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amillioninprizes · 2 years

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2021: A Year That Certainly Happened

In lieu of my traditional (lol I've done it maybe three times) "top ten things that happened to me this year" list, I'm going to share some of my favorite media that I consumed.

It is, in fact, the way in which I celebrated the victories of my personal life that inspired me to look back on the year this way. I had two major life events occur this year (advancing to PhD candidacy and a milestone birthday) that in normal times would have warranted some sort of party or trip but, due to the ongoing pandemic and the generally isolating nature of grad school, led merely to grabbing some more-expensive-than-normal takeout and watching my favorite shows at home. At a time when in-person socializing continued to be iffy, media helped keep me company, and will be what I remember when I look back on this weird time.

Music

In general, I felt like this year was somewhat weaker music-wise than the surprisingly fruitful 2020, but there was still plenty to enjoy:

-Marina: After the decidedly underwhelming Love + Fear, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land was a refreshing return to form. I know a lot of people though the more political lyrics were corny, but...I don't care, they spoke to me? Personal highlight: "Venus Fly Trap", which imo is a spiritual sequel sung by the more mature protagonist of The Family Jewels' "Oh No!", maybe my fave song by her.

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-Jessie Ware: What's Your Pleasure was my favorite album of 2020 hands down; somewhat surprisingly because up until then I had been pretty lukewarm on Jessie Ware as an artist. The deluxe version this year (released when she was like 38 weeks pregnant, btw) only enhanced this wonderful album, which is def not true of most bonus tracks!

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Her collab with Kylie Minogue, "Kiss of Life", was also one of the best tracks this year--why it isn't the #1 song in the world is a mystery to me. The Pedro Almodovar-inspired video is also amazing!

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-Go_A, "Shum": The Eurovision Song Contest has gotten less camp in recent years with the introduction of the combined jury/public vote system, but it has led to an increasing number of genuine bops making it to the final. This year in particular was one of the strongest in recent memory. While I liked the winner, Italy's Måneskin, my personal favorite was Ukraine's entry, "Shum" by Go_A. It's the perfect Eurovision song: it showcases the band's roots by being adapted from Ukrainian folk music (they even had to rework the song so it sounded less like the original) and using the Slavic White Voice vocal technique, while also being an outstanding pop song. Lead singer Kateryna Pavlenko's aesthetic is also impeccable.

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What can I say? TV keeps getting made and I keep watching. The first half of the year was pretty slow (likely bc of the early Covid shutdowns), but the summer onward was an embarrassment of riches.

-The Great S2: perhaps recency bias is at play, but my fav show of the year. It took everything that was great about S1 and turned it up to 11. Catherine and Peter really have the most twisted and fascinating dynamic of just about any ship (if you can call it that). Unfortunately it seems to have gotten lost among the holiday season as well as having to run against Succession S2--don't sleep on it. S2 Ep 5 is prob my favorite episode of tv this year.

-Call My Agent!: I spent much of the first half of this year watching foreign shows almost exclusively. This French show about a Parisian talent agency featuring cameos by stars of French cinema (and Sigourney Weaver!) playing heightened versions of themselves was perfect quarantine content--funny and heartwarming. I'm glad Netflix decided to order more after it was done. Also happy to see Camille Cottin blowing up!

-What We Do in the Shadows S3: another show that seems to live in the shadows (see what I did there) of more high profile comedies; it also continued to keep upping its quality this year. The image of the baron in the Barbie car is one of the most hilarious visual gags I've ever seen. And then there's this:

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-Succession S3: Too much digital ink has already been spilled on this show. It is really good, though.

-Never Have I Ever S2: possibly Mindy Kaling's best work? This show does a great job of keeping you invested in someone who can be an incredibly unlikeable character. Perfect soundtrack too.

-The Pursuit of Love: perhaps a bit derivative of Wes Anderson stylistically, but I still really enjoyed it. Yet another show that seemed to have gone under the radar (maybe due to the Lily James/Dominic West drama behind the scenes). Recommended for fans of all things Mitford (but srsly WHEN are we getting a mini series about them?).

-RuPaul's Drag Race UK, S2: I've finally reached the point of fatigue with the multiple international iterations of Drag Race; if you have a Wow Presents Plus subscription, you can be watching new Drag Race virtually every week of the year. That said, I have to shout out DRUK S2, which was even more engaging than the delightful S1, even though its filming was interrupted by the initial Covid outbreak in March 2020. Plus it gave us this banger:

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"New to Me" TV

Even though it seems like there's so much new streaming content that one could not possibly have the time to watch older shows, I still found the time to catch up with some older stuff that I had missed that warrant mention:

-Borgen: One of those shows that I had been hearing great things about for years but couldn't find until it came to Netflix. Let me be the first to ask where I can get merch that says "What Would Birgitte Nyborg Do?" I am a little bit worried about the upcoming revival season on Netflix, partially due to the fact that key characters are missing (always a foreboding sign for a revival, and already a problem in S3) but also because I wonder how the writers will reconcile Denmark's harsh anti-immigration measures as of late with Birgitte's historical pro-refugee positions (especially since she's apparently going to be foreign secretary!)

-Reboot-era Degrassi: Degrassi: The Next Generation was probably my favorite teen show when I was a teen myself. I fell off the show as the older group of characters that I liked graduated and it started to decline in quality, c. season 6, and kind of disdained the newer seasons without even watching them bc I felt like they were too glossy and conventional compared to the charming realism of the early TNG seasons (also Emma and Spinner got married, WTF?). Cut to earlier this year when, in a fit of nostalgia, I started watching the Degrassi channel on Pluto TV. I avoided the later seasons at first, but it ended up being hard since the show moved to a 40+ episode/season telenovela format starting in season 10, dropping the TNG suffix in the process. As it turns out, these seasons (well, 10-12, after which another period of decline set in) were actually pretty good--giving a much needed refresh to the series by severing ties with the first TNG group altogether and focusing more heavily on contained story arcs. Special shout out to the arguable emotional core of this era, Eclare (Eli/Clare), who have entirely too much chemistry for a PG-rated Canadian teen drama (and who I may or may not be writing my first ever fic about, oops); someone please get Munro Chambers and Aislinn Paul to star in a Canadian remake of Normal People, stat. Just look at them:

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-Insecure: This is one of those shows where I was lukewarm on the pilot so I never got around to continuing it, even as it amassed critical acclaim. I did start watching the final season since it aired after Succession and absolutely loved it, even though I've missed the middle 3.9 seasons. I still need to catch up on those, and will once I get a HBO Max login.

Movies

I usually don't see that many new movies in a year; TV is really more my vibe just bc I prefer longform exploration of character. That said I'll still seek out movies that look particularly interesting or appealing to me personally. The fact that so many movies debut on streaming now does make that easier.

-Barb and Star Go To Vista del Mar: After Bridesmaids, a new Kristen Wiig/Annie Mumolo joint is going to be a must-see for me. This was probably the funniest movie I've seen in years, but it seems to have slipped under the radar in the midst of streaming-only releases. Features possibly Jamie Dornan's best performance?

-Tick, Tick...Boom!: I know that liking Rent is uncool these days (if it was ever cool), but its soundtrack was formative for me, so I'm def up for any Jonathan Larson-related content. Andrew Garfield really captured the spirit of Jonathan Larson, and I felt like the movie's overall discussion of what it means to be an artist and keep pursuing one's dreams as one gets older was particularly resonant (especially as someone who just hit the same birthday Jonathan does in the movie). Also my former workplace is featured prominently in the background as IRL it's across the street from the former location of the Moondance Diner, and it was nice to see the movie take place in streets that are familiar to me.

Books

I'm the typical Millennial former bookworm-turned-internet addict with a destroyed attention span who barely actually reads anymore. I have found myself with more reading time as my work involves a lot of time on a microscope that takes 10 minutes to acquire one image. Now much of that time has involved re-reading the Princess Diaries series (I was deep in nostalgia mode this year) and scrolling through gossipy figure skating accounts on Twitter (spending 5-8 hours in a dark room is quite mentally draining) but I did manage to read one new lit fic book that came out this year:

-No One is Talking About This: On the one hand, I kept taking multiple screenshots of my Libby app because there were several quotes that were either super-LOL worthy or profound or both. It does rely heavily on references that will only make sense if you are Extremely Online, so I do wonder how it plays to people who aren't. I also wonder if people will even be able to read this book in 10 years time due to how specific it is to late 2010s social media. That said, it is an easy read and it takes a narrative turn that is completely unexpected.

YouTube Channels

I never really understood the appeal of YouTube channels as one's primary form of entertainment until I faced a particularly slow lab period between finishing up my classes and writing my thesis proposal. It turns out that there is actually more on there than conspiracy theorists! Here are some I listened to while playing games on my iPad this year:

-Trash Theory: Basically an encyclopedic guide to most of my favorite music, especially his "New British Canon" series. Soothing and informative; I've learned things about artists I thought I already knew everything about and gotten a better picture of artists I've only been a casual fan of.

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-Mic the Snare: Another music channel, I especially like his recently-revamped Deep Discog Dives on various artists; his reviews are generally well-measured.

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-The Skating Lesson: I've been following these guys since I started watching figure skating in 2018, but I want to give them a special shoutout for their coverage of all things Russian figure skating drama in the lead up to the 2022 Winter Olympics. They're divisive in the figure skating community for their gossipiness, but their info is generally legit.

#no one is prob going to read this but idc #I could include podcasts but this was getting too long #the year that was #acting like i'm some kind of tastemaker or something

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