Which pop-culture moment are you most thankful for in 2022?
From Daredevil's joyous return to Matthew Perry's insane memoir tour to the BeyHive doing work, here's what we'll be toasting at the Thanksgiving table
TV Features Matthew Perry
Clockwork from bottom left: Perfect Tides (Image: Steam); Sophie Turner in Do Revenge (Photo: Netflix); Beyonce (Photo: Parkwood Entertainment); Lady Camden (Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images); Cate Blanchett in Tar (Photo: Focus Features). Graphic: Rebecca Fassola
We believe in the most vital Thanksgiving tradition: giving thanks for everything we’re grateful for—and that’s especially true when it comes to pop culture. Because how else are we expected to pass the time before the world ends? Until that happens, let’s celebrate an exciting year thanks to major superheroes, some sensational albums, stellar TV performances, as well as notable book and video-game releases. So in the spirit of the season and with that in mind, we poses this all-important question: What 2022 pop-culture moment are you most thankful for?
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I’ve gotten into Chuck Klosterman’s work in the last few years, and I think his newest book, The Nineties: a Book, is one of his best, although I think a better title would something like From Nevermind to 9/11.
thank you for putting this on my radar. this is right up my alley.
That glorious moment when the AVC banned slideshows.
A half-naked Beyonce riding a see-through horse?
When Carvey, Spade and Ben Stiller reminisced about The Poseidon Adventure on The Fly on the Wall podcast. “Up there is life! Down there is death!”
Less of a “moment” as a “slowly spread-out occurrence,” but the shift from NFTs being talked about constantly at the beginning of this year to them (almost) thrown on the junk pile of internet history was very satisfying.
Stranger Things reviving Kate Bush
Season 2 of RuPaul’s Secret Celebrity Drag Race was genuinely spectacular and thoroughly entertainting.
Probably the best thing the whole Drag Race Cinematic Universe has done in years.
Everything Everywhere All at Once finally being the first film in a long time that I’ve wanted to see more than once.
Spoilers for everything.Everything Everywhere All At Once: Ke Huy Quan, someone I, and I suspect most of us, haven’t seen since Temple of Doom or The Goonies, playing an unassuming husband and father, only for him to kick a bunch of ass with a god damn fanny pack.Cobra Kai: I binged the entire show in two weeks, culminating in a season finale where Daniel lands a crane kick for the first time since 1984 to put a button on the last fight. People think it’s a silly move that’s pretend martial arts meant to mask the lack of actual training Ralph Macchio had, but this gave me chills. Emotional and absolutely joyous.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Wanda’s rampage. It’s a movie that could have been better had Raimi’s team had time to finish the script before they started shooting, but one of my favorite characters going on a killing spree is the best scene in the movie.It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown: Ben Folds’ theme. I haven’t had time to watch the new Peanuts film about Earth Day, and honestly, I feel like they probably aren’t trying to appeal outside the children’s demographic, but Ben Folds can write a banger.Star Trek Strange New Worlds: Captain Pike finds himself living in an alternate future where he used the knowledge of his terrible fate to save himself and his crew, and being in the same situation that Kirk was and showcasing the differences between the two captains. Shortly after I realized what I was watching, I had to stop it and watch TOS episode it was referencing, a season one story called Balance of Terror involving Kirk’s first contact with Romulans, and the cat and mouse game he plays to defeat a respectable, dangerous adversary. This season finale heavily references that episode, with nearly identical shot compositions that mirror the original scenes, a lot of word for word dialogue reproduction, and even Spock’s exact same eyebrow raise.Moreover, after the mediocre mess of Discovery, and the absolutely offensive nostalgia sandpaper glove handjob that is Picard, Strange New Worlds is the Star Trek we’ve always wanted that we’ve been deprived of for too long, combining thought-provoking stories, excellent characters with equally good chemistry, and a respect to established lore without being chained down by it. Anson Mount is extremely charismatic, like turn you gay charismatic, making this the definitive version of Captain Pike, and definitely worthy of inclusion in the best Captain debate.ProJared’s retrospective on THE BOUNCER: A terrible PS2 game from Squaresoft during the era where they wish they were making movies instead of games that’s so weird and bad, its unintentional hilariousness is more entertaining and memorable than The Batman.
Severance: The whole damn season. Exploring themes of grief, cults, workplace culture, the poor ethics of capitalism, loneliness, mental illness, and so much more within its original premise, it chooses to gradually reveal the answers to several mysteries to the audience, while the characters remain in the dark a bit longer, as if all the characters were season 1 Skyler White. Their search for their own identity makes me think that all of us who have to work are just “innies” 24/7, with an ever diminishing amount of joy peppered throughout a miserable, workcentric existence. We get up and make ourselves presentable to do something we don’t care about, and when we’re done, we have more fires to put out at home and elsewhere, and just when we think we have some time to ourselves to do something fun, we need to go to sleep so we can do it all over the next day. Anyway, I couldn’t find a clip of any particular scene that properly showcases any of the thoughts I might have, so here’s the Music Dance Experience. It is a brilliant show and I am looking forward to next season.
Wow , I think every one of your picks was about a thousand times better than the ones from the article :)(also did not know about the Ben Fold’s song, but delighted to hear it. )
Oof I knew I was forgetting some things—thank you for the video comparing TOS to SNW—seriously I’d watched all of the other ‘new’ Star Trek shows and was ‘meh’—some was good, most wasn’t, but Strange New Worlds is easily the best Star Trek show since TNG, and that’s saying a lot.Great call on Severance as well—I can’t remember the last time a season cliffhanger made me yell at my TV—I knew it was coming, but still couldn’t help myself. Best thing on TV in a great season of TV.
Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza made out in a movie and that completes something in my NBC sitcoms loving heart.
The stunning and emotional final episode of Derry Girls.
I’m always pleasantly surprised when they make teen shows that have…y’know, real teens, not fuckin’ 34-year-olds in 16-year-old characters’ bodies.
I just like them to be funny.
I almost hate to break this to you but the Derry Girls main cast are now all aged between at least 28 and 35 if not possibly more.
Anyone see the problem here? Look, if you’re gonna do slideshow, at least don’t block the content in them.
This was my least favorite: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/evil-scots-artist-who-forced-28566602
If there’s anything from Drag Race this year that deserves to be on this list it is Jinkx Monsoon’s inspired turn as Judy Garland on Snatch Game. Lady Camden is wonderful, but Jinkx’s performance was a masterclass worthy of study.
Sandman coming to the screen in such a fabulous version has to be mine, but the double whammy of X and Pearl and Mia Goth’s coming out party in those is a close second. I am very excited for the third movie next year. Separately they were very good horror movies, but together they are an entirely new, different and spectacular thing. I watched X first, and then saw Pearl a few months later (and seriously, the Academy doesn’t recognize work in horror films very often, but she deserves a nod for her performance in Pearl) and immediately watched X again with a whole new appreciation for it.