2022 at “me + richard”

For comparison purposes, 2021 is here.

 

New marketing image for The Man from Rome. I bought an Australian DVD copy. Hope I’ll be able to read it when it arrives!

 

Here’s the annual recap of “most popular posts written in 2022.

10. I prefer full price Richard Armitage (March 21): response to snarky comment in Vulture’s weekly recap of season 2 of Sanditon.

9. Maxwell Smart usually makes me think of something else (October 25): Armitage insta about a new project based on the novel, The Boy in the Woods.

8. This looks like a new project (March 17): Armitage tweets a cast photo from the set of Damage (now Obsession). I ordered a copy of the novel but have not found time to read it.

7. Richard Armitage moves into lucrative NFT market (April 1): Annual April Fools joke. But really, given what happened with crypto this year, it’s fortunate that it was a joke.

6. Richard Armitage moves into Area 51 (August 22): Annual birthday post.

5. Whose dadbod? (May 2): Screencap from a trailer for The Man from Rome as pushback against Armitage’s (boringly predictable) comments about the state of his middle-aged body.

4. Richard Armitage always has good shoes (October 18): an attempt from me to be polite about a disaster outfit at one of the Spanish premieres of The Man from Rome.

3. The Queen is dead, long live the King (September 9): reference to the death of Elizabeth II. Another watershed event, and the funeral spectacle was unchallenged. Tangentially: I watched season 5 of The Crown over the last few days, and it’s a fascinating document. I did not love Imelda Staunton in this role; Jonathan Pryce grew on me; Elizabeth Debicki was a disaster — and I think the best performance was probably Dominic West, although again it was mimicry rather than acting, something that seems to be increasingly prevalent these days. While not up to the standard of previous season, still I thought it was much better TV than it got credit for being. I also want to say: almost as interesting as the show itself were the various critical and political reactions to it. But it’s hard to imagine people would still care as much as they do about the Diana episode if it weren’t for Megxit.

2. I’m sure I’m the problem here (March 3): my criticism of Armitage’s solicitation to give to an unproven charity. I’m sure I posted this in the wake of numerous problems I’ve had with his charity suggestions over the years. Here’s an update on the progress of the 1K project — but / and the point about giving without checking stands.

1. The dream ends (August 22): Lee Pace acknowledges that he’s married.

 

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Interesting to me: the most concentrated spate of blogging I did in 2022 (the recaps of Stay Close episodes) did not hit the top ten. It was fun for me, but the practice of binging has kind of killed that particular audience experience. The other thing: that I didn’t blog when Armitage finally “came clean” (because that’s really what it was) about his sexual orientation. Although I had a lot of thoughts.

Other than that, I don’t have much to say in what necessarily has to be a short post today. I don’t think I’ve ever posted less than I did in this year, and yet I don’t have the feeling that “me + richard armitage” is dying (I may be kidding myself). I still have many relevant reflections that don’t make it as far as this screen, some due to other bad habits I’ve developed in the atmosphere of working full-time in an emotionally demanding role, some due to questions I have about whether the themes are important any more (see above under: I had a lot of thoughts). But I still want to post, and I probably still will.

In that light: a million thanks to everyone who still reads here, in particular to regular commentators, and — in case it doesn’t go without saying — to Richard Armitage.

~ by Servetus on December 31, 2022.