when it first aired but when our own IRL Prime Minister has IRL been accused of fucking a dead pig the idea loses its punch somewhat. Same thing with "The Waldo Moment" - these days, Waldo's rise to power kinda looks like a tame rerun of Donald Trump's ascendency. It's not the show's fault, since they had the ideas first, but the batshit global madness we're currently living in has dulled its edge a bit.


    As for other favourite episodes - I think all of the first season is pretty much perfect, and also particularly like "White Christmas", "White Bear" and "San Junipero", despite the last of these not really feeling much like a Black Mirror episode what with its Stranger Things-style '80s nostalgia and tender feel-good ending. I was loving "Shut Up and Dance" right up until the big twist, when all of a sudden it just felt like the whole episode was a slight retelling of "White Bear" from season 2, ie. that in both episodes

    It's still one of the stronger episodes this season (I love me some Jerome Flynn!) but the feeling that the show was repeating itself a little spoiled it a bit for me.


    If you're a fan of Charlie Brooker's writing I'd strongly recommend some of his older shows too - Dead Set is the story of a group of Big Brother housemates who leave the house to find out that the zombie apocalypse happened while they were on the show, and now the compound they were about to leave is the safest place to be. It's easily one of the best of the "alternative zombie" crop that started with Shaun of the Dead and still hasn't stopped (although it's arguably of most appeal to viewers who have a passing familiarity with the British version of Big Brother. That's not really a barrier to understanding it, just that it gets referenced a lot).


    Also Nathan Barley, his sitcom co-written by my all-time comedy hero and Brass Eye/Four Lions creator Chris Morris. It's only six half-hour episodes in total, which is nowhere near enough but it's so packed full of hidden jokes and touches that you're still noticing new things on your tenth viewing. Definitely one of my favourite sitcoms ever.


    (And if you're still after more then any of his various presented-to-camera shows with the word "wipe" in the title (like the 2016 one here are usually pretty top-notch satire, and a lot of them are on Youtube in good quality.)

    Thanks for the recommendations. I watched Dead Set a while ago, and it was okay. But I really hate Big Brother and reality tv in general, and though it obviously is a satirical approach I was a little bit annoyed by the setting and characters. I did not understand the references British viewers might understand. And I got a little bit of motion sick because of the shaky cam. ;) So it did not work for me as good as Black Mirror.

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