Sunday 9 January 2011

A Round Up on 2010

We're a little over a week into 2011 and yet it feels like an eternity since I was enjoying the glorious cheese boards and sausage rolls that the festive season brings me. I've endured a week back at work (not too bad really) and have watched enough top 100 shows in the past seven days to last me the rest of 2011. So in honour of this, here is my 2010 list...

Best Gadget - Apple iPad

I seriously love the iPad. It's so simple to navigate and its screen is crystal clear - perfect for reading or watching telly in bed. Shame about all the smudge marks on my screen though.

Best iPhone App - DoodleFind

This is so simple and yet so addictive. A timed picture search that has had me throw my iPhone across the room in shame at my diasterly low score. My one gripe with this app is that it has a tendency to delete my top score... grrr.

Best Film - Inception

Great story, great actors, EPIC effects. The only film in 2010 that I saw twice at the cinema (IMAX baby!). I now have the DVD so I can look out for wedding rings and the like. I loved the film's concept; the idea that information can be both implanted and extracted from one's brain through people entering your dreams, and I also felt that its director, Christopher Nolan really highlighted some of the talented young actors in Hollywood today in particular Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Best TV Show - The Walking Dead / Boardwalk Empire

Don't judge me. It's amazing that I got it down to only two shows with the amount of television I watch! The Walking Dead (though incredibly short!) was tv in filmic proportions with the make up department going nuts with dried blood and evil looking contact lenses. The zombies were brilliant and terrifying in equal measure, and to my surprise I was even impressed with Andrew Lincoln's american accent! Boardwalk Empire was stunningly filmed with superb casting and a sweeping storyline full of memorable gangster characters. Michael Pitt shines as Jimmy and Steve Buscemi is a force to be reckoned with as Nuckie Thompson - politican and gangster in equal parts.

Other quality TV shows that should be mentioned here - Treme, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy and Luther.

Best TV guilty pleasure - Don't Tell the Bride
Would you let the groom plan the entire wedding? In Don't tell the Bride that's exactly what the Bride to Be does as they leave the groom with 12 grand and three weeks to plan and host their perfect wedding day. I know it's cheesy, but I love it!! It's cringeworthingly good and takes the 'wedding show' crown from Four Weddings this year.

Best Book - One Day
This book is most definitely my book of year. ONE DAY is truly wonderful book. It’s funny, sharp, moving, and inspirational. It had me in fits of laughter and inconsolable with tears. I can not find fault with it. All the characters were beautifully fleshed out and the relationships between each one of them, whether it’s Dexter and his father, Emma and her boyfriend, and of course the key relationship: Dexter and Emma, are relationships that we can all relate to – they are not elaborate or glamourous. They are real, normal and utterly compelling.