2023 Pop Culture Diary
I consumed a whole bunch of media in 2023. Here are all the TV shows and movies I watched, and books I read. I couldn’t or wouldn’t rank them one by one, but I was able to tier out my movies and TV shows — books are presented chronologically — with blurbs about each one.
Anyway, congrats on making it this far. Only 41 TV shows, 33 movies and 28 books to go.
TV
Tier 1 — It doesn’t get better than this
SUCCESSION (S4) A perfect final season of an all-time show. Connor’s Wedding may be the greatest episode of TV ever.
HOW TO WITH JOHN WILSON (S3) A perfect final season of an all-time show. The most honest and accurate reflection of humanity in media.
THE BEAR (S2) — The second-most honest and accurate reflection of humanity and media, but only because it’s fiction. Warm storytelling and empathic acting mixed with frenetic dialogue and direction. Like Friday Night Lights for fine dining.
Tier 2 — Shows that stay with you
RESERVATION DOGS (S3) — Speaking of warm storytelling and empathic acting. The most unique show on TV and I will miss it dearly.
DAVE (S3) — A show I didn’t realize how much I missed until it came back. Millennial Curb Your Enthusiasm. Every episode a new, insane, uproariously funny and slightly unnerving adventure.
FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE (S1)/THE PATIENT (S1)* — A pair of FX shows that I finished in 2023 but started in 2022. Two shows that could not be more different, yet shared a gift for unraveling a story.
BARRY (S4)—I liked it maybe a touch less than previous seasons because of how relentlessly bleak it became, but it stuck the landing all the same. Barry’s demise will — like the subtitle of this tier indicates — stick with me.
POKER FACE (S1) — Everyone’s takeaway from this show seems to be “Look, episodic TV can still be good!” (which, yes, please, obviously, more of this, please), but only a Natasha Lyonne/Rian Johnson collab can be this good. The absolute perfect pairing.
ABBOTT ELEMENTARY (S2) — Not since Arrested Development do I remember a network sitcom where every single character can be my favorite/the funniest character at any given moment. As joke-dense as 30 Rock and as warm and fuzzy as Parks and Rec. Long live the 22-episode network sitcom.
JURY DUTY (S1) — I hate doing pranks and being pranked, but I like watching good-natured pranks done to others . I loved this show.
BEEF (S1)—Another one that grew almost too relentlessly bleak for me, but man what a start and what a finish. I would watch Ali Wong and Steven Yeun in anything.
Tier 3 — Really fun hangs. Just a great time watching the ol’ television
RAMY (S3)—Still a really thoughtful and interesting show in its new narrative footing this season.
THE LAST OF US (S1)—I don’t know if I loved it as much as many people did (the video game story beat seams showed a little for me), but still a show I couldn’t wait to watch every week.
SHRINKING (S1)—Bill Lawrence just knows how to tell funny, endearing stories about good, but flawed people trying their best. This show is as much a testament to his touch as the last season of Ted Lasso was in his absence.
PARTY DOWN (S3) — The singular argument for “hey, maybe reboots aren’t all bad.” Somehow as good, if not better than the original. I want so much more of it, for Ken Marino’s physical comedy alone.
TOP CHEF WORLD ALL-STARS (S20) — The only reality show (competition or otherwise) in my diet. A really wonderful season with just a slightly bumming conclusion.
THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL (S5)—This show felt like it had a weird truncated run, amid the pandemic and the typical long production timelines for a big hourlong streaming shows, that I think hurt its perception and popularity. Such a strong final season that, unlike a lot of shows that use time jumps toward the end, actually used the device to drive the story and characters forward and not just satisfy loose ends in fan service.
THE OTHER TWO (S3)—Snowballed in a way that wasn’t always my taste, but always played by its rules and was never not laugh-out-loud funny.
IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA (S16)—Quietly as good and funny as it’s always been.
Tier 4 — Pretty fun hangs. Just a good time watching the ol’ television
PLATONIC (S1) — Meandered in the middle but still always good results when Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne and Nicholas Stoller team up.
SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF (S1) — A fun, inventive twist on the source material. Very cool that the entire movie cast came back as voice actors, and well served by it.
LUCKY HANK (S1)—Odenkirk outshone the show as a whole, but it was still enjoyable and it’s a bummer that it was cancelled. Like Lodge 49 before it, it’s always nice when TV makes room for these off-center, vibey shows.
BREAK POINT (S1)—Being a pro tennis player is crazy. This doc did a great job at showing how being a pro tennis player is crazy.
CUNK ON EARTH (S1)—Very funny. A good recommendation for the Ali G fan in your life.
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (S48, 49), BOB’S BURGERS (S13) — Pairing these two as network comedies that just keep humming consistently through the inherent creative peaks and valleys of 22-episode seasons.
WINNING TIME (S2) — I think the show lost its way a bit in the odd pacing of the second season, but I still enjoyed its gloss, style and the performances from John C. Reilly and Quincy Isaiah. Would’ve obviously been curious to see how it saw out the rest of the Showtime Lake Era.
Tier 4—I’m not sure I enjoyed this all that much
TED LASSO (S3) — Whatever subtlety this show had left, it used only in the Rebecca plot in the Amsterdam episode and absolutely nowhere else. Over-sweet, moralistic and lacking nuance. Just kinda lost me.
HIJACK (S1) — Idris Elba thwarting reluctant terrorists in real time started on the right side of the Entertaining/Silly Matrix, and ended on the wrong side of it.
THE AFTERPARTY (S2) — The gimmick didn’t hit as well in season 2 and the mystery was a little bit more convoluted.
Tier 5—I wish I enjoyed this at all
CLONE HIGH (S2) — I loved the original so much, and I was so let down by the reboot. In retrospect, a show that should’ve stayed ensconced in 2003.
Tier 6 — DNF
THE MORNING SHOW (S1–3) — I made it three episodes from the end of The Morning Show only to throw in the towel. What an extravagantly weird, captivatingly messy show. Season 1 showed some sort of ambition for sharp satire only to undercut itself by soapiness. Season 2 was a disaster that I could not stop watching. Season 3 realized it was more a Shonda Rhimes show and less an Aaron Sorkin show, but by that point I was out.
HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART II — Wanted to like it so much more than I did.
THE RINGS OF POWER (S1) — I love LOTR. This show demanded too much of my time for not enough…anything.
MRS. DAVIS (S1) — Another show I wanted to like so much more than I did.
THE MANDALORIAN (S3) — I’m actually surprised I haven’t picked this one back up, but I liked it more as an episodic space western and it started to lose me the deeper it went into its lore and serialized storytelling.
MINX (S1)—Only watched the pilot. Still may pick it up if I’ve got the time!
STILL WORKING ON…
DAISY JONES AND THE SIX (S1)
FARGO (S5)
SCAVENGERS REIGN (S1)
MOVIES
Tier 1 — My favorite movies of the year
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON—A three-and-a-half-hour movie that earned every minute.
OPPENHEIMER—I know this is reductive, but Christopher Nolan took a biopic about an early-20th-century scientist and made it a Nolan movie.
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE—I’m further and further out on comic book movies and big IP, but holy shit when it’s done right it doesn’t matter what the hell the source material is.
Tier 2—Very close runners-up
THE FABLEMANS — Excellent late-era Spielberg. Right in the pocket.
THE MENU—My kind of suspense movie and my kind of satire. So much fun.
AMERICAN FICTION—Add Cord Jefferson to the list of creatives I will follow anywhere. A stacked cast put it over the top.
THE HOLDOVERS—Alexander Payne just knows how to tell funny, endearing stories about good, but flawed people trying their best (I have a taste, can you tell?).
HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE — The heist movie for our times. Like Ocean’s Eleven but instead of a jilted ex jealous of a casino magnate, it’s climate disaster.
LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003) — Finally got around to it. As good as advertised. Bill Murray and ScarJo intersecting at what turned out to be such interesting moments in their careers. And I think it holds up.
Tier 3: Hey…pretty good!
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN and TÁR — Pairing these two as Oscar-baity movies from early in the year that I remember liking a whole lot, but weren’t as sticky as some of the other awards fodder I watched this year.
THEATER CAMP — Christopher Guest-level satire with incredible commitment from Molly Gordon and Ben Platt.
STILL—As essential a Michael J. Fox movie as Back to the Future.
Tier 4: Hey…pretty decent!
BARBIE—I had a shitty theater-going experience with a dude a few rows ahead of me on his phone the whole time, legit taking photos and videos and posting them to Facebook and Instagram. I’m trying not to hold it against the movie. I did watch it at home a few months later and re-appreciated it.
WAKANDA FOREVER—As enjoyable as this current phase of MCU movies gets.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK—If I had seen this in a theater and Oppenheimer at home, you probably could’ve swapped them. I liked it well enough, but yeah, needed to see it in theaters.
CREED III — Tough to not view through the lens of what we know now about Jonathan Majors, but I thought Michael B. Jordan made some interesting choices that breathed life into the third/ninth movie of a franchise.
SHE SAID—My mileage on recent historical dramas varies, but I’m always in for a journalism movie with a strong cast.
THE BEANIE BUBBLE—My mileage on recent historical dramas varies, but I gave this one a shot on a Friday night with nothing else to do and enjoyed it.
EMILY THE CRIMINAL—Give Aubrey Plaza all the projects.
YOU ARE SO NOT INVITED TO MY BAT MITZVAH—If you’re a former upper-middle-class adolescent Jew from Long Island, chances are you’ll enjoy this pleasantly surprising story about a current upper-middle-class adolescent Jew from Long Island. Netflix-era Sandman has his lane!
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM—An enjoyable entry into the cottage genre Spider-Verse spun out.
BEGIN AGAIN (2013) — John Carney knows how to make ’em charming and whimsical.
HOME ALONE (1990) — No, I had not seen this one the whole way through until about a week ago. It’s crazy how little of the movie is the showdown with the Wet Bandits. I thought that was the whole movie!
Tier 5—Could take it or leave it
COCAINE BEAR—Goddamn, this movie was just a little bit too much for me.
MEET CUTE—It was fine. For me, Palm Springs has spoiled any sci-fi rom-com movie that isn’t as good as Palm Springs.
MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON—It worked better as a series of shorts after all.
SLEEPING WITH OTHER PEOPLE (2015) — A rom-com with Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie that likely would’ve been better had I watched it when it came out, before their respective stars truly exploded.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 — I liked and disliked this movie for the same reason, which is because it was a sentient, talking raccoon’s origin story. I appreciate the weird, small sandbox for a Marvel movie, but at two-and-a-half hours I’m also like, wait…what?…why?
Tier 6 — Could leave it
MAGIC MIKE’S LAST DANCE — Safe to say this series fizzled.
THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE — I don’t know what I was expecting. I guess Illumination makes kids movies a little more for the kids than for the adults, which is evident in the fact that this was the first Illumination movie I ever saw. I really wish there was more in this movie for elder Millennials than the bevy of Easter eggs you can find easily enough playing Super Mario Odyssey. There was just no real charm or soul, but I guess I can’t hold that against a kids movie based on a video game.
QUIZ LADY — I thought about putting this in Tier 5, but the more I thought on the more I realized I really didn’t like this movie. I appreciate the swing, but I’m not sure casting Awkwafina and Sandra Oh against type worked for me, and I didn’t love the script.
BOOKS
IRRESISTIBLE: THE RISE OF ADDICTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND THE BUSINESS OF KEEPING US HOOKED (Adam Alter) — Alarming how so much of what Alter wrote and warned about in this book seems kind of quaint only five years later.
AMERICANAH (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) — A sweeping story where the tertiary characters are just as lovingly drawn as the protagonists.
RECURSION (Blake Crouch) — A real mindfuck of a time travel story in the best way. Propulsive and fun.
SEA OF TRANQUILITY (Emily St. John Mandel) — A much quieter, more meditative time travel story that was no less entertaining.
KILL THE PRINCE (Dan Fogarty) — Vividly paints the mental and physical toll combat sports takes on an athlete’s mind and body, that you wonder how it’s legal.
THE PARIS ARCHITECT (Charles Belfoure) — It was fine. The author knew a lot about architecture.
THE WORLD WE MAKE (N.K. Jemisin) — It’s a bummer that geopolitical circumstances changed Jemisin’s plans and made this the final of a duology and not the second of a trilogy. Her version and vision of New York City was as reaffirming as ever.
THE NICKEL BOYS (Colson Whitehead) — Nobody writes more incisively about broken systems through vivid, endearing characters than Whitehead.
A VISIT FROM THE GOOD SQUAD (Jennifer Egan) — I accidentally read this after its sequel, The Candy House, though the non-linear structure of the story actually really enhaced this book for me. I loved it.
MEXICAN GOTHIC (Silvia Moreno-Garcia) — Gothic horror is not typically my thing, but I really dug how this one built and its absolutely insane third act.
PACHINKO (Min Jin Lee) — I know I said I’m not tiering or ranking books, but this was probably my favorite book I read this year.
COMEDY COMEDY COMEDY DRAMA (Bob Odenkirk) — A celebrity memoir that served well as a way to pass the time during virtual jury duty.
THE CREATIVE ACT: A WAY OF BEING (Rick Rubin) — There was one entry in this book where Rubin talks about how his appendix burst, but he didn’t want to have it removed because he believes that even non-functional organs still serve a purpose, and not to believe doctors who say otherwise. He reveals that he still has his appendix. I don’t know if this has made me a better creative, but it definitely increased how I often I Googled “can you leave in a burst appendix?” (from zero times to one time).
THE MEASURE (Nikki Erlick) — It was fine. I think I liked the concept more than the way it was executed in the characters.
THE OVERSTORY (Richard Powers)—An astounding, compelling page-turner for a book about trees with language as dense as the Redwoods.
TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW (Gabrielle Zevin) — My other favorite book I read this year. A platonic love story, a romantic love story, a video game story, a cultural Judaism story, all written so lovingly and beautifully. 10/10.
EAT A PEACH (David Chang) — A celebrity memoir that served well at the beach and by the pool.
DARK MATTER (Blake Crouch)—Good, but not as good as the first Crouch I read this year.
THE STAND (Stephen King) — So, I only read the last third of this book this year, but it was the last third of the unabridged 1300-page version, so I’m counting it as a real book. Started it in late 2019 and shelved it in the spring of 2020 for…epidemiological reasons.
STRAIGHT MAN (Richard Russo) — The book on which Lucky Hank was based. I could see where the disconnect to the show was. It was fun to read with Odenkirk narrating in my mind’s ear.
THE MOUNTAINS SING (Nguyen Phan Que Mai)—A beautiful family story in a country typically served to American pop culture in one dimension.
DAISY JONES & THE SIX (Taylor Jenkins Reid)—I hadn’t started the show before I read the book, so I only discovered the soundtrack about halfway through the book. But when I did, it became a completely different book. The perfect companion. The music and audio adaptation of the book brought the characters and vibes to life in a way that so many on-screen adaptations of books fail to do.
CROOK MANIFESTO (Colson Whitehead) — I just remembered the whole impetus for the first story in the book was Carney reluctantly trying to score Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter. A worthy follow-up to Harlem Shuffle.
LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY (Bonnie Garmus) — I just do not get what everyone else saw with this book. I won’t yuck everyone else’s yum, but it’s not for me.
WINNING FIXES EVERYTHING (Evan Drellich) — The Astros’ cheating era front-office: even worse than you thought!
HOMECOMING (Kate Morton) — A book that was fun to read around Christmas in a way that was very different than why most Christmas media is fun to consume around Christmas. A compelling and brisk trans-generational murder mystery.
KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL (Anthony Bourdain) — The only audiobook I listened to this year. It was perfect.
CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS (Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah) — A very good book that will leave you feeling very bad, for many important reasons.
