Thank ya!! And sorry this got long!!
7. Favorite TV show episodes of the year
Ooh I wrote about them so extensively elsewhere, so I won't get into it, but the first 2 episodes of season 4 of Hacks this spring were so good (I certainly delighted in other episodes, but these two were just so tightly written and well crafted and perfectly in sync with how they left us at the end of season 3--it was one of those times where I just got to be enthralled by the story playing out on my screen and the intensity of the emotion in it). I'm sure I could name a specific episode or two of Pluribus, but I just started my first rewatch and want to see how things land when it's not just my first go around! And then I know I watched other shows this year, but my head is just fuzzy after the whirlwind of the fall semester and an article deadline, so I have apparently forgotten almost everything else
10 I answered here (I was tempted to put my more controversial answer here but I'm trying to play nicer in the new year lol)
11. Biggest squee moments of the year
"What's that?"/"Atom bomb." What a finale! What a moment! I loved the fact that much of what came in the finale was, in some ways, "predictable" if you were paying attention in the sense that it felt deeply in character and true to the story they were so carefully crafting and how would play out when brought to this point, but that moment did in fact make me gasp in delight! Though the kiss ALSO made me gasp in delight for very different reasons! I'm still squeeing! And because past media experiences have conditioned me to expect certain things to be kept subtextual (or if done, done in such a way that they're implicit or quiet or minor), so it was itself a kind of surprise and delight even as it felt like where that dynamic was heading at some point in the amorphous future
In a different vein, while I had complaints about the show itself, I also felt this way about certain moments in The Girlfriend where glimmers came through of what it might have been but didn't get to be.
Finally, Greer showing up at Amelia's workplace at the end of The Perfect Couple just made me want to write a long fic even though the show itself was not particularly good or even compelling (rip)
17. Your fictional true love of the year
I feel like so many of my loves are really evident here in everything else I've said, so I'm throwing out a bit of a curveball here in saying Helen from Pluribus because, besides the whole love is a breathalyzer in your car line that's gone viral for a reason, I think she's the kind of character that often gets sidelined in fandom--she's not splashy; she's constant. She's wry and funny, but in quieter ways. She's made sacrifices and allowances and room without ceding herself. She feels human and lived in--the kind of person you get to be opposite someone you've been with for literal decades. And all this from a few minutes of actual screen time in the "present" of the show, a bit of filmed backstory, and a lot of implied content by way of references, which is just such a testament to the writing craft and narrative care! But I also think outside the world of the show, she was a balm to some of the discourse online I saw kick into high gear this year about why no one should ever be with someone who isn't fully out or who's still closeted to family, etc. Idk at their heart, she and Carol had a kind of love and long-term commitment that feel familiar in a way that my favorite ships, sparky and electric and incredible as they are, don't always, and so it felt fresh and exciting precisely in that familiarity
23.The most missed of your old fandoms
Okay, I did answer this one on the grounds of fandoms that have kind of...gone dormant, but coming at it from another angle with a fandom that's still kicking, just without me, I found myself feeling really nostalgic for the Supercat fandom! Obviously I've got lots of friends who are still writing for them and the winter event literally *just* happened with so many lovely authors and artists contributing new works to the tag, so it's not at all like the fandom has disappeared, but I've found myself feeling disconnected from this show that once delighted and compelled me for a variety of reasons. I think in large part it's that the show's central premise is grounded in vision of heroism that's deeply suffused with hope (and hope even in the face of despair and trauma) in a way that I'm having trouble reconciling with not just reality, but also the field of the plausible these days. It feels like a show that was an escapist balm in 2016, but that has--for me--turned bitter over time. I've largely tended towards fandoms for shows that are more willing to deal in the messiness of people whose trauma and pain didn't turn them into heroes, but whose flaws and faults--even those that hurt people deeply--don't disqualify them from narrative and interpersonal care. (The kind of: what if Astra was the protagonist version of SG if I wanted to be a little blithe and reductive about it haha). But all that being said, I miss the fun of the fandom and how supportive and engaged it was!
