Pop culture takes a wild ride
It’s never easy to define a roller-coaster year like 2021, when we were up and down again, and again
Britney was freed. Bennifer came back. So did Broadway, yay! And actually, the Beatles! As for Bond — James Bond — he said goodbye, at least the Daniel Craig version. Harry and Meghan spoke to Oprah, and boy, we listened. We listened, too, to Taylor Swift, who sang about a failed affair and a still-missing scarf.
And nice guys won out — at least in TV comedy, where “Ted Lasso,” Jason Sudeikis’ show about an endearingly earnest American coach transplanted to cutthroat British football, swept the Emmys. The whole “Ted Lasso” cast was great, but if we’re seeking to capture the mood of the year, let’s maybe look to the goldfish. Who? You know, the goldfish. The happiest animal, Lasso likes to tell his players, because it only has a 10-second memory. That’s good when you’re holding a grudge in sports, but also when you’re trying to get through a roller-coaster year like 2021, when we thought we were up and then we were down again. And again. And again.
So here’s to you, happy goldfish. And here’s our annual, highly subjective trip down pop culture memory lane.
January: On Inauguration Day, Amanda Gorman, 22, captivates a nation, reciting “The Hill We Climb.” Within hours, the eloquent national youth poet laureate has gained more than a million followers on Instagram (now close to 4 million). Runner-up inauguration star: Bernie Sanders’ mittens, inspiration for many a bobblehead.
February: The Golden Globes, an awkwardly virtual ceremony, still has its moving moments, including a heartbreaking speech by Taylor Simone Ledward, widow of posthumous winner Chadwick Boseman: “I don’t have his words.” These Globes will be remembered, though, for revelations of the shocking lack of diversity in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. A judge upholds — for now — the conservatorship governing Britney Spears, as a new documentary, “Framing Britney Spears,” shines light on the troubling case.
March: It’s a big night for women at the Grammys, where Swift becomes the first female performer to win album of the year three times, and Beyonce gets her 28th win to become the most decorated woman in Grammy history. But the biggest news this month is Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview, in which Meghan speaks of a fairytale life that turned dark and made her suicidal, and alleges experiencing racism in the royal family.
April: Chloe Zhao takes the best director Oscar for her lyrical “Nomadland,” only the second woman in history (and the first woman of color). The in-person
but stripped down Oscars bring back red-carpet glamour — that abrupt ending was super weird, though.
May: “Friends,” aka Joey and Phoebe and Chandler and Monica and Rachel and Ross, hold their long-awaited reunion. Among the revelations: A mutual, previously unknown crush between Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer, and Lady Gaga’s fondness for Phoebe’s “Smelly Cat.”
June: Kim Kardashian West details in “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” why she filed for divorce from Kanye West in February: “I don’t want a husband that lives in a completely different state,” she says, and “I want someone who wants to work out with me.” Spears speaks, telling a judge that she wants her life back. “I’ve lied and told the whole world I’m OK,” she says. She was not.
July: The second season of “Ted Lasso” debuts this month, bringing
a new set of challenges to the amiable coach and his underdog club, AFC Richmond. In two months, the show will sweep the comedy Emmys.
August: Who saw this coming? It’s Bennifer! Almost 20 years after their very public romance, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have found each other again, and they’re packing on the PDA ... The internet rejoices. On a sad note, it’s the end of a rock ’n’ roll era as Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts dies at age 80.
September: “There’s no place like home!” That’s the original Glinda, Kristin Chenoweth, welcoming Broadway audiences back to “Wicked.” The Met Gala is back, with mandatory PCR tests and a decidedly young vibe led by hosts Timothee Chalamet, Billie Eilish, Gorman, and tennis star Naomi Osaka. At the Emmys, it’s Lasso time, and also time to hail comedy heroine Jean Smart, who takes a trophy and basks in her “Jeanaissance.” New on TV: the South Korean survival drama “Squid Game,” making an audacious entrance. In the courtroom, music star R. Kelly is convicted of sex trafficking.
October: Captain Kirk himself boldly blasts off into space. An overwhelmed William Shatner, at 90 the oldest space traveler, describes the atmosphere keeping mankind alive as “thinner than your skin.” Daniel Craig makes his final Bond outing in “No Time to Die.” Tony Soprano’s back as a teenager in the prequel “Many Saints of Newark,” played by Michael Gandolfini, James’ son. Real-life tragedy strikes a movie set as a gunshot fired by actor Alec Baldwin accidentally kills cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, horrifying an industry and spurring calls for all guns to be banned on sets.
November: It’s not quite a Beatles reunion, but the Peter Jackson doc “Get Back” gives hungry fans eight hours of yet-unseen footage. And it’s Britney’s time: A judge finally terminates the conservatorship that controlled the pop singer’s life for nearly 14 years. Swift releases a 10-minute rendition of the blistering single “All Too Well.” A saddened Broadway community says goodbye to Stephen Sondheim, beloved titan of musical theater. At a chaotic Travis Scott concert, eight people (and later, two more) are killed as a crowd surges forward to the stage.
December: Spider-Man is back, as is 50-something Carrie Bradshaw (and buddies Miranda and Charlotte but not Samantha). Nostalgia peaks with the exciting new “West Side Story” directed by Steven Spielberg. With more troubling pandemic news on the horizon, we can all do with a stirring distraction like this one — as we keep waiting, to paraphrase the Fab Four, to get back, get back, get back to where we once belonged.