Better late than never, here are my top “everything but movies” of 2023. As usual, the rules are simple: any media that I consumed in 2023 is eligible, with the exception of movies that were first released in 2023. So that includes all television, video games, musicals, books, albums, older movies, live events, TikToks, Quibies, or puppet shows. Here were my favorites of the year!
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Jury Duty
TV Season (2023), Amazon Prime / Freevee
What if Parks and Rec or The Office were actually a reality TV show where one person wasn’t in on the joke? That’s basically the premise of Jury Duty: a normal, unsuspecting 20-something, Ronald, is requested for a “jury duty documentary,” unknowing that the rest of the jury, court, and trial are entirely fabricated. Not only are all other participants actors, but they create increasingly farcical situations similar to the late-aughts mockumentaries listed above.
Let’s set aside the ethical implications for the time being. This show works for two primary reasons. The first is that even without the unknowing central character, it’s a genuinely entertaining sitcom. The characters are clever and well-written, particularly in their talking heads interviews. The actors are able to improvise some hilarious situations. James Marsden in particular shines as an asshole version of himself, but really the entire cast is excellent. The second reason the show works is that they found the perfect leading man in Ronald Gladden. Ronald is able to roll with all the punches the show gives him while being a complete sweetheart and always trying to do right by everyone else.
Now, the ethics of the show are a bit… murkier. The entire crew is basically gaslighting Ronald for weeks on end without him being able to know or consent. I can completely understand if that is a dealbreaker for anyone. Perhaps the best episode of the show is its finale, where they finally take him (and the audience) to see how the show was made. In the end, I really appreciated how good-natured the cast and crew were, and while the entire show is a prank, it’s never mean-spirited and they let Ronald in on the joke in the end.
TOP 5
5. SIX
Musical (2017)
For years, I assumed that SIX was essentially a poor reflection of the musical Hamilton. The premise seemed too similar to me – a reimagining of the wives of Henry VIII as a pop-singing girl group a la the Spice Girls. And oddly enough, even though I was right about the fundamental concept, I was completely wrong about the tone and energy of the show. SIX is very much its own thing.
The musical is best approached as a pop concert, and on that level, it completely delivers. The show is a blast all the way through, keeping its energy sky-high during its intermission-free 90 minute runtime. Each song is very fun, each aping a different pop group from the past 30 years or so. I think what really makes the musical sing is the fact that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It would be very easy to play into the inherent drama in the fate of each wife (two were literally beheaded, as the musical will frequently remind you). Instead, the musical plays out like a concert, with any and all drama played for laughs instead. It’s really a great time live, surrounded by a crowd that is very into it.
4. PROJECT HAIL MARY
Novel (2021), Andy Weir
For anyone who loved Weir’s first novel The Martian (you know, the Matt Damon is on Mars one), this book is an absolute must. Without spoiling it, the book is about an unlikely astronaut tasked with saving the Earth from its dying Sun armed only with his knowledge of physics and unique problem-solving skills. You may think you know what a Weir novel on that subject looks like, but this one packs some serious twists and turns.
I’ll be honest, Weir isn’t the strongest author when it comes to deep character development. However, what he excels at is coming up with grounded sci-fi premises and problems, and then coming up with realistic, in-depth scientific solutions. Project Hail Mary is essentially the perfect book to give to a high school physics student to get them excited about how math and science can be used to solve problems both real and fantastical.
I really don’t want to spoil the places this book goes, but if you are an engineer or get excited at all about science, know that Project Hail Mary is a very quick read that is a blast from start to finish.
3. THE LAST OF US – Season 1, Episode 3
TV Episode (2023), HBO/Max
My partner and I were extremely excited for The Last of Us television show. Both of us loved the first and second games about found families in a zombie apocalypse. We were very excited to see how it would be adapted to TV. For the most part, I found the adaptation to be extremely faithful and basically as excellent as it could be, though ultimately I’d recommend the video game as the “true” way to experience the story.
The exception to those feelings is Episode 3: Long, Long Time. Here, the show takes a detour from the game to tell a story that wouldn’t be suited to the interactive medium: an unlikely love story in a crumbled world. Nick Offerman plays Bill, a survivalist who fortifies his house when everyone else in town is evacuated. We follow Bill through the years of the zombie epidemic, as he meets and quickly falls in love with Frank (Murray Bartlett).
If you haven’t seen the show or played the game, it’s hard to overstate what a shift in tones this episode is from the rest of the show, and yet how well it fits into the overall tapestry. The story is heart-wrenching and beautiful as we watch the love affair go through peaks and valleys. It hits on what the games did in their best moments: reveal truths about intrapersonal relationships in the face of crisis. It wouldn’t be particularly exciting to suddenly play a dating sim in the middle of a zombie game, but it’s perfect for a television show and it on its own justifies the entire show’s existence.
2. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA – TEARS OF THE KINGDOM
Video Game (2023), Nintendo Switch
This is a pretty vanilla pick, but I think the relevant context is that I wasn’t really blown away with 2016’s Zelda: Breath of the Wild (aka BotW). I loved the ambition of BotW, but found my enthusiasm waned in the mid- to late- game. Tears on the Kingdom (TotK), on the other hand, fixed all three of my major complaints with the original:
1) BotW’s endless exploration frequently didn’t lead to anything interesting. You could spend a half an hour trying to figure out to get to the top of a mountain, only to discover either a) a Korok seed or b) nothing at all. TotK fixes this by putting content everywhere. Climb a hill? Korok needs to find his friend. Enter a cave? Might be an outfit in there somewhere. Meanwhile, TotK gets around the fact that players have already seen this map by providing not one, but two additional maps in the Sky and Depths. The Depths in particular provide constant exploration with the primary reward of illuminating more of the map.
2) Runes / traversal options were underwhelming in BotW. Sure, speedrunners could pause a stone, smack it a few times, explode a bomb, and fly across the map, but for more casual players like myself these techniques were really finicky and usually not worthwhile. I’d venture to guess most people got around in BotW by teleporting to a tower and then gliding to where they wanted to go.
TotK, on the other hand, provides so many ways to get around. The vehicle creation mechanic is brilliant, and it alone would make for an incredible video game mechanic. The “Ascend” mechanic is also fantastic as it shortcuts the tedious process of climbing mountains (essentially making going up similarly easy as gliding down). Meanwhile, the old technique of gliding down to where you wanted to go is significantly easier and more fun – this time, it can be done by teleporting all the way to the sky and gliding from there.
3) Combat in the original got very stale very quickly. I was coming off of the depth of Horizon: Zero Dawn’s excellent combat mechanics, and holy cow were Zelda’s simple by comparison. I found myself avoiding combat just to avoid needing to mash Y and breaking the few strong weapons in my arsenal. Meanwhile time-slowing while falling was also tedious, and I’d hate wasting my “special arrows” (fire, lightning, and ice) on any enemy.
The fuse mechanic in TotK fixes all of that. Suddenly any weapon can become a strong one – just fuse some monster part to it. Arrows have a huge variety of options as you can use any of your billions of resources to create specialized projectiles. And getting the height needed to slow time during a fall is also much easier thanks to the traversal options listed above.
All of this is to say that I’ve spent over 150 hours in TotK and still have yet to have the final confrontation with Ganondorf. It truly fulfilled the promise of BotW, and I finally understand why people were enraptured with the original.
1. HADESTOWN
Musical (2016) / Concept Album (2010)
Hadestown is a reimagining of Greek mythology, specifically the story of Orpheus and his journey to rescue Eurydice from the underworld. It tells an extremely timely story about the value of being idealistic and optimistic against all odds, while also painting a picture of the flaws and dangers that come with such a viewpoint. Ultimately it’s a tragic story about how dedicating your heart and soul to push for a better world is ultimately futile. And yet, even if the actions are doomed to fail, they may serve as the inspiration to push the world into a slightly better place, building a foundation on which the next doomed act of naive optimism may incremetally progress.
I fell for the Hadestown musical from the opening notes of the New Orleans-style trombone solo. The music is incredible, marrying American folk with the drama of musical theater. The staging is beautiful, making use of a more “minimalist” set design where the set largely stays the same throughout, yet changing drastically thanks to dynamic lighting choices. The minimalist design also makes the few times where the set changes dramatically all the more exciting and unexpected. I also love that the musicians share the stage with the actors, giving a more intimate experience even in a theater that holds hundreds.
I enjoyed the musical so much that I started digging into its origins, listening to the original 2010 concept album on which the show is based. Honestly, from a pure listening experience, I prefer the concept album to the musical. The streamlined folksy nature really lends itself to the mythology on which the story is based. I love the consistent use of harmonics to emphasize how otherworldly beautiful Orphius’s voice is. Each song also becomes easier to listen to in isolation, making them easier listening in a playlist. It’s also very impressive how prescient some of the songs are; I previously assumed that “Build the Wall,” for instance, was based on recent U.S. political events, but the song was written well before that in the late aughts.
The one-two punch of the musical and concept album are collectively my favorite media discovery in 2023, solidifying just how many top-tier musicals there are circulating the country right now.
That’s my take on media for 2023! I’ve already got some good picks for 2024, so looking forward to writing that post. Stay tuned for my take on movies later this week.
Backseat Directing 