Here’s a quick wrap-up of what I read and watched in the last quarter 2022. I found a few great shows even though I read very little. And now we are already gearing up for 2023. How time flies!
Stranger Things (Seasons 1-4)
I know. I know. I should have watched this years ago. But there’s so much fun in bingeing on 4 seasons of this brilliant series for the first time. Who knew scifi could be so feel-good? Amazing acting and cast all around, and I liked the OST too. I heard Season 5 will only come out in late 2023/ early 2024 though 🙁
Rings of Power (Season 1)
I started The Rings of Power with a lot of apprehensions, but ended up liking it a lot. I had to Wikipedia the characters a bit, because I had mostly forgotten the elven characters from LOTR. I’m glad they retained the gravity of Tolkien’s world instead of turning it into yet another Game of Thrones. We do end on some impossible cliffhangers and now I can’t wait for Season 2.
The Witcher
I also finally joined the band wagon for The Witcher. It’s clearly trying to imitate Game of Thrones in terms of gore and nudity, but I have to say that the sword-fighting scenes are pretty amazing. There are some parts that felt quite, umm, “wannabe”? I lost my interest when they started going on about destiny and what-not. Definitely felt more like a game show turned into TV show.
… A few Books
Two books were DNF for me. One was the Urban Fantasy Heirs to Chicagoland series by Chloe Neill. It’s well-written but it seems I really can’t stand vampires as protagonists anymore. Also this series was way too slow and YA-ish.
The other DNF’ed book, much to my disappointment was The Queen’s Necklace by Teresa Edgerton. It’s very much a swords & sorcery historical fantasy book, also very well-written. But in the very initial pages, I took a dislike to the main character Will, who seemed way too flaky. Couldn’t move beyond Chapter 2.
Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young
I also read Spells for Forgetting and that was a pretty good reading experience. It reminded me a lot of Practical Magic and it was the perfect Halloween read too. The things that people justify in the name of family heritage and legacy….
Gilded, Cursed by Marissa Meyer
It’s rare to find SFF duologies and full marks to Meyer for a super-imaginative and entertaining retelling of that more unappetizing tale of Rumpelstiltskin. If only these books weren’t so unbearably long… I swear I lost my patience by the middle!
The Inugami Curse / The Inugami Family
This one I reviewed separately. It was quite a rollercoaster, and very brilliantly plotted.
The Dick Van Dyke Show – One Angry Man (Season 1, Episode 25)
Thanks to Ah Sweet Mystery! for spotlighting this one. This episode was a parody of that old Henry Fonda classic Twelve Angry Men. It’s hilarious, you will never think of courtroom scenes quite the same after this.
What was the last quarter 2022 like for you? Did you get much reading done? Any shows you liked? Any recommendations are welcome, please.
… And Happy New Year 2023 to everyone!
16 replies on “Last Quarter 2022 Wrap-Up”
I LOVE Stranger Things so I’m glad you finally watched it! I still need to watch Rings of Power but I really want to. I also love The Witcher but I thought season 1 was better than season 2.
Absolutely! I think prior to Rings of Power, it would be good to watch the LOTR movies again. I had forgotten so much stuff, I was constantly on Wikipedia!
I couldn’t get much past ‘The opening episode of The Witcher’ though I did read the debut novel (I say ‘novel’ though it felt more a linked collection of short stories). Most of the fantasy series available for streaming seemed to be from apps we don’t subscribe to, but I have been enjoying ‘His Dark Materials’ on BBC (the third series currently on) and ‘Wednesday’ on Netflix – though this is the Addams Family mixed with ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ (also directed by Tim Burton). Otherwise it’s some Star Wars spin-offs on Disney+ …
I too have my eye on Wednesday because I am a fan of Tim Burton’s work. Even if they have tweaked things quite a bit! And I keep hearing good things about His Dark Materials too — I do recall a movie version long back and I don’t think I had been a huge fan of that, so I am a bit hesitant…
The movie version of The Golden Compass (the US title of the first in the HDM series) was okay but this three-series adaptation of the trilogy has been superlative because space was given for character development – and much of the acting has been superb. We’re only halfway through the Wednesday series but it’s definitely been fun, and hugely diverting despite any tweaks!
That’s good to know — thanks, let me check out His Dark Materials then!
I’ve never watched Stranger Things but I do need some television to watch or I will never get any sewing done! I am a big LOTR fan but only saw the first movie, although I kept meaning to watch the others. I have been watching a PBS show called The Unforgotten which I really like – a police cold case show.
I do recommend Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, which I think you would like.
Happy New Year!
Constance
I searched for … Tomorrow and found that it was by the same author who wrote The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry (haven’t read that either, but I remember it was quite a buzz at the time, and I think there’s a movie version too?). I’d recommend Stranger Things over everything else — except that the show is so engrossing you might never get any sewing done! Let me look up Unforgotten — sounds like just what I need, thank you!
Wishing you all the best in 2023! I hope it’s a great year for you. 😀
Thanks Lark, wish the same for you!
Nice overview of your last quarter. All your comments on the streaming shows were interesting. I haven’t tried any of those. We have been watching a lot of Star Trek lately, old shows and new shows. Discovery, and Strange New Worlds, and going back to Deep Space Nine which we had only seen a few episodes of before.
And that Dick Van Dyke Show sounds like great fun.
I will have to look into The Inugami Curse, it sounds very good, I read your review.
I think you’re a mystery buff — in which case, I think you’ll like the Inugami Curse a lot. There’s generally a Japanese Literature reading challenge in Jan, see if you’d like to read more for that!
I got some good reading done, but didn’t watch any TV shows. We mostly watched our holiday classics and Twitch streams this past month. I did enjoy the first two seasons of Stranger Things, but then I lost interest in Season Three. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed more of it!
Season 3 of Stranger Things does drag in the first half of Season 3, but I promise it gets better in the second half — so see if you want to catch up on it again (maybe after Season 5 is also out). And I am looking forward to your best of 2022 lists!
I ended up liking Rings of Power quite a bit more than I was expecting to. Elrond and Durin are golden together. 🙂
Check out my TTT and my 2022 End of Year Book Survey.
I can’t believe, being such a Tolkien fan, that I haven’t watched Rings of Powers – I think I’m scared to!
Great round up – I loved reading your thoughts on which books worked and which not so much.
I used to quite enjoy Meyer’s books but haven’t read any for a long time – your comment about them getting a bit tedious in the middle made me laugh.
Lynn 😀