Welcome to the Jordies 2021! These are my awards for the top books, games, movies and TV shows I watched in 2021!*
Book
Annihilation
I remember seeing Annihilation on the shelf of an independent bookstore years ago, around the time the movie was releasing, and thinking “I would like to read this before I see the movie.” Well, I never got around to seeing the movie at the time, and I forgot about the book.
Then I received a Kobo for my birthday and connected it to my local library so I could borrow e-books in a try-before-you-buy-scheme (I bought too many books, many of which I never read or didn’t enjoy, so decided I would borrow what books I could and only buy the ones I can’t borrow or absolutely love). The first book I borrowed was Annihilation. I have no idea why or how this came back onto my radar, but I’m very glad it did. This book blew me away. In fact, Jeff VanderMeer’s writing in general, and Annihilation in particular, have ruined a lot of other books for me.
I devoured this book in a way I never do, reading this book in two days (I am a very slow reader). I hate too much exposition. I hate when my hand is held and every part of the world is explained to me. I love stories that make me ask questions, that don’t give me the answers, that force me to put the pieces of the puzzle together myself in such a way that I’m not quite sure they all fit. I love a story that respects my intelligence and this is that story. The quality of VanderMeer’s writing and his story-telling mastery is haunting.
Everyone should read this book.
Game
Resident Evil Village
If you know me, you know I love Metroidvanias. If you know me, you know that I’m not particular about the Resident Evil series. I enjoy it, for the most part, but I can take it or leave it. I played 4 and 5, watched speedruns or playthroughs of the others, and then fell out of the series altogether. RE7 was a great return to the series, I loved the first person perspective, I even loved the UI and UX on the menus, but the theme didn’t catch me. It was very unsettling, very scary, but a spooky redneck mansion in the southern swamps that gives off a Deliverance vibe doesn’t really interest me.
So when I saw the first trailers for RE: Village, I was pleasantly surprised. I love Bram Stoker’s Dracula (the book, not the atrocious movie) and the Dimitrescu castle gave me BIG Dracula vibes (I also love castles). I liked that it took place in Eastern Europe rather than America. I loved that it involved vampires and werewolves. I loved that it just didn’t seem to be very Resident Evil. I don’t care very much about the Pharmaceutical company bio-weapon storyline, and while I knew Village wouldn’t abandon it altogether, it did seem like it was taking a back seat to the more traditional monster mash of Dracula, The Wolf Man, and Frankenstein.
While the end product disappointed me a little (I thought the castle would play a much larger role in the overall narrative) I did love Village. The first half of the game is genius, the next 25% is okay, and the last 25% is garbage, but this was still the best game I played in 2021. That first half really carries it through to the finish, even if you can’t go back to the castle after you left.
Movie
Dune
I love the Dune universe, or at least the first two or three books. After that it all gets a little wonky, but Dune itself is a classic of sci-fi and while the original movie is atrocious, this one is fantastic. A huge reason this outing was successful is because of the amazing art direction. The brutalist costumes, sets, and landscape make Dune a visual feast. I also love Chalamot Chalamet and think he does a great job playing the brooding and moody Paul Atreides and Stellan Skarsgard does a great job as the Baron.
I had the benefit of having read the books, so I had additional context that the movie, understandably, had to cut, but my wife, who did not read the novel, enjoyed it all the same even if she was left with a lot of questions about the world and the people in it. For me, it felt like a more grounded Star Wars; a more realistic, or maybe pessimistic, vision of our future among the stars.
While some may not enjoy the story or find it a little obtuse (shout out to the TikTok where someone described their experience as “I can’t believe I paid $20 to watch some kid and his mom talk about space politics in a desert for two hours) I think the visuals more than make up for any shortcomings in the narrative.
TV Show
Midnight Mass
There isn’t really a lot I can say about Midnight Mass other than I loved it. If you enjoyed Haunting of Hillhouse / Bly Manor then you will definitely like Midnight Mass and you should watch it right away. Like Hillhouse and Manor the more you invest, the more you pay attention to, in the show the more you’ll get out of it and I encourage you to try to connect the dots between each episode.
So what were your “Best of’s” for 2021? Let me know in the comments or @ me on sosh.
*For the book category the book does not have to release in the year it is awarded, just the year I read it.
Jordan Galbraith 