an ordered list of things i really loved this year.

in summary

  • shows: thirty-one
  • films: twenty-four
  • books: twelve-ish
  • audio: mostly taylor’s version, 33 tracks
  • lukewarm disappointments: gossip girl (hbo max)

see scrapbook 2021 for all the other stories from 2021



tv shows

thirty-one tv shows
  1. wandavision (jan - mar 2021)
  2. mare of easttown (apr - may 2021)
  3. sex education (sept 2021)
  4. succession (oct - dec 2021)
  5. the white lotus (aug - sept 2021)
very honorable mentions for their small-screen debut
  • superstore (s06, jan - mar 2021), loki (june - july 2021), hawkeye (dec 2021)

films

twenty-four films
  1. promising young woman (jan 2021)
  2. spider-man: no way home (dec 2021)
  3. minari (feb 2021)
  4. to all the boys: always and forever (feb 2021)
  5. nomadland (mar 2021; for the oscar win i suppose)
fashionably late to the party with these, but also really enjoyed
  • teen spirit (sept 2021), cruella (sept 2021), home again (may 2021)

audio

(dear 2021)
  1. red (taylor’s version) (nov 2021)
  2. sour, olivia rodrigo (may 2021)
  3. fearless (taylor’s version) (april 2021)

reads

what i read and highlighted from the lighthouse
  • the many lives of steven yeun
    • jay caspian kang interviewed steven yeun on the minari press tour, and i’ll think about this articulation of the asian american experience forever.
    • “Sometimes I wonder if the Asian-American experience is what it’s like when you’re thinking about everyone else, but nobody else is thinking about you,” Yeun said.
  • britney spears was never in control
    • tavi gevinson wrote about britney spears’ conservatorship and the powers forced upon young women
    • At the same time that young women are disadvantaged by age and gender, youth does carry currency, which can be mistaken for power.
  • no i’m not ready
    • anne helen petersen found the words for the one-year grieving exercise we experienced in march
    • Grief metastasizes when neglected. I have experienced it in the form of full body-wracking sobs when a song comes on the radio, and in dreams I wake up from with tears streaming down my face.
  • thomas cromwell is real and strong and my friend
    • helena fitzgerald called out calendars for what they are: a coping mechanism for chaos
    • A calendar is a way to invent meaning where there is none and, often, so is a novel, rendering the cluttered events in a human life into a false and singing coherence.
  • screenshots tell the real stories about who we are
    • kyle chayka described the purest form of love and attention on our phones, the humble screenshot
    • And if memories are what make us human, then our screenshots tell a story about who we are in the digital age.
  • bobos in ikea
    • brandon taylor indicted the examined, zillenial life of posturing for the same few statement pieces
    • A life that is cosmopolitan, which is to say, a life that belongs to no particular space or time, a life that knows no particular geography. There are no more local lives
  • nameless feeling
    • ludwig yeetgenstein articulated that ineffable collection of things we’ve spent all year calling vibes
    • It diverts attention away from narrative and moral implications in favor of foregrounding the idea of affect as inexplicable, ineffable — a matter of chance correlation of elements rather than something that requires deliberate causal explanation.
  • superrich kids get trolled
    • hunter harris created a behind-the-scenes profile that was the best thing to came out of the new gossip girl reboot nonsense
    • The fantasy of the show is that these characters are 17-year-olds who, with the right mix of absentee parents and no credit limits, are allowed to act as adult as they want.


on the cutting room floor

guilty pleasures

things i can’t believe i watched but nobody is surprised
  • the sex lives of college girls (dec 2021)
  • the voyeurs (sept 2021)
  • the republic of sarah (sept 2021)
  • beautiful world, where are you; sally rooney (sept 2021)


lukewarm disappointments

things i wanted to love but really couldn’t (i’m sorry)
  • gossip girl (hbomax, july 2021 / nov 2021)
  • solar power, lorde (aug 2021)
  • hsm : tm : ts (s02, may - july 2021)
  • shang-chi (sept 2021)
  • icarly (reboot, june 2021)


predictions 2022 🔮

what’s next year without more media & culture
  • 1989 (taylor’s version) (early summer 2022) if taylor can tour, we get 1989 and a blowout summer album to boot. if she can’t, we’re getting speak now and dear john will shine over many sad empty towns.
  • new hozier album, vol.3 (late spring) it’s about time and we know hozier has been stewing on some sad songs
  • persuasion adaptation in the year 2020, emma. was so stylistic and sumptuous that they simply have to make another for the most heart-wrenching of the austen novels
  • enola holmes sequel it’s going to be really cotton-candy cute
  • never have i ever, s02 (late summer) this love triangle is not a triangle, and there really is only one appropriate, definite ending and we are all clear on what that is
  • wildcards: olivia rodrigo, vol. 2 (fall); harry styles, vol. 3 (late fall/early winter)