With the end of the year comes all the best of lists. Since I’ve already done my 2012 Best Books list, that means that it’s now time for the 2012 Best Movies and TV shows.
This list, in some ways, harder to do than the books list. There are very few science fiction shows on TV and very few science fiction movies. And many of these TV shows or movies don’t actually do that well, as you can tell by the fact that two of my TV shows were canceled this year. And the biggest name science fiction movie of the year, Prometheus (my review) looked good, but had huge plot holes that left many people shaking their head. But, the show must go on, so I present my 2012 Best Movies and TV shows.
Movies
The top honor for movies this year (science fiction and fantasy division) is Avengers. It wasn’t a great movie, but it was damn good. It had humor, action and some semblance of a plot that actually hung together which put it at the top. Genndy Tartakovsky took a mediocre Adam Sandler animated film and put enough energy and fun into it to make me enjoy it. Ted is hands down the funniest movie of the year, but definitely not for kids). And the Hobbit had high ambitions, didn’t meet them, but still made a worthwhile movie.
The big miss for me (besides the aforementioned Prometheus) was Dark Knight Rises (my review). It wasn’t that I didn’t like it. It was more of a not that thrilled with it. I didn’t find it nearly as compelling a movie without Heath Ledger playing the interesting villain. And the less said about Amazing Spider-Man (my review) the better.
TV
The standout TV show this year still hasn’t made it’s US debut (that’s coming January 14th 2013) and it’s the Canadian show Continuum. The time travel police show had lots of actions, some decent special effects and a storyline that is a lot more complicated than it looks like at first blush. A wonderful all around show. The second season of BBC’s Sherlock started out with it’s best episode and had a great 3 episode season. Alcatraz was a fun little police procedural mystery with a decent cast and a fun mystery. The Finder was an under appreciated detective show about a strange guy with a knack for finding anything (even it isn’t what you thought you were looking for).
- Continuum – my review
- Alcatraz – my review
- Sherlock season 2 – my review
- The Finder – my review
I know what everyone’s biggest question will be. What about Game of Thrones? While I enjoyed the plot and the artistry of the show, I just couldn’t keep track of the numerous characters and the hacks they did to the book plots. I found myself liking the show less and less the more I watched it, so I finally just stopped. I can understand why some people love the show, but it just isn’t for me. But I’ll still read the books.
This post is part of the thread: BestOf – an ongoing story on this site. View the thread timeline for more context on this post.