Recs (please give me them)

[stripytights]

 OK, anyone who knew me on LJ possibly already knows that I love recs. Specifically making them. I love reccing fic and I love reccing books. Sometimes I even like reccing music. My plan in the few days leading up to the new year, in the wake of the friending memes etc was to demonstrate this readiness to flog anything and everything to everyone like a cut-price salesman with too much stock.

And I'm going to. I have a list of ten books I've loved this year. Ten fics I loved. Ten songs that got me dancing. 

And then I considered the obvious corollaries. Ten best films. Ten best TV shows. Ten best music videos. And not just came up short, but woefully short. I have completely fallen out of the habit of visual media by going back to that first/best comfort of books. I probably only watched ten films this year. T.V. shows wise I probably only watched five. Max. It's been a terrible year for finding new visual canons is what I'm saying.

So, before I start spamming with my recs for the things I love, I'd really love to hear the things you've enjoyed this year that involved actually watching them on the small or big screen. I can't promise I'll watch them (see above) but I am desperate for some new things, and willing to try. I'll give anything a go with only two minor caveats. One, I find it really difficult to watch long shows. If something has already been going for 100 episodes, I'm very unlikely to ever catch up. Two, prominent rape plotlines/backstories are not something I'm interested in.

Comments

[colls]

Well, everyone likes talking about the things they've enjoyed, right? ;)
I really enjoyed the Wayfarer trilogy by Becky Chambers, it starts with A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.
I don't know if you've watched The Expanse or not, but it's both a book series and a TV series. I recommend both.
I'm not sure what you've read/watched, so don't know what other things to bring up.

Looking forward to your rec posts! ;)

[stripytights]

I love the sound of A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. I really enjoy scifi but rarely get round to reading recently published stuff so it's great to add a rec. Thank you!

I haven't seen The Expanse, but being both book + TV sounds like an ideal way to slowly ease back into TV watching. And apparently it is on Netflix as well, even better.

In terms of what I've watched, I should probably have mentioned that in the post itself, since I've watched so little this year! I saw The Terror which was amazing, I saw a few episodes of The Alienist (really enjoyed, but didn't watch all of yet), and a scattering of one off episodes of other shows (The Sinners, Sabrina, Mindhunters).

Thanks again for the recs!

[snickfic]

Oh boy. *rubs hands together* I've actually watched a LOT more stuff than usual, so here are some recs from my year. Some are from this year and some are older. Um, there's a lot of horror? I guess that's kind of been a theme in my movie watching, the past couple of years.

Haunting of Hill House, Netflix TV show (10 eps). This is barely related to the book at all, so just be aware of that going in. Horror that's actually more about the family trauma than about ghosts, which is my favorite kind.

Red, action movie with Bruce Willis and Mary-Louise Parker. This is the most charming movie about hit men I have ever seen, and the romance is adorable.

Blackkklansman, historical action-ish movie with Adam Driver about a black man who infiltrates the KKK. A mix of entertaining and sobering. I got a ship out of it.

A Quiet Place, movie about a family in a post-apocalyptic environment where the aliens will eat you if they can hear you. Made no damn sense but was incredibly compelling anyway.

The Good Place, Kristen Bell sitcom (two short seasons so far, in the middle of the third) about the afterlife. I don't like either sitcoms or stuff about the afterlife, and I LOVE this show.

Castle Rock, 10-episode horror show with Sissy Spacek. Inspired by Stephen King's mythos but not specifically based on any particular work of his. I felt like it kind of fell down in the last act, but it built to something really great in the middle third.

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, Netflix horror movie. A very skittish woman goes to live as a caretaker for a dying woman. This didn't quite land for me, but the atmosphere and acting were top-notch.

EDIT: Oh and this is a little older, but if you haven't seen Thor: Ragnarok yet, you need to. I love it so much. It's IN SPACE and does a ton of great character stuff and is so incredibly shippy. It's my new fandom love. ;__;

[stripytights]

Ah this is an amazing list, thank you! I'd heard of the Haunting of Hill House and I'm a big fan of Shirley Jackson so I'd been dithering about giving it a go, but family trauma horror is totally up my street. And ten episodes is very manageable.

Blackkklansman and Red are both going on the list, as is Castle Rock - I know plenty of Stephen King books so hopefully won't be at too much of a loss. What did you ship in Blackkklansman? As for The Good Place, I kept seeing gifs on tumblr that made it look very tantalising and funny and the episodes look really short (a plus for me, I need to ease back in slowly!)

In terms of what I have seen - I actually saw A Quiet Place (in a double bill with Annihilation) and I thought it was excellent. And that opening scene was so chilling. Oh and Thor: Ragnorak was amazing! I'm not huge into the MCU, mostly because it feels so big that it's a little overwhelming, but Thor: Ragnorak was easily one of my favourite entries in the franchise. Valkyrie in particular jumped straight into my forever favourites, she was far and away the highlight of the film for me - alcoholic ex-soldier running away from a dark past yes please. And yes, extremely shippable all round.

Thank you so much for all the recs, really looking forward to giving these a go.

[snickfic]

So like I said, just be aware that Haunting of Hill House has, if this is possible, EVEN LESS to do with the Jackson novel than that terrible 90s Catherine Zeta-Jones adaptation did. Like, it's not even pretending. But as its own thing, I loved it a lot (except for the last half hour, in which it kind of falls on its face, but I have just edited the ending in my head to be better).

In Blackkklansman I shipped the two guys who end up kind of partners - the Adam Driver character and the black guy who infiltrates the KKK. A classic buddy cop ship, I guess. :) And people have written me several fics for it!

Valkyrie is so great. ;____; FYI if you ever want to come have Thor: Ragnarok feelings with a group of like-minded folks, I recently made a comm for the space end of the MCU, mcu_cosmic. We have many Valkyrie fans there. :)

[frogfarm]

Well then, allow me to rec my Valkyrie/Bruce Banner short, Getting To Know You. It's even got a little of Thor being both awkwardly adorable and maturely humorous.

As far as Supernatural, I did watch the Amber Benson episode (the first, not the second where they utterly wasted her). Really enjoyed some Lenore/Sam pieces someone else wrote, which are in my bookmarks if you'd like to check them out. I still have a long-simmering bunny for a Buffy crossover where post-Chosen Willow meets Lenore.

[snickfic]

Ooh, thanks for the rec!

[stripytights]

Ooh I look forward to it - thank you for the rec!

Lenore/Sam is good, monsters trying not to be monsters is my favourite thing.

[stripytights]

OK, I've obtained Blackkklansman for watching tonight, will report back! The Haunting of Hill House is on Netflix so I'll hold off on that for a bit until I get my debit card back :( (a thief stole my phone/cards so I had to cancel all of them, very frustrating).

Joining mcu_cosmic - I think I can handle some more Valkyrie in my life. And also Gamora and Nebula (I still have half-finished fic for them).

[glovered]

I also love rec posts and reccing, and should definitely do it more often!

Some great TV I have watched the past couple years:
-Crashing (UK), fast paced and positive and chaotic with a great gay love story. Not really into one of the main relationships but it is so easy to get past because it's so good.
-American Vandal, a mockumentary made like a true crime show about a high school. It is so funny and is just so excellent, a satirical who dunnit where the crime was that someone spray painted dicks on teachers' cars. Also it takes place where I live!
-Other Space, excellent sci-fi comedy takeoff of star trek
-Detectorists, a quiet British comedy about people who do metal detecting

All of these are very short which is tragic, and so so good.

[stripytights]

More recs for everyone!

Thank you for all the recs - these sound right up my street, and while them being short may be tragic...it's going to make it so much easier for me to catch up. I think I'll start with American Vandal because finding something funny would be amazing.