2018: Winners and Losers

And so another year stumbles to a close.  It was a year that saw people from all over the world - even a few Americans! - get serious about climate change after climate change got serious about us in the form of extreme weather, fires and floods.  It was a year that proved that even a drunk can get on the Supreme Court, provided that his detractors are even more disorganized than his supporters.  It was a year in which we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles' White Album because there was no current music to celebrate.  Teri Polo, after numerous failed TV shows, finally has a certified hit on résumé; "The Fosters" ended its run after five seasons on basic cable, which means it was a success.

We said goodbye to Aretha Franklin and the modern Volkswagen Beetle and said good riddance to two jerks named Scott, Pruitt and Walker.  And for me personally, it was a year of having to deal with more unjustified power outages and constantly having to bring my Golf in to the repair shop due to constantly stalling while sitting still in traffic or at stoplights.  I met MSNBC's Katy Tur and interviewed her for a freelance article, and it was the most exciting moment of her life - because I told her I was a Martin O'Malley supporter, so now she can say she's met one.  And I finally saw Gordon Lightfoot in concert in this year, the year that an ongoing cycle of extreme precipitation (which started with the Four Nor'easters of the Apocalypse in March) made us New Jerseyans rainy day people.

Oh yeah, some people won, others lost, and I have to record my choices for the winners and losers again on this blog.  Well, I don't really have to, but as I've been doing it without fail since 2004, I feel obliged to.  Suffice to say, I had trouble picking out winners in this dog of a year - a year that was so lousy it began on a Monday and ends on a Monday (and we won't have a year like that again until 2029) - so I had to restrain myself from picking too many losers.  This year, I have twelve choices on each list.  My lists aren't comprehensive or thorough, and they might even be all wrong, but they're mine.

So without further ado, here are my picks for the winners of 2018:

Beto O'Rourke.  The outgoing Texas congressman came close enough to toppling Ted Cruz in a U.S. Senate race to make himself a rising star in a Democratic Party that is desperately lacking them.  He's not being talked about for running for Texas' other Senate seat, as a failed Republican Senate candidate would have done; he's being talked about for President, making even this Martin O'Malley supporter stand up and take notice.   

Constance Wu.  TV stars who try to become movie stars usually end up being TV stars who used to make movies, but it looks like Constance Wu, the star of ABC's "Fresh Off the Boat," will likely break that curse just as George Clooney did.  Her movie Crazy Rich Asians is one of the most stupendous box-office hits of the year.  

Freddie Highmore.  Speaking of ABC television shows, Highmore is a TV star himself as a result of playing an autistic resident surgeon who puts his savant abilities to incredible use in "The Good Doctor," as show with as loyal a following as NBC's "This Is Us."

the Philadelphia Eagles.  It took awhile for the "Iggles" to follow baseball's Phillies to getting a championship, but the often-maligned football team did just that and gave the City of Brotherly Love its first Super Bowl victory parade ever.   

the Washington Capitals.  Meanwhile, about a hundred and forty miles to the southwest, a once-maligned ice hockey team won its first Stanley Cup ever - defeating the expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights.      

Tony Evers.  He did what political pundits said couldn't be done - he defeated Scott Walker for the governorship of Wisconsin.  Republican majorities in the state legislature - with Walker's blessing - have moved to strip Evers of powers Walker had enjoyed, but a guy tough enough to best Scottzo the Clown is ready to fight back as he prepares to assume his new job.

U.S. House Democrats.  Not only did the gain a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in a decade, their vote margin was the largest margin the Democratic House caucus has enjoyed since the 1974 Watergate wave.

Bruno Mars.  He's a bright light in the darkness of twenty-first-century pop (see below), and so he deserves the Album of the Year Grammy for 24K Magic, considering that rap albums were his primary competition.

Queen.  Not only has the seventies art-metal band been rediscovered with the success of the Queen biodrama movie Bohemian Rhapsody, you're starting to hear their songs used in commercials.  Queen is back and back big-time. 

Ronan Farrow.  You know how you've made it as an investigative reporter?  When the scariest sentence a wrongdoer can imagine has your name in it.  No one accused of sexual misconduct ever wants to hear a sentence like, "Sir, Ronan Farrow is on line one, and he's got some questions for you!"

Margaret Brennan.  Can you think of any woman who's hosted a Sunday-morning talk news program?  Now you can.  Margaret Brennan got the job to anchor CBS's "Face the Nation" as a result of the Me Too movement - because her predecessor, John Dickerson, moved to fill the vacancy on CBS's weekday morning news program created by the departure of noted sexual harasser Charlie Rose.

Cher.  She got a Kennedy Center honor and starred in the Abba musical sequel Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again, which was a hit despite many bad reviews. 

And now, the losers:

Dan Fogelman.  In the world of television, he's still a master producer, as "This Is Us" is still a hit show, but his effort at directing a movie, Life Itself, died a quick death after the press and the public voted thumbs down on it.  Fogelman was on my winners list last year . . . and he's on my losers list this year. That's the way it goes.

Roseanne Barr.  Sitcom reboots have been big this year, and the cast of the rebooted version of "Roseanne" is reaping the benefits of the trend . . . except Roseanne herself, who got booted from her own reboot due to her racist remark on Twitter about an Obama aide.  Her character was killed off - ironic, considering that John Goodman's character was killed off in the original, and he's back on the reboot.  But Barr's character wasn't the only thing that got eighty-sixed - so was her career.  (The new rebooted version of "Roseanne"  is now called "The Conners.")   

Megyn Kelly.  And while we're on the subject of racist white women . . .  I knew I'd have Megyn Kelly on this list this year, a prediction I made this time last year.  After she said that wearing blackface was relatively appropriate in the context of a Halloween costume, NBC canceled her morning news program.  She should be made to see the black-actors-in-whiteface racial comedy play Day of Absence.  I'd pay to see that - not the play, the sight of Megyn Kelly squirming while seeing it! 

Jimmy Buffett.  The man who invented Florida rock and built a cottage industry around his signature song "Margaritaville" went one step too far when he tried to turn it and his other songs into an unnecessary Broadway musical - which blew out its flip-flops after only 124 performances.     

Woody Allen.  Once considered the most European of American filmmakers and a national treasure, Woody is so toxic thanks to the Me Too movement finally catching up with him over his sexual peccadilloes that Amazon - yes, Amazon has bankrolled his films - may never release his new film A Rainy Day in New York, especially when it features a scene involving an older man flirting with a fifteen-year-old girl.  Even some of its own stars have repudiated working with Allen.  Not that anyone will care what they're missing; the movie's premise - a couple visits New York and everything goes wrong - is so redolent of Neil Simon's 1970 movie The Out-of Towners that Woody seems to be devoid of original ideas.  And being original used to be one of his strengths.  This all comes on the heels of his failure with Wonder Wheel. 

Tech companies.  Speaking of Amazon . . .. The online store lured cities all across the country to give it tax-break offers and valuable demographic information in a competition for two new distribution centers that inevitably went to New York City, New York and Arlington, Virginia - two places that already have the economic development other places needed. Amazon now gets big tax breaks from those two cities and states while folks in cities and states that let Amazon use them for favors and play them as suckers are fuming, which has tarnished the company's reputation.  As someone who has to buy compact discs from Amazon because there are few record stores left, I'm almost ready to consider streaming.

And then there's Facebook.  Mark Zuckerberg keeps giving away our personal information, letting companies access our private messages, and letting the Russians manipulate our politics through his service - and people all over the place, including well-known people like actress Janet Hubert, have canceled their Facebook accounts as a result.  Facebook was once envisioned as a way for old friends to connect and for new friendships to start, and at its best, it still is.  But if you really want to get to know that cute gal or guy on Facebook who shares your political interests, agree to meet for coffee instead of communicating through Messenger.

the American automobile industry.  While European and Asian automakers continue to invest in new technologies and in electric cars, Ford and General Motors have been investing so heavily in gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks - while getting rid of their sedans and hatchbacks in North America - that their own new-tech and electric-car programs are nothing more than fig leaves for their efforts to get a truck in every single American driveway.  And GM's layoffs, coming within a decade after being saved by a federal bailout, make it unlikely that Congress will lend a helping hand when Chevrolet dealerships can't unload their Equinoxes and Silverados after gas hits six bucks a gallon. 

Les Moonves.  The now-former CBS chief got the call from Ronan Farrow that no one ever wants.

Josh Radnor.  Still reeling from the cancellation of the PBS scripted period drama "Mercy Street," the former star of "How I Met Your Mother" stayed moribund when his NBC series "Rise" fell to the cancellation ax after ten episodes.   

Popular music.  I don't want to talk about it . . . 

Bill Larry Cosby-Nasser.  May they and their heinousness boil in the same pot. 

And finally . . . 

the United States of America.  Thanks in no small part to Donald J. Trump.  He's shredded our ties to other democratic countries, forced his few competent Cabinet members out of office, pulled us out of numerous treaties, including one dating back to the '70s - the 1870s - and continues to get away with running the country amok at this writing despite the Democratic takeover of the House and nascent Republican opposition to some of his foreign-policy moves.  And when you've got a cut-rate democracy, your Constitution might not stop him.  So let's get more involved in the democratic process, so we can be better protected from mayhem . . . 

. . . like him.

That's it, and that's all.  No addenda, no corollaries, none of that stuff.  And after a year like 2018, I look forward to 2019 and the promise of not having to begin a year on a Monday and end it on a Monday for another decade and change.

I don't like Mondays . . ..