As the year winds down, I'm reflecting on the pop culture I've consumed throughout the year. Below, you'll find my lists of the favorite TV shows, movies, music, and books I've enjoyed. Unsurprisingly, this is genre heavy! None of the lists are in any particular order.
TV Shows
1. Willow (Disney+)
20 years after vanquishing the wicked queen Bavmorda, the sorcerer Willow Ufgood leads a group of misfits on a dangerous rescue mission into the unknown.
2. The Letter for the King (Netflix)
Tiuri, a teenage squire, answers a call for help that sends him on a perilous mission across the three kingdoms to deliver a secret letter to the King.
3. Andor (Disney+)
Prequel series to Star Wars' 'Rogue One'. In an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue, Cassian will embark on the path that is destined to turn him into a Rebel hero.
4. Rings of Power (Amazon Prime)
Epic drama set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.
5. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+)
Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi has to save young Leia after she is kidnapped, all the while being pursued by Imperial Inquisitors and his former Padawan, now known as Darth Vader.
Honorable mention: Motherland: Fort Salem. Couldn't leave this baby out, especially since this year's third season was the final season.
Movies
1. The Lost City
A reclusive romance novelist on a book tour with her cover model gets swept up in a kidnapping attempt that lands them both in a cutthroat jungle adventure.
2. The 355
When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, a wild-card C.I.A. agent joins forces with three international agents on a mission to retrieve it, while staying a step ahead of a mysterious woman who's tracking their every move.
3. The Bob's Burgers Movie
The Belchers try to save the restaurant from closing as a sinkhole forms in front of it, while the kids try to solve a mystery that could save their family's restaurant.
4. Enola Holmes 2
Now a detective-for-hire, Enola Holmes takes on her first official case to find a missing girl as the sparks of a dangerous conspiracy ignite a mystery that requires the help of friends - and Sherlock himself - to unravel.
5. Solo: A Star Wars Story
Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in an epic action-adventure that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga's most unlikely heroes.
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Music
1. Midnights, Taylor Swift
2. Dance Fever, Florence + The Machine
3. Surrender, Maggie Rogers
4. The Hardest Part (Deluxe), Noah Cyrus
5. Willow Vol. 1, James Newton Howard
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Books
1. Among Thieves, M.J. Kuhn
2. The Unbroken, C.L. Clark
3. Queen's Peril, E.K. Johnston
4. We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson
5. The Letter for the King, Tonke Dragt
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Additionally, my podcast co-host and I recorded an episode on our pop culture wrap-up of 2022. Listen to it below, follow the pod, and find us wherever you get your podcasts!
We have very similar taste. I had an objection to"Rings of Power", in that it's more Tolkien adjacent than true Tolkien. They have combined bits from several of his pre-LOTR stories into a whole that messes with the Middle Earth Timeline. Having said that, I still liked it!
ReplyDeleteNice! I'm glad you mostly enjoyed it. I heard they didn't have all the rights to Tolkein's stuff, so maybe that's why? But I liked it a lot! :)
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