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?
Leave a Reply