If any winter deserves a participation medal, it’s this one.
Still wearing your Sunday house pants on a Thursday?
Whipsawed by doomscrolling and existential despair?
Credit: Illustration by EW
For a sweeter 2021, come enjoy our catalog of tiny pleasures.
We don’t need to rehash all that.
Were they idealized, flag- waving propaganda?
Claudette Barius/Sony
it rekindles a warm and all-too-often rare feeling about humanity: hope.
James Hibberd
2.
3.Survivor(CBS All Access)
What’s better than watching every season ofSurvivorthe first time?
Guy D’Alema/SONY
Watching them all again.
Sydney Bucksbaum
4.
Onscreen Therapy
Nothing’s more therapeutic than watching good therapy scenes people seeking help and crying it out.
Robert Voets/CBS
It’s a long, tough road.
welcomes viewers into her North Dakota home with easy-to-make comfort food.
Added points of joy for her sprinkles-covered desserts.
The CW
Your to-do list for the winter: Watch and rewatchTed Lasso.
Laugh at the jokes you loved and discover new ones.
Mucho, mucho joy.
Chantell Lauren/Food Network
What’s more comforting than that?
Samantha Highfill
The Golden Girls
Who spin up the world?Golden girls.
Gerrad Hall
10.
Apple TV +
So fix your wig and get your life together, boo.
Clarissa Cruz
11.
With clever, good-looking protagonists hunting bad guys in picturesque locations (Santa Barbara!
World of Wonder
No matter the foes, you know everything is going to be all right.
Chancellor Agard
12.
Float with Harry in a field of heather!
Alexis Bledel as Rory Gilmore (L) and Lauren Graham in the ‘Gilmore Girls.'.Mitchell Haddad/CBS Photo Archive via Getty Images
Drift away with him on a dewdrop!
Murder your snooze button forever.
Leah Greenblatt
13.
‘The Golden Girls’.Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank
It delivers exactly what it promises: an infinite loop of soothing, grooving instrumental tracks.
Alex Suskind
15.
These Joyful Onscreen Dance Scenes
In these cooped-up times, all of us could use a little movement therapy.
Peloton
The next best thing?
It’s that simple.
Mary Sollosi
19.SNL’s “What’s That Name?”
Alan Zenuk/USA Network
featuringBill Haderas host Vince Blight, with John Mulaney and Cecily Strong as contestants.
The conceit is simple.
“We show you a person,” says Vince, “and you tell us their name.”
Michael Kovac/Getty Images; Phillip Faraone/WireImage; Dave Benett/WireImage
His self-absorption and oblivious misogyny give the setup an extra bite.
“What kind of horrible game show is this?”
Replies Vince: “It’s ‘What’s That Name?'”
Jay Maidment/Warner Bros.
skits from writers Mulaney, Marika Sawyer, and Simon Rich:
“I credit them a lot.
They make game shows out of human faux pas moments.
When there was a game-show host, it was usually a straight guy.
Everett Collection
He was there to facilitate the contestants and their jokes.
With this, they made Vince as much a character as anybody else.
I remember them telling me, ‘Vince probably funds all these things.
Adam Rose/Netflix
He doesn’t make any money off this.
He just wants to abuse these people.’
I always imagined that you would pull back and this whole thing was on his own private island.
Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal
Like, it wasn’t being broadcast.
He was just taping these for himself.”
Lynette Rice
20.
Illustration by EW
Books to Curl Up With
No cabin fever here!Find your innerhyggeinside these perfectly cozy novels.
Island Real Estate Porn
I haven’t been anywhere in a year.
Except to Fiji, Kauai, Belize, and beyond.
HGTV
Tropical real estate shows such asIsland HuntersandHawaii Lifehave kept my disposition sunny in dark times of quarantine.
Do I have $3.4 million to buy an island off Vanuatu?
I most certainly do not!
Everett Collection
But this guy doesn’t settle for balconies with anything less than 240-degree ocean views.
In a time that’s surreal, I cling to the unreal.
Bonus: Early-aughts rom-com queen Gabrielle Union has a satisfying supporting turn as Fox’s rival.
Parrish Lewis/Adult Swim
You don’t even need to know what Bardot is singing about (I don’t.
Sorry, grade-school French lessons!)
Alex Suskind
Head here for a longer list of songs that make us happy.
Everett Collection
Maureen Lee Lenker
27.
Sarah Sprague
28.
“Read her full take here.
Twitch
Lily Collins on ‘Emily in Paris’.STEPHANIE BRANCHU/NETFLIX
