Subjectivity '06

Josh writes:

It's that time of year -- the time when people take the opportunity to pad out their blogs with arbitrarily generated Best/Worst lists. Here, then, is my collection of meaningless subjectivity for 2006:


Best Song: Lily Allen's "LDN". Any song that features "slapper", "pimp", "crackwhore" and "filth" as slang for the police all in the first verse is guaranteed to get my vote.

Worst Song: Gwen Stefani's "Wind it Up". Jack, you know about these things -- was this song produced by the Neptunes on a bad day, or by someone trying to ape the Neptunes and failing badly? In any case, there's no excuse for yodelling in popular music.

Best Album: Tim Minchin's "So Rock". If you haven't heard of Tim Minchin (and chances are you haven't), you bloody should have. He is that rarest of chimerae, a musical comedian whose act contains both good music and hilarious comedy. If you like Bill Bailey, you really need to hear this guy.

Best Music Video: Any one where Eric Roberts appears as the bad guy. Which, at last count, was all of them. Honourable mention to the James Morrison one with all the attractive young women and their multitude of barely-concealed, peach-like bottoms.

Best TV Show: Heroes, which you probably haven't seen because it hasn't started here yet (thanks, Internet). As a person who's read my fair share of comic books, I was a little leery of the concept of "doing superheroes but really real in the real world", but my fears were unfounded -- not only does the superpowers angle get an intelligent and (mostly) non-melodramatic treatment, but the show itself strikes the best balance I've seen between keeping mysterious secrets to keep you interested and revealing things to keep you fucking interested. (Compare Lost, which appears to have crossed the "OK, now you're just pissing about" line with its audience in the third season, with the stunning revelation that... um... yeah. I'd give a spoiler warning, but I don't think there's anything to spoil.)

Best Local Show: Outrageous Fortune (not like there's many to choose from). One of the very few shows I make a point of watching every week. In fact, since Green Wing ended, it may be the only one. I particularly liked the reversal this season where Van is now the Good Son and Jethro is the evil one. And John Leigh's latest turn as Sparky the beardy pyromaniac, in which he finds God and becomes a self-flagellating street preacher, which was the closest New Zealand has come to an accurate portrayal of Apathy Jack on television.

Best Movie: Children of Men. I'm not taking the piss here -- this is seriously the best film I've seen in quite some time. Bleak but hopeful, it does an amazing job of putting you right in the middle of the action alongside the main character with some incomprehensibly well-choreographed continuous shots.

Best Line of Movie Dialogue I Heard This Year: "If you're going to dine with the devil, make sure you bring a long spoon!" - Jack Palance, Cyborg 2. The film's from 1993, but this year was the first time I watched it, see? RIP Jack Palance, by the way.