Before bringing out my annual list of favorite things back in 2017, I said that there wasn’t much good that went on in the world that year. HAHAHA. LOL. Even though 2020 was the worst, there still managed plenty of entertainment that captured my attention for the better. Maybe more than ever?
As always, anything on the following list was new to me in 2020, not necessarily new to the world. Which brings me to my first item in the list, a phenomenon from 2015 that only came to me via Disney + and quarantine:
Hamilton
I am not what you would consider a Broadway aficionado. My expertise in the musical realm begins and ends with shows that were eventually made into movies, like Annie. I heard plenty about Hamilton in 2015. One could not escape the cultural phenomenon. It just didn’t sound like something I would like. A hip-hop Broadway musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton? I was certainly not the only person Lin-Manuel Miranda ever had to convince that that was a good idea.
But it was a good idea. A great idea. A Shakespearean idea. I watched it because we happened to have Disney +, and we happened to be in the middle of a very boring pandemic that stripped us of all travel and most new shows that would have otherwise been occupying my summer entertainment time. What the hell, I thought. I was very confused during the first 30 minutes. Are they ever going to speak, so I can catch my breath and catch up with what’s going on? No? No. Okay, time for the captions. By the time we got to the 9th song in the cycle, Satisfied, I knew I could relax and enjoy myself. I knew this particular playwright knew what he was doing. There’s more than one side to any story, so let’s show another angle, and while we’re at it, why don’t we literally reverse the direction of the turntable that’s been spinning the actors about?
By the end, I was stunned, and I knew I would have to watch the whole thing again. Which is exactly what I have been doing for the last 5 months ad nauseum, testing the patience of my very patient husband. When will this obsession subside? Only time will tell.
Anne with an E
Hamilton has a way with words and Hamilton has a lot of words, and words are kind of my thing. Anne with an E also had a lot of words, many of them in very good order, such as this exchange between Anne and her adoptive mother Marilla.
Anne: How can you be so unfeeling?
Marilla: Years of practice.
This show was loose with words and emotions and had at its center a desire for moral justice. And moral justice is also kind of my thing. Ergo and heretofore, Anne with an E was kind of my thing. The icing on the cake is that the showrunner was Moira Walley-Beckett, a writer and producer of Breaking Bad.
The Queen’s Gambit
Should you find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting the outcome of a chess game, and then crying about said chess game, you are for sure watching The Queen’s Gambit. You may also be wondering, wait – what’s happening here? Why am I crying about a chess game? (Also, that black and white dress!)
Penguins (Disney +)
Like all things my daughter comes to love, it was very difficult to get her to watch this, and I did so amidst piercing screams and cries of bloody murder. Bloody murder until Steve, the googly-eyed adelie penguin, came dancing across the screen. From that moment on, Steve was our new best friend. This nature documentary was beautifully shot and riveting to look at, and the idea of Steve, as voiced by Ed Helms, was charming, though I am almost positive Steve was played by as many animal actors as Lassie. No way they could’ve kept track of just that one penguin. Right?
You’re Doing Great by Tom Papa
I read the book and watched the special and both were great. Tom Papa is always great. Tom Papa audiobooks are becoming a staple of our road trips.
The New One by Mike Birbiglia
Over the years I’ve become an “every-aisle shopper as opposed to a “specific aisle” shopper. Specific-aisle shoppers are myopic. They’re like, Paper towels and cereal, now get out of my way! Every aisle shoppers are like, Isn’t life really just a trip to the grocery store? I used to be a specific-aisle shopper and then I had a few incidents where I’m home and it’s eleven o’clock at night and I think, Oh no. Graham crackers. An every-aisle shopper is basically mowing the lawn that is the grocery store while sipping coffee and popping cheese samples. It’s not a bad life.
–pg. 209, The New One by Mike Birbiglia
Again, I watched the special and read the book. The special was great. The book was better. There are so many books on what it feels like to be a mother and only one on what it feels like to be a father. This kind of honesty and insight is rare. You should read it.
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
I did a google search for books on the writing process, and someone’s list had this book as a meditation on and lessons for how to be creative. I was skeptical to read something by a dancer, but since it wasn’t strictly about dance, I decided it deserved a look. Turns out this particular dancer had a lot to say about the creative process in any and all creative fields and it hit upon a lot of truths. Truths like this:
When I apply a critic’s temperament to myself, to see if I’m being true to my DNA, I often think in terms of focal length, like that of a camera lens. All of us find comfort in seeing the world either from a great distance, at arm’s length, or in close-up. We don’t consciously make that choice. Our DNA does, and we generally don’t waver from it.
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp, -pg. 37
I think I see things at arm’s length. How about you?
10 Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria and On Immunity by Eula Biss
Both of these books were great reads for 2020. While Zakaria’s book addresses COVID-19 specifically and Biss’s book doesn’t (it was published in 2014), both put forth fascinating scientific and cultural histories of disease. 10 Lessons analyzes recovery after catastrophic global events, and On Immunity tells the millennia-long story of inoculation and vaccination through the lens of a new mother trying to makes sense of all the competing viewpoints that surround her.
Les Champs Elysees by Pomplamoose
One of my theory teachers in college called me a “joy junkie.” I love it when the musicians playing the music sound as happy as the song they are playing. This song is my jam.
And let’s not forget the quarantine-inspired entertainments, such as this:
Gotta Be Patient (Confination Song #6)
And this:
Paul Simon – The Boxer (Acoustic Version March 2020)
And this:
2021 Will Fix Everything (The Holderness Family)
I started watching The Vlog Brothers this year by accident, really, as they decided to title a bunch of their videos with lyrics to All Star by Smash Mouth, and when that showed up in my feed, I was too curious not to watch. For the most part, I’m more interested in what the other brother has to say, but this was spot on and I enjoyed listening to someone articulating these thoughts about desire:
I’ve also grown quite fond of a channel called Wheezy Waiter because I think the creator has a lot to say about creativity. This is one of the videos I enjoyed this year:
And because I mentioned it in the last post, and I’ve watched at least one video from this channel for the past 54 consecutive days, I cannot possibly complete a list of the best of 2020 without mentioning Yoga with Adriene, the channel that sparked my yoga obsession. (A channel I learned of through Wheezy Waiter, btw.)
I would say that’s a pretty good list for such a crappy year. Here’s to more good entertainment and less pandemic in 2021.
Suite Story Productions 