At the end of each year we poll the Fandomania staff to bring you our favorite movies, TV shows, and video games from the year that’s concluding. Even though there’s always a lot of great stuff that excited us, there inevitably will be fan-crushing disappointments as well. In the spirit of venting out all the negativity before launching into the greatness, we begin our traditional “favorites” posts with a rundown of what disappointed us the most from the past year.
Jason’s Disappointment: J.K. Rowling
There had been rumblings and indications for a while, but 2019 was the year J.K. Rowling essentially outed herself as being out of touch at best and transphobic at worst. This is the year we had to do a lot of cognitive juggling to separate the author’s stories about acceptance, caring, and compassion from her personal messages of unsympathetic exclusion. It’s hugely disappointing to see someone with a platform as big as Rowling has and with as big an influence on an entire generation as she possesses use her powers for something other than good.
Kimberly’s Disappointment: Bless the Harts
I had high hopes for this show. An animated comedy set in North Carolina, able to make inside jokes about life in the South. However, it felt more like a never-ending parade of stereotypes and I did not appreciate the humor.
Kendra’s Disappointment: It Chapter 2
Let it be known that I’d originally planned on placing those dismal Disney live-action remakes in this slot but I had to push them aside because while I was disappointed they were even made (and poorly), I had to go with a real waste of my freaking time and that was It Chapter Two. While my love Bill Hader was fantastic, he wasn’t enough to float this movie to the top of my heart. The first one blew me away as the kids were phenomenal and I love a good story about kids banding together for an adventure – even a spooky one – but It Chapter Two? The kids weren’t around as much as I would’ve liked (Finn Wolfhard’s CGI though, yikes), and the adults were separated so much that it didn’t feel like a team of friends but rather a bunch of random people who had to beat a sewer clown.
Mandi’s Disappointment: Dark Phoenix
My biggest disappointment was Dark Phoenix. They really let the ball go on this one after having two fairly good installments. I love the X-Men universe, and the Dark Phoenix storyline is one my favorites. However, it didn’t do it justice.
