Year in Review

Best T.V. series- The Wire. Yes, I realize this outs me as being whiter than mayo on Wonder Bread, but screw it. All that raving about it from whiteys from 'Salon' to 'The New York Times' actually is merited. Yes, it is the rare t.v. event that you can describe as being like a novel. (I don't want to get too pretentious, but comparisons to Les Miserable are not unwarranted in this case...) In fact, as I go through the rest of the series- I'm on season two now- I'll be commenting on it in the new year.

Mad Men was pretty good, too, though having Don Draper take an extended vacation through Los Angles put his character arc in a holding pattern that really didn't need to be there, I think. Also, there's talk that series creator Matthew Weiner might not be coming back next season, which, if true, doesn't bode well for the rest of the series...

Finally, I've jumped with both feet aboard the 'revamped' Battlestar Galactica franchise, with the Christmas bonus of seasons one and two coming my way. I'll be commenting on that in the new year as well.

Best comics- Acme Comics and Stories, by Chris Ware. Ware can do no wrong, as far as I'm concerned. I've noticed a huge Chris Ware backlash of recent, however. While he's done more to advance the vocabulary of the comics medium this side of Jack Kirby, I imagine the people who don't like his work are put off not only by the sheer effort into reading his work-seriously, you need a magnifying glass-but the overall bleak tone of his stories.

Best Movie- Wall-E. 'nuff said.

Well, 'Dark Knight' was okay, but 'Iron Man' beat it out for sheer comic book fun. Robert Downey Jr. has Christian Bale beat in the 'layabout rich kid' department, besides. (Yes, smarty-pants, I saw some 'real' movies, as well.)

Best video game- Grand Theft Auto IV. Duh. Honorable mentions: Fallout 3, LittleBig Planet (which ate up all my free time at my brother's place during the holidays.)

Guiltiest pleasure: Loveline with Dr. Drew and Stryker- It's a 'breeder' version of Dan Savage's advice column, in that there's no pretext of helping people out with, er, intimate issues, and anyone who calls up is going to get it, both barrels. Their advice seems to consist of: "Seek Professional medical attention", "Stop sleeping with that person you are sleeping with." and, "Don't worry about it. Yes, it's fucked up, but you're not hurting yourself or others so really, don't worry about it." (As a pointless aside, they had on Tom Morello, the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, who encapsulated in a nutshell why politics in America are so fucked. In a nutshell: our man briefly worked as an aide to a senator, fielding calls from his constituents. One voter phoned the office, and wanted to know what the congressman was going to do about 'all them Messkins and Nigras' moving into her community. Morello, understandably, told her to go fuck herself and hung up. The next day, the congressman raked him over the coals for 'alienating a voter'. So Morello quit.)

New Gem in the Outhouse Dept: Virus comics, by a chap from Toronto improbably named Winston Roundtree. Unlike 99.9% of web cartoonists, he can actually draw, (his work has an Evan Dorkin quality to it) and he has a genuine point of view. Enjoy it while you can, for like all cartoonists with actual talent like Tim Krider or Tristan Farnon who foolishly put their work up on the Internet, he will eventually come to his senses and go on to do something that pays better and has more dignity attached to it. Like picking up spit from the floor of a sleazy bar with his bare hands, or biting the heads off chickens in a sideshow. For example.