Image: Nick Wanserski

You voted in the direct democracy that is The A.V. Club’s readers’ poll, and the results below represent the final, no-futzing tallies of 2016’s pop culture you found the best, worst, and most disappointing. A.V. Club readers are enthusiastic about Arrival and Stranger Things, dislike Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice as much as we did, and—in a rare consensus between A.V. Club staff and readers—you agree with us that David Bowie’s Blackstar is the best album of 2016. Thanks for voting. You can view all your valuable opinions below.


Film

The best film of 2016 is…

1. Arrival

2. Moonlight

3. The Lobster

4. The Witch

5. Deadpool

6. Captain America: Civil War

7. Hell Or High Water

8. Green Room

9. The Nice Guys

10. Manchester By The Sea


The best performance of 2016 is…

1. Amy Adams, Arrival

2. John Goodman, 10 Cloverfield Lane

3. Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea

4. Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool

5. Mahershala Ali, Moonlight

6. Colin Ferrell, The Lobster

7. Daniel Radcliffe, Swiss Army Man

8. Alden Ehrenreich, Hail, Caesar!

9. Anton Yelchin, Green Room

10. Isabelle Huppert, Elle


The A.V. Club was wrong about…

1. Hail, Caesar!

2. Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

3. Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice

4. Deadpool

5. Captain America: Civil War

6. Sausage Party

7. The Neon Demon

8. The Witch

9. 10 Cloverfield Lane

10. The Lobster




The worst film of 2016 is…

1. Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice

2. Suicide Squad

3. Hillary’s America: The Secret History Of The Democratic Party

4. God’s Not Dead 2

5. Zoolander 2

6. Gods Of Egypt

7. Independence Day: Resurgence

8. Dirty Grandpa

9. Yoga Hosers

10. Alice Through The Looking Glass




TV

The best TV show of 2016 is…

1. Stranger Things

2. The Americans

3. BoJack Horseman

4. Game Of Thrones

5. Westworld

6. Atlanta

7. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

8. The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story

9. Better Call Saul

10. Black Mirror


The worst TV show of 2016 is…

1. Fuller House

2. Kevin Can Wait

3. Vinyl

4. The X-Files

5. Criminal Minds: Beyond Boarders

6. Bull

7. Uncle Buck

8. Crisis In Six Scenes

9. Roadies

10. Flaked


The best new TV show of 2016 is…

1. Stranger Things

2. Westworld

3. Atlanta

4. Full Frontal With Samantha Bee

5. The Good Place

6. Lady Dynamite

7. Fleabag

8. Horace And Pete

9. Preacher

10. This Is Us




Music

The best album of 2016 is…

1. Blackstar, David Bowie

2. Lemonade, Beyoncé

3. Blonde, Frank Ocean

4. A Moon Shaped Pool, Radiohead

5. Teens Of Denial, Car Seat Headrest

6. 22, A Million, Bon Iver

7. We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service, A Tribe Called Quest

8. My Woman, Angel Olsen

9. Puberty 2, Mitski

10. A Sailor’s Guide To Earth, Sturgill Simpson


The most anticipated album of 2017 is…

1. Run The Jewels, Run The Jewels 3

2. LCD Soundsystem, TBA

3. Arcade Fire, TBA

4. Gorillaz, TBA

5. Vampire Weekend, TBA

6. The National, TBA

7. Japandroids, Near To The Wild Heart Of Lif

8. Haim, TBA

9. The xx, I See You

10. Bruce Springsteen, TBA


Books

The best book of 2016 is…

1. The Girls, Emma Cline

2. Based On A True Story, Norm Macdonald

3. The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead

4. Where Am I Now?, Mara Wilson

5. The Vegetarian, Han Kang

6. Tranny, Laura Jane Grace

7. Swing Time, Zadie Smith

8. Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi

9. The Association Of Small Bombs, Karan Mahajan

10. The North Water, Ian McGuire


The most anticipated book-to-screen adaptation of 2017 is…

1. The Dark Tower

2. A Wrinkle In Time

3. Ready Player One

4. The Bell Jar

5. It

6. Captain Underpants

7. The Invisible Man

8. The Circle

9. The Zookeeper’s Wife

10. Fifty Shades Darker


The most disappointing book of 2016 is…

1. Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, J.K. Rowling

2. The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo, Amy Schumer

3. Here I Am, Jonathan Safran Foer


Comics

The best comics series of 2016 is…

1. The Vision (Marvel)

2. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (Marvel)

3. The Wicked + The Divine (Image)

4. Paper Girls (Image)

5. Black Panther (Marvel)

6. The Sheriff Of Babylon (Vertigo)

7. Superman (DC)

8. Giant Days (Boom!)

9. The Legend Of Wonder Woman (DC)

10. Copra (Bergen Street Press)


The best graphic novel/one-shot of 2016 is…

1. The Art Of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (Pantheon)

2. March Book Three (Top Shelf)

3. Prince Of Cats (Image)

4. The Nameless City (First Second)

5. Mooncop (Dran & Quarterly)

6. Ghosts (Graphix)

7. Patience (Fantagraphics)

8. Hot Dog Taste Test (Drawn & Quarterly)

9. What Is Obscenity? (Koyama)

10. Big Kids (Drawn & Quarterly)


The most anticipated comics-to-screen adaptation is…

1. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (Marvel Studios)

2. Wonder Woman (Warner Bros.)

3. The Lego Batman Movie (Warner Bros.)

4. Spider-Man: Homecoming (Marvel Studios)

5. Legion (FX/Marvel Studios)

6. The Defenders (Netflix)

7. Thor: Ragnarok (Marvel Studios)

8. Logan (Fox)

9. Supergirl’s musical episode (The CW)

10. Justice League (Warner Bros.)




The biggest comics disappointment of 2016 is…

1. Captain America rewrites Steve Rogers’ history to make him a Hydra (Marvel)

2. Civil War 11 (Marvel)

3. Watchmen in DC Rebirth (DC)

4. DKIII: The Master Race (DC)

5. The cancellation of Prez’s second half (DC)


Games

The best game of 2016 is…

1. Overwatch

2. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

3. Pokemon Sun and Moon

4. Doom

5. Dark Souls III

6. Firewatch

7. Battlefield 1

8. Dishonored 2

9. Stardew Valley

10. Inside




The most disappointing game of 2016 is…

1. No Man’s Sky

2. Mighty No. 9

3. The Division

4. Star Fox Zero

5. Street Fighter V

6. Final Fantasy XV

7. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

8. Metroid Prime: Federation Force

9. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

10. Battleborn


The most welcome rerelease of 2016 is…

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim—Special Edition

2. BioShock: The Collection

3. The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD

4. Day Of The Tentacle Remastered

5. Valkyria Chronicles Remastered


The most anticipated game of 2017 is…

1. Red Dead Redemption 2

2. Mass Effect: Andromeda

3. The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wind

4. Persona 5

5. South Park: The Fractured But Whole


Podcasts

The best podcast of 2016 is…

1. We Hate Movies

2. Call Chelsea Peretti

3. Hollywood Handbook

4. My Brother, My Brother And Me

5. Comedy Bang! Bang!

6. Chapo Trap House

7. /Filmcast

8. My Favorite Murder

9. The Best Show

10. How Did This Get Made?