My look back at pop culture in 2017
December 19, 2017 Rebecca Patton
Photo courtesy of Showtime
Well, it's been a year. It seems pointless to ruminate on the political events of 2017 because it's all we talk about anymore. A slew of garbage men were exposed as such, but it's good because we are finally believing women, and men are being punished (kinda) for their inexcusable actions. There are also some phenomena that I definitely forgot about from the past 12 months. Things like "The Young Pope." Salt Bae. "The Boss Baby." The Fyre Festival that wasn't. The eclipse. And have we so quickly forgotten the man who loves his curvy wife?! The year that ushered in Trump's presidency and the latest "Transformers" installment also blessed us with "The Leftovers" finale (Carrie Coon was robbed!), "Get Out" and that little girl sauntering into her dad's Skype interview with the BBC.
I've been thinking about what has changed for me this past year: I cut off my hair. I did the Whole30 (poorly). We got a second cat. I started kickboxing. My grandmother died. I just (literally today) started therapy. I watched an insane amount of television, including "The West Wing" (hated it), "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (loved it) and "The Sopranos" (still working through it). I listened to a lot of Weezer and cut back on dairy. I've been reading and writing more regularly, and I'm slowly improving my sleep schedule. Look at me, Mom!
And so, along with everyone else, I've written an annual end-of-year list. But since I never read listicles in full anyways, I just categorically included things — in no particular order — that I enjoyed to make it easier on the 'ol peepers. My only real criteria was that everything had to come out this year (unless stated otherwise) and it had to bring me joy. Thassit! I hope you discovered some new and beautiful things in 2017.
Listened
Photos courtesy of You've Changed Records and Top Dawg Entertainment
Top music albums:
"In Search of Lost Time" by Partner
"DAMN." by Kendrick Lamar
"Ctrl" by SZA
"Big Fish Theory" by Vince Staples
Photos courtesy of 604, Atlantic Records and Universal Latin
Top songs:
"HUMBLE." and "DNA." by Kendrick Lamar
"Cut to the Feeling" by Carly Rae Jepsen
"BakBak" by Vince Staples
"Supermodel" by SZA
"Bodak Yellow" by Cardi B
"Comfort Zone" by Partner
"Despacito (Featuring Daddy Yankee)" by Luis Fonsi
"Portland" by Drake, Quavo and Travis Scott
Top podcasts:
"Appointment Television"
"My Brother, My Brother, and Me"
"Pop Culture Happy Hour"
"The Vulture TV Podcast" (RIP)
"Buffering the Vampire Slayer"
"Longform Podcast"
"Twin Peaks Rewatch"
"The Big Listen"
"TV Avalanche"
"The Adventure Zone"
"Wonderful!"
"The Daily"
Photos courtesy of Marvel, Warner Bros. and Pixar
"Coco"
"Get Out"
"Wonder Woman"
"The Big Sick"
"Spider-Man: Homecoming"
"Dunkirk"
"Thor: Ragnarok"
"The Disaster Artist"
"Lady Bird" (IDK probably, I haven't had time to see it yet!)
Photos courtesy of VRV and Netflix
Top new TV shows:
"GLOW"
"Big Little Lies"
"My Brother, My Brother, and Me" (first on Seeso, now available on VRV)
"Twin Peaks: The Return"
"American Vandal"
"Big Mouth"
"Runaways"
"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"
Photos courtesy of NBC, HBO and Netflix
Top ongoing TV shows:
"The Good Place"
"The Leftovers"
"Silicon Valley"
"Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"
"Saturday Night Live"
"Game of Thrones"
"BoJack Horseman"
Photos courtesy of Netflix and Showtime
Favourite TV characters:
Bob Newby (Sean Astin) from "Stranger Things"
Ruth (Alison Brie) from "GLOW"
Missy (Jenny Slate) from "Big Mouth"
Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) and Diane (Laura Dern) from "Twin Peaks: The Return"
Abe Weissman (Tony Shalhoub) from "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"
Photos courtesy of Netflix, Showtime and NBC
Favourite cameos:
Jason Mantzoukas as Derek Hofstetler in "The Good Place"
Michael Cera as Wally Brando in "Twin Peaks: The Return"
Hannibal Buress and Donald Glover in "Spiderman: Homecoming"
Maya Rudolph as Dionne Warwick in "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"
Photos courtesy of HBO, Netflix and Showtime
Favourite TV episodes:
"The Book of Nora" from "The Leftovers"
"New York, I Love You" from "Master of None"
"Time's Arrow" from "BoJack Horseman"
"Part 8" from "Twin Peaks: The Return"
"The Laser-inth" from "Bob's Burgers"
Photos courtesy of NBC
Favourite SNL sketches:
"Theatre Donor"
"Five Stars"
"'La La Land' Interrogation"
"Totinos with Kristen Stewart"
"Girl at a Bar"
"RKO Movie Set"
"Fire Island"
"SWAT Recon"
"World Peace Rap"
"Tenement Museum"*
"Sectionals"*
"Papyrus"
*This sketch features Louis C.K., but I felt that it still warranted inclusion based on its quality and for the "SNL" cast and crew, who worked hard on it
Photos courtesy of Little, Brown; HarperCollins and Riverhead Books
"Priestdaddy" by Patricia Lockwood
"TV (The Book): Two Experts Pick the Greatest American Shows of All Time" by Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz
"Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body" by Roxane Gay
"One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter" by Scaachi Koul
"Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
Photos courtesy of Bobby Doherty for The Cut, Dylann Roof via GQ and An Rong Xu for the New York Times
Best articles that I [actually] read:
"A Most American Terrorist: The Making of Dylann Roof" by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, GQ
"Kellyanne Conway When the Cameras Aren't Rolling" by Kristen Mascia, Cosmopolitan
"The Most American Thing" by Jia Tolentino, the New Yorker
"The Rise of Roxane Gay" by Molly McArdle, Brooklyn Magazine
"A Day in the Life of a Food Vendor" by Tejal Rao, the New York Times
"'When People Ask for Advice': My Brother, My Brother, and Me Brings Their Good-Guy Podcast to TV" by Jaime Green, Brooklyn Magazine
"Thinx Promised a Feminist Utopia to Everyone But Their Employees" by Hilary George-Parkin, Racked
"At the Center of Change, Cherry's Unisex," by Greg Howard, the New York Times
"The Instagram Poet Outselling Homer Ten to One: Meet Rupi Kaur, Author of the Ubiquitous Milk and Honey." by Molly Fischer, The Cut
"Losing It in the Anti-Dieting Age" by Taffy Akner, the New York Times
"Charlottesville and the Effort to Downplay Racism in America" by Jia Tolentino, the New Yorker
Pre-2017 stuff that I finally got around to
Photos courtesy of AMC, HBO and Castle Rock Entertainment
"The Sopranos"
"SKAM"
"The West Wing" (I couldn't finish it, but I gave it my best shot!)
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
"The People vs. O.J. Simpson"
"Mad Men"
"Best in Show"
"Old School"
"Caddyshack"
"Zodiac"
"Dr Strangelove: Or How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb"
"Inside John Malkovich"
"Waiting for Guffman"
"Rear Window"
"The Apartment"
"Memento"
"Blue Velvet"
"We Are the Best!"
"Arrival"
"Boogie Nights"
"Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me"
"Moana"
"Police Academy"
"The Visit"
"The Thing"
"Raging Bull"
"It Follows"
"Alien"
"Doctor Strange"
"The Shining" and "On Writing" by Stephen King
"Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
"My Brilliant Friend" by Elena Ferrante
"Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie
Pop culture disappointments / stuff I couldn't get into
Photos courtesy of FX, Freeform and Columbia Records
"The Bold Type"
"The Handmaid's Tale"
"Fargo" season 3
"Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later"
"Sherlock" season 4
"Sleep Well Beast" by The National
"Flower Boy" by Tyler, the Creator
"Science Fiction" by Brand New
"Wonderful Wonderful" by The Killers
"Something to Tell You" by HAIM
"A Deeper Understanding" by The War on Drugs
"Rainbow" by Kesha
"Number 1 Angel" by Charli XCX
What I'm looking forward to in 2018
Photos courtesy of Marvel, Warner Bros. and Disney
"Ocean's Eight"
"A Wrinkle in Time"
"Black Panther"
"Where'd You Go, Bernadette?"
"Solo: A Star Wars Story"
"Mary Poppins Returns"
"Mary Queen of Scots"
"A Star Is Born"
"Crazy Rich Asians"
"The Wedding Date" by Jasmine Guillory
New albums by The Wombats, Of Mice and Men, Carly Rae Jepsen and Kacey Musgraves
What I'm nervous about in 2018
Photos courtesy of Warner Bros. and Animal Logic Entertainment
"Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald"
"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom"
"Ready Player One"
"Fifty Shades Freed"
"Tomb Raider"
"Maze Runner: The Death Cure"
"Aquaman"
"Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again"
"Sherlock Gnomes"
"Peter Rabbit"
"Bumblebee: The Movie"
In Listicle Tags Twin Peaks, Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Partner, Drake, Vince Staples, podcasts, GLOW, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Good Place, Stranger Things, The Leftovers, BoJack Horseman, The Sopranos
22 Celebrities You Forgot Were in "Gilmore Girls"
January 6, 2015 Rebecca Patton
Photo: Decider.com
WARNING: The following article may contain spoilers, so please don't read until you've watched "Gilmore Girls" all the way through –– unless you're a glutton for punishment, in which case I tell you: DON'T BE A HERO.
Insert the inevitable I-binge-watched-"Gilmore Girls"-because-it-was-on-Netflix-and-it-was-my-favourite-show-in-high-school phrase here. And during my re-watch of the beloved WB dramedy, I noticed several individuals whom I hadn't noticed during my first time through.
For instance: Ron Swanson was Jackson's super weird, deadbeat brother? ABED worked at the Yale Daily News?! SCHMIDT goes to Dean's bachelor party and is named Luke?!! It was too much to handle; I had to tell the world. And so, after browsing Google Images for the best, non-pixelated photos of these characters that I could find and making the occasional Netflix screenshot, I give you the 22 best celebrity cameos in Amy Sherman-Palladino's classic, "Gilmore Girls:"
In Listicle Tags Gilmore Girls, New Girl, Parks and Recreation, Twin Peaks, Community, Carole King, Christiane Amanpour, Amy Sherman-Palladino