Mediaboy Musings' best and worst of 2012...

Due to a, shall we say, "transitional" period in my work life this past year, I was afforded the opportunity to crank out a lot more writing for this blog than normal, which was a real pleasure. The 110 posts over the past 365 days far exceeded my previous highest total of 73 during the blog's first year in 2009, done over the course of the last six months of that year. Thanks to all who stopped by here for a read, as well as to anybody who left an always-appreciated comment (good or bad). 

As the year wraps up, I present my list of the best and worst in albums, films, and television. To refresh my memory as to the films I saw this past year, I used Box Office Mojo's compilation of movie grosses that lists every title released in theatres and was quite surprised to find only four non-documentary films that I viewed that I'd put in the classification of "great". Because I watch and review so many of them, documentaries are separated into their own category. There's no set structure to my picks - some categories will have one number of selections while another category will have a different number of picks, some categories won't have a corresponding category for one or two of the other art forms, and there's no significance to the order any of them are listed in. Any title underlined is linked to my review of it. And please don't bust my balls over the Taylor Swift pick - I can scarcely believe it's on here, either.  

Best albums: 
Carrie Underwood - Blown Away
Slash - Apocalyptic Love 
Dead Sara - Dead Sara (hands down, my favourite release of the year)
Holly McNarland - Run Body Run
No Doubt - Push And Shove
Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball
Van Halen - A Different Kind Of Truth
Taylor Swift - Red (my second favourite album of the year, I must confess)
Danko Jones - Rock And Roll Is Black And Blue
Alanis Morissette - Havoc And Bright Lights
Garbage - Not Your Kind Of People
Prong - Carved Into Stone
Richie Kotzen - 24 Hours (actually released in November 2011, but I didn't discover it until January)

Worst albums:
KISS - Monster
Aerosmith - Music From Another Dimension
Madonna - MDNA

Most disappointing albums:
Heart - Fanatic
Soul Asylum - Delayed Reaction
Soundgarden - King Animal
Kid Rock - Rebel Soul
Glen Hansard - Rhythm And Repose
The Cult - Choice Of Weapon

Best television programs:
30 Rock
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
Episodes
Breaking Bad
Real Time With Bill Maher
Boardwalk Empire
An Idiot Abroad
Veep
Enlightened
60 Minutes
Survivor
Key & Peele
PBS' American Masters and American Experience
Louie
Sons Of Anarchy

Worst television programs:
Life's Too Short
Portlandia
The Big C
Californication
Nashville
Any show on Fox News or with "Dancing" in the title

Most overrated television programs:
The Newsroom
The Walking Dead
Homeland

Promising new television programs to keep an eye on:
Girls
Enlightened
Web Therapy
Go On

Best non-documentary films:
The Dark Knight Rises
Cloud Atlas
The Sessions
Men In Black 3

Worst non-documentary films:
Rock Of Ages
The Dictator
Cosmopolis

Best documentaries:
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Artifact
Marley
The Queen Of Versailles
The Invisible War
Beware Of Mr. Baker
Wish Me Away

Most disappointing films (including documentaries):
The Iceman
Detropia
An Affair Of The Heart
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Avengers
Prometheus
Total Recall
Safety Not Guaranteed

Films that weren't as bad as I was expecting:
The Hunger Games
The Expendables 2
John Carter

Happy New Year, folks.