Lists of 2013

Usual disclaimer: This is not a complete list, as there's plenty of good stuff I didn't get to in 2012. But of the stuff I got to, this is what I liked. The lists are roughly in order, but sometimes I liked the #7 pick just as much as the #1 pick...

Favorite Books:
(Note: These are books I read in 2013, and not necessarily books released in 2013)

1. Life After Life - Kate Atkinson

2. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra

3. Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

4. Where'd You Go Bernadette - Maria Semple

5. The Circle - Dave Eggers

6. The Good Lord Bird - James McBride

7. This is Where I Leave You - Jonathan Tropper

8. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler

9. The Submission - Amy Waldman

10. Tenth of December - George Saunders

11. Denialism - Michael Specter

12. The Interestings - Meg Wolitzer

13. Arcadia - Lauren Groff

14. Underworld - Don DeLillo

15. The Lowland - Jhumpa Lahiri

16. The Middlesteins - Jami Attenberg

17. Bobcat and Other Stories - Rebecca Lee

18. The Flamethrowers - Rachel Kushner

19. Beautiful Ruins - Jess Walter 

20. Orange is the New Black - Piper Kerman

Favorite TV:

1. Breaking Bad (excellent series finale)

2. Orange is the New Black (so many amazing characters!)

3. The Good Wife (fantastic new storyline to keep the show fresh in season 5)

4. Enlightened (so sad this show was canceled)

5. The Americans (I love Keri Russell. I love the outfits/wigs. I love the music.) 

6. Game of Thrones (Two words: Red Wedding)

7. Brooklyn 99 (Reminds me a lot of Parks & Recreation --was even created by the same guy, Michael Schur) 

8. 30 Rock (I loved the finale episodes -- so funny and touching. Great reminder of how fantastic the writing is on this show. Another excellent series finale.)

9. Parks & Recreation (Still bringing it. Still has my heart)

10. Masters of Sex (How charming is Lizzy Caplan?)

11. Key & Peele (The skits are just as hilarious and now they have an even bigger budget. Win-win. Too many favorite skits to name.)

12. Veep (Liked this season even more than the first. Great ensemble cast.) 

13. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (They were really on this season. Every episode was the right blend of hilarious and insane. From the season opener "The Gang Broke Dee" to the 100th episode "The Gang Saves the Day", to "Flowers for Charlie" which was written by Game of Thrones showrunners Benioff & Weiss, to their latest installment of Lethal Weapon. Loved it.)

14. The Writers' Room (Great new show hosted by Jim Rash where he interviews the writing staff of various shows. You get great behind-the-scenes commentary. Really loved the Breaking Bad, Parks & Rec, and Game of Thrones episodes.) 

15. Happy Endings (Ok, so this show was technically still on in 2013. But I completely missed this show. I don't think the show was packaged/advertised right, because I would see commercials for it and had no interest. But a pop culture critic I like really liked this show. So I gave it a chance when I found the DVDs for a ridiculously low price (and I do love Casey Wilson -- sad she was let go from SNL). And I'm so glad I did -- my siblings and I binge-watched it over Christmas. It's a really quick, witty show. There's a billion jokes a minute, with tons of pop culture references, in the style of 30 Rock (how many Scottie Pippen references can you find! And they have the meta jokes, like Elisha Cuthbert made a 24 joke and Damon Wayans Jr made an In Living Color joke). It's a great cast of characters, and there's the right amount of snark and awww friendship moments. So sad it was canceled after the third season.)

Notable Mentions: Mad Men, Girls, Homeland, House of Cards (great acting and neatly stylized, but man is that show dark), Portlandia, Community, Arrested Development, Best Week Ever (now with way more Adam Conover!), Drunk History. I also enjoyed ESPN's Nine for IX series (celebrating the anniversary of Title IX), particularly The '99ers, which was about the 1999 US Women's World Cup team.

Downton Abbey, I love ya, but what were you pulling with this 3rd season? Chipper it up a bit!
Sons of Anarchy is one of those shows I keep threatening to stop watching. But, man, that season finale...holy shit. 

And Dexter...man, that final season was depressing. Depressing in that it was terrible. It never felt like a final season. I kept thinking, "Well, there's 3 (2, 1) episodes left and it doesn't seem like they're wrapping things up..." And it wasn't interesting. And the decisions were odd. And it felt rushed and out of character. And the ending was terrible. It made me sad because Dexter has had its ups and downs throughout the years (and I stuck with it for better or worse), but there were some really good seasons and episodes. And I love Dexter and Deb as characters. But the last season was not representative of how good the show could be. Breaking Bad & 30 Rock's final seasons were representative of how good the show was, and they ended on a good, high note. The Dexter series finale just left a bad taste in my mouth. 

Favorite Movies:

1. The Heat

2. In a World...

3. Dallas Buyers Club

4. No

5. Stories We Tell

6. Frances Ha

7. American Hustle

8. Philomena

9. The Sapphires

10. Catching Fire

11. Walesa: Man of Hope

12. Atraco!

13. The Way Way Back

14. Enough Said

15. Before Midnight

16. Shadow Dancer

17. Who is Dayani Cristal?

18. Mud

19. What Maisie Knew

20. The Past

The above are all movies released in 2013. Early in the year is when I get a chance to see some of the Oscar-nominated movies from 2012 that I didn't get a chance to see. I enjoyed Searching for Sugarman, Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, How to Survive a Plague. 

The movies not released in 2013 but I really loved were Hello I Must Be Going, Your Sister's Sister, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and The Intouchables.