NOTE: This was supposed to be posted around New Years but I got super sick… I’m still getting over it actually… So here it is, a little half-assed because now that I’m finally getting through this cold, I want to move on to new things and not keep working on this old stuff haha. But here it is anyway. Enjoy!
It’s that time of year again. As I did last year, it’s time to look back at the things that kept me entertained in 2017. I sort of have enough music, TV and video-games this time to do proper lists, but I figured for the sake of consistency, I’ll do like I did last year and do my big Movies list, and then a separate overall list combining everything else. You can also check out 2016’s list for a refresher if you want, or just jump into my 2017 lists. Enjoy!
15 Things from 2017 That Kept Me Entertained (In No Particular Order)
- Nintendo Switch – The biggest non-movie thing that happened in 2017 for me was Nintendo’s insane comeback with the Switch. Who would have thought that 30 years after the classic NES originals in the Mario and Zelda series, that Nintendo would pretty much make the new best entries? The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey are two of the best video-games I’ve ever played. Period. The Mario game is just pure non-stop fun, and the Zelda game is a revelation. If it holds up when I eventually go back to play it again one day (and keep in mind I beat it with only 19% – yes, NINETEEN percent of the game completed), I might even call it the best game ever made. On top of that we also got the crazy Mario Vs Rabbids game, a bunch of other first-party Nintendo games that I didn’t even have that much time for, and some excellent third-party games like Steamworld Dig 2 and Blaster Master. The Nintendo Switch is just weird and unique enough to be Nintendo, and is the most fun video-game system to come along in a long time.
- Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit – “The Nashville Sound” – The next album on this list, Ryan Adams’ “Prisoner” in any other year would have easily been my favorite album of the year, but Jason Isbell may have made the album of his career… Which is saying a lot when I considered his “Southeastern” album one of the best albums of the decade. The rock songs freaking rock and the sad songs are sad as hell. It’s poignant, every song is great. It’s just a perfect album and a hell of a surprise.
- Ryan Adams – “Prisoner” – Not so much a surprise is how great Ryan Adams’ new album is. Along with his also released collection of B-Sides, this was my most listened to album of the year, and one of my favorites of my favorite solo-artist’s career. The song “Outbound Train” may possibly be my favorite song. He rules.
- The War On Drugs – “A Deeper Understanding” – Definitely my 3rd favorite album of the year… But to say that means I listened to it maybe a half dozen times because pretty much all I listened to were the previous two and podcasts haha. But this is a fantastic album.
- Nine Inch Nails – “Add Violence” – I would have stuck with just listing my Top 3 but I wanted to add NIN’s new EP because first of all it’s the first NIN album in a decade that I’ve continued to listen to on occasion after the first week of release (sorry Trent), and second of all, even though I had already been considering this long before these EPs came out, my new direction of planning on releasing EPs in 2018 is at least partially influenced by NIN’s new EP direction.
- Fargo – My favorite show of the year. I don’t get why people didn’t like Season 3 as much as previous seasons. It was FANTASTIC. All the best parts of a movie and all the best parts of this new age of Television combined. The best cast on TV. Everything about it was amazing.
- Vice Principals – Vice Principals was such a great series. As much as I hate to see it go, I think two seasons was the perfect length for this crazy story and insane characters.
- It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia – This show shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. I hope it’s on the air forever.
- Curb Your Enthusiasm – Finally, more Larry David. And he’s as great as ever.
- GLOW – Hey, Marc Maron can act good! The show was great too. Can’t wait for Season 2!
- At Home With Amy Sedaris – It’s been too long since we’ve had a show with Amy Sedaris in the center. She is the freaking best. So funny.
- Episodes – The Series finale of Episodes. It’s not the best show, but I love it, and it was a perfect ending.
- Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later – Also not the best show, but it’s still David Wain and crew being ridiculous. Such fun.
- American Horror Story: Cult – Last year I said that the season of American Horror Story was the first one I truly liked… Who would have thought I’d like two in a row? This was definitely the best season of the show.
- Facebook – I hate to give Facebook any credit because it’s a terrible thing and ruining all of our lives and I’m probably physically addicted… But man did I have fun on Facebook this year… Dammit…
And now on to the movies. I thought last year was a big year for movies but wow did I see a lot this year haha. It was a pretty great year too. Lots of truly amazing films. I’m not going to stop and talk about each one or anything like that, but rather list them all out, in order from Best to Worst, and then a separate list of movies that technically were 2016 movies but didn’t open in Las Vegas until 2017, and then a short list of movies from 2017 that I’ve been dying to see but aren’t open here yet.
- mother!
- War for The Planet of the Apes
- Ingrid Goes West
- Good Time
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
- The Big Sick
- A Ghost Story
- The Disaster Artist
- The Florida Project
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi
- The Shape of Water
- Logan
- Thor: Ragnarok
- Last Flag Flying
- Alien Covenant
- Wind River
- Get Out
- Brigsby Bear
- Colossal
- It
- Lost In London
- Baby Driver
- Stronger
- The Killing of a Sacred Deer
- Free Fire
- Wonder Woman
- King Arthur
- The Babysitter
- Lady Bird
- Power Rangers
- Kingsman: The Golden Circle
- Kong: Skull Island
- Logan Lucky
- It Comes At Night
- The Meyerowitz Stories
- Battle of the Sexes
- The Lego Batman Movie
- John Wick: Chapter 2
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- XXX: The Return of Xander Cage
- Happy Death Day
- Split
- Wilson
- Justice League
- The Fate of The Furious
- Detroit
- Downsizing
- Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man Tell No Tales
- Transformers: The Last Knight
- Rough Night
- The Great Wall
- Snatched
- American Made
- The Glass Castle
- Spider Man: Homecoming
- Blade Runner 2049
- The Mummy
- The Hitman’s Bodyguard
- The House
- The Beguiled
- Ghost In The Shell
- Home Again
- Atomic Blonde
- American Assassin
- A Cure For Wellness
- All The Money In The World
- The Belko Experiment
- The Foreigner
- Valerian
- Annabelle: Creation
- Suburbicon
- Landline
- Dunkirk
- Life
- Daddy’s Home 2
- Fist Fight
- LBJ
- A Dog’s Purpose
- Roman J Israel, Esq
- Baywatch
- The Dark Tower
- All Eyes On Me
2016 Movies I saw: A Monster Calls, Live By Night, Silence, 20th Century Women, The Founder, Patriots Day, Jackie.
2017 Movies I didn’t get to see but I’d probably love: I, Tonya, Phantom Thread, The Post… a bunch more but I think it’s time to close up 2017 and move on! Haha.
Hope you enjoyed the listings. Here’s to a great 2017, and here comes a great 2018.
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David Rosen is an award-winning music composer. He composes original music for films, commercials, jingles, video-games and all other kinds of media projects. He has a vast music library of original tracks available for licensing and is also available for custom compositions. Contact him on the ABOUT page for pricing and availability for your next project.