From bad celeb choices to deplorable behaviour, we've dealt with some issues this year.
From bad celeb choices to deplorable behaviour, we've dealt with some issues this year.
This year my workmates on the TimeOut entertainment team gave me a nickname and it stuck like fake tan to Donald Trump: Instead of Siena Yates, I'm Siena Hates.
They would have you believe it's because I hate everything all the time which, of course, I don't. But I am more vocal about things I don't like than things I do because apparently, no one wants to hear me rave about how much I love SZA anymore.
So it falls to me to point out the rough side of 2017 and I'm not the only one; just look what happened when Taylor Swift said she "couldn't have asked for a better year", the internet attacked with harsh reminders of everything that went wrong.
I mean, yeah there were Nazi's and white supremacy marches, and families are being town apart, and there were mass shootings, and people are losing health care, but none of that affects me, so 2017 was great!
I can't even begin to explain the lack of empathy it requires to even begin to describe 2017 as a good year. I simply can't imagine being so self-centered as to not consider this year a crushing loss to all involved.
If nothing else, this has been a year of let downs in entertainment.
We had few major films to look forward to (and fewer that actually delivered). Instead we got the likes of Justice League, yet another Transformers film no one asked for, a sequel to Daddy's Home in which we had to endure Mel Gibson and the steaming trash heap that was Mother! in which Aronofsky employed on-the-nose metaphors in a poor attempt to be a voice for women by torturing them (#classic).
Some of the most highly anticipated albums of the year were disappointments too - Taylor Swift's Reputation, Eminem's Revival, even N.E.R.D's No One Ever Really Dies to a certain extent.
And to say celebrities let us down this year would be a massive understatement. We had to contend with Katy Perry's album roll-out and subsequent weekend-long live stream in which we could watch her eat and sleep a la Big Brother in the early 2000s.
Then there was that God awful Pepsi ad Kendall Jenner made which appropriated Black Lives Matter protest imagery to sell a product and painted her as a saviour of the people. Or how about that Chainsmokers interview in Billboard in which they boasted about the combined length of their penises?
On a far more serious note, there were the sexual assault and harassment allegations which have plagued entertainment industries all year.
First, we had to watch Kesha fight for her contractual freedom from Dr Luke following a lengthy legal battle which stemmed from accusations she made of the producer raping her. Then Taylor Swift went to court in August to take on a DJ who had groped her, winning a symbolic $1 after testifying fearlessly and unwaveringly.
Then in October, Weinstein-gate hit after scores of women came forward to accuse the producer of sexual assault and harassment. And after him, there was Kevin Spacey, Louis CK, Danny Masterson, Matt Lauer, Ryan Seacrest, Dustin Hoffman, Ben Affleck...the list now holds names of more than 100 public figures.
Kevin Spacey is one of the dozens of men accused of sexual harassment. Photo / AP
And those are just the ones we know about so far which, when you think about the sheer number of women in the women's marches and the hashtag #MeToo, is merely a drop in the ocean.
Speaking of the women's marches, 2017 was also the year we saw a puffed up reality TV host inaugurated as President of the United States of America and take aim at the rights of people of colour, women and the rainbow community, and let's not forget that travel ban.
We couldn't even escape him once he left the entertainment industry; he dominated talk show banter, acceptance speeches, opening monologues, interview fodder, comedy routines and more - there was even a whole horror TV series made off the back of his presidency courtesy of American Horror Story.
This was also a year in which violence infiltrated sacred spaces of music fans; the bombing at Ariana Grande's Manchester concert, the mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music festival and smaller shootings at concerts in Atlanta and California.
But here's the thing: From all of this adversity, entertainment has continued to help us rise back up.
We cried through Ariana's One Love Manchester benefit concert; laughed at Trump through John Oliver, SNL and the like; got representation and diversity from films like Get Out, Call Me By Your Name and even the latest Star Wars.
We channelled our anger through albums like Kendrick Lamar's DAMN, danced it all away to albums like Lorde's Melodrama and we rallied together against sexual harassment with the help of Rose McGowan, Alyssa Milano, Kesha and Taylor Swift.
And that's why Taylor Swift has every right to celebrate her wins this year, despite everything that happened - we all do. This is the time of year where we look back and see how far we've come in the face of everything we've all endured, and if that's not cause for celebration, I don't know what it is.
We made it, New Zealand. Meri Kirihimete me te Tau Hou hari ki a koutou katoa.
