2018 was a long year. It was a very, very long year. It's hard for me to even believe that Black Panther came out in 2018. It really does feel like that was at least a couple years ago. A very long year.
But 2018 was really very sparse as far as good television and movies. It really does feel that compared to most years, we didn't get nearly the volume of quality movies and television. As it turns out, even the books I read weren't as good as many years. This may be in part due to the number of Iron Kingdoms novels I read. They're fun, but not quality literature. And because I spent more time painting miniatures than playing video games in what little free time I've got, my list of games for this year is also kind of sad.
Best Movie: Infinity War. This shouldn't even be a surprise. The ending was an absolute gutpunch, as evidenced by more than one reaction video I've seen. My 11-year-old daughter told me right after the movie ended that she hated it, although she's since gotten over that. The ending was a hugely ballsy move on Marvel's behalf, and I loved it. It's too bad that Sony went and spoiled the fact that the heroes are coming back by announcing Spider-Man 2, but Sony's actions are out of Marvel's control.
Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse was a great film. It had excellent voice-acting and great characters. It was funny, it was different, and the animation allowed it to be far more stylistic and comic booky than the live action films. I've heard some reviews call it the best film of 2018. And yeaah... no. I found myself at first wanting to lean into that sentiment, but then I realized it was just me geeking out in the entertainment desert that is 2018, and wanting to like the film even more than I already did. Into the Spiderverse is a great movie, and I highly recommend it. But for me, it's not better than Infinity War.
And yes, I didn't choose Black Panther. For whatever reason, although I really like the movie, I don't like it nearly as much as everyone else seems to. It was a great movie, but then again, Marvel has done a lot of great movies.
Annihilation and The Endless were also both pretty good. I've seen each of them two or three times at this point. But they're not tops for me. I'm also not including a lot of other 2018 films which I just didn't get to see. This includes A Star is Born, First Man, and Incredibles 2.
Best Television: Daredevil Season 3. Previously the first season of Daredevil, which was the first of the Marvel Netflix shows, was the best of them. Followed closely by the first season of Jessica Jones. I really enjoyed Luke Cage, I liked Punisher, and the second season of Iron Fist got a lot better. But when season three of Daredevil came out, it was noticeably better than nearly all of the previous Marvel Netflix content. This was largely due to Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk, but really the whole cast was great. And the plot was great. This was Kingpin coming into his own as The Kingpin, and I loved it.
Honorable mention on this one goes to Steven Universe, which I still love. It's a great cartoon, and Linda and I enjoy it just as much as the kids. I've recently written an article called Why You Should Be Watching Steven Universe over at GeekDad.com. I haven't yet watched more than the first couple episodes of Travelers season three, but I'm hopeful that the show will continue to be really good.
Best Book: Artemis. Andy Weir's second book was good, although not nearly as good as The Martian. It had a great plot, and pretty consistent action along with good science. My main complaint is that Andy Weir appears not to know how to write a female character. I'd have made Oathbringer my number one book in 2018, as I finished reading it in January or February, but it was my pick for 2017, so I really can't double dip like that. The Three Body Problem and Waking Gods were also pretty decent, although I can't put either above Artemis.
Best Video Game: This category is almost falling off, as I don't play games nearly as often as I once did. When I do play games, they're pretty much all casual games that I can pick up and play for 15 minutes or less. I'd been just about ready to reluctantly choose Pixeljunk Monsters 2 as my game-of-the-year, but Steam had a winter sale, and I bought a little game called Inside. It reminds me a lot of Limbo, which I also really enjoyed. I played through the entire game in three sittings in less than a week, and it was just what I needed. A bite-sized game.
If I had to pick a runner-up game, it would most certainly be Neuroshima Hex, which I've played on my phone pretty consistently for many years now. It really is the best phone game.
Other games I played this year include the new Doom remake, which I nearly completed, and Batman: Arkham Knight, which I did not. I also played a bunch of D&D: Tower of Doom, largely for nostalgia purposes, and a good bit of Trine 2, which gets frustrating at the later levels.
That's my 2018. Here's hoping that 2019's offerings are better!