The Pop Culture Pundit

Kate’s Greats are awards given to movies, TV shows, and music that the author has viewed and/or listened to over the past month. These awards may celebrate underrated, overlooked, or obscure moments of pop culture that may not otherwise get the attention they deserve. Other times, they will celebrate the buzziest pop culture–but will always have a fresh take. Award categories may include, but are not limited to, ‘Goofiest Thriller’ and ‘Tiniest Mustache’ (the latter of which Timothée Chalamet wins by a landslide). May the best, worst, boldest, and weirdest win. 

Best Meeting of Two Icons: Michael J. Fox and Harrison Ford, Shrinking

I was raised on ‘80s movies. Back to the Future (with Michael J. Fox) is my favorite movie of all time. Raiders of the Lost Ark (with Harrison Ford) is easily in my top twenty (along with other Ford movies including Witness and The Fugitive). So imagine my utter delight at seeing these two film icons meet for what I’m pretty sure is the first time on screen together in the Apple TV sitcom Shrinking. In it, Ford’s character Paul suffers from Parkinson’s, and hallucinates Fox’s Gerry in the premiere episode, before Gerry actually becomes a real person later in the season. Though that may be a *bit* confusing, I am happy to spend any amount of time watching them both on screen together. Though Fox has been in semi-retirement from acting for years, his comedic timing is still impeccable. Maybe his Back to the Future co-star Christopher Lloyd can join Shrinking for a guest spot? Then we’d have a truly hilarious trio on our hands. 

Best Grammys Performance: Tyler, the Creator

^{Tyler, the Creator via YouTube}

I was not familiar with Tyler, the Creator’s music before this years Grammy’s ceremony, and now I can’t stop listening to it. Singing and rapping a melody of “Thought I Was Dead” from his album Chromakopia and “Sugar on My Tongue” from Don’t Tap the Glass, Tyler’s performance was a riveting story, with a gas station being built and blown up within the five minutes he was on stage. The cameo with Regina King was the cherry on top, and his commitment to collapsing on the floor after he blew up the gas station was impressive. The Grammys this year had great-performances the entire night, between Sabrina Carpenter’s airport-themed rendition of “Manchild” to Justin Bieber’s stripped-down performance of “Yukon,” but Tyler’s medley was my personal favorite. 

Best Rain: Jacob Elordi at the Wuthering Heights London Premiere

You know how in the TV show How I Met Your Mother Ted finally meets the mother at a train station while it’s pouring rain and then SHE DIES????? That’s basically Wuthering Heights. At the London premiere, Jacob Elordi acted as Margot Robbie’s yellow umbrella as he ceremoniously shielded her from the rain with his impressive 6’5” stature. As Vulture’s Alison Wilmore explained in her review of the movie, Wuthering Heights is a very “moist” movie, so it’s only fitting that the London premiere featured pouring rain. 

Most Uncanny Valley: Dunkin’s Ad with De-Aged ‘90s Sitcom Stars

^{Dunkin’ via YouTube}

I love 90s sitcoms, so I was so excited to hear that Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, and Jason Alexander from Friends and Seinfeld were going to be in an ad for the Super Bowl together. I was so ready–but once I saw the commercial in which they played de-aged versions of themselves along with other 90s sitcom stars including Alfonso Ribeiro and Jasmine Guy, I longed for the days before CGI, AI, or whatever special effects they used to make them look like smooth-faced, heavily filtered ghosts of themselves. Basically, I wanted to be back in the 90s and not this alt-reality of what the ad execs thought the 90s were. At least we got a good joke about Ben Affleck exclusively dating people named Jennifer. 

Best Casting News: Jake Johnson as a PI in Comedy from the Co-Creators of Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Andy Samberg’s Detective Jake Peralta from Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Jake Johnson’s Nick Miller from New Girl were two of my favorite celebrity crushes characters from 2010s sitcoms. When I saw the news that Jake Johnson was teaming up with Brooklyn Nine-Nine writers Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici for a comedy where he plays an LAPD cop-turned-private- investigator, I was over the moon. Is Nick’s Pepperwood book series finally coming to life? Will Andy Samberg join him on the screen once again? All I know is I will be watching and am manifesting the TV Powers That Be to order the show straight-to-series.