TV

Michelle Buteau: Welcome to Buteaupia

Netflix

If you need to be cheered up, watch this comedy special immediately. Buteau is hilarious and has a way about her that is sassy, irreverent and endearing.

— Kristina Dorsey

2020 World Series

Fox

I've loved baseball my whole life. Like many, though, I couldn't get into it this year (and the Red Sox didn't help). But I couldn't resist the temptation to at least try to watch the fall classic between the Rays and the Dodgers, and I was rewarded with a wonderful and competitive series that made me forget the news for a while.

— Rick Koster

I Love Everything

Patton Oswalt

Netflix

If ever a year begged for Oswalt's wit and wisdom, it was 2020. In this relentlessly funny concert film, Oswalt, who found a new partner after the death of his first wife in 2016, riffs on grief, a second chance at romance, and a smart, inquisitive daughter at "just that age" when everything's a magical learning experience. Sound warm and comforting? It is — but don't let that lull you. Oswald still refuses to suffer the world's fools — or his own perceived weaknesses.

— Rick Koster

Schitt’s Creek

Comedy Central, Netflix

Finally! The world caught up with the low-key genius of this warmly comic sitcom. It won every Emmy this year (or at least it seemed it). It ended its six-season run on a high note.

— Kristina Dorsey

— Kristina Dorsey

Harlan Coben's The Stranger

Netflix

This eight-part series, based on thriller-meister Coben's 2015 novel, is for some reason set in a leafy British suburb rather than the author's typical Jersey. But the setting only enhances a story where even the twists have twists. There's a new subplot that could have been 86ed, but it was still an enthralling ride.

— Rick Koster

Hamilton

Disney+

It’s the next best thing to being there. Few of us could nab tickets to “Hamilton” when it featured its original cast, but this recording brought the show into our homes.

— Kristina Dorsey 

Chris Cuomo/Don Lemon Crossover

CNN

OK, admittedly, this has a political flavor. But the genuine affection, wit and intellectual back-and-forth between these two friends, who host back-to-back primetime shows, during a tense year of politics and plague, was informative, provocative, and provided some genuine humanity in a profession not noted for such things.

— Rick Koster

MOVIES

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

All hail Viola Davis! She is properly intimidating as Ma Rainey, the 1920s singing star who takes no guff from anyone, particularly the white men who want to make money off recording her music. Davis captures Ma’s unapologetic swagger and sensuality. This film marks Chadwick Boseman’s final performance, and he is brash and then heartbreaking as the trumpet player in Ma’s band who is driven to achieve more. As fans of playwright August Wilson know, “Ma Rainey” was first a play he worked on at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, and it’s a tremendous work.

— Kristina Dorsey 

Uncut Gems

This edgy, high-energy movie had plenty of assets (including a career-best dramatic performance by Adam Sandler), but the real reason I remember it fondly is because of the climactic scenes shot at Mohegan Sun.

— Kristina Dorsey 

Always Be My Maybe

This charming (but not saccharine) rom-com should have been a sleeper hit. It didn’t get a wide release in 2019, but be thankful you can see it now on Netflix. Ali Wong and Randall Park co-wrote the script and co-star as childhood pals who stop speaking after their teenage romantic encounter goes awry. They run into each other again years later, when she’s a celeb chef and he’s working for his family’s heating/venting company. In a start-and-stop way, they work their way back to each other.

— Kristina Dorsey 

The Lovebirds

Netflix

Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae star as a couple whose romantic relationship is distintigrating — or it would if they were suddenly thrust into a surreal murder mystery. With traces of Hitchcock, Spike Lee, and the Hallmark Channel, "The Lovebirds" is creative, fresh and funny.

— Rick Koster

Banff Film Fest at Garde Arts Center, March 7

None of us realized that seeing this festival would be the last time we would be crowded into a sold-out theater for, well, who knows how long. The films themselves were a riveting collection of releases about the great outdoors and adventurous souls.

Palm Springs

Hulu

In yet another reimagining of "Groundhog Day," Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti and J.K. Simmons play characters who have to relive their roles as wedding guests at a resort in the titular desert vista. If Hunter Thompson had come up with the whole movie-as-deja vu concept, it might have turned out like this. A cackle fest.

— Rick Koster

— Kristina Dorsey

The Misquamicut Drive-In Theater, Westerly

Drive-ins became all the rage in 2020 because they offered a public place to see movies during the pandemic. The Misquamicut Business Association, though, has been offering this drive-in for years. This summer's series of movies and concerts proved to be a much-needed and much-appreciated entertainment option for COVID-weary folks.

— Kristina Dorsey