these were a few of my favourite things in 2021
day 6 of blogmas even though my power nap turned into a full blown six hour nap and it is a little late xoxo
christmas is in one week which means in two weeks, we will be saying goodbye to 2021 (and hello to omnidelta?!?!?!) even though it seems like just yesterday, people were storming the capitol a la hunger games but less ¿chic? and even lesser consequences. even though this year seemed to fly by, there were some good parts amongst all the chaos, covid, cancellations, and cuomo brother investigations.
i am someone who worships at the temple of the movie theatre. living in a smaller part of the southern united states, nobody is really giving their small indie films or non disney properties to my local cinemas so oscar movie week where they screened all best picture and short film nominees was my most wonderful time of the year…until covid took that, too! last year’s animal crossing island care could only cure so much of that void left by only seeing emma and cats (one a cinematic masterpiece, the other a perfectly lovely jane austen adaptation) in a movie theatre in 2020. when at&t decided to use their newly born baby hbomax to do home releases of their warner brothers properties, i had pretty much the exact opposite reaction of scarlett johansson. the only movie i have been seated for this year was encanto with my baby sister and while i thoroughly enjoyed it (and being the only ones in the theatre), it did not make the list of my favourite films this year.
if i am being totally honest, of the few movies i did watch, none really registered enough to be added to the favourites tab of my letterboxd but i did thoroughly enjoy passing, barb + star go to vista del mar, shiva baby, bo burnham: inside, raya, all too well, and tick tick boom!
although i am in my cinephile flop era, there were very few television programs i did not find myself seated for. in fact, the ones i have not yet seen were simply added to the queue for january because there simply has not been enough hours in the day. it was truly very difficult to narrow down my favourite ones because television really stepped her televussy up this year!!!!!
succession (hbo max): yeah hbo is very nasty for not somehow stopping covid so we could be able to have ten episodes this season but we did not even need them! that finale!!! we all knew the poem and yet i still gasped! i knew the dream i wanted since the pilot of the siblings unionising coming true was too good to be true! everyone says the early episodes of this season were throw away but i personally never left jesse armstrong’s table feeling anything but thoroughly fed and satisfied. if you want insane drama and constant action, watch grey’s anatomy! no notes except that i NEED
need not wantthe full recording on streaming of honesty (kendall’s version)the shrink next door(apple tv)!!!!!!!! succession is a shakespearian dramedy that is extremely compelling yet feels inevitable. my QUEEN georgia pritchett’s apple tv exclusive is pretty much the exact opposite. borne from the incredible podcast of the same name, the plot feels so outlandish and avoidable you keep rooting for the ability to be able to rewrite history. paul rudd and kathryn hahn’s scene in his office is definitely getting slid across the emmy’s desk. paul rudd earned his emmy. and while will ferrell stayed true to his character for the majority of the series, the artist formerly known as ricky bobby did not end the series as timid wallpaper. god what a show!!!! that podcast was already truly incredible and they have now added some new episodes with cast and crew interviews! it really is so goofy brained of us to have everyone in our lives that we love have been a total stranger at one point until we decide to dedicate our time, energy, and love into thinking about them! succession and shrink ending the same week is violence, but that is why the queue is stacked for times like these…
love life season 2 (hbo max): anna kendrick jump scares aside, this was truly such an incredible piece of art!! the writing, the cinematography, the Acting, and the fake play!!! almost melted by cold dead heart but certainly more than satisfied the old smooth brain ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
grey’s anatomy (hulu): have been watching every week since the pilot so if i could have stopped watching this show, i would have done it ages ago. instead i am currently exposing myself to emotional torture porn that no longer even does shondlogues :-( and the third graders who wrote the second season of the morning show have definitely gotten hired at grey’s. for instance: a main character’s nephew is dying. his sister is suicidal. wait a kid is braindead and his heart is a match! yay! everything is good except OH NO! the car driving them with the new heart is swerving because the driver has a stroke. BOOM! CRASH! oh wait everyone is ok and the heart is fine. what’s that? they’re actually dangling off a cliff. of course they fucking are!!!!
morning show (apple tv): somehow out grey’s anatomy's grey’s anatomy. except instead of medical emergencies, it is corporate espionage and sexual assault! reese witherspoon making the acting choice to simply just be herself and stop playing the character in season 2? show stopping. incredible! if vince vaughn and ryan renolds can do it in literally every role they are in, why not let the ladies!
THE OTHER TWO (hbo max): this is simply the best show on television. possibly ever. it has been almost two years and i still have “my brother’s gay” stuck in my head regularly. what if new girl was gay, cynical, and snarky and zooey deschanel was replaced by molly shannon?
QUEENS (hulu): PLEASE WATCH THIS SHOW!!!!!!!!! if it gets cancelled, there will be nothing to live for. brandy and eve? HELLO!!!! wake up and log in to hulu. comedy musical tv has never been so good! where glee made the sex offender teacher a main character and empire did the things it did, queens dares to ask: what if men were barely seen nor spoke unless spoken to! and what a world that is!
honourable mentions: ted lasso, vanderpump rules, pretty much every show on bravo, you, elite, elite shorts, home economics, gossip girl, it’s always sunny, insecure, curb your enthusiasm, la casa de las flores, and search party
there was a meme i spent at least 30 minutes looking for in my camera roll. i currently have over 54,000 sitting pretty so i could not find it. it essentially was someone putting on every device with the sentiment being i will die before i allow myself a chance to think! that is my Truth and how i live my life. (yesterday, i was trying to write about the latest frenemies drama without getting into the Bad Place of it all so i was streaming long youtube videos on my tv about it while sometimes referencing other vids on my ipad while typing it away on my phone.) music makes me lose control, so my preferred method of thought prevention is podcasts. i have been listening to podcasts long enough to remember the time before celebrities stepped into the ring and mailchimp memes were all the rage.
las culturistas (big money players): as podcasts are a visual medium, i have been a faithful reader for nearly five years. last spring, i decided to relisten from the first episode because i was brave enough to not do anything productive or become peeta from the hunger games during quarantine. and as i worked to earn my animal crossing island’s 5 star rating, i listened to bowen yang and matt rogers painfully navigate 2016 election optimism, audition for snl together, navigate getting snl and not getting snl AND the kelly clarkson snub on the view in the same weekend, live shows, spread the christmas gospel, go from star to actress to ACTRESS AND STAR!, navigate matt moving to california and making the friendship/podcast bicoastal, and end the year by taking a break and leaving their podcast network1. and 2020 was a cold shower of rebirth because there were no better podcasts this year than this one! matt rogers is probably the funniest person alive, bro! very few people can make me laugh the way he does with a word or sound, even!!! also i still revisit his renedition of loverboy, because the bitch can Sing!!! i do not know a better person than bowen yang!! i love my sister and have never felt more seen; conan o’brien, samantha jones, and west side story can melt our little frozen water sign hearts! bowen is so smart (the girl knows words!) and yet so beautifully dumb. i do not watch sports but have a similar reaction to yelling at the screen when bowen’s seratonin depletion makes him forget that he is 100% That Bitch. i love my sisters so deeply and could not have survived 2020 without them, but i would have not wanted to survive 2021 without their silly, thoughtful, cruel, warm, cold, absolutely STUPID, catty, kind, generous, and perfect takes on all of the things that make life worth living! we are all getting older (and that’s OKAY!) but not all of us are steadily getting even hotter as we do so, unlike matt and bowen who have what a million runs through his christian woods will never get chris pratt! and they will only further grow in hotness as they egot! because that’s showbiz, baby! and for once, we like it. we really do.
the opportunist (kast media): as someone who could not even finish the pilot of mare of easttown because of the violent content due to years of watching every franchise of law & order and criminal minds still haunting me (like kim cattrall, i would rather die than spend one second not enjoying myself), i do not enjoy, like, or even tolerate true crime. the last podcast of that genre i indulged was serial and seeing how people treated the real people of the case like tv characters was so jarring and i hated it!! too often, the very real victims are overlooked or ripped apart even further for the sake of Content. when a friend recommended this podcast to me, i was very wary but this podcast defies the genre and the podcast form itself. there is no talk of serial killer genes or brutal and graphic descriptions of death, but the unravelling of how even the worst criminals were all once babies. how do ordinary people turn sinister? opportunity. (hence the name. wink wink.) from cult leaders to greedy pharmacists to adoption scammers, hannah smith’s calm and soothing voice dances around some of the most horrifying and emotionally draining stories. interviews with different people in the stories being told add another layer without feeling exploitative. instead, the podcast gives them the opportunity to tell their story without judgment or accusation. this is now my favourite podcast. and the production on this podcast insane. each new anthology has its own theme song that gets stuck in my head for weeks afterward. gorgeous gorgeous girls may love soup (and host this podcast), but they cannot live without adding this to their podcast library.
unread podcast (iheart radio): with the internet being what it is, life seems to move at supersonic speeds. respected news and media outlets have the same reverence as a buzzfeed listicle when it comes to trying to garner your attention with headlines. even as we are entering year two of being in a global pandemic, fragments of life have shifted forever but it never really has slowed down. with little to no down time in sight, we still manage to be more online than we ever have been. if someone were to evaluate my digital footprint, they would find vague threats to howie mandel or kim richards fancams. but when alex small suddenly ended his life, his loved ones were left with a plethora of content and no real answers. in four perfect episodes, chris stedman documents his exploration of what we leave behind, who we leave behind, and if we ever truly know someone. this podcast explores such a beautiful depth of emotion (grief, love, pain, loss, joy, connection) in under four hours. the joy and humour of alex’s friendship and the pain he carried comes across so powerfully and warmly that it breaks your heart all over again knowing most of us will only ever know him through this podcast. or on britney spears message boards because, oh yeah…there is a massive britney spears mystery in the center of it all!!!! i left this podcast with my olivia rodrigo tissue box empty and three things:
platonic love is one of the greatest things we will ever know. i used to have a dolphin poster on my wall in elementary school that said “friendship is the porpoise of life”. this podcast is the grown up version of that poster. grief is just the leftover love with nobody to give it to and you can tell that this podcast is infused with that love as chris navigates alex’s online world.
britney spears is alice. that is my humble opinion but i am a virgo moon so i am also never wrong.
chris stedman is so hot?!! not enough people are saying this! it’s not that you expect your favourite podcast hosts to be doris from shrek 2, but to be this kind, smart, AND hunky? god really does have his favourites!
honourable mentions: the down low, h3 podcast network (frenemies, families, off the rails, after dark, leftovers, h3tv), toxic: the britney spears story, alan cumming’s shelves, why won’t you date me, anything for selena, storytime with seth rogen, and beach too sandy water too wet
this was a great year for music. and yet “you’re a jerk” will probably be my top song of next year because of the children reminding me of the power of the 2009 tune. my favourite albums and songs are kind of all over the place!
solar power! buckle up, fuckleheads. this is not your melodrama part deux, but it is lorde’s. if she gave you what you wanted her to, she would be DEAD! she put her whole lussy into the 2017 masterpiece. but imagine telling your darkest secrets and inner most pain to your bestie and she starts saying how gagged she is and that she stans your Suffering! solar power opens up with lorde reminding everyone she has been bleeding herself dry for us since she was a fresh 17 years old. and she does not have all the answers. currently throwing up as i am typing that lorde aka ella is only 25 years old!!!! she wants to wear pastels and go to the beach and be absolutely zooted at the nail salon! let her!!!! there is pain in the album but she is trying to drown it out with light, for once! optimism is not the worst aspiration to have. so…basically, just enjoy it! in a few years she will have her return to saturn and we will get the existential dread running on less solar power and more diesel engines. but for now, kick back and soak in the secrets of a girl (who’s seen it all)
sour! the best thing to come out of tiktok culture is an incredibly catchy, fun, and digestibly devastating album about heartbreak that is 35 minutes long! i love my pisces baby sister! i even watched her little high school musical tv show BEFORE this came out! that is how powerful her star quality is! watched disney+’s version of glee before i watched high school musical 3 and i have no regrets (about never watching hsm3. sharpay actually cared about furthering troy’s life, career, and wellbeing. what has gabriella ever done for him?? quickly!)
still over it. what can be said about summer walker that has not already been said after she said some extremely out of pocket garbage online? not much. and yet, she consistently makes the case for separating the art from the artist because HELLO?!?! a lot of people (including the eternal love of my life kelly rowland) have verbalising how shook “i wanna start with yo mama she should of whooped yo ass” made them but for me “she ain’t never call you out ‘cause she like the way that she live” had me on the floor!!!! one thing you cannot say about summer is that she does not leave it all in the booth. MY GOD! even through the pain, summer has moments of vulnerability. “i wanna walk away but what if i’m wrong. know this shit may look wild to them but it ain’t for them to get.” her angelic voice will keep me coming back no matter how many 5G conspiracies she posts.
“Take this opportunity to learn from my mistakes. You don’t have to guess if something is love. Love is shown through actions. Stop making excuses for people who don’t show up for you. Don’t ignore the red flags. And don’t think you have to stay somewhere ’cause you can’t find better—you can and you will. Don’t settle for less—you don’t deserve it and neither does your family.”
honourable mentions: not in chronological order, star-crossed, heaux tales, the myth of the happily ever after, k.o., nobody is listening, home video, lost themes 3: alive after death, life support, la face de pendule à coucou, young heart, if i could make it go quiet, batidão tropical, planet her, jubilee, inside, changephobia, is 4 lovers, happier than ever, when facing the things we turn away from, gg bb xx, texis, dawn, montero, better mistakes, sable, only the generals pt 2, the metallica blacklist, the lockdown sessions, and i know i’m funny haha
now that the love, light, and positivity is out of the way… my least favourite things of this year were:
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