Gavin Hignight
FOG! Columnist
@gavinhignight | gavinhignight.com | theconcreteworld.com
Best Movies: Mad Max: Fury Road, Iris, Krampus, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Best TV Shows: Daredevil
Best Songs: New Order “Restless”, New Order “Tuti Fruiti”, Silversun Pickups “Circadian Rhythm (Last Dance)” Action Bronson, “Easy Rider”
Best Albums: New Order “Music Complete”, John Carpenter “Lost Themes”
Most overrated thing about 2015? Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Most underrated thing about 2015? The Expanse
Thing that you were most excited about in 2015? Mad Max: Fury Road
Thing that disappointed you most in 2015? Star Wars: The Force Awakens, SPECTRE
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2016? Daredevil Season 2, Gundam: Thunderbolt
Chris Brennaman
FOG! Columnist
@chrisbrennaman
Best Movies: The Hateful Eight, Mad Max: Fury Road
Best TV Shows: Ash vs. Evil Dead, Doctor Who, The Man in the High Castle, Daredevil
Best Books (non-fiction): My Improbable Journey to the Main Event of Wrestlemania by Daniel Bryan, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Best Video Game: Super Mario Maker
Best Comic Books / Graphic Novels: Transformers vs. GI Joe, Hip Hop Family Tree, Saga, Secret Wars, Southern Bastards
Most overrated thing about 2015? This will be deemed heresy, but Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoyed it immensely. But I didn’t have the religious experience that I think I was supposed to have had.
Most underrated thing about 2015? Catastrophe on Amazon Prime.
Thing that you were most excited about in 2015? How good Mad Max: Fury Road was. It came out of no where and I had zero expectations. It was nice to be surprised like that.
Thing that disappointed you most in 2015? I was disappointed in how the ever-present marketing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens made me more than a little tired of all things Star Wars well before the movie hit theaters.
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2016? Here’s hoping we finally getting a Legend of Zelda for the Wii U.
Brian Lynch
Screenwriter, Comic Writer
@brianlynch
Best Movies: I haven’t seen many, but my favorites were Creed and Mad Max: Fury Road.
Best TV Shows: Again, haven’t seen many. I’m terrible at this. But I’d go with Star Wars Rebels, Last Man On Earth, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Ash Vs. Evil Dead, Sonic Highways and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Best Video Game: I haven’t played any, so I’m gonna make one up: Sergeant Anger Steals Alien Cars
Best Songs: Nothing’s coming to mind, so again, I’ll make one up. “Baby You Do That Thing” by Twenty-Something Flirt Machine
Best Albums: I listened to Elle King’s Love Stuff a lot.
Best Music Video: Now you’re being silly, they don’t make those anymore.
Best Comic Books / Graphic Novels: I Hate Fairyland, Giant Days, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers: Sins of the Wreckers
Best Blu-ray/DVD Release: I was super proud when Minions came out, but that shouldn’t count. So
let’s go with the Miyazaki Boxset.
Most overrated thing about 2015? Sleep.
Most underrated thing about 2015? Man, great question. Star Wars Rebels is the best Star Wars related thing in decades.
Thing that you were most excited about in 2015? Minions finally coming out, but also being able to see a new Star Wars in the theater.
Thing that disappointed you most in 2015? The last two minutes of Kingsman.
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2016? My next movie coming out, The Secret Life of Pets. Also Captain America: Civil War and Suicide Squad. And there’s an animated movie called Sing that comes out next winter that I’ve seen pieces of, and it’s just incredible. Can’t wait to see it on the big screen.
Andre Bennett
Former FOG! Columnist
@frankiethirteen
Best Movies: Mad Max: Fury Road, Inside Out, Furious 7
Best TV Shows: The Flash, WWE NXT, Master of None, Jessica Jones, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Best Albums: The Dears, “Times Infinity Volume One”
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2016? Everything.
Joe Keatinge
Comic Book Writer & Editor
joekeatinge.com
Best Movies: Inherent Vice, Ex Machina, Mr. Holmes, Best of Enemies. I imagine Hateful Eight will make this list, but I haven’t seen it yet.
Best Books (fiction + non-fiction): Most books I read in 2015 were from previous years, but the ones which were new-to-me and struck me most were John Fowles’ The Magus, Mark Doty’s Still Life with Oysters and Lemon, Churchill’s six-part series on World War II (which I’m still going through), and finally embarking on all of Fleming’s Bond books, including his non-fiction yet related Thrilling Cities.
Best Comic Books / Graphic Novels: Hellboy in Hell, Emma Ríos’ ID (from Island), The Fade Out, Last Man, Dark Corridor
Best Blu-ray/DVD Release: Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy (Criterion)
Thing that disappointed you most in 2015? SPECTRE
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2016? I don’t know about “most,” but I am interested in finally cracking open Cambridge University Press’ comprehensive The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, for better and — largely, I imagine — for worse. He’s written some of my all-time favorite work, but I find him problematic as an individual (to say the least), yet I’m still looking forward to descending down that rabbit hole.
David E. Goldweber
FOG! Columnist
clawsandsaucers.com
Best Movies: I only saw two new releases in all of 2015, but both were great: The Martian and Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best TV Shows: Through 2015 I regularly streamed The Office on Netflix. I know, it’s not from 2015, but it was available in 2015 so I hope it counts!
Best Books (fiction): Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Oh wait, that’s 1915.
Best Books (non-fiction): Science Fiction and Fantasy Films of the 1970s by John Kenneth Muir (became available on Kindle in 2015)
Best Video Game: Minecraft
Best Blu-ray/DVD Release: The Brood special edition
Most overrated thing about 2015? Logic
Most underrated thing about 2015? Emotion
Thing that you were most excited about in 2015? Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Thing that disappointed you most in 2015? A tad too much Star Wars merchandising. Just a tad.
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2016? The return of Rom Spaceknight!
Liz Robbins
FOG! Contributor
@lizzrobbins | robbins-studios.com
Best Movies: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best TV Shows: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Daredevil
Best Songs: Punch Brothers – “Julep”
Best Albums: Sleater Kinney- No Cites to Love
Best Music Video: Kendrick Lamar- “Alright”
Most overrated thing about 2015? Jurassic World
Most underrated thing about 2015? Rhiannon Giddens’s first solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn
Thing that you were most excited about in 2015? Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Thing that disappointed you most in 2015? Mumford & Sons’ “new” sound. Doctor Who.
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2016? Captain America: Civil War, Game of Thrones Season 6
Bill Machon
Former FOG! Columnist
Best Movies: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ex Machina, Mad Max: Fury Road
Best TV Shows: Game of Thrones, Orphan Black, Gotham, Sleepy Hollow, Bates Motel
Best Albums: Tame Impala – Currents, Blur – The Magic Whip, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Chasing Yesterday, The Charlatans – Modern Nature
Best Song: The Libertines – “Fame and Fortune”
Best Video Game: Star Wars Battlefront
Best Comic Books: Providence, Descender, Saga, ODY-C, The Wicked + The Divine, Gotham by Midnight
Thing that you were most excited about in 2015: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Providence
Thing that you’re most looking forward to in 2016: Star Wars: Rogue One, Star Trek Beyond, Game of Thrones, The Winds of Winter, X-Files, High-Rise
Alex C. Telander
FOG! Contributor
@BookBanter | bookbanter.wordpress.com
Best Blu-ray: Interstellar
Best Books (fiction): Dead Ringers by Christopher Golden, Seveneves by Christopher Golden, Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith, Saturn Run by John Sanford, Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson, Finders Keepers by Stephen King, The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons, The Fold by Peter Clines, Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Best Books (kids): Marvels by Brian Selznick, Stranger by Rachel Manija Brown, Clariel by Garth Nix
Best Books (nonfiction): Wright Brothers by David McCullough, Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell, The Living Years by Michael Rutherford
Best Graphic Novel: Sandman Overture by Neil Gaiman, The Sculptor by Scott McCloud
