The Best Film and Television of 2021
If you missed any of these films and television shows from 2021 you’ll want to seek them out and bask for a while in their light – or follow their darkness.
Television
Is Syfy’s ‘Chucky’ the Horror We Deserve?
Chucky is still a doll possessed by a person possessed by a demon, but there’s something far more nefarious going on in Syfy’s new series, Chucky.
Rod Serling Undermines the American Dream with the Stories in ‘Night Gallery’
Existential fear about post-war American masculinity is dragged into disturbing light in Rod Serling’s dark tales of the American Dream, Night Gallery.
Why We Still Love Lucy After All These Years
The I Love Lucy cast insisted that the show didn’t intend to take on world-changing progressive issues, but it was far more subversive than they let on.
You Think Feminist Sitcom ‘Murphy Brown’ Had It Tough in the ’90s?
Would the Murphy Brown “Uh Oh” episodes, which addressed abortion, withstand the Texas Heart Beat act and America’s current right-wing cultural climate?
Billy Porter Gets Real in Memoir ‘Unprotected’
Divine but not a diva, Billy Porter struggles and revels in the Ministry of Art. Memoir Unprotected is his book of revelation.
A ‘Midnight Mass’ for Post-Trump American Christianity
No work has so passionately tapped into the anxieties of Christianity in the wake of Donald Trump as Mike Flanagan’s mini-series, Midnight Mass.
All Things Reconsidered/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/My Favorite Thing/PopMatters Picks/Television
’70s TV Horror/Mystery ‘Kolchak: The Night Stalker’ Keeps Crawling from Its Grave
Horror-mystery TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker has a sour take on society that hasn’t dated since the ’70s; hence, its eternal afterlife.
Marvel’s ‘WandaVision’ Echos Our Lasting Pandemic Grief
Addressing pandemic-induced topics such as loss, grief, and mental illness, Marvel’s ‘WandaVision’ serves as a metaphor for life in the time of COVID.
The Dramaturgy of the Rise and Fall of the Bon Appétit YouTube Channel
If food has always been political, as Bon Appétit asserts—so, too, has performance style. It is overdue for food media creators to wake up and smell the coffee.
Did the Pandemic Shutdown Change Hollywood for Good?
The entertainment industry had to change when COVID-19 closed almost all its operations. Media scholar Kate Fortmueller considers the lasting effect.
