The Best Stuff of 2023 End of Article
Miles Morales as Spider-Man fights The Spot

The Best Stuff of 2023

2924 words published on Dec 15, 2023

To be blunt, 2023 sucked for me. I know I’m not alone in that by any stretch, but it was a year of more losses and hardships for me than even 2016 or 2020 if one could believe it. I’m escaping from reality for this post and focusing on the stuff that helped me get through it.

I had a limited budget this year though, so sadly I didn’t really get to consume as much fun stuff as I normally do. I hope things turn up in 2024 and I can return clothing and other more pricey products to the list.

Stuff

For context, “stuff” refers to consumable goods and services that others can readily experience themselves too. Things I recommend. So even though therapy, hormones, and supplements have truly helped me get through the year, I can’t prescribe those to everyone. šŸ˜Š

Books

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande (Powell’s Books)

Being Mortal book cover

I’ve told countless people about this book this year. It broke down comforting assumptions I’d always made about our medical and societal systems and then built me back up again with priceless perspective about what truly matters to people in their final hours, days, weeks, months, and years. I don’t often recommend a book for absolutely everyone, but this is one of those books. It will be hard to keep going at some points, but it gets much better and is worth pushing through the discomfort to greater knowledge and perspective.

Get the book: Powell’s Books

Chokepoint Capitalism by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow (Official Site)

An excellent book that’s not just about everything wrong with big tech and extractive anti-worker (anti-artist, anti-creator) business practices, but also practical realistic solutions we can implement today.

Get the book: Official Site

Podcasts

Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel (Apple, Stitcher, Spotify)

Podcast thumbnail for Where Should We Begin with Esther Perel

If you ever want to listen in on other people’s therapy sessions, this is the podcast for you. Keep in mind: Esther Perel is an incredibly talented, experienced therapist the likes of which you and I will likely never be treated by. But this show can illustrate how much progress a therapy session can sometimes make in our lives.

Still-Great Podcasts

Music

This year I didn’t listen to as much music as I’d prefer once again, but there were still some great releases and discoveries.

https://open.spotify.com/album/4CLLPZzm1QDzUZ8FTkNPyy?si=SYn0zvb0TuCBwyWc983vEg

HEALTH released a new album recently, but I haven’t had enough time to fully digest it yet.

Stand-Up Comedy

Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark (HBO Max)

Modern vulnerable, dark comedy at its finest.

Pete Holmes: I Am Not for Everyone (Netflix)

Pete Holmes is a comic who has a long story arc. While I have trouble relating to him, he still consistently makes me laugh, which I find impressive. This special was unexpectedly one of the longest bouts of real laughter I had watching or listening to anything this year.

Games

Baldur’s Gate 3

Anyone paying attention to games has already heard about BG3. I’ll echo the common refrain: The game is incredible. Everyone I talk to had a drastically different adventure than I did. It has remarkable replay value. Innovative and high quality. Absolutely deserving of all the Game of the Year awards it’s getting.

Sea of Stars (Steam, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbone)

I kickstarted Sea of Stars in 2020, skeptical it could measure up to the giant shoes it was attempting to fill. It aspired to pay homage to Chrono Trigger and other members of the best JRPGs ever made club. To my absolute delight and surprise, I’m here to report: they did it.

Chained Echoes (Steam, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbone)

Chained Echoes came out in 2022, but I played it this year. It’s another phenomenal JRPG that kept me enthralled and enjoying the combat the entire ride. I hope this is a streak we can keep going because I adore this genre and would love seeing more innovation blended into its excellent traditions.

TV Shows

TV Time

I found a pretty helpful app this year called TV Time. It helps me keep track of all the shows I want to watch whenever new episodes or seasons come out, across all platforms and channels. It’s still pretty clunky and slow as an app, but useful nonetheless.

The Last Of Us (Max)

Even without playing the games, this show left an incredible impression on me. The third episode is one of the best episodes of television I have ever seen in my life.

Beef (Netflix)

This show starts hard and doesn’t slow down. It’s an intense, darkly funny, and unfortunately-relatable tale of mutual self-destruction different than anything else I’ve seen lately.

https://youtu.be/AFPIMHBzGDs?si=ZSKoWMW7l_YnKZMt

I’m a Virgo (Prime)

If you enjoyed Sorry to Bother You or other Boots Riley stuff, I highly recommend you check out I’m a Virgo. It’s another love letter to Oakland with awesome trippy anti-authoritarian nonsense all over the place. Kinda my thing.

Naked Attraction (Max)

This isn’t a new show by any means. I watched the first season or two years ago using a VPN to see it on a British streaming service. But this year Max started streaming the first several seasons here in the US, so I watched all of it.

I’ll attempt to abbreviate all my thoughts about Naked Attraction:

  • It’s truly awesome to see decent representation (considering it’s in the UK) of many body shapes and sizes and to see how diverse everyone’s preferences truly are. Really drives home the crooked lid for every crooked pot thing.
  • There are a few representations of queer, trans, and polyamorous folks who aren’t all people I’d associate with myself but I appreciate the visibility they provide.
  • I would definitely not be a good chooser on this show, but I might be interested in being a contestant for body confidence purposes. I doubt I’d meet someone I want to seriously date this way. I’d likely do better on Love Is Blind (if it didn’t force marriage and heterosexuality).
  • There’s no way this show could be done in the U.S. Not just because of our puritanical censorship, but because we can’t seem to ever be bothered to show anyone on our shows who isn’t conventionally attractive.
  • It’s super-fun to watch with a partner (as long as neither of you get weirdly jealous at the idea of each other finding anyone else attractive).

You might enjoy this show if you (a) enjoy looking at all kinds of naked people, (b) want some more body positivity in your life, or (c) want to learn weird British slang terms for all kinds of sex stuff.

Interview with the Vampire (AMC)

I wait until a series is complete before I subscribe to a new streaming service to watch it. This show technically began airing last year, but I watched it this year. Interview with the Vampire is worth every penny of the 1 month subscription I paid for AMC+ to binge it, and I’ll do it again for season 2 as soon as the finale airs. (I say this as someone who’s read most of Anne Rice’s novels, by the way)

Jury Duty (Prime)

I have mixed feelings about this show. On one hand, the dude they centered this Truman Show-esque conspiratorial fake reality TV show around has spoken about being a bit traumatized by it. It seems unfair to subject someone to such a mindfuck, even if he did come out looking really good and wealthier than before. On the other hand, it is a truly unique, charming, hilarious train wreck that’s hard to look away from.

I don’t want them to do another show like this again, but I think it’s okay to enjoy the experiment the first time. The actors and crew who executed this insane stunt are impressive and talented. The behind the scenes stuff is a must-watch after you finish the show.

Scavengers Reign (Max)

Come for the inspired animation, stick around for the compelling sci-fi world-building, and stay for the enthralling character drama that unfolds at a measured pace across 12 episodes.

Still-Great TV

Our Flag Means Death – Season 2 (Max)

IYKYK

The Way of the Househusband – Season 2 (Netflix)

One of my favorite anime series returned magnificently.

Good Omens – Season 2 (Prime)

I’ve been a huge Neil Gaiman fan since I was a teenager, and his entries into the TV world have been awesome for me. Good Omens was already pretty great season 1, but I found season 2 to be even better.

The Morning Show – Season 3 (Finale) (Apple TV)

The final season of The Morning Show is heavy and it doesn’t disappoint. There are some loose ends left untied, but I actually prefer it over some of the neatly packaged endings we sometimes get.

Jeez, Jon Hamm is in everything these days! (not complaining though)

Billions – Season 7 (Finale) (Showtime)

Speaking of neatly packaged endings, the final season of Billions was also excellent. I know I said I prefer the more realistic approach of not having every story arc resolve at the same time at the end of a series, but I appreciated the satisfying way Billions does it. Definitely a series worth binging if you haven’t checked it out yet.

Barry – Season 4 (Finale) (Max)

If you haven’t started watching Barry yet, now’s the time. But don’t watch the trailers for the later seasons if you don’t want spoilers, obviously. The final season sheds nearly all of the fun, with the dark comedy really dimming the comedy side of the phrase. It’s chilling and bleak and a great ending we had to know was inevitable all along.

Spy x Family (Crunchyroll)

A fun, thoughtful, and unique show that I’m still enjoying even more in season two!

Movies

Saltburn (Prime)

A late entry in this list, Saltburn is a film full of surprises. Acutely aware of the social pulse, it humanizes those we’re often gleefully quick to dehumanize, but just a teensy bit. I’m being intentionally vague, so watch the trailer and check out the movie if you’re intrigued like I was.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Netflix)

I truly loved this movie for dozens of reasons, and I’m really hoping the theme continues into the next one to be [SPOILERS INCOMING BENEATH THE VIDEO].

Miles Morales and his supporting cast are probably the only Marvel characters I’m still emotionally invested in right now. (Part of it is fatigue, part of it is plot armor, and part of it is the too-huge stakes for absolutely everything. It’s all just so meh lately.)

I’m really hoping the theme continues into the next one to be “Don’t accept the excuses powerful people give us for their horrifying unethical actions.” They think they have all the answers. They think they know the only way to solve problems. They don’t. There’s always another way that doesn’t require dehumanization, colonialism, exploitation, murder, slavery, etc. Call them on their bullshit and empower someone new with a stronger imagination and higher standards of humanity.

We’ll see!

Barbie (Max)

I expected this to be a ridiculous romp through a pink absurdist paradise, and I wouldn’t say I was wrong, but it has more depth than I expected. I enjoyed it thoroughly and hope any future movies in the Mattel universe are done with the same quality, guts, and thoughtfulness.

Anyone who hasn’t seen it yet has decided not to for whatever reason (it’s not like anyone didn’t hear about it this year). I doubt anything I say can change those minds, but I hope it might.

Joy Ride (Starz, Prime)

An international and amped up take on “The Hangover genre” of a zany group of friends going on a trip and doing crazy shit. Explaining further would spoil some of the fun. šŸ‘¹

Honorable Mention in a similar style: Bottoms is also really funny and ridiculous.

Nimona (Netflix)

I absolutely loved Nimona. It’s fun and exciting while still being impeccably written. It’s the kind of animated movie I want to show my nibblings. The themes of social exclusion, acceptance, and questioning when authority figures tell us to hate someone are all excellent.

There’s a scene where a character shows who they are to someone and feels acceptance for it for the first time that emotionally broke me so hard (in a good way). Ugh!

Renfield (Prime)

I forgot to warn my mom when I recommended this movie to everyone before Halloween: This movie is violent. Hilariously, ridiculously violent. It’s a great horror-comedy I may be watching each October for a while.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Hulu)

On an entirely different vibe, How to Blow Up a Pipeline is an excellent and entertaining distillation of a book I read last year and has changed a lot of how I think about activism. If you have Hulu, I can’t recommend it strongly enough.

Poor Things (Amazon)

I didn’t catch Poor Things until January, so I had to add it after publishing this article, but I believe it to be the best movie of 2023. It’s a truly unique film that treads through topics we often find incredibly difficult to navigate with gusto and blunt bravery evocative of the protagonist herself.

It’s cinematography is so beautiful and it evokes a stage play style in many scenes, so I sincerely recommend watching it in a theater if one can, but I’m sure it holds up anywhere.

I’d hate to spoil it, so I won’t say much further beyond some content warnings: questionable age differences in sexual relationships, sexual assault, domestic abuse, body horror.

YouTube and Nebula

If you haven’t heard of Nebula, you’re not watching enough high quality educational content, because the best channels all advertise it regularly. I finally pulled the trigger and bought in this year because it truly does have a great selection of creators on it. Watching their content early, uncensored, and ad-free is worth it for me.

FD Signifier (YouTube, Nebula)

I started following FD Signifier on referral from T1J (YouTube, Nebula), another channel I’ve been following for years. He’s a well-educated creator with unwavering candor who shares in-depth video essays about everything from philosophical themes in anime to the real influencers in modern black conservatism.

(embedding YouTube here for public view)

His videos portray a level of realness I don’t often see palatably presented online, and a big part of that is how he manages to dodge all the pitfalls of the YouTube algorithm while talking about these themes. For example, here’s the thumbnail for the same video as above on Nebula:

Nebula thumbnail of the same FD Signifier video says The Right Can't Fuck over a male exotic dancer with a MAGA hat and a blue lives matter flag
Uncensored and unabashed: https://nebula.tv/videos/fdsignifier-how-conservatives-ruin-sex

This particular video is obviously pretty salacious, but he has more even-handed critiques all over his channel too, and I recommend checking it out. (Especially if the content creators you follow are looking a little homogenous)

Still-Great Channels

Stuff I Still Plan to Check Out

  • Quiz Lady
  • The Boy and the Heron
  • WrestleQuest

As always, I’ll come back and update this post if anything I catch up on after I publish makes enough of an impression to be added.

What were your favorite things of 2023?