2004 Film

This year I watched 50 different films, 1/2 as many as last year, but with about 38 of them being things i'd never seen before, there was a bit more selection involved rather than just trying to get the numbers.

Best film of 2004 - extremely difficult choice between The Last Samurai, Lost in Translation and Eternal Sunshine. I think Samurai might just edge it out, although that could be rose tinted glasses going back a long way.
Most enjoyable film of 2004 - Shrek 2 largely thanks to an amazing soundtrack
This didn't suck as much as i thought it would - I, Robot
Everyone else seemed to like it but me - Spiderman 2, too preachy, too much whining
Best turnaround of a series - Harry Potter 3 with a new maturity and much better film than the previous 2
What a waste - Troy, not a bad film as such, just such a waste of amazing material
Geeky delight - Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Van Helsing. Cheese!
Please god don't make me watch this again - Chronicals of Riddick
Best Surprise - Lemony Snicket, beautiful direction and design
Notable Acting - I loved Jude Law in Alfie, even if I didn't think much of the actual film, Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet were absolutely perfect in Eternal Sunshine and Scarlet Johanssen acted Bill Murrey off the screen by not saying a thing I thought. Paul Bettany deserves note for finally breaking into leading man role and being utterly charming in Wimbledon and Ron Perlman was great in Hellboy. Emma Watson from Harry Potter is easily acting circles around her co-stars
Best Score - John William's Harry Potter score was a wonderful mix of styles bringing some new life to the old themes.
Best Soundtrack - I had the Shrek 2 soundtrack on loop in my car for weeks - Holding Out for a Hero by Jennifer Saunders!

Looking ahead to 2005 - Big stuff like Star Wars, Batman Begins and Fantasic Four doesn't particularly excite me I'm afraid. I'm really looking forward to Ocean's 12 because the first one was so pretty and shiny. I have my fingers crossed for Hitchikers Guide and am deeply sceptacle of Spielberg and Cruise's War of the Worlds. Tim Burton's Willy Wonka should be interstingly trippy if the trailer is anything to go by. Next December is fantasy time again with Harry Potter 4 and Narnia fighting it out with King Kong (now there's an image). But the thing that I'm counting the days until Serenity!

2004 Television

Erm - it appears that I may have watched 25 seasons of 'stuff' on tv. This scares me quite a lot actually especially as I'm fairly certain that there's stuff I've missed off the list!
Reviews can be found either at the links on livejournal or here.
The 4400
Buffy: Season 1
Carnivale: Season 1
C.S.I.: Season 3
Dead Like Me: Season 2
Enterprise: Season 3
ER: Season 1 and 2
Jeremiah: Season 2
The West Wing: Season 1, 2, 4, 5 and Season 5
Will And Grace: Season 3 and 4
Dark Angel: Season 2
Stargate SG1: Season 1, 2 and 7
Farscape: Season 1, 2, 3 and 4
Northern Exposure: Season 1
Wonderfalls: Season 1 I think I've not seen one episode of, but frankly I'm a bit confused thanks to the screwed up airings.

I'm also half way through season 1 of Battlestar Galactica, Stargate Atlantis, CSI Miami and Lost, season 8 of SG1, season 6 of West Wing and season 4 of Enterprise mostly paused due to tv stations viciously only showing one episode a week or some very screwed up dvd release schedules (which are also to blame for me STILL not having seen Angel season 5!).

Most pleasant surprise - I tried to hate Battlestar Galactica, really I did. I hate when producers muck with old concepts (Thunderbirds *hiss spit*) and re-imagine them. I hated all the advanced rumours - sex chages galore and sat down to watch the mini-series determined to hate it. But couldn't. Then the series actually got better! Sci-fi as it should be - harsh, engaging, challenging, daring, funny and stylish.
The Swines How Could They... - Cancel Wonderfalls. Yes, cancelling Angel was an equally bizarre and stupid thing to do, but I felt the Wonderfalls cancellation was that extra bit cruel and stupid coming after only airing 4 episodes to critical acclaim. Angel at least got fair notice and was able to run it's course.
Sinking Ship Alert! - Enterprise. Season 4 is trying desperately but it's a long uphill battle that they've started too late. They knew they had problems before season 3 started and they still didn't manage to make the show any better! It had potential and there's lots of interesting stuff they could do with the founding of the Federation etc but instead they chose to keep ignoring fans and doing extensive arcs about aliens never seen before or since. Ugh.
Best New Show- A tough choice, but I think Battlestar edges out Lost just slightly at the moment. Battlestar gets the points for being brave and for making the most of what must have looked like a risky investment. Lost is an extremely close second with extraordinarily compelling storylines, beautiful rounded and mysterious characters and simple adictiveness. Stargate Atlantis is a very worth addition to the franchise doing exactly what SG1 does so well (character interactions, action and humour) just in a different galaxy. Carnivale is a fascinating series, even if I'm still not sure whether I like it or not. and I look forward to seeing what The 4400 can do next year.
Wow, I'd forgotten how good this was - ER back in the days with the small core cast which actually spent all it's time in the ER.
Favourite show & best show - Hands down, easy winner of both these is The West Wing. It's been my obsession for the last few months and while I realise that I'm late to the party I'm making up for tardiness with enthusiasm. Even the relatively poor 5th season can't dent my appreciation for the superb scripts and amazing acting, I'd watch these people read instruction manuals if Aaron Sorkin was writing them. It's of course a huge help that the political leanings of the show match my own and describe things I believe in so much more eloquently than I ever could. Plus - everything I know about American politics I learnt here. I watched 3 seasons of this in 2 weeks and only stopped because I ran out of dvds. EVERYONE should watch this show.

2005 - Looking forward to the rest of the new seasons and the renewals although I'm looking through slitted fingers at Enterprise and West Wing ;0) Also looking forward to finally being able to get CSI S4 and Angel S5 on dvds. I've also got Law and Order S1 on the way so I can jump on another bandwagon nice and late. I'd like to try and catch Hex and am actually planning on watching on tv (shocking concept) Desperate Housewives.

2004 Books

I seem to have read 29 books this year, not a hugely impressive number considering how many books I want to read, I'm wondering if I've actually lost a few as I would have expected there to be more non-fiction in there. I think maybe subscribing to Total Film which I read cover to cover every month has shoved a couple of books off ;0)


Isaac Asimov: City of Steel
Iain Banks: Dead Air
Iain Banks: The Business
Iain Banks: The Crow Road
Iain M. Banks: Excession
Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451
Dan Brown: The DaVinci Code
Steven Brust: The Paths of the Dead
Bill Bryson: Notes From a Big Country
Bill Bryson: A Short History of Nearly Everything
Arthur C. Clarke: Childhood's End
Hal Clements: Misson of Gravity
Max Allan Collins CSI Miami: Heat Wave
Max Allan Collins CSI Miami: Florida Getaway
Max Allan Collins: CSI: Grave Matters
Jasper Fforde: Something Rotton
Arthur Golden: Memoirs of a Geisha
Mark Haddon: The Curious Incidence of the Dog in the Midnight
Reginald Hill: Good Morning Midnight
Tom Holt: The Portable Door
Juliet E. McKenna: Northern Storm
Terry Pratchett: Going Postal
Paul Ruditis and Ian Jackman: The Official Companion: The West Wing
Carl Sagan: Contact
Steven Sherrill: The Minotaur takes a Cigarette Break
Dan Simmons: Ilium
Alexander McCall Smith: The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Theodore Sturgeon: More Than Human
Simon Winchester: Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded


Not many of the books on there are actually this years releases, making the following a rather odd collection:
Best Book of the year - probably Haddon's Curious Incidence of the Dog in the Midnight combining an interesting and different idea with a decent plot and readable style.
Most enjoyable book of the year - I continue to love Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe novels and Good Morning Midnight was a strong return to self contained novels after a brief trip into series territory. Juliet McKenna also continued her Aldebreshi series in style with the un-put-downable Northern Storm (review), even if there wasn't anything particularly novel about it. Dan Simmons' Ilium (review) was also great fun for all it's flaws.
Disappointment of the year - That Ilium wasn't actually the retelling of the Iliad in a sci-fi skin. Close 2nd was Jasper Fforde's possible conclusion to the Thursday Next series Something Rotten (review) which utterly failed to do anything. Terry Pratchett's Going Postal (review) was also rather disappointing in that it felt mostly like a retelling of The Truth, but it was still a fun read.
Worst book - The cursed DaVinci Code (review) plenty of people have ranted about this book for all it's inaccuracies, my primary complaint is that it's just a plain crap story and writing style!
Best non-fiction - considering my apparent lack of reading in this area this is not a tough competition for Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything to win, but it is a truly superb sumary of the history of stuff that we know today, extensively researched, beautifully structured and entertaining to read - I recommend it to absolutely everyone.
Worst non-fiction - Simon Winchester's Krakatoa suffered from horrible structuring, painful writing style and an utter lack of flow. I'm half way through his Map That Changed the World which is suffering from many of these issues as well. Ugh.
Discoveries of the year - I finally started reading Banks (I tend to be rather behind the crowd on these things) and while I'm not certain about his sf work, I love his non-sf stuff. I'm also jumping on board the Bill Bryson bandwagon, Short History was absolutely superb and the Notes From a Big Country were hilarious and matching my attitudes and opinions nicely.

2005 - I've just started Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrel as everyone's nagging has overpowered my objection to trying to read breeze blocks. I've also got Baxter and Clarke's Time's Eye to read which I've been looking forward to. I'm looking forward to the new Reginald Hill, Juliet McKenna, J.K. Rowling and Terry Pratchetts as usual and to the 2nd part of Ilium, although I flat refuse to buy it in hardback so may have to wait. A new Steven Brust is hopefully on the way later in the year if his blog is anything to go by but I'm not going to hold my breath. I'm also planning on reading more non-fiction and have an intersting line-up of history books.