Things that came out this year: 2022 pop culture

“Minions: Rise of Gru” came out in July and I saw it on the opening night in theaters with my friends. We dressed up in minion attire and enjoyed the movie, so much so that the entire audience clapped at the end.
The movie was about Gru, the main character of the “Despicable Me” movies, as a child trying to join and work with the villains he looked up to. He gets captured because he steals something, and the three minions, Kevin, Stuart, and Bob save him.
I thoroughly enjoy kids movies, probably more than “adult” movies, and it was a lot of fun dressing up and going with my friends. My experience was an overall 10 out of 10 and therefore made the movie better than it probably technically was.
“Where The Crawdads Sing” was definitely a movie I wasn’t expecting to watch. I only went to see it because my grandma read the book and wanted to. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but whatever it was, I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. The movie is about a woman, a “Marsh Girl,” who you watch grow up in the swamp in a troubled family and the effects of that. I wish I could say more, but that’s honestly all the movie was besides a side murder mystery. All in all, it was boring and it felt like it stretched on and on.
The first show I’d like to talk about is the new season of the Netflix original “Inside Job.” Keep in mind, it’s not very appropriate (rated TV-MA) but it’s one of the funniest shows as of right now. The comedy matches up wonderfully with our generation’s, and the characters are silly yet relatable. The show is about Reagan Ridley, mad scientist and soon-to-be head of Cognito Inc. Cognito Inc. is basically a deep state for the government and puts a very satirical view on conspiracy theories and how these shadow people are “controlling the government.” The entire show is rather clever and I watched the second season almost as soon as it came out.
The only other show I’ve seen that came out this year was “Heartstopper” and I didn’t even watch all of it. The show and webcomic is about two boys, Charlie and Nick, meeting. Charlie has a crush on Nick, and Nick slowly figures out his sexuality. I read it online first as a webcomic, and I really liked it. I thought I would enjoy the show too then. Although I don’t usually like books turned into shows/movies when I’ve read the “book” first, I liked the show more than I usually would. Not enough to finish it though. I would say the webcomic is better, but I only believe so because that’s what I read first!
Both of my favorite music-related things that came out this year were singles dropped by my two favorite bands. Waterparks released their first single since their 2021 album “The Greatest Hits.” I use the word “single” loosely as it will eventually be part of their new album coming out spring of 2023. The song is called “FUNERAL GREY” and it was my most listened to song of 2022. It’s an extremely happy, upbeat song that I love singing to in my car. Waterparks released two more “singles” after this too that will also be a part of the new album, but they’re both second best to “FUNERAL GREY.”
Finally, after 8 long years, My Chemical Romance released new music. It was just a single and definitely strayed from their past music genre, but it’s genuinely such a work of art. It’s called “The Foundations of Decay” and the album cover is a swarm of flies crawling all over each other. The vibes of this song are completely unmatched compared to any song I’ve ever listened to. It makes my skin crawl in such a good way.