I am thrilled to say goodbye to 2020 and see what 2021 has in store for all of us! The cold and rain made it easier to stay inside and binge a few shows this month, AND I even got some reading done (finally!)

Reading

I finally finished Wow, No Thank You from Samantha Irby and it was SO DAMN FUNNY. I started the book this summer when I picked it up from the library. The problem (for me) with essays is that it’s also easy to put down and then forget about for months on end. I finally finished it this month and it did NOT disappoint! I also discovered she wrote a short story ebook about her new years resolutions which I devoured over the weekend (trying to hit that Goodreads goal!) New Year, Same Trash was funny and a great quick read!

I am almost done with Ready Player Two and was hoping to count it towards my Goodreads goal for the year, but luckily it’ll be a good start for 2021!

I listened to Such a Fun Age which is a book I’d read great things about and have had on my list for a while. It was GREAT, good story, great characters and some story tropes that I often enjoy.

Listening

This year I discovered that Ana Gasteyer has a Holiday Album called Sugar and Booze (the best part of the holidays is…) It’s delightful and makes me laugh and is also great background music!

Besides news podcasts I’ve been on a podcast slump lately, which is what led me to get on the audiobook train which I jumped off years ago when podcasts got big. I am hoping for more audiobooks in 2021…

Watching

My husband and I discovered The Pack on Amazon – it’s basically The Amazing Race (which we have often enjoyed) but WITH YOUR DOG. Yup – 12 dogs and their human travel the world and it is SO FUN. It’s sweet and positive and everyone gets along and it would be a great holiday break binge if you need it.

I binged right through Big Mouth’s new season on Netflix the weekend it came out. It’s so funny and ridiculous and it makes me laugh, a LOT.

I finally watched The Undoing on HBO. Two observations… first, I couldn’t get past the fact that a family with THAT MUCH MONEY used manual toothbrushes. No way they wouldn’t have fancy ass electric ones. Second, evil Hugh Grant is good stuff…

I have rewatched Bad Moms Christmas and had my annual White Christmas viewing. I thoroughly enjoyed this years SNL Christmas episode with Kirstin Wiig.

A friend of mine upon learning my love of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City demanded that I watch Selling Sunset on Netflix and it is ridiculous and over the top and a great background show while you’re baking or making dinner or doom scrolling…

My dad & I are both big Star Wars fans, so I was surprised when he didn’t like the early episode of The Mandalorian with Timothy Olyphant – who I LOVE. It felt like an episode of space cowboy Justified and I was up for it! However, as the season went on I felt it got a little ridiculous and I didn’t love how it ended. Dad disagrees (and I am sure some of you do too) but while there was some great stuff this season, I wasn’t in love.

Supermarket Sweep continues to be a fun show to watch if you need something else light hearted. And I’m enjoying the new season of The Unicorn. I am almost finished with Bridgerton and it is so great. I hadn’t planned to watch it but I keep seeing people tweet about it and after about 10 minutes, I was hooked.

We watched Wonder Woman 1984 on Christmas day and it was about 45 minutes too long. The opening scene made me realize that we aren’t done with theaters – it would have been AWESOME to watch it on a big screen. Kristin Wiig was easily the best part of the movie.

Alright, what pop culture have you been consuming to get through the end of 2020? What pop culture are you excited for in 2021?

We are in the rainy season here in Oregon, which means more time inside watching TV and bundled up for walks with the pups. Add in a state wide social freeze order from the Governor, it’s been a great time for some good pop culture.

With the election earlier this month I never got around to reading a book, which is a surprise even to me. I couldn’t get into it no matter how hard I tried. I am however SUPER excited for Ready Player Two which I am hoping to devour as soon as it arrives. Here’s the pop culture that I HAVE consumed over the past month…

Listening

Right before the election I was a bit overwhelmed with news podcasts. I kept up on What a Day and then mostly listened to Think Out Loud and OPB Politics Now to keep on top of local news and COVID updates around the state. The Nov. 23rd episode of Think Out Loud featured Dr. Maxine Dexter who is a COVID-19 doctor, a new state Representative, AND a fellow Emerge graduate from my class! She did an excellent job of talking about what this is all like from a doctor’s experience here in Oregon. I’m excited to have her input in Salem.

From the music side of life, I’ve been listening to a LOT of Billy Joel lately, not totally sure what brought that on, but it’s working for me.

Watching

I needed distractions this month, and thankfully Netflix was there for me. I did a re-watch of Big Mouth and I am super excited for the new season this month. I tried to savor The Crown, but it was so fantastic I couldn’t. Both the NYT and Entertainment Weekly had great write ups about what story lines were historically accurate and what “maybe” happened. The 7th episode with the cousin revelation was my favorite episode. I noticed The Iron Lady is on Netflix so will watch that at some point this month to unfairly compare Meryl & Gillian.

My husband and I loved Eater’s Guide to the World. If we can’t travel, let’s watch food shows about travel. Maya Rudolph narrates the show and she is as perfect at it as she is at this. Speaking of food shows, I discovered Selena + Chef (HBOMax) and it’s good! It does depend on who the chef is (Just start with Roy Choy, he’s amazing! then watch Breaking Bread on Hulu and prepare to be overwhelmed with how awesome he is.) If you need a new food show in your life, this is a fun quarantine version.

I did find time to watch the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion. If you wanted to know the story behind two Aunt Viv’s then you should watch it. It was a fun and mostly happy reunion. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is a show that now exists and I am HERE for it! It’s as ridiculous as the rest of the franchise and it’s the perfect winter escape.

Over Thanksgiving there was a lot of mindless TV and movies happening over here. We watched both Christmas Vacation and Happiest Season on Thanksgiving. Christmas Vacation is a Case family rule on Thanksgiving that after 17 years of marriage I can fully quote with my husband. We aren’t putting up a tree this year and my friend is VERY concerned we’re turning into Margo & Todd… Happiest Season (Hulu) was a GREAT holiday movie for 2020. I’m not a huge Kristin Stewart fan but this movie brought her a long way up in my book. I want a sequel with more Aubrey Plaza and Dan Levy obviously! Somewhere in the last few years I totally missed Bad Moms Christmas and thankfully it’s on Netflix so I could laugh way too hard at this trio of burnt out moms at the holidays. We also found time to binge Saved By the Bell on Peacock (there are officially 100 too many streaming services out there these days!) and the reboot is fun and unnecessary and exactly what you want to watch over a long holiday weekend after lots of pie.

What pop culture got you through the holiday weekend (and longest election ever)? What are you excited for in December?

This chilly fall air has me cozied up inside, but luckily earlier this month was warmer than expected for a little more outside reading time. I hope you’ve made the most of October, since we know what’s ahead. Here’s a few things I’ve enjoyed this month…

Reading

I absolutely LOVED Transcendent Kingdom. I will officially read everything Yaa Gyasi writes. Homegoing is the best book I’ve read in 2020 – I loved it so much I bought 4 copies to give as gifts this holiday season. Transcendent Kingdom was a very different story but I appreciated the struggles of the main character with her family and how frankly they wrote about addiction and depression.

The best graphic novel I have read this year is They Called Us Enemy –  George Takei’s graphic memoir about his childhood in internment camps. My official Goodreads review was: “Buy it. Read it. Share it with your children. This country will never learn from our mistakes If we never learn the horrible things we’ve done.” We have GOT to start learning from the horrible things this country has done, or we will continue to do them.

I also picked up A Very Punchable Face from the library. It’s Colin Jost’s memoir and if you appreciate him on SNL, you will laugh a LOT. Multiple times there were tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard. It was the EXACT mental health treat I needed this close to the election.

I’m not sure what’s next up on my list, I think there’s one or two things on hold at the library and I still need to read any one of the books I on my shelf I’ve recently purchased or that never ending comic book stack…

Listening

I’m in a bit of news and election overwhelm so I’ve been a little more particular with my podcasts this month. I really appreciated the Pod Save America interview with Obama a few weeks ago. I continue to listen to What a Day to stay on top of it all too. The Daily episode (10/6) on “How a Small Bar Battled to Survive the Coronavirus” was REALLY good.

The recent news about women leaving the workforce has been incredibly upsetting. OPB’s Think Out Loud did a great episode talking with women across Oregon dealing with this issue. This article was also incredibly helpful in putting words around a lot of feelings I’ve had.

Oddly I have been listening to a lot of 90’s music lately. My workout studio had a 90’s class that inspired me to relive high school, it’s been a great break! I also REALLY loved Megan Thee Stallion on SNL earlier this month!

Watching

SNL is back and nothing makes me happier than having this show back on the air. I am NOT sold on Jim Carrey as Biden but Maya Rudolph is SO GREAT it makes up for it. I was also really impressed with how SNL handled the musical act who was seen out at a college party not socially distancing. No one is above the law with Lorne.

I am in the midst of a Veep rewatch – it’s been a nice laugh during the election. I also enjoyed the West Wing GOTV special on HBOMax.

Lovecraft County is such a crazy weird show. I finished it this week and it was BANANAS. Half way through the season they do a whole story about a woman in Korea and 2/3 of the episode is in Korean. I love when shows tell the story that needs to be told. I liked it a lot and loved the journey, but wonder if it should have been a miniseries – I’m not sure where the story will go or if it will just go off the rails next season.

The new season of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction has a great lineup. We were fascinated by the Robert Downey Jr. episodes – where they both talked pretty candidly about their addictions. Dave Chappell is always amazing and it was great to learn about the work he is doing in Ohio where he lives. And I love Lizzo, she was awesome. We still haven’t watched the Kim Kardashian West episode because I don’t know if my eyes can roll that far back into my head. I will at some point I promise…

Ted Lasso was the surprise fall hit that I needed. I have ALWAYS loved Jason Sudeikis so was already on board to re-up my Apple+ subscription. The show is so sweet and funny and exactly what I needed this fall.

The Amber Ruffin Show on Peacock is deLIGHTFUL. She’s such a gem and I always appreciate everything she does on Seth Meyers.

My husband and I loved The American Barbecue Showdown on Netflix. It filled the food competition hole in our hearts.

I watched Ratched over the past month and it was…fine? Beautiful people having sex & murdering others – this time at a mental hospital! Ryan Murphy may be too over the top for me. But Cynthia Nixon & Sarah Paulsen were fantastic as they always are.

This past weekend I watched The Social Dilemma, and it was a lot of information I remembered from reading Bored and Brilliant last year. However, I was fascinated at the end by how these ex-social media execs were handling their own phone/social usage AND how what they’re allowing for their kids. It was an important documentary if you’re online anywhere. It made me consider giving up Twitter and then realizing that for now I WANT it, but need to clean up who I follow so that the overwhelm of information and anger and rage is dialed back a notch or two.

Alright – that’s enough pop culture for one month (never!) – how did October go for you? Any excellent pop culture discoveries I need to add to the list?