So this is soppy, but something that brings me great joy year after year is sharing favourite pop culture, new and old, with my kids. I now have a 9-year-old and a nearly 14-year-old, and sharing stories or music or TV shows is one of the things that keeps us talking, spending time together, giving us something in common. It makes me happy.
You can’t put a price on actually understanding what it is your teenager is flailing about, whether it be something you both hate-watched for pure rage (Paramount Heathers, I’m looking at you) or a beloved classic of modern television that has sparked some seriously intense conversations about relationships, mental illness and musical tastes (Crazy-Ex Girlfriend, we will miss you when you’re gone). While I’ve never quite managed to read enough of the web comic Gunnerkrigg Court to understand my teen’s ongoing love for the series, at least we have a mutual appreciation for Check! Please.
I have theatre kids, both performers and enthusiastic consumers, and going to live theatre is something we all enjoy as a family. Hobart has a rich and thriving theatre scene, which has allowed us to see some really great shows over the last few years — this year we got a local production of Avenue Q which did not disappoint, and a fabulous We Will Rock You. While we were in Melbourne for a convention in June, we also saw a spectacular version of Bring it On including full on cheerleading choreography!
One of my borrowed sons appeared in a local production of They Found a Cave — a classic Nan Chauncy children’s novel that has, bizarrely, never been adapted to the stage before. The production was beautifully staged, considering the resources of the small town that hosted it, including an incredible set and some fun film inserts, not to mention a very talented young cast.
I also spent a couple of months driving back and forth to rehearsals for an Alice in Wonderland featuring a cast of over 40 kids — my 9-year-old’s first ever stage credit!
Cartoons are a big part of our family’s life, and there are so many great ones right now, with wide family appeal. Steven Universe and the new Voltron have been key obsessions for our family this year, but the new She-Ra was a beautiful revelation: so heroic, so feminist, so many hints at an LGBTQ-friendly narrative.
My 9-year-old is completely smitten with We Bare Bears since it appeared on one of the Aussie streaming networks a few months ago. This adorable cartoon sucks you in with the antics of three bear brothers, but it’s so much more than that — a layered narrative of found family, love, friendship, cultural trends and social media. We had a mutual meltdown only this morning upon realising that a guest character was played by Leslie Odom Jr., Hamilton having been one of my family’s pop culture obsessions in previous years…
We’re also big fans of squishy happy creative reality shows around here. Netflix brought us Nailed It! this year, a joyful love letter to inexpert cake baking for sheer love of trying something outrageously ambitious.
At the other end of the spectrum, The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell is a love letter to ridiculously ambitious competence to the point of… well. Watching a glamorous goth queen in a vintage gown slowly hand-carve a chocolate-dipped pretzel bone for the benefit of her adorably monstrous puppet friends has to be seen to be believed.
Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman’s glorious Making It is a crafting competition show in the same genre of happy, supportive shows about people who like to create cool stuff.
All this, and we’re still smiling about the latest season of Doctor Who featuring the charming, goofy and hilarious Jodie Whittaker. So much to share and enjoy.
Tansy Rayner Roberts is a SFF writer who lives in Tasmania. Her recent publications include Cabaret of Monsters, a art deco fantasy novella, and Merry Happy Valkyrie, a Christmas-themed cozy fantasy novella inspired by Norse myth and Hallmark romances.
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