Things I Loved In 2017

Song
Katy Perry - Swish Swish
Katy Perry is undoubtedly one of the best pop stars that we have today but I know a lot of people weren't really feeling her latest album, Witness. A lot of the reviews were very negative & slammed Katy for trying to stay relevant by making 'purposeful pop' & being 'woke'. I for one absolutely love this album & every single she has put out. Chained To The Rhythm & Bon Appétit were both fab but I became truly obsessed with Swish Swish. The combination of the club beat & scathing lyrics is perfection. It's so much fun to sing along to & makes me feel like a sassy queen haha! Nicki Minaj's rap just makes it even better, she's the best part of the music video too. Apart from Nicki's appearance I'm not a huge fan of the video, the performance she did on SNL is so much better especially as it features Vivacious from Drag Race & Backpack Kid! One of my goals for 2018 is to learn how to do his dance...

Other Faves: Big Shaq - Mans Not Hot / Pharrell Williams & Trey Parker - Hug Me
Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do / Little Mix - Power


Album
Steven Universe - Soundtrack: Volume 1
Steven Universe is one of my favourite cartoons. I wish people wouldn't dismiss cartoons as something that's only for kids because if anime has taught us anything, cartoons can be very adult. There are many things I love about the show, from the animation style to the way it tackles adult themes in a way that's suitable for children. But the music is what first got me hooked. Rebecca Sugar, the creator of Steven Universe, has such a wonderful way with lyrics & has composed some incredible tunes to go along with the show. Aivi & Surasshu came up with the rest of the music and helped to develop Rebecca's ukelele demos into grand productions filled with emotion. This is definitely the album that I've listened to most this year. I love so many songs on this soundtrack but my favourites are Do It For Her, Stronger Than You, What Can I Do For You & It's Over Isn't It.

Other Faves: Billy Corgan - Ogilala / Katy Perry - Witness
Taylor Swift - Reputation / Lana Del Rey - Lust For Life


Book
Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn
Even though Sharp Objects came out in 2006, I only just got round to reading it this year. Gillian Flynn is such a brilliant writer, Gone Girl & Dark Places were so damn good. Sharp Objects was her debut novel but I read this one last & it's actually my favourite out of the three. It's about a newspaper reporter called Camille who goes back to her home town in Missouri to cover the murder of a young girl. Camille was hospitalised for self-harm & obviously has a lot of demons but when she reconnects with her family it's easy to see why. Like Gillian Flynn's other novels, it's full of twists & turns. She's a master when it comes to writing thrillers & I honestly couldn't put it down. HBO are currently turning this book into a TV show starring Amy Adams as Camille & I cannot wait to watch it!

Other Faves: Behind Closed Doors - B A Paris / Hunger - Roxane Gay
Body Positive Power - Megan Jayne Crabbe / Final Girls - Riley Sager


Film
Mother!
Darren Aronofsky is well known for his psychologically disturbing films & Mother! is no exception. This film is seriously fucked up but I think that's probably why I enjoyed it so much. The film starts with a happy couple who are doing up their house in the countryside. The house is in quite a remote location so things start to get a bit strange when a random man turns up one night & asks to stay. More people start turning up at the house & everything basically goes to shit. It soon becomes clear that this film isn't your standard home invasion movie but is actually a biblical & environmental allegory. It really makes you think about the way we treat the Earth & the impact of organised religion on society as well. I wouldn't recommend seeing it if you are religious or easily offended as there are some truly horrible scenes that even I found hard to stomach. This is one of those movies that will stay with me for a long time & it was definitely the most interesting cinematic experience I've had this year.

Other Faves: IT / Star Wars: The Last Jedi / Despicable Me 3 / Beauty & The Beast


TV Show
Mr Robot
Mr Robot is the best show on TV right now by far & it saddens me that more people don't know about it. I think it's mainly down to the fact that it's on Amazon Prime rather than Netflix but if you're looking for something new to binge watch, look no further. Mr Robot is about a guy called Elliot who works in cyber security. He also happens to be a hacker who hates society & often acts as a cyber-vigilante. Elliot suffers from anxiety, depression & has an addiction to morphine. One day when he's riding the Subway he meets an anarchist called Mr Robot who founded fsociety. They are a group of hackers wanting to get rid of all debt records by destroying the financial data of a company called E Corp or 'Evil Corp' in Elliot's mind. Of course erasing all financial debt has a lot of societal consequences that Elliot, Mr Robot & the rest of fsociety couldn't have predicted, especially when a group of Chinese hackers called the Dark Army get involved. The hacking is well researched & seems realistic which is refreshing to see & helps the authenticity of the show. There are so many compelling characters in Mr Robot & there are a lot of twists as to the real identities of certain people. The plot runs much deeper than you would expect & every episode is a wild ride. I love the cinematography & all of the actors on the show are brilliant. I've always been a Christian Slater fangirl & he is exceptional as the titular chatacter. Sam Esmail has created a masterpiece & I fully expect Mr Robot to become one of those shows that everyone loves as it draws to it's final conclusion, much like Breaking Bad.

Other Faves: American Horror Story: Cult / Vice Principals / Game Of Thrones / Better Call Saul / RuPaul's Drag Race


Animation
Attack On Titan
The first season of Attack On Titan came out in 2013 & it took them four whole years to bring us season 2. There was no way I could've waited that long without finding what happened to the Survey Corps so I've kept up to date with the manga ever since. Some crazy shit has happened in that time, this month's chapter alone was extremely wild so I'd definitely recommend reading the manga if you like the show. As a result of reading the manga I knew everything that was going to happen in season 2 of the anime but that didn't stop me from being incredibly hyped up about it. I took great delight in singing 'Sasageyo! Sasageyo! Shinzou wo sasageyo!' along with the theme tune every week & it was so thrilling to finally see many of the scenes animated. They even dropped in some more recent manga scenes featuring Ymir so that was super cool & unexpected. Yūki Kaji's performance as Eren was astonishing & even though I don't understand much Japanese you can really feel the emotion he puts into his voice. The only bad thing about season 2 is that they only made 12 episodes instead of 25. Season 3 is supposed to be two cour again so I'm really looking forward to it & now there's only six more months to wait!

Other Faves: Yuri!!! On Ice / Steven Universe / Kakegurui / Teen Titans Go!


Game
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
I have spent an inordinate amount of time playing video games this year. I bought a Nintendo Switch as soon as it launched because I needed to play Breath Of The Wild right away. The Legend Of Zelda is one of my favourite game series of all time. I've played nearly every Zelda game so of course I had to get this one. Despite maintaining many of the things you would expect from a Zelda game, Breath Of The Wild is completely different to anything else. The freedom you get to explore & do things as you wish is remarkable. You can go straight to Hyrule Castle & kill Calamity Ganon if you want. You can spend hours doing little side quests for people or collecting all 900 Korok Seeds. Climbing up mountains & flying about on your paraglider is great fun on it's own. I loved killing the mini bosses dotted around the world & battling against the Divine Beasts. The Champions were all such interesting characters & I enjoyed regaining Link's memories of them. Finding & completing the puzzles in all 120 shrines was really challenging. The only thing I missed from the old Zelda games were the traditional dungeons but storming Hyrule Castle at the end was beyond awesome. I love this game so much, Nintendo did such an amazing job & it was well worth waiting for. The Switch is easily the best purchase I've made this year. Since beating Zelda I've played Fire Emblem Warriors, Stardew Valley, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe & Super Mario Odyssey for hours on end. My TV is too old to support the Switch so I can only play it as a handheld but the graphics still look breathtaking on the small screen. I can't wait to see what games Nintendo come out with next year. There's rumours of Pokemon coming to Switch but I'm hoping for a new Fire Emblem game & Project Octopath Traveller looks like it will be another fantastic RPG.

Other Faves: Fire Emblem Warriors / Stardew Valley / Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows Of Valentia
Super Mario Odyssey / Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

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