2023 Year End Review

 Hello everyone!

Rather belatedly, but as promised, here is my best of show for 2023. As always, the winners are not necessarily from content produced in 2023, just that it was consumed, by me, last year and made enough of an impression upon me to deserve a place on this list.

Here we go...

Film of the Year: Transformers Age of Extinction

It's been a while since I watched a Transformers movie, aside from Bumblebee (which I loved btw!) so to pick a winner last year was pretty easy once I'd consumed this one. It took the bar and raised it so far it eventually became clear it was out of reach for anything to catch it.

As always, these awards are designed to celebrate content consumed, not review it.

This film pipped out Avatar: The Way of Water as an also ran, clocking in at nearly 3 hours a feat which many films strive for but few succeed at keeping moving without at least one hour feeling like an almighty slog. This one didn't. In the slightest. It's the best one in the series so far, albeit a sequel to Dark of the Moon, I believe, and you can tell. Whilst it doesn't have the bombastic nature of some of its predecessors, it's at least able to keep the new characters interesting enough all the way through.

Good to see Mark Wahlberg returning too...

TV Show of the Year: Goosebumps

This one's an easy one, a latecomer to the party streaming on Disney+, but thankfully early enough to make it into consideration for my awards.

There were laughs a plenty and this was the perfect love letter to the 90s show albeit taking a different approach to its predecessor's book an episode approach if I recall correctly.

To me, this was more, as I say, a fan love letter made by someone clearly passionate about the source material to the books and series with most of the major characters showing up at some point in the series. It shows. You can always tell, I think, if a show's source material is interpreted as a forethought or afterthought. It was a smorgasbord of the best bits, if you like, of some of the classic books. It was certainly a show that squeaked into my list at last minute as I was still consuming it in December of last year.

TV Highlight of the Year: WWE Money in the Bank 2023

Despite the ire of many of Paul's detractors, seeing Logan Paul improving every match he's been in thus far, has converted me into someone who just enjoys seeing the way the WWE Universe reacts to Paul every time he shows up to an event!

The man doesn't just show up, in my opinion, he shows out too...

I had no idea that he was going to be an entrant in the infamous Money in the Bank briefcase match, so colour me surprised when he showed up and showed out yet again.

There weren't as many memorable TV moments for me last year as that one so the shortlist was just that; short.

Track of the Year: Til We Fade by Markus Schulz ft. Emma Hewitt

I first heard this track last summer and, despite being a close run with pretty much any track on Anamé's debut album Beautiful World, I have to tip the cap to the former as my track of the year (unofficially, then, let's call that album of the year okay?).

The way Markus manages to mix his tracks and guest exceptional singers is captivating and has certainly broadened my musical spectrum ever since I started consuming his Global DJ Broadcast show. I got sick of "chart" music for so long that I haven't paid attention to who "society" thinks is hot and who's not.

I'd much rather go down the rabbit hole (pun intended) on Spotify and continue discovering excellent artists like Daxson and Andrew Bayer who provide an excellent soundtrack in 5.1 for all my musical needs.

Station of the Year: Your Classical MPR

A new award starting this year is my favourite radio station.

Having tired of the way Classic FM cycles its tracks on a playlist, it was time for me to broaden my horizons thanks to internet radio. On my handset, I use an excellent little app called VRadio. Here is one such performance by Voces8 from the Minnesota based radio station's own studio: -

Final Thoughts

Another year passed, another set of awards given out. In time to come I'll be looking to boost these awards (meaningless as they are as they are all a matter of opinion!) so that more content is addressed in the years to come.

Here's to many more years of successful consumption as I look for content that is educational entertaining and/or uplifting so that I can share them with you all in the hopes that you, too, discover content you wouldn't have normally considered otherwise.

Peace out!

===TLP===