My Favorite Things: 2022

Twelve more months on God’s green Earth, absorbing hundreds more hours of media. It’s only right to denote them, once again, for future nostalgia.

Music

LPs

  • The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field [1]
  • Beach Bunny - Emotional Creature
  • Harry Styles - Harry’s House [2]
  • The 1975 - Being Funny in a Foreign Language [3]
  • Pinegrove - 11:11
  • Tamino - Sahar [4]
  • Anxious - Little Green House
  • Maggie Rogers - Surrender
  • Coheed and Cambria - Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind
  • MUNA - MUNA
  • Steve Lacy - Gemini Rights
  • Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
  • Toro y Moi - MAHAL
  • Marcus Mumford - (self-titled)
  • Lizzy McAlpine - five seconds flat
  • Lost Dog Street Band - Glory
  • Chloe Moriondo - SUCKERPUNCH
  • PUP - THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND

EPs

  • The Front Bottoms - Theresa - EP
  • Michigander - It Will Never Be The Same - EP
  • Winona Fighter - Father Figure - EP
  • Frou Frou - Off Cuts
  • Anberlin - Silverline - EP
  • Bayside - The Red EP

Honorable Mentions
I liked all of these records, but didn’t spend as much time with them this year.

  • Beabadoobee - Beatopia
  • Soccer Mommy - Sometimes, Forever
  • Wale - More About Nothing
  • Rammstein - Zeit
  • Hikaru Utada - BAD MODE
  • Cheekface - Too Much To Ask
  • Dark Handsome - Athens
  • SZA - SOS [5]

Podcasts

It’s an ongoing process, refining my podcast queue. I unsubscribed from a few more “regular listens” that just weren’t doing anything for me anymore. Filled the gaps with a few returning favorites. These are the ones I can't miss.

  • Dead Eyes [6]
  • This American Life [7]
  • Love + Radio [8]
  • Heavyweight [9]
  • Roderick on The Line
  • Reconcilable Differences
  • The Last Archive
  • Last Seen

Movies

No surprises here, I watched a lot of movies again. 107 newly released films and 205 older ones. I upped my Halloween game once again, packing 61 horror films into as many days. Mae watched a fair number of these with me as well, which was nice.

I didn’t make it to any online film festivals like I intended, but I started a movie club with Brandon and Chris. We picked 52 never-before-seen films to watch together this year. It was a strange mix with a some interesting outcomes in terms of favorites. I’ll write more on this later. Next year, we’ll do it draft-style.

Full and more recently updated lists of features/docs and shorts as well as my yearly stats on Letterboxd.

Features

  1. Top Gun: Maverick [10]
  2. Avatar: The Way Of Water [11]
  3. Everything Everywhere All at Once
  4. The Batman
  5. The Northman
  6. RRR
  7. Bones and All [12]
  8. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
  9. Prey
  10. X
  11. Jackass Forever
  12. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
  13. All Quiet on the Western Front
  14. Watcher
  15. Triangle of Sadness
  16. Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
  17. TÁR
  18. The Menu
  19. Barbarian
  20. My Policeman
  21. Nope

Specials

  1. Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel
  2. Joe Lycett: More, More, More! How Do You Lycett? How Do You Lycett?
  3. Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special

Documentaries

  1. Phoenix Rising
  2. Tony Hawk: Until The Wheels Fall Off
  3. Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts

Television

Usually, I would reference Trakt to compile this list, but they suffered a catastrophic database failure in December and they haven’t totally recovered. I’m mostly working from memory this year.

Edit: Trakt is back up. My stats page is now available.

Limited Series

  • All of Us Are Dead (Netflix)
  • The Book of Boba Fett (Disney+)
  • Keep Breathing (Netflix)
  • Kenobi (Disney+)
  • Station Eleven (HBO)
  • Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 (Netflix)

Serialized

  • After Life (Netflix)
  • Andor (Disney+)
  • Archive 81 (Netflix)
  • Atlanta (FX)
  • The Bear (FX)
  • Derry Girls (Netflix) [13]
  • Game Changer / Make Some Noise (Dropout)
  • Lego Masters (Fox) / Lego Masters (AU)
  • Letterkenny / Shoresy (Hulu)
  • Locke & Key (Netflix) [14]
  • Raised By Wolves (HBO Max) [15]
  • The Sandman (Netflix)
  • Severance (Apple TV)
  • Succession (HBO)
  • Survivor 42 and 43 (CBS)
  • Taskmaster (YouTube)
  • Wednesday (Netflix)

Anthology

  • Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Netflix)

Games

In 2022, I received my PlayDate and my Steam Deck. Having no interest or space at the moment to build a PC, the Steam Deck has given me an avenue into online play with my friends for the first time since I bought my PS4.

I keep a running list of video games I've played here. These I enjoyed in 2022.

  • Backbone (Steam Deck)
  • Aliens Fireteams (Steam Deck) [16]
  • Deep Rock Galactic (Steam Deck)

Read more: 2022: A Year In Review

  1. How is it that this band ups the ante every. single. time? This is their best record yet, full of surprises like “Best Left.” The Beths are the best band in the world. ↩︎

  2. This record got so many plays. Quality work, Harry. ↩︎

  3. Even The 1975’s most boring record is a top-tier record. I thought this lacked the energy they picked up on their last two albums and didn’t quite match the sincerity of ILWYS, to which it’s been drawing some comparisons. I’m also more than a little fatigued over Antonoff’s ubiquitous production. Still, these are all great songs. I can’t deny it. ↩︎

  4. Seeing him live in DC this year was a highlight. I’ve never seen a single man with a more captive audience. ↩︎

  5. Not sure what happened here. SZA sounds amazing but this album lacks luster. I honestly wonder if this is even the record she intended to drop. ↩︎

  6. Dead Eyes wrapped its investigation into Connor’s firing from Band Of Brothers perfectly. It deserves all the recognition it’s received this year. I was a good boy and didn’t spoil at the ending, which sat in my Transistor account for several months ↩︎

  7. As Dead Eyes wrapped up this year, my pal Mike starting mixing for This American Life. I gave some feedback on his audition mixes. I’m very proud of him and get a kick out of hearing Ira read his name in the acknowledgments of each episode. ↩︎

  8. Love + Radio has returned to RSS, having finally ditched Luminary. They set up a Patreon account to support the show, which entitles me to an ad-free feed of the main show and Secrets Hotline. I’m thrilled to support this show’s independence. ↩︎

  9. I’m still upset that Spotify made Heavyweight a platform exclusive, but they have started publishing episodes from the previous season in the public feed this year. I can live with a delay. ↩︎

  10. In the year where Avatar 2 finally arrived, I have to give Maverick its due. No movie has given me such a theater rush in years. Every piece of it works. I love this movie. ↩︎

  11. It’s been a long wait. So long that it’s hard to imagine exactly how it could have met the lofty expectations set for it. Remarkable, it did—and more. The Way Of Water is as beautiful and heartfelt as its predecessor. It’s not without flaw, but watching it in the theater (twice) was a singular experience. I’m very ready for its follow-up. ↩︎

  12. This movie, as gut-wrenching and vile as it often is, touched me in a way I wouldn’t have imagined. The settings and characters are remarkably familiar to me as a midwesterner. If Mark Rylance doesn’t get an award for his supporting performance, I’ll lose all hope in Hollywood. ↩︎

  13. Like Schitt’s Creek, Derry Girls called it a day just as it found its legs. The writers say it was always meant to be just a three season run, but the latter half of the final season rushing through character progression at a breakneck pace tells me otherwise. I’d watch another 5 seasons of Orla if I could. ↩︎

  14. This show’s ending felt rushed and half-hearted. I’ve picked up some nice editions of the comics to further the feeling I got when it started. ↩︎

  15. Despite story problems in season two, I’m sad this show had to end. It was bold, unique, and will be missed. ↩︎

  16. I played a bunch of this with Chris and had a lot of fun. Hoping to pull a third gunner into our squad to play through the DLC as well. ↩︎

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Tags: My Favorite Things, 2022, music, film, tv, podcasts, video games