Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticDespite all odds, an ongoing pandemic and almost definitely common sense, the Olympic Games kicked off in Tokyo on Friday to much fanfare, a practically empty stadium and a sizable anti-Olympics protest outside that NBC pointedly never mentioned during its many hours of coverage.
Mired in controversy, and unfolding in a country struggling to keep its COVID-19 infections under control, these Olympics are truly unlike no other — a fact the ceremony conveyed both on purpose and quite accidentally.Japan’s opening performance went out of its way to acknowledge the strange circumstances that led us to this moment, with modern dance depictions of athletes training on their own without much more than determination to.
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