Happy holidays from The A.V. Club

Welp, it sure looked like we were finally going to have a nice holiday season again this year, until the Omicron variant raised its ugly head and ruined just about everything. Nevertheless, we at The A.V. Club are still taking advantage of the holiday break to take a few days off. Not to worry, we’ll have some new stuff running next week (like the best songs of 2021, a proper farewell to Insecure, and some peeks ahead into January). But in the meantime we’ll be on our annual long winter’s nap, as it were, eating up all the extra leftovers due to a flurry of last-minute cancellations from our Christmas dinner guests.

If you are stuck at home as well, may we suggest that this is an excellent time to catch up on all of our end-of-year content. Like best 2021 movies, TV, albums, film scenes, movie and TV performances, trailers, TV episodes, and underheard artists. Check out our film and TV reviews to see which streaming stuff is worth checking out, this roundup of the best hidden gems of TV, or these Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon lists to see the best films readily available this month. You can also take a look at our biggest news stories and newsmakers of the year to remember some non-disease-related 2021 headlines. And if you’re a gamer, take a look at this listing of this year’s big, dumb shooter games. Or just ponder what the heck is up with the popularity of Yellowstone?

Still feeling a bit seasonal, despite the bleakness of your Twitter feed? Well, bless your heart. We’ve got some holiday jams from this very year, some vintage Christmas specials to view online, and a list of the most interesting Hallmark/Lifetime/Netflix-type romantic holiday films (you know the kind). Or if you want to dive into a certain Xmas movie, check out these essays on newer holiday classics like The Family Stone and Carol.

We’re hoping that your holiday is going a little better than ours is (seriously, just who is going to eat this 10-pound roast) and that if it isn’t, browsing The A.V Club can offer opportunities for some welcome distraction. As always, we are grateful for your visits to the site, your insightful comments, and the fact that you’re as obsessed with the myriad twist and turns of the pop culture discourse as we are. Take care and we’ll see you next week!