Pop Culture Advent 2022
Welcome! So Christmas 2022, I was off work getting cancer treatment (I’m fine now! It’s all good) and looking for a distraction, Pop Culture Advent was born. This is a collection of my posts and tweets from then.
1ST December
Everything Everywhere All At Once. A beautiful, touching, trip in the multiverse with Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, and a cracking cast. Saw this the same week as Doctor Strange, which was quite the head spin. It’s brilliantly weird and so good.
2nd December
The finale of Derry Girls. So many moments of joy, humour, and poignancy. To name just a few: Orla’s dancing, Liam Neeson in the voting booth, a certain letter being delivered, and the sequence where each character voted on the GF Agreement.
3rd December
The last ever episode of Neighbours…and it’s subsequent resurrection! What a finale – a wedding, the return of Kylie and Jason, Susan’s ending monologue, and the utter champ that is Guy Pearce…and it’s coming back next year! Woooo!
4th December
Today’s entry comes from @ledgerd174 who nominates The Pet Shop Boys at Glastonbury, because “it was the first time I’d watched a full set by them and I was blown away by them”.
5th December
Jodie Comer in Prima Facie. Particularly notable is the success of the NT Live screening. It’s the 1st one I recall that had many repeat screenings scheduled. It’s the busiest NT Live I’ve been at – the audience I was in was bigger than the one for Thor.
6th December
Omg where do we start with this? (Buckle up, It’s a long one today!) Don’t Worry Darling had the most drama & that was before we saw the actual film. Director Olivia Wilde denied falling out with the film’s star Florence Pugh, only for video to surface of Wilde telling original star Shia LaBeouf that “Miss Flo needed a wake up call”. Shia LaBeouf was fired. Or maybe he left. He was replaced by Harry Styles, a man with the acting ablity of a toothpick.
Wilde & Styles then hooked up, leading to rumours Wilde neglected the film with Pugh allegedly stepping in to direct some scenes. Then we get to the Venice premiere where we’re told Pugh can’t attend because of “scheduling conflicts”, but she then turns up looking stunning in Valentino, drinking an Aperol spritz, and bringing her granny as her date.
Co-star and internet boyfriend Chris Pine is also there, being an absolute champ, taking photos of Pugh, while everyone analyses who is standing beside who on the red carpet.
Then we get into the actual screening where it looks like Harry Styles spit on Pine, and that footage was overanalysed like it was the JFK Zapruder film. The drama had my group chats aflame for days, and only came to a halt by the death of Queen Elizabeth (I kid you not).
7th December
Today is a guest post from @lozzy_foo_foo. She recommends the brilliant Severance that was released on AppleTV earlier this year. It’s about a group of workers that have had their memories surgically divided between their home and work lives ie “severed”. She nominated it because “the cast are great, the setting is suitable creepy and despite the high concept, it feels really real”. Cast inc Adam Scott, John Turturro and Christopher Walken.
8th December
“We don’t talk about Bruno no no nooooo”. What an ear worm of a tune. From Encanto, which was a really funny, brilliant, and original film, from Disney. That’s before you add in the tunes from Lin Manuel Miranda.
We don’t talk about Bruno had a life of its own, being the first ever Disney song to reach No 1 in the UK. It’s gonna be in my head all day now.
9th December
“Negroni…Sbagliato…with Prosecco in it”. I could do a whole extra post about House of The Dragon, but it’s this flirty exchange with stars Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke that set Twitter aflame. Done as part of a “getting to know you” interview, we hear Emma Darcy’s captivating voice describe her “drink of choice” which then went viral, with 26,000 videos (at least) dedicated to it.
10th December
Today is a guest entry from @vickytnz, who nominates The Glow by Alistair McDowall, which ran @royalcourt from January-March. A Victorian-based thriller set in an asylum, the play then turns into sci-fi. Vicky loved it as “a rare play where the unusual interval time (barely 20 mins in) works. A truly beautiful play that uses fantastical themes to ruminate on loneliness”. The playtext can be found here: https://www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/s/94624/the-glow
11th December
Today is #topgunmaverick. Much to be said about the film industry the past few years, cinema v streaming, how things shake out after covid. But going to see this on a big cinema day out with friends, was the MOST fun.
12th December
This is a little bit of a cheat since it was released late last year, but a number of folk (inc myself) caught up with it in early 2022. Get Back is a documentary, produced by Peter Jackson, about the recording of The Beatles Let It Be album which lead to their infamous rooftop concert.
It’s no ordinary documentary, ie. no talking heads, but instead, it’s nearly 8 hours (3 episodes) of footage. It’s a fascinating watch to see songs created in the background, musical genius come together, and while there are still tensions, much less acrimony around the making of their last album that we’ve been led to believe. Available on @disneyplusuk.
13th December
Today is Wordle – a game that dominated the conversation in early 2022. Created and developed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle originally to share between him and his wife, it went viral in October 2021 once he shared it with friends.
Over 300,000 people played Wordle on Jan 2, 2022, up from 90 players on Nov 1, 2021,a figure that rose to over 2 million a week later. Between January 1 and 13, 1.2 million Wordle results were shared on Twitter. Wardle sold the game to the New York Times at the end of Jan.
14th December
Today is the first in a series of guest entries over the next few days. Today @M13Barber recommends the play, Counting & Cracking.
Written and directed by Australian artists S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack, and produced by @BelvoirSt, the play is about a woman who emigrates from Sri Lanka following the outbreak of the civil war, and years later the past comes knocking on her door.
Featuring 19 performers from 6 counties, @M13Barber loved the “huge cast, brilliant direction” and thought it was “a great tour de force of theatre. Perhaps my theatre highlight of 2022”.
Counting & Cracking was seen at the Edinburgh International Festival & Birmingham festival.
15th December
Today is a guest entry from @hazeburton who loved Bad Sisters on @AppleTV. The show follows “The tight-knit Garvey sisters have always looked out for each other. When their brother-in-law winds up dead, his life insurers launch an investigation to prove malicious intent – and set their sights on the sisters, all of whom had ample reason to kill him”
Starring Sharon Hogan, Anne-Marie Duff, and Claes Bang, @hazeburton loves it because “Sharron Horgan is the boss, it has a great ensemble, great writing and the biggest prick in the history of tv!
16th December
Today’s entry is from Laura Taylor, who really enjoyed Heartstopper on @NetflixUK.
Adapted from a series of graphic novels by @AliceOseman, it follows teenagers Charlie and Nick, who “discover their unlikely friendship might be something more as they navigate school and young love”.
Laura thinks that Heartstopper is “really lovely & romantic & cute and happy” and wants “more people to watch it!”
17th December
Today is my last guest entry from @M13Barber, who recommends Space Force @NetflixUK – particularly season 2 which was released this year.
Created by Greg Daniels (who was behind the US version of The Office) and Steve Carrell, Space Force centres on a group of people tasked with establishing the sixth branch of the United States Armed Force.
@M13Barber recommends it because it’s “so bad it’s good. I watched S1 and didn’t get into it, but then I thought i’ll enjoy it for what it is. And then i loved it. It’s just whacky with some very funny characters”
Cast includes: Steve Carrell, John Malkovich, Ben Swartz, and Lisa Kudrow. It’s now cancelled, but both seasons can be found on @NetflixUK.
18th December
Today’s entry is Agatha Christie! Thanks to my Mum, I’ve been a fan of Christie for a while, but it’s clear that Agatha’s been having a moment in 2022.
There’s been the release of Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile, the announcement that he’s to adapt her story A Haunting in Venice, the BritBox adaption of Why Didn’t They Ask Evans, and the film See How They Run, which centres its plot around the staging of Christie’s play The Mousetrap.
There’s a new biography of Christie by Lucy Worsley, with an accompanying BBC documentary and adaption for Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime (starting next week).
In addition to this, Christie’s name has inspired the naming of the feud between Colleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy (and Rooney’s detective work uncovering who was leaking stories about her), culminating in the “Wagatha Christie” trial, which in itself has spanned a play, and a TV adaption to be shown over the festive period.
Additional Christie info can be found @agathachristie.
19th December
Today’s entry is Running up that Hill (A deal with with God) by Kate Bush. First released in the UK on 5 August 1985, it reached number 3 in the charts, until this year when it was featured prominently in the latest series of Stranger Things. The song was discovered by a whole new generation, and reached number one on the UK Singles Chart dated 17 June 2022, giving Bush her first No 1 since Wuthering Heights in 1978.
20th December
Today’s entry is Madly, Deeply, The diaries of Alan Rickman. I am sad I’ve not featured more books from this year! That’s mainly because I struggled to finish anything as I went through medical treatment. Plus I’ve been making this whole project up as I go along.
Anyway, I’ve been excited about this book since it was announced last year. I got a copy for my birthday in November (thank you, David) so I’m just beginning to read.
As predicted, the entries are delightful, and you can hear his voice on every line. You can imagine him rolling his eyes as he recalls “apparently I upset Elaine Paige”, his bewilderment at watching Sleepless In Seattle (“halfway through I think I was in this movie”), which is then clarified by an editors note (“he wasn’t”),
There’s also joy to be found in the way he describes his friend/collaborator, Juliet Stevenson, as he bemoans that she is late to rehearsal (“a flurry of lost keys…Juliet has, of course, been clamped”, while also saying how much fun it is to work with her in the same paragraph.
This is from the first few entries and I can’t wait to read more. The diaries go from 1993–2015. Available now at all good bookshops.
21st December
Today is the @netflix adaption of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. I was already familiar with Gaiman’s work from adaptions of Coraline, Stardust, and Neverwhere (there’s a cracking Radio 4 adaption of this which kickstarted my love of James McAvoy), but I hadn’t delved into The Sandman comics.
I’ll certainly be doing so now after the TV series. One of my favourite TV things of the year, The Sandman follows “The Sandman, aka Dream, the cosmic being who controls all dreams, who is captured and held prisoner for more than a century. Once released, he must journey across different worlds and timelines to fix the chaos his absence has caused”.
It stars Tom Sturridge, Jenna Coleman, Mason Alexander Park, and many other brilliant people. I especially have to shout out Episode 6, “The Sound of her wings” as being the best hour of television I’ve seen this year.
The Sandman has been renewed for season 2.
22nd December
Today we remember @blakelively ’s dress transformation at this year’s Met Gala, the yearly charity benefit held by Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour to fundraise for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Not content in wearing one stunning dress to the Gala, it was quickly revealed that she was hiding another equally stunning dress underneath.
Red carpet changes are nothing new, but this grabbed attention in that not only was it extremely glamorous, but was one of the few that ticked all the boxes in terms of this year’s Gala theme of “gilded glamour”. I have watched the footage of the dress transformation more times than I care to admit.
23rd December
Today is the Doctor’s latest regeneration into…David Tennant?!
With Jodie Whittaker exiting the Tardis, it was announced that Ncuti Gatwa was to be the next Doctor (worry not Ncuti fans, if/when I do this next year, he’ll be featured A LOT) so it was a surprise to many when the 13th Doctor regenerated into a very familiar who face.
Returning show runner Russell T Davies insists that this is not the return of the 10th Doctor, but this is actually the 14th Doctor – just with a familiar face. “What..what…WHAT?”
24th December
Today is… a preview of pop culture coming in 2023!
The Barbie movie. Directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margo Robbie. If anyone else was doing it, i might not be interested, but I love Gerwig’s work, and worship Margo Robbie. Gut instinct tells me this’ll be a scream. Out on the 21st July in the UK.
Lemons lemons lemons lemons lemons
The revival of Sam Steiner’s play, Lemons lemons lemons lemons lemons. It imagines what would happen if we could only speak a limited amount of words in a day. The revival stars Jenna Coleman & Aiden Turner, runs from Jan-March in London, & tours to Manchester & Brighton.
The Fall of the House of Usher
The latest Netflix horror series from @flanaganfilm, who was behind some of my fave Netflix shows of recent years. (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass). Based on the story by Edgar Allen Poe, it’ll premiere on Netflix on a date tba.
Babylon
Margo Robbie again. This time in a film which has divided critics. Directed by Damien Chazelle (La La Land), it follows Hollywood’s transition from silent movies to sound in the 1920s. Also stars Brad Pitt, Diego Calva, and Jean Smart. Released in the UK on 6th Jan.
Ncuti Gatwa
Told you there’d be more mention of the new Doctor :) There will be 3 Who specials to celebrate the 60th, and we know from the trailer that Ncuti Gatwa will be making an appearance. Images were released this week of his costume and he looks amazing.
Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day the musical being revived at The Old Vic. Based on the film, regretfully I never saw this first time around. I’ve since caught up with the music by @timminchin, and it’s brilliant, witty, and beautiful. Running at The Old Vic from May-August.
And that’s it! I started this as a distraction while on cancer leave from my day job, but it’s been fun so will do it again year! Thanks to those who contributed, and for those who read it – thank you!
Now off to hope that Santa will leave me a James McAvoy under the tree…
December 2022
