Hello everybody, it’s me, The Blog Complainer and welcome to my final post of 2019 slash final post of this decade. Well I guess mathematically speaking 2020 would be the correct end of the decade, but this is the end of the 21^st century’s teen years. To celebrate the end of the “decade” I created this little time capsule of media, events and moments from the years 2010 to 2019, all of which stood out to me for reasons I’ll explain as we go.

At the start of this decade the circumstances of what was going around in the media and the political world never really crossed my mind. Though the rise of mobile games and the continuous rise of internet culture had my full attention, particularly as iconic games like Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds came on the scene. This was an especially good year for Apple as Steve Jobs introduced the first iPad. Continuing on with games from this year, my favourite at the time was Toy Story 3: The Video Game, until a couple of years later when it was replaced with Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption.

As for media, not that I would have heard of them at the time, but some shows I used to watch such as Adventure Time and The Walking Dead debuted this year. Also this was the final year of Lost which aired one of the worst final seasons I have ever seen and that’s not even talking about the ending! As for movies, it’s quite mixed. The world was introduced to the Minions along with Gru from Despicable Me. We thought Toy Story ended and Shrek actually did end. The Last Airbender tainted a franchise and Inception wowed everyone except me.

A year later and I don’t think I had changed a bit. We started off with James Franco and Anne Hathaway hosting the 2011 Oscars and it wasn’t a good idea. My family has always praised the royals so of course they wrapped me up in the celebration of Prince William and Kate’s royal wedding. We also used to watch Two and Half Men so it was a bit of a shock when we learned Charlie Sheen went nuts on set, forcing the creators to write him off the show and then he was replaced with Ashton Kutcher. I think we can all agree it went downhill from there.

Keep in mind I was still quite young at the time so the deaths of the actor who played Alfred in the 90’s Batman movies and Uncle Ben from the 2000’s Spider-Man trilogy saddened me a bit. At the end of this year I got my first iPad and learning the creator of Apple also died this year had a bit of an effect on me. Moving onto something more positive, Game of Thrones debuted this year and the thing I was constantly reminded of was that someone really important had lost their head.

This was also a pretty good year for gaming as Skyrim took the world by storm. Personally though I preferred Batman: Arkham City. It was a pretty good year for big budget movies too, excluding Green Lantern and Cars 2 (even though I kind of like Cars 2). We got the epic conclusion to Harry Potter. Planet of the Apes and the X-Men were rebooted. Tintin, one of my all-time favourite movies, was released. This year also had a big jump for the MCU as, despite being around for ages in comics, the world was introduced to Thor and Captain America. I only noticed while writing this, but it is quite cool that Cap’s entire story starts and ends in this decade.

2012 was when the world was supposed to end, and it did end when I watched that dumb disaster flick. But really this was the year of Gangnam Style and I can distinctly remember almost everybody I knew copying the dance from the music video. This was the first and only year I remember watching the entire opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. George Lucas sold his life’s work to the House of Mouse. At the time it was a shock knowing that I would never get Attack of the Clones in 3D and it was awesome because Disney made all the movies I liked. Whitney Houston died and which was a big deal, but personally I was more sad that Mermaidman and Neil Armstrong died.

With Smallville over, Arrow was released, a ground-breaking show bringing Batman to the small-screen. In gaming, Mass Effect 3 came out and it was alright until the ending blew it. Telltale’s The Walking Dead was also pretty good until I played Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. The best Bond movie of the decade was released this year and ignited my love for Adele. Twilight ended and was replaced with The Hunger Games. Apart from Brave, the show-stopper of the year was The Avengers which was the crowning jewel of a six movie build-up and the starting point of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

2013 is a year I’m not overly fond of. I had to start adjusting as my innocence started to disappear in favor of a more adult outlook on the world. I also remember 2013 being quite lacklustre for entertainment and media in general. The words “Twerk” and “Selfie” were added to the dictionary. (Is it not too late to wish that we all died last year.) Gangnam Style was replaced with the Harlem Shake and hating on Justin Bieber was replaced with hating on Miley Cyrus as she released her infamous Wrecking Ball video. More famous people died with Paul Walker and Nelson Mandela being the biggest, but the youthful me thought losing Marcia Wallace, the voice of Edna Krabappel, was the saddest departure. Though right now I would be more inclined to say losing James Gandoifini and Roger Ebert had a bigger impact on me.

More positives as The PlayStation 4 was released and we got a new Pope. We saw the birth of Netflix Originals with House of Cards. Breaking Bad ended and Rick and Morty began. We were also shocked by The Red Wedding! In gaming we got Grand Theft Auto V which was loved by gamers and hated by non-gamers, but at least The Last of Us was loved by all. I’m still yet to get around to some of the great films of the year like 12 Years a Slave and Wolf of Wall Street, but I have seen Despicable Me 2 and Man of Steel!

2014 on the other hand was quite a special year for me as I discovered film criticism on YouTube and it opened my eyes to a new way to view movies. I also heard it was one of the better years for movies and I’m yet to watch all the ones the critics praised. I watched Gone Girl recently, it was great, though the best of the year for me, hands down, is The Lego Movie. It was also a great year for superhero movies if you exclude The Amazing Spider-Man 2. This was the year where The Guardians of the Galaxy proved that Marvel could make a movie about anything and it would be a hit.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars was axed and it’s annoying little brother Star Wars Rebels replaced it. This year my fascination with superheroes was at it’s peak as I was stoked to see The Flash and Gotham although now I prefer BoJack Horseman. As for gaming, Destiny got alot of negative buzz, I was more fascinated with Octodad: The Dadliest Catch.

Outside of media the highlight of the Oscars was Ellen DeGeneres taking a selfie. Everyone I knew suggested I should post a video online of me pouring a bucket of Ice on my head to spread awareness because everyone else was doing it. The talk of this year was Frozen, Kim Kardashian breaking the Internet and whatever Taylor Swift was up to. Sorry to end this on a sour note, but this year took away Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Williams, and which was pretty upsetting.

I view 2015 as the year of change as after this year nothing would be the same again. Streaming became the way to go and I’m not sure why it took me another three years to realise it. This was the year to hate on Amy Schumer and to argue about the colour of a dress. This may or may not sound relevant to anyone but this was the year I started to take writing a bit more seriously. I am proud that I have persevered for four years with writing a comic book series that is now at it’s 94th issue, telling a big grand story that I hope turns out good in the end.

We lost Christopher Lee and Leonard Nimoy, two actors I very much admire. It was a great year for animation with the release of Inside Out, The Peanuts Movie and Anomalisa. The Hunger Games ended and Fifty Shades of Grey began. Disney Star Wars started off with a hit and Daredevil changed the landscape for Superhero shows. This was also the year of point and click adventure games, the most popular one being Life is Strange. We also got Undertale, something I’m kind of afraid to call a great game.

2016 was an interesting year to say the least. Everyone was talking about the Trump v Clinton wars, but not me, I was busy watching the Saturday Night Live parodies. Finally Leo won an Oscar and there was another Olympics, also Brad and Angelina broke up. Harry Potter refused to go away as we got Fantastic Beasts and a stage play. 2016 was also infamous for the insane amount of tragic celebrity deaths. Amongst others, we lost Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Mohamed Ali and Carrie Fisher along with a couple of other Star Wars actors.

This was quite a crazy year for movies starting with the female Ghostbuster reboot, where my criticism of the movie would be considered invalid because I am a man. DC released two terrible movies to compete with Marvel’s two average movies. Other notable movies include: Deadpool, The Jungle Book, Moana and The Cellar, later renamed 10 Cloverfield Lane. The world was introduced to Stranger Things and Westworld. Black Mirror also made it’s debut on Netflix. As for gaming, No Man’s Sky was everyone’s most hated game, Pokémon Go was everyone’s most talked about game and my favourite game of the year was Hitman 2016.

2017 was the year I officially became a man, meaning I was legally allowed to do the same things that every other adult can do. We started off the year with the most embarrassing Oscars Ceremony yet when La La Land won Best Picture for five minutes because someone mispronounced Moonlight. #MeToo made it’s grand debut when Harvey Weinstein was accused of at least 50 sexual indiscretions. Though the biggest shock came from Kevin Spacey as his MeToo moment killed his show and his career. I’m not really a fan of going into terrorism, but it was a shock to learn there was a bombing at an Ariana Grande concert. I’ll end this off with the loss of Roger Moore and Adam West this year, two big parts of my teen years that are now gone. Also losing John Hurt and Bill Paxton really sucked.

On a more positive note I guess, Harry and Meghan were engaged and whatever antics Trump was up to in the White House continued to provide humour. Also it was a great year for movies. Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine movie came out and was overlooked for an Oscar in favour of Get Out, though Get Out was great too. This was the year of Wonder Woman and Beauty and the Beast as both movies represented female empowerment and that’s all you need to make your movie a masterpiece apparently. My favourite movie of the year was Blade Runner: 2049, an actual masterpiece in my opinion, but it bombed so what do I know! Also Thor became a goofball, Justice League became a laughing stock and Star Wars: The Last Jedi divided a fanbase in a way it would never recover from.

This was also a good year for TV as we got the reboot of Twin Peaks, Big Little Lies and Handmaid’s Tale. The only negative was audiences learning that Game of Thrones can suck! Putting the Wii-U to shame we got The Nintendo Switch. It released amazing titles like Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. Lastly EA took the title of the worst gaming company of the year again with Mass Effect: Andromeda and Star Wars: Battlefront II.

This was a pretty good year for me personally as I started writing reviews on the internet, which later gave birth to The Blog Complainer. In more important news, Logan Paul became the most hated person on the internet when he found a dead body. The MeToo stuff was more in effect than ever as Bill Cosby was thrown into jail. Toys ‘R’ Us went bankrupt which was followed by the deaths of Stephen Hawking, Burt Reynolds and Stan Lee. The most tragic loss for me personally was the death of Stephen Hillenburg the creator of SpongeBob. After I learned he passed I bought the first two seasons of SpongeBob in his memory and they’re still as timeless as I remembered.

It was another big year for superhero movies as Black Panther and Aquaman became household names, but only Black Panther pleased the Oscars and SJWs. 2018 was also a good year to be a Spider-Man fan as he had a great game and the best movie in his 16 year long movie catalogue. Too bad Thanos snapped him and every other character out of the universe along with all of the Marvel Netflix shows. It was also a good year for horror as we had great movies like Hereditary, A Quiet Place and Annihilation. I got Netflix this year and I watched Insatiable when I should have watched The Haunting of Hill House. It was a good year for gaming with great titles like Red Dead Redemption II and God of War. There was also the new Minecraft with Fortnite and there’s Fallout 76.

Finally we have this year and, like every other year, there were some ups and downs. This was a mixed year for entertainment as a dumb show about a Masked Singer was apparently the height of conversation. The Fyre Festival documentary on Netflix and Hulu revealed quite a lot. Someone made a joke on Facebook that they should storm Area 51, but as we know some people don’t understand sarcasm. I said last year was a great year for Spider-Man, well it wasn’t this year as he was temporarily cut from the MCU, blame Disney for that! Speaking of Disney, they released their own streaming service this year meaning I now need to own at least 5 different services to watch everything I want, which is quite absurd! At least it was a good year for Keanu Reeves as we couldn’t get enough of him – he was at E3, John Wick III, Toy Story 4 and he may or may not return for another Matrix movie. Luke Perry’s death was quite a shock and we also lost Barnacleboy meaning this decade took away the creator of SpongeBob and the greatest underwater duo of all time.

In my first official full year as the BC I noticed this was not the best year for ending famous franchises. We got lacklustre to terrible endings for How to Train your Dragon, Glass, Toy Story, X-Men, Frozen, Game of Thrones, It, Maleficent, Terminator and Star Wars. At least Avengers: Endgame got it right and because of that it knocked off Avatar as the highest grossing movie of all time. This was also the year Hollywood forgot how to design a good character. Besides Pikachu from the live-action Pokémon movie, this was the year of some abysmal character designs. We had a Will Smith Genie, two different Sonic the Hedgehogs and all of the Cats from Cats!

At least DC had a better year than Marvel for once, thanks to Joker being the highest grossing R rated movie of all time. The Mandalorian, The Witcher and Watchmen were the most talked about shows of the year. The Big Bang Theory ended and BoJack Horseman is on it’s way to ending. My life has gotten a lot busier this year so for new games I have only played a bit of Mortal Kombat 11, Pokémon: Sword and Death Stranding is still sitting on the shelf.

2019 has been quite an impactful year for me as I have started the long and slow process of writing a novel. it feels quite satisfying to have some fans who appreciate your work and others who see your talent and give you exclusive offers. I have also made some new friends this year that will hopefully carry over into 2020.

The 2010’s I see as my learning decade as like in any good story I can see where I started and then see where I ended up. I hope you enjoyed this memorabilia of things that happened to the world and me in the 2010’s. I would be interested to hear your experiences or even moments you think I might have missed. Hope you are all still with me in another 10 years’ time, and in the meantime have a great new year.  I have been The Blog Complainer and I’ll see you all again in 2020.