Best of 2010, In My Opinion

Movies ~ I tried to limit this list to movies that came out in 2010 as opposed to movies that I had first seen in 2010. If it were the latter, I would definitely include things like Suck, Gran Torino, Whip It, Big Fan, Me and Orson Welles and the best flick I saw this year, which is in fact from 1999 - Cradle Will Rock.

Nevertheless, here's my top ten or so (fourteen actually) for 2010: Julie & Julia, HBO's multiple Emmy Award winning Temple Grandin, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Despicable Me, the Danish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Shutter Island, The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, should-be Oscar contender Secretariat, the surprising Megamind, the equally surprising Hot Tub Time Machine, The Runaways, Tangled, from the Cartoon Network Firebreather, and my favorite film of the year Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World

Among the worst I saw this year, again, of those movies that came out this year, would be Dinocroc Vs. Supergator, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li and the second and third installments of The Twilight Saga.

Television ~ My favorites on the TV this year are pretty predictable, sadly enough, but at least there's a quorum. The top three for me are obviously "Mad Men," "The Walking Dead," and "Boardwalk Empire," that's easy. I was also a sucker for "Doctor Who," "Misfits" and "Castle" this year, caught on to the amazing "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" better late than never, and I got my comic book geek groove on with "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes."

Still hanging in there with my favorites, but a bit on the decline in quality would be "Chuck," "Glee," "Entourage," "True Blood" and as much as I hate to say this, "Dexter." Here's hoping they improve in coming seasons. This is not to say these are bad series, mind you, they are all head and shoulders above most of the stuff out there.

Music ~ While I was still riding high with Lady GaGa and "Glee" from 2009, 2010 will go down as the year I discovered nerdcore. I spent a lot of my time listening to MC Frontalot, MC Chris, Beefy, Schaffer the Darklord and especially Adam WarRock. As a matter of fact, "The War for Infinity" and the West Coast Avengers Mixtape from Adam were among my favorite albums of the year. Also in there I would put "Something for Everybody" by DEVO and just to make it an even nostalgic choice, the just released "All You Need Is Now" by Duran Duran. I also kinda dug the soundtrack to "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" by Joseph LoDuca.

Songs that I loved this year would have to include that song by Cee Lo Green, edited or unedited version, it was great. The Human League had a nice comeback with "Night People," I also liked some stuff by Arcade Fire, Ke$sha and Florence + the Machine, but my real favorite of 2010, for both all the wrong and right reasons would have to be "Miracles" by ICP.

Everything Else ~ My favorite books this year were "Pandemonium" by Daryl Gregory and "Heart-Shaped Box" and "20th Century Ghosts" by Joe Hill. Comics by Paul Cornell, Gail Simone and Jim McCann were the best this year. My favorite podcasts included "Tom Vs. Aquaman" and the excellent "Better in the Dark." My favorite blogs included "The Age of Reasonable Doubt" by Fran Metzman and "The Aquaman Shrine" by Rob Kelly.

Here's to a great 2011!