Britney, Bennifer, Beatles and Broadway: Pop culture in 2021
Entertainment
Britney, Bennifer, Beatles and Broadway: Pop culture in 2021
(AP) - Britney was freed. Bennifer came back. So did Broadway, yay! And actually, the Beatles! As for Bond — James Bond — he said goodbye, at least the Daniel Craig version.
Harry and Meghan spoke to Oprah, and boy, we listened. We listened, too, to Taylor Swift, who sang about a failed affair and a still-missing scarf (ex-lovers: hang onto knitwear at your peril!)
It was a year for reunions: The cast of “Friends,” for example, and three of the “Sex and the City” foursome, in a reboot. And revivals: “West Side Story” made an Oscar-buzzy splash 60 years after the original. Even Tony Soprano came back, sort of, for a minute.
Live entertainment brought a wary joy — wary because at any time, it could stop. And nice guys won out — at least in TV comedy, where “Ted Lasso,” Jason Sudeikis’ show about an endearingly earnest American coach transplanted to cutthroat British football, swept the Emmys. The whole “Ted Lasso” cast was great, but if we’re seeking to capture the mood of the year, let’s maybe look to the goldfish.
Who?
You know, the goldfish. The happiest animal, Lasso likes to tell his players, because it only has a 10-second memory (though science may beg to differ). That’s good when you’re holding a grudge in sports, but also when you’re trying to get through a rollercoaster year like 2021, when we thought we were up and then we were down again. And again. And again.
