The 10 Biggest Stories of 2014

Let's get right into it: These are the 10 biggest pop culture events of 2014. Each one had a huge influence and impact, but they are presented in no particular order:

1) I look online and discover how much movies are in the theater these days: I had a notion to go see something, saw how much it would be, and figured, eh, I didn't want to see it that badly. It was another year confined to the Projection Room at Cultureshark Tower.

2) Netflix waits until a quarter of the way of season 2 to carry season 1 of "Agents of SHIELD": The ramifications of this were major. I didn't wind up watching "Agents of SHIELD" even though I kind of wanted to.

3) Cultureshark returns on November 22: And it's back to stay! I think.

4) Someone at the library keeps an issue of "Entertainment Weekly" for, like, 4 weeks: Waiting for that issue to show up on the shelves drove me crazy.

5) Taylor Swift releases new album, "1989": Thus dictating what my kids will make me listen to for the next 3 years or so.

6) ClassicFlix changes its mailers: I'm not just highlighting this because I write for them, either! Since they switched to a sturdy new mailer, zero damaged discs.

7) AcornTV adds the complete run of "Cold Feet": Finally someone picks up those last seasons. When BBC America just stopped the reruns years ago in the middle of a season, I kind of gave up on taking it seriously. There have been a few shows I actually checked out there, but now there aren't really BBC shows to me, but there are BBC Netflix shows,BBC  Hulu shows, BBC Amazon Prime shows...

8) I fall way behind on reading my buddy's comic books: I got some catchin' up to do. This is not only a big story of 2014; it's going to have a substantial impact on my reading habits into 2015.

9) Hulu continues to not add new episodes to many of its more prominent series: If you're counting, there are still a whopping 25 episodes of "Happy Days." And I'm beginning to give up hope of anything past the third season for "The Bob Newhart Show," "Lou Grant," and "Kojak." Seriously, they should run an ad campaign with "3 Is a Magic Number" playing in the background.

10) Redbox raises its prices: Fortunately, I can still go to the local video store for a cheap rental. Oh, wait, no, there isn't one.

Wow! Now that I look back, the entire cultural landscape experienced seismic changes this year. This isn't including some of the lesser events like the Sony hack, people paying attention to the Cosby stories, Jay Leno leaving, "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Game of Thrones," Amazon's wars with Disney and with Hachette, the Winter Olympics, the death of Robin Williams, "Big Bang Theory," 'Thursday Night Football and Ray Rice...you know, stuff like that.