And so, it’s come to this—the end of another long and winding year. It’s had ups and downs, things we loved and things we didn’t, and, frankly, Too Much Content. Speaking of which, should you find yourself wanting to look back at io9's 2021, here’s a nice big list of all our year in review pieces from throughout the month. Enjoy—and here’s to another year of great stories in 2022!
Much like in 2020, we all spent a lot of 2021 taking the time to catch up on old favorites or check out classics we’d missed. Here’s the io9 team’s picks for the things they’ve loved revisiting most this year.
The whole of 2021's been hard on all of us, which means it’s been a fun time adopting as many comfort characters as possible to keep us delighted this year. Here’s the io9 staff’s favorite characters of 2021.
The continuing global pandemic still had a toll to take on the 2021 movie landscape, meaning that not as many big movie hits as we might have expected—or rather, hoped—actually made it to the big screen. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t get lots of trailers for films that either did eventually make it out in some form or another this year, or got delayed—and they still got us very excited. Check out our favourites here.
Not everything about looking back on the year behind us is always about the things that were new. In the past few years in particular, we’ve been able to take the time to step away from the contemporary pop culture cycle and check back in on the things we missed out on, or wanted to catch up with. Here’s what was on our 2021 to-do list.
While 2021 was a year we spent revisiting some old favorites (and old new favorites), it was also a year of exciting discoveries, bringing new movies, TV series, and unforgettable characters into our lives. Here are seven projects and people that brightened up our nerdy lives in 2021.
There’s been a lot of great geeky content to love this year. We discovered some amazing new sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, and we rewatched a few old favorites. But the world of genre entertainment let us down quite a bit, too. Here are the pop cultural lowlights of 2021, from across comics, movies, and TV.
Every look back at the year behind us is filled with sad moments as much as it is joyful ones, and 2021 was no exception. The real world was up-and-down enough, and yet we also had to say some fictional farewells too—whether it was favourite shows coming to their end (naturally or before their time), or losing some of our favorite characters. Here’s the losses that stung most this year. Spoilers beware!
We’ve spent a lot of 2021 spending; our wallets cried out in agony with every cool new announcement of a shiny action figures or a silly collectible. But there was also plenty of absolutely bananas bits of merchandising that were totally out there... and not always for the best reasons. Here’s our look back at some of the weirdest collectible moments from the year.
The year 2021 has had a lot of ups and downs, but if it was anyone’s year, it was animation’s. On screens big and small, some of the best things we’ve seen this year have been animated—but TV in particular has been home to some of the best. Here’s our picks for the very best of the year.
The last couple of years have only re-centered just how massive the TV space is now, and there’s more shows than ever before fighting for our attention. Which means that 2021 was a jam-packed year of good TV... and some not-so-good. Here’s io9's look back at the ups and downs of 2021 on the small screen.
It’s been a year of highs and lows, but some—whether they were the fictional stars of our favorite stories this year, or the real-world figures behind them—made the most out of the wild times in which we live to make 2021 a highlight. Here’s a few of io9's select 2021 heroes, fictional or otherwise, who can count the past year as personal bests.
It’s time: with days left to go, we’re pretty much done with big movie releases in 2021. So at last, we can look back and decide what were the real highs (and real lows) of a very peculiar year for movies, as the world ummed-and-ahhed its way back to theaters as the covid-19 pandemic rolled on. Here’s io9's favorite—and least favorite—films of the year.
The year 2021, like 2020 before it, has been rough for us all. In many ways, it’s been defined by a continued sense of loss. As the year comes to a close, we’re looking back on a few of the notable actors, directors, artists, writers, and sci-fi icons we lost this year, in tribute to their influence on some of our most beloved stories.
Wondering where our RSS feed went? You can pick the new up one here.