Flavours of the Year: 2012...

For the last few years I've done monthly run-downs of what's been flavouring that past four weeks - the sorts of things I've been watching, listening to, reading, playing, or doing that have been most prominent - and so I figured I'd do a retrospective of the fullest flavours of the year of 2012.

Click "READ MORE" below to see the Flavours of the Year 2012...

LOOKS:

The Walking Dead - the second half of season two, the first half of season three, the Telltale videogame, music from the soundtrack, the trade paperbacks, forum talk with fellow fans, memes galore and more. TWD has practically been a monthly fixture.

Deadwood - three seasons in three weeks during the dark early months of the year. A bloody fantastic show.

Mad Men - a five-season catch-up over a couple of months. Another bloody fantastic show.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011) - saw it at the cinema in January, and then poured over the Blu-Ray a few months later. The Swedish film(s) are great, but with this being a David Fincher flick, I found myself being quite taken by the film.

All Star Celebrity Bowling - the Nerdist Channel on YouTube got underway with a series of shows (such as Blood & Guts), but it was the Chris Hardwick-fronted bowling show where celebrities (mostly actors and writers from television series such as The Walking Dead, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad) that really took  my fancy, even though I'm shit at bowling.

Shameless Screen Entertainment - various giallo and poliziotteschi flicks have been given full DVD reviews over the last 12 months. Check them out via the link over there on the right somewhere.

Hell On Wheels - AMC's western is figuring itself out. It's not gold yet, but there's enough to keep me watching.

Breaking Bad - I saw the first season back in 2011, but it wasn't until many months later that I finally caught up. What a cracking show - but there's only eight episodes left. It's been a great ride though.

Married With Children: Season 5 through 11 - one of my favourite sitcoms. Consider this long-winded catch-up complete at last.

Red Dwarf X - the welcome return of the boys from the Dwarf. More please!

James Bond - 2012 was the year of Skyfall, but it was also the year for me to finally catch up with the seventeen Bond flicks that I'd still not got around to watching.

Prometheus - it has some problems, but I dug it straight away and I still dig it.

Dinner For Five - I've had a few YouTube obsessions during 2012, and this round-table dinner-based discussion show was one of them.

The Dark Knight Rises - one of the big cinema events of the year, with more viewings on Blu-Ray in December.


SOUNDS:

Alice Cooper - this time last year I had one 2-disc best of collection ("Spark in the Dark"), but now I've got fourteen of his albums. Goodness knows why it took me so long to properly sink my teeth into his music as it's exactly my kind of thing, but better late than never. In fact I'm listening to 1989's "Trash" as I type this.

Foo Fighters

Guns n Roses

David Lynch

M83

Tell 'Em Steve Dave: Overkill

Green Day "Uno!"


VIBES & FLAVOURS:

L.A. Noire - you've gotta love getting to be a detective in 1940s Los Angeles.

The Walking Dead Video Game (Season One)

The Walking Dead: Volume 12 through 17

Call of Duty - Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops II

Rage - id Software's light-on-story, heavy-on-gameplay post-apocalyptic shooter had a generic and forgettable plot, but the core mechanics were very enjoyable indeed.

Hunter S. Thompson "The Rum Diary"

James Ellroy "The Black Dahlia"

Duke Nukem Forever

The Olympics & The Paralympics

Drifting (Screenplay)

Assassin's Creed: Revelations

Eyes In Your Window (Screenplay)

Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga "The Walking Dead: The Rise of the Governor"

Far Cry 3