The Best of Trash Culture 2008

Here’s the last of my Best of 2008 posts.

In case you missed the other best of posts, we’ve done the best of Euros, Ameritrash games and war games. My feeling before posting and even more so after reading all the posts was that 2008 was a rebound year for Euros, a weak year for Ameritrash game (but it’s ending with a bang with BSG, Android, Cosmic Encounter and early 2009 looks great for AT) and a very good year for war games.

So how about the best of Trash Culture?

The best Ameritrash Movie of 2008? Dark Knight. I haven’t bought it on DVD yet but I will. But I vote Dark Knight is not only the best Ameritrash movie of the year but I think it’s the best Ameritrash movie of the decade.

If it wasn’t for Dark Knight what would have been the best Ameritrash Movie of 2008? Iron Man. I didn’t see it the theater but I did enjoy quite a bit on DVD.

Worst Ameritrash movie 2008? Even if I enjoyed watching about 30 minutes of the movie I’d still have to go with Cloverfield.

Best Ameritrash TV shows of 2008? There’s a lot to choose from Lost, Fringe, Heros, Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, 24, etc.

The worst Ameritrash I watched in 2008? The first 2 episodes of Babylon 5. Actually, that was probably the worse crap I’ve watch my whole life. I probably should have listed to Uba who told me to watch season 3 – 5 first than go and watch season 1-2.

Other best of Ameritrash 2008?

A weak year for Trash Culture, too. Heroes and BSG continue a steep decline. Fringe is lame. My Own Worst Enemy sucked mightily. And Cloverfield is basically a Euro with a pasted-on theme.

At least Chuck is still mindless fun.

The best Ameritrash Movie of 2008? Speed Racer, though I suspect it'll be The Wrestler by the end of the year (hey, it's about a pro wrestler; good enough for me to stick it under Ameritrash).

If it wasn’t for [Speed Racer] what would have been the best Ameritrash Movie of 2008? The Dark Knight

Worst Ameritrash movie 2008? Probably The Punisher, though there were two or three extremely awesome moments. EDIT: No, wait, I forgot about Jumper. That was fucking awful from beginning to end.

Best Ameritrash TV shows of 2008? Was The Wire's final season this year? If not, The Shield.

The worst Ameritrash I watched in 2008? Heroes, probably the worst show I've stuck with since I was a little kid.

(And Babylon 5 is pretty good (in spite of its many warts) once the main storyline becomes the focal point.)

The best Ameritrash Movie of 2008- SPEED RACER? Really? I still haven't watched it...I have it, just haven't watched it yet. It's definitely DARK KNIGHT in this category for me. Nothing else came remotely close. It was also the best movie of the year, period. WALL-E was pretty great too, but DK is the winner.

Worst Ameritrash movie 2008- This was an _awful_ year for all movies, probably the worst in recent memory. It's a shame, because 2007 had so many _great_ ones (NO COUNTRY, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, EASTERN PROMISES, ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES)...no movie released in 2008 was nearly as bad as THE HAPPENING, which I think may very well be the worst movie I've ever seen. Seriously. There's probably more professional, cogent filmmaking in those straight-to-video pictures you can buy for $3 at the Latino grocery store. I watched the whole thing literally in shock that it was made in a first world country by professionals.

Best Ameritrash TV shows of 2008- BSG

The worst Ameritrash I watched in 2008- BSG

That's a sucker prize, BSG is really the only TV series I watch. But it was both the best and worst.

Best Ameritrash record of the year- Fucked Up, "Chemistry of Common Life". Brainy, psychedelic hardcore with mad hooks. Kind of like Negative Approach but not so hostile.

Michael Barnes wrote:

The best Ameritrash Movie of 2008- SPEED RACER? Really?

The Dark Knight is also awesome, but there were a few parts that bothered me (it pulled its punches a few too many times (i.e., empty hospital); awkwardly inserted political allegories).

Speed Racer isn't perfect, either, but it's the most visually inventive movie I've seen in years and I appreciated that a lot.

Barnes great answer for the best and worst T.V. of 2008. But the Barefoot Killer reminded of two things first that I need to rent Speed Racer. I haven't seen it yet. And 2nd that final season of the Wire was during the beginning of 2008 (I was thinking it was late 2007). So I'll have to give my vote to the Wire which is my 2nd favorite TV show of all time next to the Sopranos.

Best video game of 2008? ?????

Best video game of 2008?

I'm the only person who's going to say this...I know you guys are going to be all "FALLOUT 3! MASS EFFECT! GOW2! DEAD SPACE! LEFT FOR DEAD!" etc. but...SUPER SMASH BROTHERS BRAWL is my pick. I adored it. It was just plain unpretentious fun to play, and I love the Nintendo nostalgia. I even liked collecting the littlestatues and I usually hate collectible stuff in games. But come on, it has fuckin' Ice Climbers in it! I like Ice Climbers better than power suit commandos with bandanas and goatees. I'm over that crap. I really liked that there were a lot of different ways to play the game, a lot of little goals and challenges, and just a lot to do and see in general. The story mode was awesome- it was a very well done beat-em-up/platform hybrid with a solid 10 hours of gameplay. The only thing is I'm playing it the whole time thinking "where is METROID 2.5d with this engine"? And I'm probably the only person in the world who LIKES the anonymous online thing...no kids babbling in incoherent jargon, just some guy somewhere in the world gutting you with Meta Knight over and over again.

Second pick would be LITTLE BIG PLANET. I only played once, but it blew me away. Third choice, ROCK BAND 2.

The best Ameritrash Movie of 2008?

The Dark Knight. It isn't even close.


If it wasn’t for Dark Knight what would have been the best Ameritrash Movie of 2008?

Heh...I'd pick another comic book movie. It's a close race between Hellboy 2 and Iron Man, though I'd give the edge to Iron Man. Hellboy 2 is just a beautiful freakin' film.


Worst Ameritrash movie 2008?

Probably Crystal Skull. "NUKE THE FRIDGE", baby.



Best Ameritrash TV shows of 2008?

Lost is far and away the best show on television. I also (obviously) really dig Terminator.



The worst Ameritrash I watched in 2008?

[Tie] Heroes and Smallville. Both were shows that were once pretty good. Heroes took a flaming shit on itself and Smallville's been mostly crappy ever since season 4 with "Lana the Witch", the dumbest fucking storyline to ever appear on prime time television. Yet, like a tool I can't seem to let either show go.

I've downloaded Smallville 5-10 but haven't watched them. I'm hearing the show has gotten a lot better this year with the Doomsday storyline. I think it's fucking retarded that Clark is fighting Doomsday before he ever dons the red and blue tights. That's just me.





Best Ameritrash Video Game?


I went light on the games this year compared to years past. But it's hard to argue against that giant ball of awesome fanservice that is Smash Bros. Brawl. Just a smorgasbord of goodies for a hardcore Nintendo mark like myself.

the barefoot killer wrote:

The worst Ameritrash I watched in 2008? Heroes, probably the worst show I've stuck with since I was a little kid.

Hear hear. Why can't I quit this show!?! (answer...because it's easy to watch during MNF commercials).

Heroes is torturous to watch if you have the superhuman ability to remember things that happened three episodes ago that completely contradict stuff happening right now before your eyes.

Can we please have "Trash Culture" defined?

Ken B. wrote:

Heroes and Smallville. Both were shows that were once pretty good. Heroes took a flaming shit on itself and Smallville's been mostly crappy ever since season 4 with "Lana the Witch", the dumbest fucking storyline to ever appear on prime time television. Yet, like a tool I can't seem to let either show go.

I'm like this, too. It took 6 seasons of Smallville before I gave it up. And I'm finally done with Heroes, too. I had the 4 latest episodes taped until I realized I had no interest in watching any of them.

When Tim Kring apologized for the poor quality of the 2nd season I thought that was pretty classy. Now that he's apologized for the 3rd season, it's clear that he has no fucking clue what he's doing. Not one element that made the 1st season great remains: style, pacing, plotting, characterization, consistency, humour...all gone. Probably went when Bryan Fuller left. Seriously, who thought that creating half-season volumes with two dozen characters was a good idea? And good riddance to Jeph Loeb. I don't know if he's a good comic book writer, but his teleplays fucking suck. He was never good on Smallville, and both of the terrible 1st season Heroes episodes were his. And, not coincidentally, played out just like this season.

I know Bryan Fuller's coming back, now that Pushing Daisies is dead, and maybe he'll fix what's wrong. I'll wait to hear how it's received. If it's good, I'll pick up the DVDs. Otherwise, the hell with it.

Anders Fager wrote:

Can we please have "Trash Culture" defined?

It's like Ameritrash. Which is like porn. I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.

The best Ameritrash Movie of 2008? Doomsday - by a country mile.

Worst Ameritrash movie 2008? - Dark knight. Meh.

Best Ameritrash TV shows of 2008? - Rock of Love II.....Bimbos.

The worst Ameritrash I watched in 2008? - Rock of Love II