Slashdot Asks: Your Favorite Movies and TV Shows of 2018?

Several remarkable movies and shows hit the theaters and TV this year. We had "First Man", "Black Panther", new "Incredibles", "Avengers: Infinity War", more "Star Wars" and "Mission: Impossible" hit the cinemas. On TV, we saw the conclusion of "The Americans", continuation of "Westworld" on HBO, and "Homecoming" arrive on Amazon Prime Video. "Money Heist" on Netflix, "Barry" on HBO, and "Detectorists" on AcornTV garnered good reviews from critics, too. What did you like this year?

Also in this year-ender series: Slashdot Asks: What Are Some Good Books You Read This Year?

Comments

My 2 cents

[campuscodi]

TV series: Westworld Movie: Outlaw King

Re:My 2 cents

[mermeid007]

I liked disobedience and forever my girl

Re:My 2 cents

[JackieBrown]

If you liked Westworld, watch person of interest while waiting for the next season. The first season is pretty procedural but builds the characters and foundation of the show. By the end of the show, it's full AI and how it can direct/control a civilization. It's by the same people.

Re:My 2 cents

[Kokuyo]

I think Westworld is well made but I'm loathe to watch on as drama is just not my cup of tea. If there was a bit of humor sprinkled in... but as it stands, I just like the protagonists and see only suffering in the future and I just don't need that in my life.

Re:My 2 cents

[Joce640k]

I only managed two episodes of series two before I lost interest.

Re:My 2 cents

[jimbo]

Person of interest is one of the best shows in many years. The actors are spectacularly well chosen and the writing is of a very high standard. And while so many shows wallow in betrayal and mistrust scenarios, because it's the low hanging fruit of writing, this one doesn't. The team members know each other and to what extent they can trust each other.

 

Re:My 2 cents

[d0rp]

It's one of my all-time favorite shows, and it's incredible how it evolved over the years. A lot of shows tend to lose steam or go off the deep-end the longer they're on, but Person of Interest is one of those shows that only gets better.

Re:My 2 cents

[LesFerg]

Yes, The Expanse is what stood out most for me, that was the best sci fi we have had recently.
Z Nation is still a fun watch, too.

Re: My 2 cents

[walterbyrd]

"Humans" is better series. IMO.

Same idea.

Re:My 2 cents

[thebrieze]

Person of Interest is a great show. The first couple of seasons, builds the characters, but most of the episodes are standalone, and don't add to the story. Somewhere around the middle of season 2, it started getting into story mode, and by the third season, it really started coming into its own, and only got better from that point on. Great show, great acting, and one of the best portrayals of all the pros and cons of the AI and Big Brother world we are heading into

Re:My 2 cents

[JackieBrown]

I cannot count the amount of times I have re-watched the final episode. It is one of the most emotional and satisfying ending to a show that I have ever seen.

My favorite of 2018

[Anonymous Coward]

is Trump's new "you're fired" show. Not sure what it's called. The casting is pretty hilarious. Lots of dumbasses who can't find their ass with both hands and a flashlight, running things into the ground. All punctuated by a new "you're fired!" weekly. I can't wait to see who'll be next!

Re:My favorite of 2018

[Anonymous Coward]

TDS is strong in this one, padawan.

Re:My favorite of 2018

[pslytely psycho]

What, you don't like reality TV?

None

[Anonymous Coward]

The "power is off" light was the most entertaining.

Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's own

[mykepredko]

In terms of the "big movies", I only really liked First Man. Nice adaptation of the book. As for the other "Block Busters", I enjoyed Black Panther, Deadpool 2, Incredibles 2, The Mule. Ant Man and the Wasp. Solo & Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. There were quite a few I could have lived without ("Mission Impossible: Fallout", comes to the top of the list).

Where I was really impressed was with (streaming) shows including:
- Altered Carbon
- Westworld (Second Season)
- Preacher
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (this seems to be straddling the line between "Movie" and "Streaming")
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
- Maniac
- Better Call Saul
- The Good Place
- Glow
- Orange is the New Black
- The Orville (it's a lot better than I would have expected)

With a good big-screen setup at home, there's a lot more, better and cheaper entertainment out there than going to the movies.

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[account_deleted]

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The Good Doctor

[fearm0nger]

For a TV shows I would say Young Sheldon & The Good Doctor are both worth watching. For a movie I am going to agree with Cartman and say Black Panther.

Atlanta

[Anonymous Coward]

Atlanta and Sorry to Bother You have both been standouts and feature Lakeith Stanfield.

There were plenty more shows I liked but I started watching both of those with modest expectations that were easily surpassed.

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[account_deleted]

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Robot 2.0

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

That movie Robot 2.0 (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu w English subtitles) is so bad, it is transcends into greatness!.

They made it as a serious movie, but see it as a spoof of Hollywood CGI madness, it transforms into a fantastic comedy movie.

Re:Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's o

[garcia]

Seconds for:

Maniac
Marvelous Ms. Maisel
The Good Place

----

Addition:

The End of the F***ing World -- only ~8 episodes but awesome

Same as last year.

[houghi]

As most of the movies and plenty of tv shows where prequals, sequals or franchises, I have no idea what to pick this year.

So to make it chalanging, the things you liked should not be a prequal, sequal, remake or a part of an existing series of movies.

Suddenly ,makes it much more chalaging to make a top 10.

Re:Same as last year.

[Anrego]

I'll go for Happy!

This one totally caught me off guard. I watched it out of morbid curiosity thinking it was going to be terrible and ended up being probably the best new thing I've seen this year.

It's like John Wick mixed with an old Disney movie. Not just because of the gimmick either, it has that weird childlike morality undertone while still managing to get progressively darker _and_ maintain a sense of whimsy and humour.

Re:Same as last year.

[bob4u2c]

Happy! is about half 2017 and 2018, but I would agree with you, we need more Happy!

I'd also like to give a nod to Final Space ("chookity"). The Oroville has also had a few good episodes which is way more than I expected.

Sadly, what happened to Dr Who? New Doctor great; new cast ok; but the stories. Almost every other episode was a run down of of some pivotal civil rights movement event. I'm not saying prior Dr Who hasn't touched on political topics, but this season was so much in your face that even my wife looked at me and said "that's a bit preachy".

Re:Same as last year.

[Cylix]

I'll second Happy. I absolutely thought it was going to be great going in and I wasn't really displeased. I think there were some slow parts, but they did set a really fast tempo in the first episode. It looks like there will be a season 2 as well. So awesome!

Re:Same as last year.

[LainTouko]

Depends on what sorts of things you watch. The only things I saw this year which relate to earlier things (in the same medium) were the second series of 3-gatsu no Lion and the terrible new Doctor Who series. (Terrible because of its pacifism, dullness etc. not because of its characters who aren't white men, which disturbingly seems to be a problem for some here.) So... Hinamatsuri, Zombieland Saga, Gridman, Happy Sugar Life, Bunny, Chio, Mitsuboshi Colours, Revue Starlight, Beatless and Cells at Work, perhaps.

Re:Same as last year.

[Anonymous Coward]

Excluding Expanse and Last Kingdom from the list by the rules of this thread, my favorite series were Altered Carbon and Happy!

My favorite movies were BlackKklansman and Death of Stalin (plus the hours on wikipedia right after)

Bad Times at the El Royale

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are looking for a good drama and thriller to watch. Consider this. Watched this over the weekend last week. Very intense and gratifying. First Man was a very important and decent movie. I am looking forward to watching the Vice movie. If you want to kill some time, Aquaman is good, too.

Re:Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's o

[SirAstral]

Yea I would go ditto's on
Altered Carbon, Buster Scruggs, The Good Place, & Orville.
I would add...
Castlevania
7 Deadly Sins
F is for Family

No Movies of note, while I did enjoy watching many of the Marvel movies, hi-tech but still in your face hand to hand combat as they swat off weapons fire like they are nothing. It is just too immersion breaking for me I guess or I am just not able to suspend a high enough level of disbelief. And don't get me started on the trash that happened in Starwars... Hollywood rarely produces anything better than gutter trash anyways, being that Hollywood is mostly trash to start with.

Travelers

[iCEBaLM]

I love this show so much, and I'm happy Netflix picked it up. My only issue with streaming sites making episodic TV is that they release all the episodes at once, I binge them because I have no self control, and now I have to wait a year+ for more episodes!

Re:Travelers

[fat_mike]

I'm old but I vote Voyagers! The ! is actually part of the name.

The Expanse.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Expanse!

Re:The Expanse.

[d0rp]

Having read the books, being dropped by Syfy and picked up by Amazon was probably the best thing that could have happened to the show. They'll have less restrictions placed on them (language mostly, but also pacing and episode length) and possibly a bigger budget, plus they'll be in 4K.

Re:Bohemian Rhapsody

[hcs_$reboot]

Oscar of the "less likely actor to embody Freddie Mercury"?

Superheros

[110010001000]

What is the deal with all the Superhero movies? It is like everyone regressed to being a 12 year old boy.

Re:Superheros

[hcs_$reboot]

It is like everyone regressed to being a 12 year old boy.

Not so sure. When I was 12, movies were of better quality than these lets-make-a-quick-&-crappy-pre/sequel-to-keep-licensing-alive.

Re:Superheros

[fazig]

I'm wondering about that as well. Commercially they are very successful after all.
What demographics are watching them anyway? Are there any reliable statistics here?

But then again not even as a kid I had much use for your typical superhero stories from DC or Marvel.

Re:Superheros

[Pablopelos]

Have you seen the new spiderman, very good, maybe even great, kind of going a different way than ALL the other hero movies out there.

Re:Superheros

[thegarbz]

What is the deal with all the Superhero movies? It is like everyone regressed to being a 12 year old boy.

I know right, because comics like Deadpool are totally a thing for children.

Re:Superheros

[citylivin]

"What is the deal with all the Superhero movies? It is like everyone regressed to being a 12 year old boy."

I have a theory that it has to do with the death of god, and people inventing new modern age "gods" to fill that roll. You can see it in how people dress up as their "gods" for conventions, religiously skip work to attend first day showings of any new "chapter" in the odyssey, and discuss and debate the motivations of the characters as related to the cannon.

A set of metaphysical beings with "super" powers that they use to help or hurt humanity. Pretty much spot on analogous to polytheistic religions. Also explains why I hate the fakeness of superhero movies (and most religions).

Black panther was good though, just as a pure movie. Its the only super hero movie i have liked in recent memory. You didn't need to know all the backstory and depth of the universe to appreciate it.

Re:Superheros

[imperious_rex]

I think the reasons for the success of superhero movies are that (A) The movies have a pre-established fanbase, just like the LOTR and Harry Potter movies had their fanbases well before the movies came out (B) Special effects technology has finally reached the point where the superpowers and battles can be done right without appearing cheesy or lame. (C) the "shared universe" concept of crossovers between characters has been around for ages in comics but it had never really been done before in cinema until Marvel took a HUGE gamble with the idea (and it paid off handsomely). (D) Treating the characters and stories with respect. It's all too easy to go camp with superheroes, like the 60's Batman TV show did and it took decades for the genre to shake that off. But Marvel steered way clear of camp and treated the characters (and by extension, the fans) with respect and delivering quality stories.

"Superhero" movies are more than just "tights and fights" and can accommodate a variety of story types. Winter Soldier was a thriller, Guardians of the Galaxy was sci-fi, Dr. Strange was fantasy. Ant-Man was mostly a comedy.

Finally, what's so bad about 12 year old boys' taste in entertainment? I'm over 40 and can appreciate a well told action movie as much as any kid.

Re:Superheros

[imperious_rex]

If he were still among us, Stan Lee would respectfully disagree.

Re:Superheros

[MrNiceguy_KS]

I'm pretty sure Marvel has plans to bring him back. There's a good chance the reboot will be an asian woman, though.

Re:Superheros

[d0rp]

That's pretty much in a nut-shell. The superhero movies are so popular and prevalent right now because they essentially are marketed for everyone. They try to make it appeal to the largest audience as possible, and it seems to be working, at least for the time being. Which also explains why there are so many of them: they're profitable and network execs are becoming increasingly risk-averse. Why take a chance on some new, fresh idea when we can just make more sequels, tie-ins or remakes of established IP?

Re:Superheros

[bill_mcgonigle]

One main difference between DC and Marvel is that DC characters tend to integrate their Shadow (Jungian) while Marvel characters really don't. They may misbehave but that's not "who they are", it's their failings.

Deadpool *is* Marvel's shadow, all packaged up in one character. No need for even Tony Stark to actually misbehave onscreen - Deadpool will be fucking one minute and decapitating the next.

He's an outlet for the absurdity of the other characters - and one that casual observers can probably skip.

Re:Superheros

[breeze95]

It is like everyone regressed to being a 12 year old boy.

Not so sure. When I was 12, movies were of better quality than these lets-make-a-quick-&-crappy-pre/sequel-to-keep-licensing-alive.

Which movies were better when you were 12?

Re:Superheros

[hcs_$reboot]

At the time, my favorite was "a trip to the moon" by Méliès.

Re:Superheros

[thegarbz]

Capeshit

Ironic given how few of them wear capes. Pull your pants up, your bias is showing.

Re:Superheros

[houghi]

Nothing wrong with it. Great for people who enjoy it. I don't. But then I didn't when I was 12 either.

(Here comes the part that brings in all the downvotes: an unpopular personal opinion)

I liked LOTR a bit better, because some of the heroes actually died (and stayed dead). Not enough for my taste. I do not mind some sort of happy end, but if there is danger in a story, it has to be real danger, where people can die and you do not know if the character does not die halfway.

Unless it becomes a gimick, like in The Stainless Steel Rat.

I know the super heroes will live (yes, there is the odd exeption) because they are needed in the next movie. So why should I care if their fight is hard?

I would be more interested in the person whose house was just flattened by a super hero struggle. How does a city actually recover from that. But for that we do not need the super heroes. We can look at cities where these kind of destructions took place and what happend when the spotlights went out.

I do watch them, but to me for what they are: pulp.

Re:Superheros

[AmiMoJo]

In the 80s we had Action Heroes, unrealistic tough guys who defied the laws of physics and medical science but who were immensely popular. In the 90s and 2000s it went a bit more goth, with movies like The Matrix and of course Blade. And now it's back to spandex, because somehow we reached the point where we can tolerate the costumes... Maybe they don't look quite so cheap and toy-like any more.

BCS & GoT

[hcs_$reboot]

Not a surprise, I presume, but the 2018 seasons of Better Call Saul, and Game of Thrones were great.

My Favorite Movies and TV Shows

[AlFalcone]

- Money Heist - Haus des Geldes - La casa de papel - Pine Gap - Nobel - Berlin Station

surprises

[Tom]

There were a couple surprises that I didn't expect much from but that turned out to be special.

Movies:

"The Shape of Water" - was something I had no expectations for and it surprised me with its beauty. The story is well done, the characters are relateable and very well played, and the sheer beauty of both visuals and audio is breathtaking.

"Dealt" - is a documentary, it's ok done, but if you don't know already about Richard Turner, watch this to get a glimpse into what the guy can do and that is just amazing.

"Johnny English Strikes Again" - didn't expect much as I find Mr. Bean sometimes funny but mostly... well... not a fan. But the movie actually had me laughing throughout. And since it never tries to be anything but a funny movie, that's a full 100% mission accomplished.

The MCU - I like the movies. They aren't groundbreaking and nobody will talk about them in 20 years, but they are solid popcorn cinema. If you just want to relax and enjoy some entertainment, they deliver. I usually pick them for evenings where I want to make sure I'm not disappointed by watching something that might turn out great, but may also be a waste of time. You know what you get with the Marvel movies.

Books:

"Three Body Problem" - all three books of the trilogie was just mindblowing. Absolutely astonishing SciFi. I'm reading it for the 2nd time now, and that's a huge compliment as I very rarely read books again. I've become disappointed with SciFi recently, especially due to what happened to SciFi in the movies, but this is visionary SciFi with the same level of not-being-afraid-of-big-events that Game of Thrones exhibits, and so many fantastically crafted twists that once you see them and recover from the surprise, everything clicks and you see how all the small hints you missed come together. Wonderful writing, and that's the translation. I can only imagine how much better the (chinese) original must be.

Re:surprises

[Anonymous Coward]

The Shape of Water was complete and utter drivel wrapped in pretty wrapping paper. It's a media darling because it explores outwardly different sexuality, but it's a boring snooze-fest from a director that's capable of so much better it would make you weep if it didn't put you to sleep before the tears can flow. I never have managed to make it through the damn thing without falling asleep, and I had honestly hoped it would be good. I love Del Toro films most of the time, but he was bound to make a snoozer eventually. Of course his snoozer is the one Hollywood lapped up with a spoon. Now he'll probably go on to create even more boring drivel just to pander to them.

Re:surprises

[Tom]

I didn't even notice any media on it, and I don't care.

I liked it. You didn't. That's ok, but the topic explicitly asked for personal opinions and that was and still is mine.

Re:surprises

[JackieBrown]

And that person stated their opinion. The nice thing about these topics is to read differing viewpoints.

The Expanse

[Greyfox]

Was that 2018? That's when I discovered it. They have the spaciest space I've ever seen in a sci-fi show. You get a sense of the harshness of the environment and the difficulties living in it. Definitely worth checking out if you like good sci-fi.

Re:The Expanse

[ruddk]

Sounds great. I miss a good sci-fi.

Re:The Expanse

[d0rp]

Season 3 was in 2018

The show is even toned down a bit in that respect from the books, but that's largely due to logistical constraints and a different medium. The most notable difference is the lack of the "crash couches" which help them survive the extreme g-forces; they're replaced with your standard sci-fi chairs that they strap into.

There's also enough differences between the books and and the show that you're not going to be bored experiencing one after the other, but the overall plot-lines remain the same.

Re:The Expanse

[AmiMoJo]

I think we have finally reached a point where we can make good sci-fi without worrying too much about the special effects budget or things looking janky.

Re:The Expanse

[Greyfox]

Here, put this in your crack pipe and smoke it.

A few good ones (and Coco)

[bazorg]

Infinity War stole the show in terms of blockbusters but there were plenty of other mainstream films worth watching.

A Star is Born was a top movie despite Eddie Vedder advising friend Bradley Coopper not to go ahead with this remake. Turns out Bradley looks like a taller and more intoxicated Eddie in some parts of the film. I'll get the original soundtrack one of these days. Lady Gaga was awesome, in the proper sense of awesome.

Still on this musical theme, Bohemian Rhapsody did what it had to do to make quite a few Queen fans happy, and while it was a 2017 release, I watched Coco in January 2018, so I'll say it's a *beautifully* made film. Pixar at their best. Sorry, but not too sorry for mentioning it in this 2018 thread. Yardie and its Jamaican sound systems made for a good debut for director Idris Elba.

Ready Player One was quite a spectacular thing, somewhat funny because of all the gaming references. Tomb Raider had Alicia Vikander enact many scenes from the recent game I played, it was interesting at that level. Widows had some seriously bad ass villains.

So many sequels... Deadpool is worth watching for a laugh with your mates, Solo: A SW Story and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom were enjoyable at the time but probably more memorable for the investors than for me. Ocean's 8 was good fun, especially the social engineering demo in the first few minutes. Ant Man and the Wasp was good enough to recover from the Infinity War hangover without feeling a Marvel overdose. Creed II had a part where I felt like the film was a pointless remake, but then they turned it around well.

BlackKKKlansman was funny and creepy, The First Purge was just creepy, The Meg was so bad and so cliche'd that it becomes good. There must be a movie-badness-continuum, but Mission Impossible: Fall out just could not get acros to the good side :)

30s and 40s

[cascadingstylesheet]

Stuff that I find on Amazon from the 30s and 40s. (Long before my time, for the smart alec whippersnappers out there)

Oh yeah, and some Sherlock Holmes movies in Russian from the 70s. Awesome stuff.

Oh, you meant movies made in 2018? Hmm ...

Haunting of Hill House

[bigdavex]

Netflix's Haunting of Hill House episodes 1-5 is my favorite horror of all time. The child actors are excellent. The characters are interesting and likable. The director trusts the actors to carry scenes that in other lesser shows and movies other directors focus on effects.

To me, the series feels over after episode 5. The rest of the series answers questions I didn't have and undoes some things I liked.

Re:Haunting of Hill House

[Nidi62]

Netflix's Haunting of Hill House episodes 1-5 is my favorite horror of all time. The child actors are excellent. The characters are interesting and likable. The director trusts the actors to carry scenes that in other lesser shows and movies other directors focus on effects.

Hill House was great. I liked that most of the horror/terror aspects were subtle with only a few jump (and in one case drop) scares. One neat aspect was the "hidden" ghosts in the backgrounds that become more and more visible and obvious to the audience as the story progresses. And episode 6 with the long shots was very good from a technical standpoint. And you are right, the child acting was some of the best I've seen in a while.

Re:Haunting of Hill House

[Walter White]

We enjoyed watching it but felt the ending was a little disappointing.

My Favorites of 2018 by Genre ...

[mahanerd01]

Science Fiction: Altered Carbon (Netflix) / Annihilation (theatre) / The Expanse (this season was a bit uneven, but the end was awesome) / A Quiet Place

Fantasy: The Magicians (the way they twist tropes is awesome) / The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (nice BTVS clone ;-) / Lucifer (thank God for Netflix picking this up) / The Good Place (yeah, I count it as fantasy)

Mainstream: Killing Eve (ok, the last 15 min was weird - and not in a good way) / Sorry to Bother You

Blockbusters: Ready Player One / Infinity War / The Incredibles / Ant Man & the Wasp

Documentary: Wont you be my neighbour (I cried - and so did everyone else) / Active Measures

My top two

[Quirkz]

The Good Place. No TV show has amused me more.

Spiderverse was lots of fun.

Those are the only two that stuck out so much I've gone around recommending them to others.

Re:Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's o

[AmiMoJo]

The Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime is rarely mentioned but actually great. Just starting season 3. Season 1 is a little slow but 2 is excellent.

Daredevil season 3 was pretty good too, and Luke Cage season 2.

Re:Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's o

[PopeRatzo]

I have a bit of a problem with Marvelous Ms. Maisel. There is this subtext that runs throughout, usually played for laughs, that career is more important than family and love. I don't know if it's just some kind of pro-capitalist agit-prop or just a perpetuation of the myth that all great people have to suffer and make the people around them miserable in order to succeed. I enjoy the show except for that.

sweet spot

[PopeRatzo]

I really ended up liking Succession on HBO. Also, My Brilliant Friend.

Altered Carbon was good, and so was the Good Place. The third season of Patriot was also pretty terrific in it's own way, and featured my old Chicago friend, Tony Fitzpatrick in an interesting role.

Not much difference in movies from when I was 12..

[mykepredko]

Here are top 50 big movies of 1974 (according to IMDB):
- The Godfather: Part II
- Black Christmas
- Blazing Saddles
- Chinatown
- Airport 1975
- Death Wish
- Young Frankenstein
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
- Murder on the Orient Express
- The Conversation
- The Man with the Golden Gun
- Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
- The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
- Zardoz
- The Towering Inferno
- The Great Gatsby
- The Arena
- Foxy Brown
- Phantom of the Paradise
- Lenny
- The Longest Yard
- The Night Porter
- A Woman Under the Influence
- Flesh Gordon
- Emmanuelle
- The Sugarland Express
- The Odessa File
- Deranged: Confessions of a Necrophile
- Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
- Dark Star
- Claudine
- We All Loved Each Other So Much
- The Tamarind Seed
- Swallows and Amazons
- The Lords of Flatbush
- Gone in 60 Seconds
- Female Trouble
- Arabian Nights
- The Land That Time Forgot
- Earthquake
- It's Alive
- Benji
- Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
- Vampyres
- Mame
- The Little Prince
- The Teacher
- Truck Turner
- Undercovers Hero
- Deep Throat Part II

There are great dramas, horror, comedies, chick flicks, kids movies, Thrillers/heist movies, James Bond/disaster movies (which were the bubble gum movies of the time - today it's superhero movies).

The only big difference that I see is that looking back, porn seems to have been more mainstream back then.

History channel and Discovery

[pgmrdlm]

Curse of Oak Island

New myth busters

Re:History channel and Discovery

[pgmrdlm]

I will have to look for Treasure Quest, I think I had seen something on it. Your right, The new myth busters are not as good as the old, but I still like watching it.

Remember Geraldo and Al Capone's vault? I hope that isn't what happens to Oak Island.

Outlander

[pierceelevated]

So sue me. I'm a romantic.

More love for...

[vell0cet]

One show that I absolutely loved but hasn't gotten much recognition on these lists/polls is Cobra Kai. I hope they do more of these "non-reboots" where actors reprise their old roles (arguably, the new Halloween was this as well).

Re:More love for...

[Black LED]

Cobra Kai is fucking awesome. I'm looking forward to the new season next year.

Re:More love for...

[Ecuador]

I was getting nervous scrolling down and not seeing it mentioned until the last moment...
I've watched it 3 times so far. First by myself - started and couldn't stop. The other two times when I introduced similar-age friends to it (I am 39) and again they had to binge watch it after getting hooked from the first episode and I happily joined them.
It is a great stand-alone series, but for anyone who liked the Karate Kid back in the day, there was nothing better on TV this year. They did almost everything right, it paid homage, copied exactly the right amount - nicely twisting some thing along the way, gave new perspective to the old story, while building new stuff. And William Zabka' performance is amazing.

sorry to bother you

[citylivin]

Man 'sorry to bother you' was an amazing alternate reality that hit a bit too close to home if you have ever worked with a call centre.

Absolutely surreal and hilarious. The movie summed up many fears about the service based economy we are all one day expected to work in. Absurdist black scifi comedy, in both senses of the word "black". Get ready for a proper mind fucking! Just gets more surreal as the movie progresses to its logical conclusion. Reminds me of something like shaun of the dead, but more societal commentary and less violence.

Re: Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's

[TJHook3r]

Altered Carbon - so good. Cinema experience in bingeable chunks!

Movies ('cuz I don't watch TV)

[rally2xs]

Bad Samaritan
Ready Player One
Unsane
Annihilation
12 Strong

The list of 2018 trash would be a lot longer.

2018

[Cajun Hell]

Due to today's CenturyLink outage, my VPN to home is down so I can't easily look at what I've been watching, leaving me to rely on [oh, the horror!] my memory. That's bad for movies, but for TV there were three great shows very easy to recall off the top of my head:

• Bobcat Goldthwait's Misfits and Monsters. It's a Twilight Zone/Black Mirror/Inside No 9 kind of thing, but lightheartedly funny. Sometimes I forget how much I love Bobcat, but then stuff like this reminds me.
• Who Is America? Sasha Baron Cohen does his usual Borat thing (trolling people) but I liked this quite a bit more than his movies. He found some absolute fuckwits and gave them all the rope they wanted, and they tied such wonderful nooses before stepping in and hoisting themselves.
• Mike Judge's Tales from the Tour Bus. This was better last year (country), but this year's (funk) was still good. I wonder what genre he'll do next.

For movies, about all I remember is liking The Death of Stalin and Sorry to Bother You. Don't remember anything else.

For music I've mostly been exploring the 1970s for the last couple years, but I seem to remember the new Weedpecker album was pretty good. (Funny name, Weedpecker, but once you hear them you stop laughing.)

No movies, but....

[acvh]

Altered Carbon
Forever
Homecoming
Buster Scruggs
A Series of Unfortunate Events

Re:Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's o

[fredrated]

- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (this seems to be straddling the line between "Movie" and "Streaming")

Ignoramus here, can someone tell me the difference between 'movie' and 'streaming'?

Re:Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's o

[mykepredko]

I define "Streaming" as a story told over multiple installments (four or more) as opposed to a "movie" which is just a single installment.

Buster Scruggs has six installments which is why I labeled it the way I did.

Re:Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's o

[d0rp]

Altered Carbon was incredible and completely unexpected.
Counterpart on Amazon Video was also great, and the second season just started.

Re:Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's o

[d0rp]

Season 3 of The Man in the High Castle really kicks things up a notch too...

Favorites 2018

[hoagsObject]

In terms of TV shows:
        - Godless (Netflix, Jeff Daniels is great as the villain)
        - Haunting of Hill House (Netflix)
        - Altered Carbon (Netflix)
        - Channel Zero: Dream Door (SyFy, Pretzel Jack is so creepy)
        - The Expanse (SyFy)
        - Counterpart (Starz, J.K. Simmons is great)
        - Doctor Who (BBC)
        - Killing Eve (BBC)
        - Snowfall (FX)
        - Cloak & Dagger (Freeform)
        - Travelers (Netflix)

Movies:
        - Black Panther
        - Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse (Visually amazing, with a great story)

Re:All terrible

[JMJimmy]

Television definitely.

Th only thing I'm enjoying is The Orville currently.

Two great ones

[dremon]

Le Bureau des légendes
Counterpart

good year for ambitious tv

[BellyJelly]

Altered Carbon was an epic series and The Expanse filled a Firefly-shaped hole in the schedules. Better Call Saul continued to feature great acting and story telling, with some of the best cinematography outside of an actual cinema. The Man in the High Castle finished strongly. Killing Eve was great until the end of the last episode. Detectorists was a whimsical delight, quite unlike anything else on TV.

UtÃya 22. juli

[fbobraga]

best movie I've seem this year: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7...

Re:Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's o

[fbobraga]

I was really impressed by 'Maniac' ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5... ) too... 'Homecoming' ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7... ) was very good also!

Re:Seriously?

[neoRUR]

Yes must have been on TV, maybe it was Sci-Fi.
The First Moon Landing was July 20th, 1969. I doubt they got a show out about Neil Armstrong and his life in 5 months after that.

Re:Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's o

[AmiMoJo]

Thanks, can't wait to binge it now.

Anime...

[DerekLyons]

Doesn't seem to be a lot of anime fans on /. nowadays...

The best anime I've seen this year are:

- A place Further than the Universe (A fantastic coming-of-age story.)
- Laid Back Camp (Girls go camping, a show much better than a simple summary can express.)
- Hinamatsuri (Well done satire/dark comedy/social commentary.)

- IRODUKU : The World in Colors may make the list if it sticks it's landing tomorrow.

Re:Anime...

[LainTouko]

Hinamatsuri seems to be on every top anime of the year list I see, it might be the objective champion of 2018. But while it was great, my favourite thing which crossed into this year was the second series of 3-gatsu no Lion.

Re:Anime...

[dunkelfalke]

Nothing really stood this year, forcing me to mostly rewatch old stuff. Well okay, attack on titan finally had a couple of good moments with the third season, on the other hand, steins; gate 0 was even more a disappointment than expected.

It seems that most of my favourite anime is from the previous decade.

Best and worst movies

[radaos]

Best movies I've seen in 2018
Factual:
        Free Solo
        First Man
Somewhat factual:
        BlacKkKlansman
Fiction:
        The Hate U Give
        Revenge
        Cold War

And the worst of 2018:
        Black Panther
        Formulaic, poor CGI, supposedly concerns an independent black nation - but one that needs the CIA to ensure the correct warlord holds power -Uh, right.

        Sorry to Bother You
        A satirical comedy where the jokes aren't funny and the satire is blunt as a baseball bat. So bad I should have walked out. That's 111 minutes I will never get back.

Re:Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's o

[pslytely psycho]

Personally, I found Solo to be a good Star Wars movie, but a terrible origin story.

not much

[Megane]

I haven't had cable in years, and I barely find anything Hollywood puts out worth the effort of watching it. But I did go to one movie this year. Ready Player One was pretty good, yes the story was tinkered with, but it was like the "hundredth retelling" kind of differences, and basically it was fun. TV-wise, I haven't been keeping up my DVR stuff from the antenna the past few months. I've been two weeks behind on Jeopardy for a while, and three weeks now.

The Orville was maybe the best thing "this" year (actually it was the end of 2017, right?) and I'm looking forward to its return Sunday night. It turned out better than I expected from the original promos. I suspect they pitched the "Married with Crew" angle to sucker Fox into taking it, then quickly it turned into STTNG with snark turned up to 11. There was also a Fox show called "Ghosted" that I had fun watching, and I think there's still a few episodes I haven't watched yet. Star Trek Discovery (STD) can die in a fire. I watched the first "episode" that CBS grudgingly broadcast, and it was just plain bad.

Young Sheldon is good, and I got some '80s nostalgia from it. (It takes place in the late '80s, but it presumably takes culture a while to reach rural East Texas, so it feels more like the early '80s.) I grew up as a brainy kid in rural areas in the '70s, so I can relate. Oh yeah, and Brooklyn Nine Nine is back!

I haven't been watching anime for a few months, and I can only remember what I did watch this year because it's in a folder where I can sort by date. Isekai Izakaya, Pop Team Epic, and on the cute side, Hakumei to Mikochi, Card Captor Sakura Clear Card, and Mitsuboshi Colors.

No good movies, some good TV

[walterbyrd]

- Humans
- Better Call Saul
- South Park
- Fargo

Game of Thrones is great, but I don't think it was on in 2018.

my favs

[Layth]

Impulse on youtube was the best series I saw from 2018

I really liked the cbs show Star Trek discovery - it was a shameless rip off of sci-fi's Dark Matter but with higher production value and an improved 2.0 script.

Sean William Scott (Stiffler) has been really entertaining on Lethal Weapon as a replacement for the lead in season 3.
You can jump right into season 3 and don't need to watch the first two seasons. That dude is great, loved him in the film "before I go" too

Okay so movies.. I haven't seen any movies this year that are good enough to go down in history

The Expanse (and a nod to Parts Unknown.)

[Walter White]

I discovered The Expanse last year and really looked forward to Season 3. I was not disappointed. I've also read some of the books and they seem to have a *lot* of material to continue.

I also watched some "Parts Unknown" and have to give a nod to Anthony Bourdain - RIP. I can't say that this was one of the best shows on TV but it did touch me. I'm watching the end of the Seattle episode which gives me chills. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:Seriously?

[gravewax]

I do partly agree, though I did enjoy Infinity War. Black Panther was so bad I still have only watched the first half, not sure what the fuck others see in it, maybe it gets better later in the movie? regardless I can't think of a single movie this year that was standout.

Re: HBO and Netlix and The Last Jedi.

[hendric]

The hyperdrive kamikaze had a couple of things going for it

1. They weren't expecting it. They were focused on the fleeing ships.

2. They were close.

3. The cruiser had the time to turn and active drives.

The move wasn't her original choice. She only initiated it when it was clear they were not buying that the cruiser was continuing on its own.

It could easily be technobabbled against for future engagements.

1. A small ship attempting this would be splattered against the shields.
2. You would have to be incredibly close else you would completely miss. Evasive maneuvers would be trivial to do.
3. You have to be aligned with your target, which means time spent turning, and getting hammered by their heavy weapons.

Re: HBO and Netlix and The Last Jedi.

[hendric]

My problem with Last Jedi is that with 2 minutes of editing they could have a much more sensible scene. Holdo should have dressed down the pilot, not Leia. Maybe have Leia stand there listening as she rips his ass, and then after he leaves says "I like him".

Instead Holdo just appears from nowhere dressed like a prom queen. W T F ? Where was she when the rest of the command staff got obliterated? Fixing her face in the Admiral's bathroom? Sure, the Mon Calimari cruisers used to be cruise lines, but shit the general staff should n't dress like it still is one. Or maybe the bad guys attacked during Rebel Prom Night?

(quietly)

[sheramil]

Episode 6 of Karmapirates' "Dynamo" came out.

Re:Movies on way out/Streaming coming in to it's o

[dunkelfalke]

Only if you are a fan of telenovelas. Because honestly, this is how most of the third season feels like. Pure melodrama with a sprinkle of alternative history.

The Sisters Brothers

[nanospook]

I think this came out in July but I don't recall seeing it. But I caught it a few days ago and throughly enjoyed this quirky Western about two brothers who kill for a living and their last mission together hunting a Chemist who figured out how to find Gold. Very original and very thought provoking.

3-gatsu no Lion

[DerekLyons]

Honestly, the 2nd season of 3-gatsu no Lion doesn't belong on any top list... It IS a top list, all by itself.

I didn't list it though as it's not really accessible if you haven't seen the 1st season.