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<\/div>\n<\/a>Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff and Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw in <\/span>Wuthering Heights,\u201d one of the most anticipated movies of 2026. (Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)<\/span><\/div>\n As <\/span>The Contrarian celebrates its first anniversary, we\u2019re looking at the year ahead. Here are the cultural stories I\u2019ll be following in 2026. Join me! <\/span><\/p>\n Undoubtedly one of the biggest cultural stories of the last year is the ongoing crisis in entertainment and media, a sector that lost more than 17,000 jobs in 2025. The massive bloodletting came amid a seemingly endless wave of consolidations: David Ellison\u2019s Skydance gobbled up Paramount; Netflix closed a deal to acquire Warner Bros., a move that could further imperil the theatrical movie business, but is at least preferable to the alternative: an acquisition by Paramount. Meanwhile, as evidenced by Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s near-cancellation, the Trump loyalists at the FCC are more than happy to use their regulatory power to punish companies they don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n All of this has created a pervasive sense of fear and timidity across Hollywood, as evidenced by <\/span>the jarring lack of politics<\/a> on stage at awards shows, like the Golden Globes, that were once reliable platforms for anti-Trump sentiment. This intense risk-aversion also affects the people who get hired to work on movies and TV shows, and the kind of stories that get told.<\/span><\/p>\n Over the last year, entertainment companies <\/span>fearful of Trump\u2019s wrath<\/a> have <\/span>slashed diversity initiatives<\/a>, a move that threatens representation in an industry that was already lagging far behind the country as a whole. Trump-friendly corporations like Paramount are leaning into <\/span>\u201ctestosterone-laden\u201d<\/a> projects, like signing a deal for <\/span>UFC<\/a> and a <\/span>big-budget motocross movie<\/a> starring Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/a>Leonardo DiCaprio in <\/span>One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)<\/span><\/div>\n Despite this uncertainty, the last 12 months have also brought daring films, shows, books, and plays that attempt to grapple with the precarious moment in which we are living, often in surprising ways.<\/p>\n There are obvious examples, like Oscar frontrunner <\/span>One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s trenchant, wildly entertaining thriller about racism and political radicalism, which opens with a raid on an immigration detention center.<\/span><\/p>\n Or Ken Burns\u2019 <\/span>The American Revolution<\/a>, <\/span>which examines the country\u2019s bloody origins in ways that shed light on present-day political unrest, while other documentaries, like <\/span>The Perfect Neighbor<\/a> <\/span>and <\/span>Thoughts & Prayers<\/a>, <\/span>offer powerful new perspectives on American violence.<\/span><\/p>\n Even projects that weren\u2019t explicitly Trying to Say Something still did just that.<\/p>\n On TV, <\/span>The Pitt, a seemingly old-fashioned medical drama, delivers a timely depiction of mass shootings, vaccine-hesitant parents, and the ambient rage too often directed at healthcare workers still traumatized by COVID. And amid a number of aviation disasters and near-misses, Nathan Fielder\u2019s wacked-out comedy <\/span>The Rehearsal<\/a> proposes a radical solution for airline safety. <\/span><\/p>\n If I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You, the pitch-black comedy starring Rose Byrne as an overwhelmed mom, captures the anger and despair of millions of women just trying not to lose their shit on a daily basis. On Broadway, a new interpretation of <\/span>The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/a> turns Oscar Wilde\u2019s 1890 novel into a 21st-century horror story about our digital lives. <\/span><\/p>\n All of which is to say that in 2025, storytellers found compelling ways to confront the here-and-now. Looking ahead at 2026, it\u2019s hard to know which projects will capture the uneasy zeitgeist. But there are some obvious trends worth unpacking: look for numerous updates on literary classics, including film and TV adaptations of <\/span>Pride and Prejudice<\/a>, <\/span>Sense and Sensibility,<\/a> <\/span>Wuthering Heights<\/a>, <\/span>Little House on the Prairie<\/a>, <\/span>East of Eden<\/a>, <\/span>and <\/span>The Age of Innocence<\/a>. <\/span>Is this embrace of canonical stories evidence of a culturally conservative bent in Hollywood? Or will these storytellers find new meaning in these familiar tales? Who knows. If nothing else, 2026 will be a year to remember for English majors.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a>Stephen Colbert (Scott Kowalchyk\/CBS) <\/div>\n Since Donald Trump returned to office exactly 358 days ago \u2014 but who\u2019s counting? \u2014 he has waged a war of vengeance on the media and cultural institutions that either politely ignored or fully rejected him the first time around.<\/p>\n Trump had barely been sworn in when he staged a cultural coup at the Kennedy Center, replacing the board with loyalists like Susie Wiles. In December, he (illegally) slapped his name on the facade. He pressured CBS into settling a frivolous $16 million lawsuit and maybe cancelling Stephen Colbert, and tried \u2014 unsuccessfully \u2014 to get Jimmy Kimmel yanked from the airwaves too. He vowed to strip Rosie O\u2019Donnell of her citizenship, picked a fight with <\/span>Sabrina Carpenter,<\/a> and <\/span>bullied Paramount<\/a> into greenlighting <\/span>Rush Hour 4.<\/p>\n Sadly, in many cases Trump\u2019s attacks worked. As I <\/span>wrote about last month<\/a>, 2025 was in many ways a year of capitulation, when tech and <\/span>media moguls<\/a> openly cozied up to the wannabe authoritarian in the White House, <\/span>countless celebrities<\/a> <\/span>let us down<\/a> by cashing in, and powerful <\/span>cultural<\/a> and educational institutions buckled under pressure from the administration.<\/span><\/p>\n But there were also artists and cultural figures who showed some spine last year, from Bad Bunny and the creators of <\/span>South Park to Billie Eilish and all the performers who canceled on the Kennedy Center. With Trump looking weaker and more desperate by the day, we should expect to see more people speaking up. Who will emerge as leading Resistance Celebs in 2026? Perhaps <\/span>Ken Jennings<\/a>? <\/span>Dave Matthews<\/a>? <\/span>Julia Louis-Dreyfus<\/a>? Hopefully all of them \u2014 and more.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a>Heated Rivalry, a.k.a. the best thing that happened in 2025 (Sabrina Lantos\/(HBO Max) <\/span><\/div>\n I realize this question makes me sound like an aspiring self-help guru with a book to sell. But as much as I believe that it\u2019s essential for art to confront the ills that plague society, I also believe that we all need distractions to stay sane \u2014 and to build community.<\/p>\n Over the last year, I found escape through the campy absurdity of <\/span>Oh, Mary!, the uncanny spectacle of <\/span>ABBA Voyage, the inspired <\/span>Below Deck–<\/span>Real Housewives of Salt Lake City crossover, and, most of all, the unexpected sweetness of <\/span>Heated Rivalry.<\/p>\n Made for a small Canadian streaming service called Crave, the drama about two professional hockey players whose illicit hookups blossom into a romance was picked up by HBO Max in November and proceeded to become a word-of-mouth cultural phenomenon, with <\/span>viewership growing ten-fold in a month<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Leads Connor Storie and Hudson Williams, who were completely unknown a few months ago, are <\/span>now getting mobbed by fans<\/a> (including <\/span>celebrities<\/a>) wherever they go.<\/span><\/p>\n There are reasons for the show\u2019s success, starting with the obvious: sex, of which there is plenty in <\/span>Heated Rivalry. But my pet theory is that people are so desperate for a little light right now, and this show (while undeniably steamy) is also a tender, hopeful story about two professionally tough young men figuring out how to be vulnerable with each other. It\u2019s essentially a Jane Austen-esque romance about opposites who misjudge each other: Ilya Rozanov (Storie) is a cocky Russian, while Shane Hollander (Williams) is a quiet, disciplined Canadian.<\/span><\/p>\n While the plot basically hinges on the existence of homophobia \u2014 it\u2019s obvious that Ilya and Shane can\u2019t be open about their sexuality because it would mean their professional ruin \u2014 <\/span>Heated Rivalry is by no means a dour, gloomy \u201cissues\u201d show. It\u2019s a well-made, beautifully acted series that brought a lot of people, myself included, a tremendous amount of joy. If politics do indeed run downstream of culture, the show\u2019s astonishing mainstream success is an encouraging sign of what\u2019s to come in 2026 \u2014 and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n Looking at the year ahead in pop culture, there are plenty of things I am excited and\/or morbidly curious about, starting with Emerald Fennell\u2019s upcoming adaptation of <\/span>Wuthering Heights<\/a>, which will either be brilliant or a total trainwreck, and John Wilson\u2019s bonkers documentary <\/span>The History of Concrete<\/a>. But part of what made <\/span>Heated Rivalry so enjoyable was the way it came out of nowhere. So I expect that the thing that keeps me going in 2026 will be something that\u2019s not yet on my radar.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the starkest cultural trends of the last year was the growing connection between reality TV and MAGA politics.<\/p>\n It all starts with Trump himself, who tricked millions into believing he was a brilliant businessman \u2014 despite multiple bankruptcies \u2014 through <\/span>The Apprentice. But there are numerous other reality TV personalities across his cabinet and throughout the conservative media and political universe.<\/span><\/p>\n Transportation secretary Sean Duffy first gained prominence by annoying his roommates on <\/span>The Real World Boston nearly 30 years ago. <\/span>Siggy Flicker<\/a>, known for her brief but ignominious stint on <\/span>The Real Housewives of New Jersey, was appointed to the board of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Mark Burnett, the mega-producer who cast Trump on <\/span>The Apprentice, is now a \u201c<\/span>special envoy<\/a>\u201d to the United Kingdom. Before he was spouting BS on his disturbingly popular podcast, Joe Rogan was <\/span>unveiling platters of buffalo testicles<\/a> as the host of the disturbingly popular <\/span>Fear Factor. And Mehmet Oz, the surgeon who shilled dubious remedies on his daytime talk show, is now running the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2026, we are likely to see this unfortunate trend grow.<\/p>\n Savannah Chrisley, the reality TV star who managed to get her parents a pardon from Trump by <\/span>painting them as victims of a politically motivated prosecution<\/a>, and who seemingly never appears in public without head-to-toe <\/span>MAGA paraphernalia<\/a>, has repeatedly <\/span>teased<\/a> a run for office. Spencer Pratt, the <\/span>sneering antagonist<\/a> of the seminal MTV reality series <\/span>The Hills, announced last week that he is <\/span>running for mayor of Los Angeles<\/a>. Though Pratt insists he is neither a Democrat nor a Republican, his campaign has already been embraced by MAGA figures like Richard Grenell. He may seem like a long shot, especially in a city like Los Angeles, but a decade ago, so did Donald Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n If you have a child under sixteen in your life, you know what I\u2019m talking about. And you, like me, are terrified of the possibilities that lie in wait, particularly if it\u2019s another round of <\/span>Italian brainrot<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n Stay strong out there, people.<\/p>\n Meredith Blake is the culture columnist for The Contrarian<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n