Best of 2017: Dick Frizzell

Stars reveal the best and worst of 2017

For me, 2017 was the year of:

Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok. Taika got it right . . . I’m still gobsmacked at the amazingly consistent tone of total anarchy he somehow managed to maintain for the entirety of the movie. You have to wonder what Americans make of it!

The best thing I watched this year

Taika’s Thor: Ragnarok

The show I stopped watching

Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry just got too mean and awful. I used to absolutely love the “old” Curb and really looked forward to this new series, but it’s just too damn weird. I’ll probably go back in again and give it another go but the heart seems to have gone out of it.

The series I binged the fastest

Narcos 2. I just had to see how it rolled out, which of course is the main reason to binge anything . . . but the astonishing levels of absolute lawlessness fascinated me. By the way . . . my idea of “bingeing” means watching more than two at once . . . every now and again.

The best thing I listened to

Leonard Cohen’s You Want it Darker? Leonard went out on a high. I never quite believed the old folkie Leonard but have been a big fan since Tower

of Song and First we take Manhattan then we take Berlin. I actually drove into Berlin with Jude, listening to it loudly on a compilation tape back in the pre-wall-coming-down days.

The best live show I saw

I wish I’d seen Marlon Williams because I think he’s going to be huge. I actually don’t get to a lot of concerts these days, even though I now live within walking distance of the Powerstation.

The biggest letdown of the year

Valerian. Straining for effect to no avail. Hopeless. I love trash and taught my children that even shit has its own integrity . . . but sad shambles like

Valerian are beyond any such justification.