Open Channel: What Pop Culture Surprised You This Year?

For as dangerous as 2021 may get, popular culture supplied us some vibrant spots. Be it fairly good motion pictures, stable video video games, or enchanting novels, there have been loads of methods to flee a yr that bounced erratically backwards and forwards between being tolerably dangerous and agonizingly painful.

In a number of circumstances, the issues that we needed or wanted to be good ended up being good, even perhaps nice. You know by now {that a} Marvel film is gonna offer you a stable 2.5 hours of leisure, or that a Netflix unique (that the corporate really deigns to let you know exists) will normally be nicely definitely worth the weekend binge. More fascinating, although, are the issues that you just didn’t anticipate to get pleasure from as a lot as you probably did, or the belongings you initially had blended or destructive ideas on, however ended up being gained over by. That sort of unpredictability is all the time welcome.

There have been a couple of nice surprises for me all through 2021. I didn’t absolutely anticipate to be gained over by Hawkeye of all exhibits, or get some delight from the absurdity of the short-lived Cowboy Bebop. Like many others, I wasn’t ready for Arcane to utterly win me over, or for Masters of the Universe: Revelation to make the He-Man’s nook of the universe value caring about. Movie sensible, I discovered myself delighted by Malignant, No Time to Die, and Dune, to call a couple of. And for video games, I got here away actually taken in by Guardians of the Galaxy (like lots of people) after its iffy E3 exhibiting, together with the flashy anime RPG Scarlet Nexus and the dizzying first-person shooter Boomerang X.

As we’re within the final weekend of 2021, inform us: what factor did you watch, play, or learn this yr that took you abruptly? Alternatively, is there one thing that you just thought you’d like greater than you really did? Let us know within the feedback under, and have an excellent vacation.

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