I probably watched too much television in 2021. Oh well, such is life! Here are a few things that I enjoyed:
The third and fourth seasons of Cobra Kai
Who would have guessed that The Karate Kid would eventually inspire one of the best shows on television? The show’s mix of comedy and drama is nearly perfect and, for that matter, so are the performances of William Zabka, Ralph Macchio, Martin Kove, and Thomas Ian Griffith.
2. WandaVision
The Marvel television series have been pretty hit-and-miss for me but WandaVision was definitely a hit.
3. The Oscars
The Steven Soderbergh-produced ceremony was such a train wreck that it became oddly fascinating to watch. To be honest, the entire ceremony felt like a wonderful example of hubris. The ceremony was obviously designed to show the way to the future and, instead, it just made us long for the past. In many ways, it was the perfect symbol for America in 2021.
4 & 5. Allo Allo and Yes, Minister
Discovering these classic British sitcoms on PBS was definitely one of the highlights of the year for me!
6. America’s Most Wanted
It didn’t last very long but the America’s Most Wanted revival featured some really cool CGI.
7. Gangs of London
This British crime show was complex but always compelling.
8. The Ultimate Surfer
This silly reality show featured a lot of good-looking people getting wet. What more can you ask for?
9. The final season of The Walking Dead got off to a good start.
After bombing several Mormon centers in Utah, religious extremist and polygamist Adam Swapp (Kyle Secord) has barricaded himself inside of a farm house with his wives and supporters. The FBI, led by Bob Bryant (Dennis Franz), have the house surrounded and are trying to convince Swapp to peacefully surrender. Swapp, however, has no intention of going down without a fight.
In the 1990s, NBC did a whole series of made-for-TV miniseries about real-life law enforcement operations that inevitably led to the death of at least one of the officers involved. They made so many of them and they churned them out so quickly that NBC even aired a movie about the Branch Davidian stand-off while it was still going on. Siege at Marion, the fourth of the In The Line of Duty films, feels like a precursor to what was eventually happen in Waco. Just as happened in Waco and with the attempts to arrest Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, critics claimed that the government came on too strong while the government claimed that they were merely enforcing the law.
Siege at Marion is the least interesting of all of the In The Line of Duty movies, mostly because the Marion siege was neither as mismanaged as what happened in Waco or as egregiously heavy-handed and disturbing as what happened in Ruby Ridge. Though based on a true story, Siege at Marion is a standard stand-off film with the only suspense coming from the film’s distasteful attempts to build up suspense as to whether it’ll be Dennis Franz, William H. Macy, or Ed Begley, Jr. who is killed in the line of duty. Since only one of them is given a backstory and a family, it’s easy to guess which one it will be.
The best thing about Siege of Marion is the cast. Dennis Franz was born to play cops and it’s interesting to see a pre-Fargo William H. Macy playing a non-nervous character. Kyle Secor is convincingly fanatical and unhinged as the messianic Adam Swapp. Secor would go on to star as Tim Bayliss on the much-missed Baltimore-set cop show, Homicide: Life on the Street. Speaking of classic cop shows, Siege at Marion was also directed by Charles Haid, who played Andy Renko on Hill Street Blues. As for the In The Line of Duty films, the last one was made in 1994 but they all live on in syndication.
As chaotic as 2021 may have been, one thing remained unchanged! Lifetime provided me with a lot of entertainment! Below, you’ll find my picks for the best Lifetime films and performances of the past year!
Well, here we are. Another awards season is wrapping up. Almost all of the regional critic groups have announced their picks for the best of 2021. The Guilds have spoken. The front runners have emerged. Both Don’t Look Up and Being the Ricardos have weathered bad reviews and become probable Oscar nominees. If nothing else, I’ll have something to complain about for the next three or four months. At the same time, Power of the Dog has emerged as the critical favorite. Belfast seems to be the populist favorite. West Side Story is the big production that has to be nominated, even though no one seems to feel particularly strongly about it one way or the other. Dune is the blockbuster that the Academy is hoping will cause people to tune into the ceremony, especially now that it appears that the Spider-Man Oscar campaign has fizzled. Don’t Look Up is the “Let’s piss off the cons” nominee. Being the Ricardos is this year’s “Wow, our industry really is the best” nominee. Personally, I’m going to view tick, tick….Boom! as being the most likely dark horse to pull off an upset.
So, with all that in mind, here’s my last set of 2021 Oscar predictions.
Looking at the list below, I have to say that we certainly have a good race this year. It’s interesting that, this year, only films that were released between March and the end of December were eligible for the Oscars. 2021 was a very good year for movies! Not only do we have the nominees below but we also had films like The Father and Judas and the Black Messiah, both of which are 2021 films as far as I’m concerned.
(Consider this. If the Oscars had kept the eligibility window the same last year instead of extending it to accommodate films delayed by the pandemic, Anthony Hopkins would probably be the Best Actor front runner right now and the Academy probably would have given Chadwick Boseman a posthumous Best Actor award last April. I also imagine that Jesse Plemons would have a better chance of picking up a supporting actor nomination if the members of the Academy were currently screening both The Power of the Dog and Judas and the Black Messiah at the same time.)
Every January, I list my favorite songs of the previous year and, every January, I include the same disclaimer. My favorite songs are not necessarily the favorite songs of any of the other writers here at the Shattered Lens.
With that in mind, here are my favorite songs of 2021! Also be sure to check out my favorite songs of 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011!
10) It’s All Happening by Saint Motel
9) U Are My High by DJ Snake x Future
8) Cry About It Later by Katy Perry
7) Traps by Bloc Party
6) It Gets Better by Swedish House Mafia
5) Hypnocurrency by Deadmau5 & REZZ
4) The Darkness That You Fear by The Chemical Brothers
Today’s music video of the day is the atmospheric video from Destroyer! This video has a kind of You’ve-Been-Up-For-3-Days-On-Dexedrine feel to it. I used to very much enjoy wandering around in the middle of the night so this video brought back some memories for me.
I’ve still got a handful of movies that I need to watch before I can post my best films of 2021 list. I know that February is probably way too late to post such a list but …. well, I’m going to give it a try anyways! I may not be the first person to post her best of 2021 list but, at the rate I’m going, I’ll probably be the last. It’ll get done some time over this upcoming week!
For now, here’s what I watched, read, and listened to this week!
Through the Shattered Lens 