I was wondering what your favorite pop culture of 2023 was?

It can be anything

Books, TV shows, music, films, video games, etc

I'd be particularly interested to hear about stuff I haven't seen or heard about

Godzilla minus one
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aHcCCquDyqM
Blackberry movie
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt21867434/
Boy and the heron
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f7EDFdA10pg
Sisu
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9_C2tWmBWxA
The Iron Claw
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HEBSSIpTRc4
These are good ones I've come across recently

Music
The National

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Tod1_tZdU

Tv show
Twisted metal
Books
The creative act of being Rick Rubin
Video games
Robocop
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1681430/RoboCop_Rogue_City/

For movies...

Shazam: Fury of the Gods. I don't know why this was received so negatively by everyone, I enjoyed it, maybe not as much as the first one, but it was still a fun entry.

John Wick 4. Over the top action packed, just like the other entries, you know what you're getting, and I wasn't disappointed.

Super Mario Brothers Movie. Grew up on the games, so there's a bit of nostalgia there for me, I don't think anyone really hated this one.

Evil Dead Rise. My top pick for horror movie of the year.

Sisu. A little ridiculous towards the end, but then again most of these movies are ridicuclous.

Indiana Jones And the Dial Of Destiny. Once again, another movie that wasn't received well. I though it was a great entry to the series, and it was a fun ride with some great Indy action.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1. I love this franchise (aside from part 2) and it carries on with another great one. Seems like Tom Cruise can do no wrong with for this series.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. I'll admit it, when I first heard about this, and first saw the trailer, I was super skeptical, I honestly didn't even want to see it. I ended up taking my Niece and Nephew to see it, and it was totally worth it. I grew up watching the turtles, and this one was honestly probably my favorite, or at least a really close tie to the original movie.

Godzilla Minus One. I think it's been established that everyone loved this as well.

No Hard Feelings. Wasn't as funny as I was hoping it would be, but still, probably the best comedy of the year for me.

Migration. Good fun kids movie, not as good as Super Mario or TMNT, but I enjoyed it.

And I'm a Marvel junky, so I also enjoyed The Marvels, Guardians Vol 3, and Ant-Man Quatumania...Marvels was the favorite out of the three. Guardians Vol 3 was really overhyped, but not a terrible movie, my least favorite of the trilogy, I could've done without the sappy Rocket backstory, but other than that and the the terrible soundtrack, it did have its moments.

For Music:

Story of the Year: Tear Me To Pieces

Metallica: 72 Seasons. Was actually much better than I was expecting it to be.

The Acacia Strain: Step Into the Light

Veil of Maya: Mother

Scar Symmetry: The Singularity Phase 2

The Hives: The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons. Kind of a shitty album if I'm being honest, but the opening track "Bogus Operandi" makes it worth it alone, I love that song, so damn catchy and the music video is awesome as well.

Kvelertak: Endling.

TV Shows, some of these aren't 2023, but I first watched them this year:

One Piece on Netflix. I'm not really much for anime if I'm being honest, I find it kind of annoying, so I haven't seen the animated series it's based off of, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I'm really digging the live action version so far, it's weird and fun.

Black Summer on Netflix. Really intense infected series.

Reacher on Amazon Prime. I really loved this, I haven't started the second season yet as I'm one of those people who wants it all at once, so once all the episodes drop, I'll definitely be checking that out. Got me wanting to check out the books.

Gen V on Amazon Prime. Great companion piece show to The Boys.

Add another vote for G-1. I haven't seen many Godzilla movies, but I liked that one.

My favorite two movies of the year were Spider-Verse and "Asteroid City", which, of the two, Spider-Verse is definitely more of a pop culture product. But both are good!

Tears of the Kingdom came out in '23, and I had a good time with that. Personally I think Breath of the Wild was a smidge better? But, again, TotK was a lot of fun and I recommend it.

Cunk on Earth is hilarious. Thoroughly enjoyed that series.

The Bear s2 was way fucking better than s1, if you like dramas. Speaking of dramas, apparently Beef was this year? That was a good one.

And to be honest I didn't read a lot of books I liked last year. But my book came out! So you should go get that, because it's good: https://www.pinknarc.com/store/p31/The_Final_Days_of_Kobold_Kody%27s_Frontier_Exposition_and_Tonic_Show.html