Best and worst of 2016

 
BOOKS

Best 3 audiobooks that I listened to in 2016 (I’m unable to read books due to my illness so I have to listen to them):

1. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
2. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
3. Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

 
FILMS

Best 10 films that I saw for the first time in 2016:

Selma
Akeelah and the Bee
Star Trek Beyond
Finding Dory*
Zootropolis
The Man Who Knew Infinity
Eddie the Eagle
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
Captain America: Civil War
The Big Short

*I have never cried during a film in my whole life but with Finding Dory, for the first time ever, I shed two, maybe even three, teardrops. I wonder if you can guess in which scene?

The most disappointing films that I saw for the first time in 2016:

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens**
Midnight Special
Bridesmaids
Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie

**As someone who loved the first six Star Wars films – yes, even the prequels – I was shocked to find that I didn’t enjoy this; it was really bad. Not only did I get bored during the film, I found the new characters bland and it was hard to care about what happened to them. I hated how the old characters’ lives had played out; it wasn’t right. I’ll stick to what I always imagined had happened to the characters in my head and my imagined version of events – much better.

Worst films that I saw for the first time in 2016:

Deadpool [awful – I hated this]
The Wolf of Wall Street [ditto]
A Single Man [slow and boring]

Films that weren’t as bad as everybody said they were and I actually quite enjoyed:

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (extended cut)
Independence Day: Resurgence
Ghostbusters (2016)

Films that I’m most looking forward to seeing in 2017:

Moana
Queen of Katwe
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Beauty and the Beast (new Emma Watson version)
Doctor Strange
Lion
The Circle
The Shack
Thor: Ragnarok
Power Rangers
Arrival
Sully

 
TELEVISION

Best of the TV that I saw for the first time in 2016:

The Good Wife
Falling Skies
The Durrells

Best TV that I continued to watch new seasons of in 2016:

Masterchef Australia
University Challenge
The Graham Norton Show
Would I Lie to You
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Game of Thrones
Elementary
Castle
The Big Bang Theory
The 100
Gogglebox
Michael McIntyre’s Big Show
Home and Away
Only Connect

Most disappointing TV that I saw for the first time in 2016, which didn’t live up to the hype:

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life***
Luther
Stranger Things
True Detective

***Gilmore Girls is my second favourite TV show of all time (Chuck is my first) so I was really looking forward to ‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’ and was very excited. But I hated it, I’m afraid. I hated what they did to just about every single character and how their stories played out, especially what they did to Rory. Again, I’m sticking to what I always imagined happened to the characters in my head; my version of events is way better, if I do say so myself. There were a few good moments of ‘oh look! It’s that person! Nice to see them again after all this time.’ But otherwise it was all rather depressing, which the original seven seasons never were. The tone of the new episodes was just all wrong.

 
SPORT

Best Sporting Events of 2016:

1. The Olympics – see my take on my favourite parts here
2. Euro 2016

 
YOUTUBE

My 3 most-watched YouTube channels of 2016:

1. books and pieces – a booktuber with a particular focus on sci-fi and fantasy
2. PointlessBlogVlogs – vlog of Alfie Deyes
3. The Late Late Show with James Corden

 
BLOG

Best things that I’ve written in 2016 (allow me this self-indulgence):

My favourite fictional female characters:
https://www.jkrowbory.co.uk/2016/07/my-favourite-fictional-female-characters/

All the things that you never wanted to know about my life with an acute chronic illness:
https://www.jkrowbory.co.uk/2016/05/all-the-things-that-you-never-wanted-to-know-about-my-life-with-an-acute-chronic-illness/

My 100 question ditloid quiz in aid of M.E. Research UK and Annabelle’s Challenge:
https://www.jkrowbory.co.uk/2016/12/100-question-quiz/
– at the time of this blog post, there are just under two and a half days left to enter the quiz. Remember to get your answers in and donate! I’m really hoping that there will be a late surge in entries so that I can reach my fundraising target.

Words that help me:
https://www.jkrowbory.co.uk/2016/06/words-that-help-me/

All the television that I have ever seen:
https://www.jkrowbory.co.uk/2016/10/television/

 
PERSONAL

Best surprise of 2016:

For my 30th birthday, my Dad secretly travelled all over the UK to film at and tell anecdotes at significant places in my life, from where I was born to many of the different places where we’ve lived, as well as filming little bits with my brothers and a couple of other relatives. On my birthday, I was presented with the DVD of this. I couldn’t believe that he’d done all that for me. I felt very loved and special. It was really emotional. Wonderful to see all the places that I hadn’t seen in such a long time and all the memories that came along with that.

Biggest disappointment of 2016 (excluding health-related stuff obviously, which is too horrific to mention):

Due to the combination of (a) being bed-bound and (b) not being able to read books, I obviously haven’t been able to see/read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. As a massive Harry Potter fan, this is upsetting and I’m desperate to know what happens. I hope that either a DVD of the play will be released or that an audiobook will be made. No spoilers until then please! (Although, I think that I may have accidentally seen a spoiler on twitter, which is devastating for me, but I’m not sure.)

 
What were your favourite and least favourite things of 2016?