First half of 2023 awards

The year is half over already... What happened?!

It’s already July! What the heck. I barely remember this year, so I thought I’d write up some of my favorite things of the year so far, so I can remember that this year actually had things that happened.

Best Video Game

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

I don’t think this one is much of a surprise. Tears of the Kingdom is a marvel. A sandbox that rewards creativity, a massive world to explore with all sorts of delightful and surprising things, story beats that were actually emotional (which is a rarity in Nintendo games)… It’s a masterpiece.

I don’t think anything is going to surpass it, though I have yet to play Final Fantasy XVI. But still. It’s everything I would have wanted, and more, from a sequel to one of my favorite games ever.

Best Movie

Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse

Another sequel to one of my favorite things that did not disappoint! Spider-man: Into The Spider-verse was one of the most visually dazzling, creative, stylistic, clever, and original pieces of media back when it was released in 2018. The sequel jumps in right where the previous movie left off and continues to be impress with its inspired storytelling. By far and away the best superhero movies, in my opinion, and it’s not even close.

Best TV Series

Silo

I’m a sucker for suspenseful, mysterious sci-fi series, ever since Lost came out way back in 2005. Silo is less fantasy sci-fi than Lost, more dystopian - closer to a mix of Snowpiercer, The Platform, Station Eleven… That type of vibe. If slow building mysterious dystopian shows are your jam, Silo will be quite engaging for you. I won’t say too much more because it’s definitely one of those “the less you know the better it’ll be” type shows.

Best Song

I have literally no idea I still just listen to 90’s music

I have no idea what’s popular in music these days. I think the most contemporary song I’ve been like “ooh that’s a bop” is “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd and that came out like 3 years ago.

Best Meme

France

Lots of ones with potential, but France recreating the classic “This is fine” meme during one of its many protests is an instant classic.

Best Overall Thing

Nobody cares about covid anymore

Vacations are happening again! I don’t have to wear stupid masks and fog up my glasses all the time! Traffic is back! …Er, well, that’s less good, but at least that means people are going places again.

Covid seems so quaint now that we’ve almost forgotten how annoying it was, and how nice it is to just go to a restaurant and eat like normal, go to the gym and work out, hang out with friends, and all the other hundreds of things that felt just slightly worse when covid was on everyone’s mind.

Thank goodness.