2022 was the worst year of my life. Sorry. Coming off my tablets caused an apocalyptic mental breakdown and getting back on them took months. Couldn’t work, couldn’t function. For three months all I was able to do was sit around and watch TV.
Luckily there was some good TV to watch. Lemme pay a little tribute to it now.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
I had been looking forward to seeing the missing bits of Obi-Wan’s story on screen for over a decade. God, I wish I’d been better when it finally, finally came to me. I know the show was a little clunky in plot and dialogue but I loved it, I loved seeing other less-celebrated characters like Owen and Beru as well and seeing them gain more layers (and some badass lines.) And then Qui-Gon at the end to top it all off. DAMN that was a moment.
*
The Orville
I was really bad when I started watching this but yet I have nothing but good memories of actually watching it, if that makes sense. When I first had a look at it I wasn’t impressed with the pilot episode, I thought it was dull and unfunny, but then I stumbled across episode 8 of the first season, the one where the kids have to survive on the cannibal planet, and I was like “This is the same show? Holy crap!” So now I’m a fan.
Still cannot BELIEVE Seth MacFarlene of all people created this.
*
Ms Marvel
This show was SO GOOD. I’m so glad Kamala Khan got an adaption that was respectful of her and her fannish personality! I suppose her powers have changed slightly, I wouldn’t have done that but whatever, I can overlook it. It was such a colourful and sweet show AND it had a lot of things to say.
*
My Name Is Earl
Obviously this isn’t a new show, it’s an older one, but I’d never watched the whole thing from the beginning. It was excellent right up until season three, where it took a sudden and drastic nosedive. (This was around the time of the writers’ strike, if I remember rightly.) It probably could have gotten back on its feet after that but nope, it was cancelled on a cliffhanger after season four. Sigh.
*
Raising Hope
However! The My Name is Earl story is sort-of resolved in the first episode of Raising Hope, made by the same people, so I watched that too. I’m glad I did, it’s a very silly show but very sweet and wholesome. (And it got to end without a cliffhanger, hooray.)
*
The Umbrella Academy season 3
A show about the end of the world that somehow still managed to cheer me up in my worst days. It deserves props just for handling Elliot Page’s transition as well as it did, actually… just being totally chill about it and not even making it a particularly big deal, which is totally in-character for everyone. Awful selfish people but come through when it counts! Love those guys.
Madames and Monsieurs. Poirot has seen much evil in the world, but the evil of this man is in a category all it’s own. His crimes are those of which Poirot cannot speak of in polite company, and they stretch the limit of discretion and manners. And he flees his persecution but cannot resist to remind the world of his existence. To brag about the money his filth has brought him. To try and, how you say, “flex” on a girl who’s concern is for the future of this planet by touting his many fast cars. But she is not so easily cowed and came back strong against his crude message with one of her own. Poirot may not condone the language, but he cannot deny it may have been called for. And there, there he let his hubris lead him to make his mistake. In his video, there, there is his pandora’s box. It does not look like much, it is after all a pizza box and such food is popular among the masses today. But this box…this box proved where he was hiding away. What hole this rat crawled into!
I claim no deductive prowess on my part, Watson. Our quarry is a braggart and a fool and he has proclaimed his location for all the world to see. But the prey is still afoot, dear doctor, and we must be swift. Bring your pistol.
One thing I’ve noticed about myself when I’m thinking of goofy headcanons or scenarios about Harry Osborn when he’s a dad – and has an ideal living situation, let’s clarify – is that I lean into a lot of my experiences with my own dad.
Now, granted, my father and Harry don’t have a lot in common beyond “was kinda super skinny in his teens and 20s”, “had a bad mustache era”, and “not a conventionally attractive guy”. But I love my dad very dearly and I count myself very very fortunate for that. When I try to think of situations where I want to portray someone as being a good father, I think about the man who helped raise me.
And like… it wasn’t anything big. It was all the little things. It was giving him a hug when he got home from work. It was him introducing me to his favorite music, which became my favorite music. It was him trying his best to be understanding even when I was going through some really really rough times mentally, even if he didn’t get it. It was him helping me move, him making an effort to be really cool to my girlfriend, him sending me memes and dad jokes every day just to make me smile.
But my dad was never the tough guy. That was always my mom. He wasn’t exactly a protector, he was a pacifist and he wants to be liked by people and while he’ll stand up for me when it comes down to it, he’s never a physical fighter. But I know he loves me and our family and would still do anything for us. That’s the kind of dad I see Harry being, too.
There’s a lot in canon about Harry unfortunately being an absent father for long stretches of time but I do think that when he’s written well, his kids are really his life. They’re his biggest priority. He will put them before anything else. It means a lot to me when a writer puts the effort into showing Harry as a good father; as someone who is trying so desperately to break the cycle of abuse. He’s not perfect, and sometimes he screws up (sometimes really horribly). But he loves Normie and Stanley, he loves them and I like when I get to see that.
I really can’t overstate how important Harry’s fatherhood is to me. I always feel a little bit robbed that after Harry came back during the Parker Industries era, we never really got to see the way he juggles his whole life, especially where the kiddos are concerned. Certainly we didn’t see much at all in the 2018 run before his unceremonious death at the end of Kindred. But in my heart he ultimately left a legacy as a good father, and if I had my druthers, I would want to keep it that way.
Because sometimes, he reminds me of my dad – and my dad is one of the best men I know.
