Best of 2021

The BIG List of 2020’s Best Pop Culture

In addition to our picks, we asked readers, listeners, and TC contributors to name their favorite pop culture of the year. This is everything we got.

MOVIES

All Light, Everywhere

Benedetta

Bo Burnham: Inside

C'mon C'mon

Dune

Encanto

Free Guy

The Green Knight

In the Heights

Judas and the Black Messiah

Lamb

The Last Duel

Licorice Pizza

Passing

Pig

The Power of the Dog

Procession

Riders of Justice

Ron’s Gone Wrong

Saint Maud

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Summer of Soul

The Tragedy of Macbeth

West Side Story

TELEVISION

Arcane

Beforeigners

Can't Get You Out of My Head

Cobra Kai

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

The Great

Hacks

Invincible

I Think You Should Leave

Maid

Midnight Mass

Resident Alien

Rutherford Falls

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Star Trek: Prodigy

Ted Lasso

The Underground Railroad

The Voice

Wandavision

What We Do in the Shadows

The White Lotus

MUSIC

John J. Thompson's Best of 2021 Spotify playlist.

A Billion Little Lights, Wild Pink

Dark in Here, The Mountain Goats

Donda, Kanye West

Dawn, Yebba

Head of Roses, Flock of Dime

Heaux Tales, Jazmine Sullivan

Hold Still, Taylor Leonhardt

Home Video, Lucy Dacus

I Don’t Live Here Anymore, The War on Drugs

If Orange Was A Place, Tems

In Plain Sight, Neal Francis

Jubilee, Japanese Breakfast

King’s Disease II, Nas

Laysongs, Chris Thile

Little Oblivions, Julien Baker

“Oh No!!!,” grandson

Red (Taylor’s Version), Taylor Swift

Screen Violence, Chvrches

Sling, Clairo

Sour, Olivia Rodrigo

Star-Crossed, Kacey Musgraves

Still Over It, Summer Walker