The Best of 2016 (so far)
We are of two minds about 2016. On the one hand, the holidays feel like they just happened yesterday and it’s difficult to believe we’re already through the first week of April. On the other hand, this Presidential election feels like it’s been running for decades. Fortunately, we’ve had a lot of entertainment out there to distract us, with some good games, great movies, and ambitious (if not perfect) television. Here’s the best of 2016 so far.
Charlie Catches a Leprechaun is THE episode of Always Sunny to show your friends who have never seen the show. It’s hilarious all the way through.
The Best of 2016: Television
While we were excited to see The X-Files return, the episodes were something of a mixed bag; once again the show’s mythology failed to pay off as well as its standalone episodes (Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster was really excellent). The Walking Dead also had a strong season that ended with a frustrating cliffhanger; we spent all year wondering who was gonna killed at the end of the season only to have that reveal delayed until the fall. Now we’re sure to spend all summer wondering who Neegan whacked. American Crime Story was also surprisingly intelligent and thoughtful, despite the fact that it was created by Ryan Murphy and stars John Travolta. Other more senior shows are having some great seasons: Girls final season has been pretty strong and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia had some hilarious episodes (“Charlie Catches A Leprechaun” was truly hilarious). Between Flaked, The Ranch, Love, and (ugh) Fuller House, Netflix unleased a truly massive amount of content the last few months (we’re still trying to catch up with House of Cards) with Daredevil probably being the best of the bunch. Sure, the season kind of peaks during a prison sequence about 2/3rds the way through, but overall the second season was a lot of fun.
I’m not sure who stole the show in the second season of Daredevil but I do know that the thirteen hour-long episodes of season 2 felt a lot shorter than the 165 minutes of Batman v Superman.
The Best of 2016: Video Games
Far Cry Primal, the sorta sequel to Far Cry 4, was pretty fun but sadly not as much fun as Blood Dragon, the sorta sequel to Far Cry 3. The Division is definitely the game the captivated most of our time so far. The open world cooperative shooter reminds us of Destiny and – despite the repetitive gameplay and slim plot – the game is amazingly addictive. If anything, though, 2016 seems to be the year of offbeat puzzle/adventure games. We’ve found some really great puzzle games this year; the humble IOS puzzle game Love You to Bits provides some great bite-size puzzles, the long-awaited sequel to Braid – The Witness – gave us some awesome puzzles (though it didn’t have the payoff we were hoping for), and the re-release of Day of the Tentacle is reminding us how awesome Lucasarts was in their hayday. We also enjoyed some offbeat games that provided novel experiences: Firewatch gave us a thoughtful, interesting story, Oxenfree was a beautiful little adventure game with branching paths and great dialogue, and Life is Strange (technically a 2015 game) delivered one of the most interesting, well-written, and unusual adventures we’ve seen in years.
With a wealth of diverse, bite sized levels, Love You to Bits is a perfectly designed puzzle game for the IOS.
The Best of 2016: Movies
There have been a lot of movies released over the last few months but two seemed to get all of the attention. Netflix released a lot of movies in the first quarter of 2016 with a sequel both to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and both sequels were okay but nowhere near their originals. The Forest delivered an interesting little horror story, 10 Cloverfield Lane was a fun suspenseful movie and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies…well, it had zombies. Hail, Caesar was one of those Coen Brothers movies that provides a lot of amazing performances but not a lot of plot to hold on to (see also: Burn After Reading). The two movies that seemed to get all of the attention was the surprisingly awesome Deadpool and the gruelingly heavy Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Despite being superhero stories, the two movies couldn’t be more different. Deadpool is a vibrant, hilarious, viciously violent movie that tells a modest story in a tight 90 minutes; Batman v Superman is a dark and dour movie that drags a meandering story across three full hours. One thing the two movies have in common is how they defied our expectations; after its horrible reviews, Batman v Superman was not as terrible as we thought it was going to be and Deadpool is much better than we ever thought it could have been.
Deadpool hints at bringing in Cable in the sequel, but as long as Negasonic Teenage Warhead is there, we’ll be happy. She’s everyone’s favorite sidekick.
The Winners:
Go see Deadpool right now. If you somehow missed it, go see it. Then you can read some spoilers for Batman v Superman so you’ll be ready for the upcoming Justice League movie. Grab a buddy and take on the repetitive but addictive The Division, but keep an awesome puzzle game like Love You To Bits or Day of the Tentacle nearby when you need to take a break and exercise your brain a bit. Make sure to catch the new season of Daredevil and Always Sunny (particularly the leprechaun episode). That’s a lot to do and you’d better hurry; summer’s almost here and with Uncharted 4, No Man’s Sky, Game of Thrones, Captain America, and X-Men Apocalypse all about to arrive, your free time is running out.
I know, it looks like every other game out there, but I promise if you play this game for 30 minutes, you won’t be able to put it down. It’s simple gameplay and rewarding leveling are crazy addictive.
