The Worst Things of 2018

Next week I will spend the 5 days of the week doing my best of 2018 in movies, music, tv, podcasts and sports. I will do a top 5 of each category. Today though I want to do a similar list, but I want to do the one thing I consider the worst of 2018. I'll pick the worst tv show, movie, album/musician, podcast moment and sports moment. Before I get into it, I do have to say that this is just my opinion. I know that I will have a few things on here that will be odd and make people mad, but that is what year end lists are for, are they not? This will also be much quicker since I am just picking one thing from each category. My best of lists next week will be a bit longer. Okay enough preamble, lets get to it.

I'm going to start with sports because this was quite possibly the worst thing for me, as a sports fan, that has not only happened this year, but has happened in a long time. I am of course talking about Michigan getting absolutely crushed by the University of Ohio State in football. I have written about this game already, so I won't go as deep into detail as I did the Monday after the game. But this was awful. Michigan's vaunted defense got torched and refused to adjust all game long. This was their best chance in a long time, they were the better team on paper, and they laid a total egg. I mean, their offense scored 39 points, but it was all garbage time, and it was all for naught. They gave up 62 points, over 500 yards of offense, and it could have been much, much worse. Michigan blew it on the biggest stage for them in quite some time, and it was painful to watch. They had their best chance to beat their hated rival for the first time in 7 years, and a possible playoff berth at stake if they won the Big Ten title. They got none of that. They choked. They got crushed and it was, by far, my worst sports moment of 2018. Nothing else was even close.

When it comes to podcast/podcast moments, I have to go with "Comedy Bang! Bang!" not doing their usual Halloween episode. I look forward to this every year, and Halloween came and went with no visit to Boogie Woogie Avenue. I didn't get to hear Bret Gelman and Jon Daly do their thing. There was no Comedy Fang Fang this year. No weirdo ghosts for me to cackle with laughter at. It was a real bummer. The biggest disappointment with no "CBB" Halloween episode was the absence of Leo Carpatzi and his daughter Scaroline to sing their version of "The Monster Mash", which is always my favorite part. Although, as you will see next week, they do make up for it a bit in their Christmas episode. But, no 1122 Boogie Woogie Avenue, no Scaroline, no Mesmor, it all bummed me out. This episode is one of the few things I look forward to for a "holiday" that I am not the biggest fan of. Hopefully they remedy this next year because their Halloween episodes are some of their best.

My worst music of 2018 is kind of weird, but it struck me as odd, and kind of stupid to be completely honest. So, you all know how I feel about Drake. He is a wannabe, a front runner, a HORRIBLE rapper, he is just trash all around. So, for him to think he could even touch Pusha T was a joke and made that my most disliked music moment of the year. There is no beef, Pusha T is a far superior rapper, and always will be, when compared to Drake. He has lived that life. He has earned and grinded hard for everything he has accomplished. He isn't a fake, a phony or a frontrunner. Pusha goes about his business and makes incredible rap music. He literally started from the bottom. Drake was on a teenage high school drama in Canada when he was a kid. He is from the suburbs. He's never had a hard day in his life. He is a fake, a phony and a wannabe like I said before. He's a poseur. Pusha T will always, always be a much, much better rapper. So will thousands upon thousands of other rappers that a lot of people may not know about just yet. Drake is a rapper for white tweens. Pusha T is for a true hip hop fan. This whole beef was pointless and dull. Find something better to do with your time Drake because you are not even a top 500 rapper of all time. You are trash.

With TV I was very conflicted because the 2 shows that I think are the worst were 2 I LOVED last year. With that being said, what in the hell happened to "Westworld" and "Legion"? Am I not smart enough? Do I not get it? Am I not hip enough anymore? I don't know, and that was my biggest problem with both these shows. I feel like they decided to really just make some weird stuff and see if major critics would bite, and boy did they ever. I have read a lot of best of lists, and most have both shows on their lists. I totally disagree. Now, it needs to be said that I didn't finish either season. But I didn't finish because I was too tired of sitting there in utter confusion for hours after watching an episode. I made it through 3 of "Legion" and 2 of "Westworld" and just gave up. These shows are already confusing enough, but like I said, I felt like the writers were just messing with me now. They were intentionally trying to confuse me. I like my intelligence to be tested time to time when watching a show, but in watch these 2 shows this year, I felt like I was being made to look like a fool. Like I was stupid because I didn't get it. That is not how I should feel when watching a show. TV shows and movies should let you escape and have fun. I got none of that from "Westworld" or "Legion" this year. That was a bummer for me.

Finally, my worst movie of 2018. I have to admit that I don't get to the movies as much as I would like, but I still watch a fair amount On Demand and on streaming services. With all that being said, the worst movie I saw in 2018 has to be "Avengers: Infinity War". Now, I kind of liked the movie, but compared to everything else, it just doesn't stand up. I found parts of it dull and dragging. I don't like that Thanos wipes out half the population, but we just have to accept that most of those people are still alive because it's a "comic book movie". It would have been so much cooler if they really did kill off all the characters that Thanos killed. I found Thanos kind of dull and, while an okay bad guy, he was no Heath Ledger Joker or Tom Hardy Bane or Alfred Molina's Dr. Octopus or Ultron or even a marginal bad guy like The Mandarin. I think my biggest problem lied within my expectations for the movie. They were through the roof, and that is unfair. But still, my wife and I saw this movie on opening weekend, with a packed theater that had a 10 month old there, and we both left kind of shrugging our shoulders. It wasn't like when we saw "Black Panther" or the first "Ironman" or the "X-Men" movies. We left those exhilarated. With "Infinity War". we left unfulfilled. That is why I have it as my worst movie of the year.

Okay, I got the bad stuff out of the way. Come back next week where I will dedicate one day with a top 5 of 2018 for each category. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Ty is lucky to have survived the Thanos snap so he can dump on the movie. Others in the SeedSing virtual cube farm were not so lucky. We forward to seeing Tina S when the next movie “fixes” all the important deaths.

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Ty Watches "Avengers: Infinity War"

There are minor spoilers for "Avengers: Infinity War" in this piece. You have been warned.

My wife and I saw "Avengers: Infinity War" on Saturday, and I have some thoughts.

First off, I thought the movie was pretty good. A little long, but other than some nit picks here and there, I found myself enjoying what I saw. Also, someone brought a 10 month old to this movie and nonsense like that needs to stop. If you cannot get a babysitter, go another night, or wait until it comes out on video. My wife and I were very perplexed by the fact that someone brought their child to this 2 and a half hour movie. What the hell. Anyway, I want to get the nit picks out of the way first, then explain why I liked this movie. Also, I am going to try and be as spoiler free as I can be, but come on, if you like comic book movies, you have most likely already seen "A:IW", and I'm sure you've already made up your own minds about it.

So, my problems. As I said at the top, this is a long, long movie. At first I didn't really notice because it was just one fight scene after another. The first hour seemed to breeze by. Then, we started to get some back stories on some of the characters, and that was when the movie really started to grind to a halt. It was nice to see how Thanos ended up with Gamora, but I didn't need a 5 minute scene explaining it. Also, kind of cool to see what Thanos was like before, and that he had a shred of dignity, but I could have done without the flashback stuff. Also, it took almost too long for Wakanda and Black Panther to show up. My wife and I both kept saying, "when is Black Panther coming", "when are they going to Wakanda", and so on and so forth. Oh, and why did Scarlet Witch's accent come and go. I swear she was speaking with her regular voice, remembered she was supposed to be Russian, and slipped back into the accent and the directors were like, no big deal. And Paul Bettany, who plays Vision, is way, way too old for Elizabeth Olsen. But, that is Hollywood for you.

Other than those minor issue, I had no real problem with the movie. Even though it was long, I thought it flowed pretty smoothly. I liked the different groups of superheroes that teamed up. I liked the scenery. I enjoyed the banter. I LOVED the battle scenes. I thought it was a cool movie. My favorite pairing in the movie was Thor and the Guardians. They do split in the middle, and when it is Thor, Groot and Rocket, that was my favorite pairing of all. I love what Marvel has done with Thor, making him funnier and, just in general, more fun. Rocket was one of my favorite superheroes already, and I adore Groot. This was the perfect group. When Ironman, Spiderman, Dr. Strange, Mantis, Drax and Starlord teamed up, I was fine with it, but I wanted more Rocket and Thor.

I will say, for those hating on Starlord now for what he did, when they could have defeated Thanos, stop it. This is a comic book movie. This isn't real life. And, if I were in Peter Quill's situation, after finding out what he found out, I would do the exact same thing. Love makes you nuts, and Peter Quill is a selfish person. All that was established in both "Guardians" movies.

Teaming up Cap, Black Widow, Vison, Falcon and Scarlet Witch was pretty cool. When Cap was revealed, I did get goosebumps, and I am not a Captain America guy. When he, Black Widow and Falcon help out Vision and Scarlet Witch, I really enjoyed that scene. When the 6 of them head to Wakanda and team up with Winter Soldier and Black Panther's crew, I thought that was very cool. It just took too long. But, when they did get together, I loved it. I loved that they were in Wakanda fighting too. It was a bummer to see Wakanda, the most beautiful place that has, possibly, ever existed in movies, get destroyed the way it did. But, that fight scene, where Thanos' lackeys bring on millions of those alien/dog hybrid things to fight, that was cool. When Black Panther had them open the shield protecting Wakanda, I was disappointed, but also understood, and it led to an amazing battle scene. When Thor, Groot and Rocket show up, the scene went from an 8 to a 10 for me. That final scene too, with Thanos showing up to Wakanda, it had a bit of everything. It was dark, sad, kick ass and brutal. To see all these heroes fighting the most badass villain ever, I thought it was pretty cool.

I know people have different ideas about what happened at the very end of that movie. I am in the camp that thinks they wouldn't get rid of that many people, especially newer people, but I still don't know. Another part of me thinks that the people at Marvel would kill that amount of people off because they have a seemingly endless supply of other heroes that they can make movies out of. I do believe my wife when she says that she thinks Loki, Gamora and Vision are for sure dead. But, she doesn't think pretty much any of the other people that looked to have died are actually dead. She doesn't think Marvel would do that. Three days later and I still don't know. I knew they were going to go dark, and they did, but I just cannot sully commit to that many heroes being gone.

All in all I would give "A:IW" a solid B. I have seen 3 Marvel movies so far this year, "Black Panther", "Thor; Ragnarok" and now "A:IW", and I liked "Thor" and "Black Panther" much more. But, I did think "A:IW" was a good movie. If you haven't seen it yet, please do, if you like Marvel But also know, you have to be pretty well versed to get everything they are talking about in this new movie. I am very curious to see where they take the franchise from here. But, for now, I will just be left trying to figure out who is still here, and who isn't. Only one more year until we all find out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He has not been this anxious for action since he saw the first "Itchy and Scratchy, and Poochie Show" When are they gonna get to the fireworks factory?

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