So… 2017 was a dumpster fire of a year. It honestly was. If it wasn’t for the good things happening this year would not have been worth it. I am glad to be able to begin afresh in 2018 because 2017 has not been the most kind to anyone but it was definitely not great for me personally.
Personal Highlights
I went on holiday to Cyprus, my first holiday in about three or four years. My mom and I relaxed and read and drank cocktails and I honestly had a great beach holiday. It makes me want to travel more but I’m not brave enough to travel alone (yet) so if you guys have travelled alone please tell me motivating things so I can give it a shot.
Then there was my trip to Bath with friends for a hen do. It was a great weekend and I experienced my first spa day and loved it! It was a fun mix of history, drinks and relaxation and Bath has become one of the places I need to go to again.
I once more had a really fun bonfire night hanging out with the BFF. Dancing to music in a field and acting like kids (without the aid of alcohol). It was fun and not even that chilly and I really enjoyed that. Bonfire night isn’t always my favourite but that was a good night.
And finally, one of my friends got married! It was a great day, a little emotional and such fun. I’m glad I got to be there to see it all. The added bonus of seeing friends from school didn’t hurt either.
Top TV
I am not good at keeping track of TV but there were plenty of shows I loved this year and these are a few.
I have only recently started this one but it’s brilliant and I definitely want to watch the original Korean drama as well to see how the two shows compare. I am enjoying it so much to see an autistic MC and see his struggles to make it as a surgeon. It seems really well done and smart and so I am glad this show got made.
I will always adore this show and it’s almost wrapped up for another series. I think I love it because it’s set in my local area but it’s also a genuinely good show. Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy on my screen don’t hurt either. But yeah, I appreciate seeing Birmingham on the TV and even if some of the accent attempts are terrible I enjoy it every time. And some of it is filmed at The Black Country Museum and that’s not that far from me! Who doesn’t love seeing their local area on TV from time to time?
How could this not be on my list? I think this will be on plenty of folks favourites lists. I didn’t think this second season could possibly be as good as the first but they proved me wrong. It was just as good if not better in certain ways.
The other show I loved from Netflix was The Defenders, I watched the whole thing in a day and I loved it. Well done Netflix. I may not have been able to make it through Iron Fist but I could make it through this show. I cannot wait for Jessica Jones to return to my screen once more after watching this.
This show returned on Netflix for another season and it was just as brilliant as always. I will seriously watch this show forever. Yay for older women being the focus of a show. And yay for it being funny! This is better than half the comedies I see on TV and it’s back again soon for another season!
This was one weird ass TV show. I was confused about 90% of the time but it was so smart. I loved the fact it had Jemaine in it as well (from Flight of the Conchords) because I love that guy. I hope shows like this still get made even though Disney has closed a deal with Fox. It was dark and twisted and a little bit crazy and it worked! I admit that the Fox Marvel shows are better than the ABC ones by far and I hope they still get to be made because these are the shows I enjoy most. I know the ABC ones keep the tone of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but that doesn’t matter, they were cheesy and kind of bad.
Favourite Films
I forgot this film even came out this year but it was so good. I was amazed at the skill of James McAvoy playing so many different characters in one film. They were all so very distinct and he made his physical presence so different for each character that I actually forgot it was the same person at times. I loved this film and it gave me a strong urge to rewatch Unbreakable. And now I’ve done some googling I know there’s another film, Glass, scheduled to be out in 2019! Cannot wait, guys.
I saw this film at the cinema with my brother and even though I was forewarned it was emotional I cried. I admit I cried. I don’t think the X-Men films, or even the Wolverine films, have always been the best but I definitely feel like they’ve slowly been getting better as each film comes out and I really hope they carry on being made because Logan demonstrated the skill of these films. I may not have agreed that Hugh Jackman was the best actor to play Wolverine (too tall) but he certainly did justice to his character and that was never more obvious than in this film.
Guys, this is a satirical horror about racism. This film was genius. It got you thinking and there were comedy elements in the form of Rod, but as a whole, it is a horror film meant to shine the light on the racism prevalent in the US and the west in general and it does that well. I watched this film because it looked so smart and my friend and I loved it and were shocked by it and it really did its job. It had laugh out loud moments but also moments which shocked me. I actually read that there was another ending planned for this film and when I was watching I expected that ending but it was decided it should be happier and I’m kind of glad for it.
Who wasn’t excited about this Disney film? I adored every second of it and I bought it on Blu-Ray to rewatch over and over. It was one of my favourite films growing up and it’s still a favourite of mine. My one friend didn’t enjoy it as much as she hoped but I call her crazy. I loved it.
I was a bit late to the game with this one. I didn’t get to see this in the cinema but I got to see it on TV afterwards and I wasn’t sure it would meet my Finding Nemo expectations but much like the Toy Story films were so well done that you couldn’t fault the sequels, the sequel game was strong in this one too.
Talking about strong sequel game, John Wick 2 managed to surprise me with how good it actually was. I adored it. My one friend had an issue with the one death scene in it but as a whole, it was so so good. I didn’t think it would be as good as the first but turns out Keanu Reeves can still make brilliant films and this is one of them. I cannot wait for there to be third John Wick film. I need more.
And what better film to end my list with than Thor: Ragnarok. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see this or not because Thor was my least favourite of the heroes in the MCU but he’s moved right to the to with this film. Taiki Waititi is my hero after watching this and I’ve also remembered my Chris Hemsworth crush. He is hot and funny, how many celebrities can say that?
Top Music
Foo Fighters // P!nk // Linkin Park
Kesha // Ed Sheeran // Taylor Swift
I wasn’t sure how to figure out my favourite music of 2017… then Spotify gave me a list of my most played. It was really accurate apart from Taylor Swift’s new album wasn’t there enough as I bought it on iTunes. These are the highlights on my music, though. They are the artists I couldn’t stop listening to and the ones I will continue to listen to on repeat.
What are your non-bookish/blogging favourites of 2017? It’s easy to get down on this year, but I admit it wasn’t all bad.
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