Pop-culture blind spots: Everything we're finally catching up on during coronavirus quarantine

It's a tough time to be a pop-culture junkie.

Coronavirus has stopped production on television shows, pushed back video game development, shaken up book publishing, and delayed movie and album releases by months.

In short, we're running out of new stuff to binge, and it's making us more than a little bit cranky.

Still, there's a silver lining: All the time we're not spending on new media is time we can devote to catching up on things we missed. Even when pop culture is your full-time job, major touchstones still slip through the cracks.

Here are the cultural blind spots that USA TODAY's entertainment experts are filling in while everything else is canceled.

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'The Sopranos'

I know most of the characters’ names (Tony, Dr. Melfi, even, improbably, someone called Paulie Walnuts), who dies and what song plays at the end of the finale. I know these things not because I’ve seen “The Sopranos,” but because everyone else has. TV is such a time commitment, I prefer to let other people vet shows for me before I jump on a bandwagon. Problem is, sometimes I lose sight of the bandwagon. I’ve already burned through my smaller blind spots (I watched “Fleabag,” caught up on “Better Call Saul” and finally subjected myself to “Cats”), so I’m going to put my neglected HBO subscription to work and mainline all six seasons of “The Sopranos.” Finally, I'll get what all the hubbub is about … 13 years after the fact. Better late than never. – Barbara VanDenburgh

All the James Bond movies

I’ve seen the Daniel Craig films and bits and pieces of the old Bond movies, but I’ve never seen all 24 films (minus the delayed “No Time to Die”) in entirety and in order. My husband is a big fan, and so we began with Sean Connery’s “Dr. No” and are now in the middle of the gloriously campy Roger Moore era. The movies are fun, but mostly I resent my parents for letting me see “Austin Powers” before I saw a single Bond film. It makes too much of the old-style moviemaking seem a little hacky. – Kelly Lawler

'The Office' (the U.S. version)

I was a fan of the British version (all 14 episodes) but never fully invested in NBC’s remake with Steve Carell. We’ve been binge-watching the entire series on Netflix, a rarity in my family, but super-easy when episodes are 21 minutes long. Somehow, the dunderheads of Dunder Mifflin are a welcome respite from the dire coronavirus coverage. – Gary Levin

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The 'Mighty Ducks' trilogy

A romantic gesture, I know: I promised my hockey-loving boyfriend that I’d watch his favorite films from childhood. And so, over three nights, I learned lessons about having heart, forgiving your coach/player for being awful and how to best style Emilio Estevez’s hair. The movie nights were enjoyable, but also left me with so many questions about nonsensical coaching tactics, the sponsorship of the Mighty Ducks jerseys and the well-being of disappearing mentors and love interests. Maybe the forthcoming Disney+ series will clear things up? Doubtful, but I’ll keep yelling “Ducks fly together!“ regardless. – Carly Mallenbaum

Music that's actually on the charts right now

To lessen the ever-widening age gap between me and the rest of the world, and to increase my music knowledge during lockdown, I’m listening to only current tunes. I’m late to the Lizzo, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa and Cage the Elephant game, but I’m a sucker for them now (look, I’m making Jonas Brothers references). It did get a little painful when I was like, "I really like this 'You Need to Calm Down' song," and realized that it was Taylor Swift. Maybe I should just calm down and accept the Taylor love. – Bryan Alexander

'Mad Men'

How is it even possible that a mid-mod maven such as myself has resisted “Mad Men” until now? I fretted that I’d be too distracted by Megan Draper’s chic baby doll dresses and the ubiquitous bar carts in every Sterling Cooper office to even begin to pay attention to the plot, not to mention that seven-season viewing commitment. But I needn’t have worried: TV’s take on the Madison Avenue advertising world is just as intoxicating now as it was when Don Draper and company finished their run five years ago. Aside from the obvious eye candy, the show’s abruptly changing 1960s culture and depiction of a business constantly on the brink of collapse feel oddly timely amid the coronavirus crisis, and there couldn’t be a more delightful surprise than the distraction of bad seed Sally Draper. Catch it while you can on Netflix; it’s leaving June 9. – Kim Willis

'Star Wars: The Clone Wars'

With the recent ending of the Skywalker Saga, and my quarantine being filled with putting together a bunch of “Star Wars” Lego sets, I figured I’d be a completist and finish up the final season of the animated series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” on Disney+. I was reticent about this because I’m so very tired of “Star Wars” stories going back to the prequel era (which I’ve never loved), but I’m glad I did. In satisfying fashion, it continued the story of Ahsoka Tano, the one awesome persona anybody who enjoys “Star Wars” should know outside the movies. She is, as they say, truly strong in the Force: Anakin Skywalker’s former apprentice who left the Jedi Order, Ahsoka was seemingly the one character (other than Luke Skywalker in the last sequel trilogy) that saw the lightsaber-wielding good guys for the flawed power players they were. This’ll tide me over until she shows up on the coming season of “The Mandalorian” and teams up with Baby Yoda. – Brian Truitt

'The Crown'

I saw the first season of Netflix's “The Crown” under less-than-ideal conditions and never got around to watching Season 2. Now I have a DVD of Season 3 sitting on my table and I still haven’t watched that. I intend to find some time to finally catch up with the series, which is ending after Season 5 (originally, six seasons were planned for this hugely expensive project). If nothing else, I want to see what creator Peter Morgan’s imagination has conjured up about what goes on inside all those royal heads. It might be semi-bollocks, but it would probably be fun. – Maria Puente

'Moonstruck'

We never could’ve guessed that our quarantine crush would be a young Nicolas Cage with a wooden hand. But then we watched “Moonstruck,” and were instantly smitten by his chaotic, opera-loving, tank-clad character: a baker named Ronny who falls for his brother’s fiancée, Loretta (Cher), a repressed, superstitious widow from an eccentric Italian-American family. Whimsical, weepy and just plain weird, “Moonstruck” is all about big emotions and declarations of love, with carnal chemistry between the wolflike Cage and "homely" Cher (in an Oscar-winning performance). But there are also smaller, poignant moments – of characters negotiating happiness and second chances – that make this the hopelessly romantic comedy we’ve always wanted. – Patrick Ryan

'Killing Eve'

I normally write about books and spend most of my time reading for work and pleasure. So I decided to catch up on many of the streaming shows that have passed me by. I had heard of “Killing Eve,“ which came out in 2018 (the current season is on BBC America and AMC, previous seasons are on Netflix), but after the first episode, I immediately became obsessed. As obsessed as Eve and assassin Villanelle are with each other. I went in assuming it was another cat-and-mouse thriller, but it's so much more. This black comedy is the perfect mix of horror and hilarity. And I am doing my best to not binge it all at once, but it is killing me. Pun intended. – Mary Cadden

'Love Island' and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'

So far in quarantine, I’ve opted for new series like Netflix's “Never Have I Ever” and Hulu's “Normal People,” but I've also dipped my toe into the deep waters of shows from years and decades past. Season 6 of the U.K. edition of “Love Island” (CBS All Access and Hulu) sucked me in as a somehow sweeter and more endearing version of “The Bachelor” (though I’ve since discovered it used to be less tame). Not sure how people managed to watch 36 episodes during pre-pandemic times, but I’m not here to judge. I started “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (now on Hulu) and enjoyed the pilot, and have been told it gets better. “Love Island” admittedly distracted me from continuing, but I’ll settle back in. – David Oliver

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pop-culture blind spots: Binge these to catch up in COVID quarantine