Best Of 2008! Or At Least In My Humble Opinion

So even though it’s a played and killed subject for a column, I decided to write a best of 2008 entry. Now this isn’t the best of everything out there, it’s just the best I saw/read. There was a lot out there I didn’t get around to doing, so don’t abuse me for missing out on something. As always though, feel free to throw in your two cents or recommend something I missed…

Tv shows:
Leverage –(TBS) Brand new show, almost a modern day A-Team. Every episode to date has been well written and very entertaining. What else can you ask for?
Chuck – (NBC) Very underrated comedy. Again, well written, funny (no laugh track so you have to be smart enough to know when to laugh without being told to do so) and very good acting
How I met your mother – (CBS) Paired with The Big Bang Theory it’s the most consistently funny hour of television on prime time right now.
Bones – (FOX) Consistently entertaining even though Fox does it best to lose viewers by constantly moving it on the schedule. It doesn’t hurt that my wife loves David Borenaz either, so there’s something for the ladies here.
Lost – (ABC) Positively the best show on tv and I will not debate this. Extraordinarily well written/acted and always makes you pay attention.

Movies:
Batman – We walked out of this movie and they only thing we could say is Wow. So good that you almost forget it’s a comic book.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall – The R rated comedy has had a recent resurgence and this movie just pushes the envelope a little further. I’ve watched it multiple times and still laugh at all the jokes even though I know they’re coming.
Iron man – This movie bothered me because it could have been so much better, but then you realize that it’s just the first of many Iron Man movies so it’s basically an introduction for the ungeeks out there. I think the real reason I loved it so much was because I was a huge Iron Man fan growing up and still have a lot of the comic books. NERD ALERT!
Hancock – Noticing a theme? Lots of super hero movies although this one puts a twist on the genre. A despondent, drunk super hero looking for a purpose. Then again, I love pretty much everything Will Smith is in, especially if it’s a summer blockbuster.

Worst movie
Indiana Jones – And no, this is not debatable. They took the man I most wanted to be growing up and tried their best to ruin him. It was horribly written and consisted mostly of generic one-liners. First Star Wars, now this. George Lucas has it out for me for some reason.


Music
All I really listen to is country and that doesn’t interest any of you so I won’t bore you here. But I will say you’re missing out.

Books:
13 Things That Don’t Make Sense by Michael Brooks – It’s essentially a chapter per subject, each dealing with common ideas/conceptions that aren’t true. Very interesting read.
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell – I haven’t quite finished this yet, but I highly recommend it. In it the author explores the reasons behind success and it’s really very fascinating.
Nothing To Lose by Lee Child - This wasn’t Child’s best work, but I still find all his books to be page turners and very entertaining. If you haven’t read any of his books, I highly recommend them

Phrase of the year:
We all know the phrase “jumping the shark”. It’s basically when a movie/tv show/even a person does something so fantastically unrealistic in an attempt to garner ratings/attention right before they hit rock bottom. It comes from the episode of Happy Days where The Fonze (leather jacket and all) is waterskiing and infamously jumps a bunch of sharks swimming underneath. Well that phrase has been replaced. The worst movie of the year gave us its replacement of “nuking the fridge”. Its definition is the same, it’s just a more updated example of this phenomenon. (in the movie, Indiana Jones somehow survives a nuclear blast while hiding in a refrigerator)