The best and worst of pop culture in 2023 (so far)

Campy killer doll movies are never a hard sell—they’re such a staple at this point that they’ve become an entire horror subgenre unto themselves. But M3GAN brought a new twist to the trope: the titular doll is eerily humanlike, but still firmly in the uncanny valley, as she proves when she busts out a hypnotic and unnerving dance. The moment appeared in the film’s trailer and quickly went viral, ushering in 2023 with a weirdly fun TikTok challenge that saw people recreating the M3GAN dance. [Jen Lennon]

None of The Flash’s digital cameos look great—they’re all weirdly rubbery and lifeless—but there’s one in particular that stands out for its crassness. He appears for only a moment, but Christopher Reeve shows up as Superman through a combination of archival footage and A.I. There are others who appear this way, too, including Helen Slater as Supergirl, Adam West as Batman, and Nicolas Cage as a different Superman, but the Reeve cameo is a particular sore spot. Reeve spoke out against cash-grab sequels in the past, and it’s hard to believe that he would’ve wanted his character, and his likeness, used purely for fan service as it was in The Flash. [Jen Lennon]

Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour hasn’t even made its way to North America yet, but from the phone screen, it looks like what we’d expect from a Beyoncé concert: perfection on a massive scale. During the final act, Beyoncé positions herself as the anchor of “KNTY News” to deliver Renaissance standout “America Has A Problem,” donning a custom Mugler costume that the online hive has dubbed a “cunty news anchor bee.” The image of Bey the bee is the most iconic of the tour so far, but the artist has been trying to tell us for years that she is actually not perfect. A viral video from one concert of Beyoncé accidentally shattering the helmet—and her own surprise at the mistake—is a welcome reminder that the Queen Bey is, in fact, human. [Drew Gillis]

Combining the disparate offerings of Discovery and HBO into one app sounded like a bad idea from the start, and not surprisingly the launch of the newly christened Max was a mess, too. Warner Bros. Discovery did a dreadful job of communicating about whether or not users would need to download a new Max app or if they could continue using the legacy HBO Max and Discovery+ apps, and on top of that the new UI was pretty damn confusing. Is anyone really looking for Succession and 90 Day Fiance in the same place? Probably not, but that hasn’t stopped Max from presenting them side-by-side, anyway. [Jen Lennon]

The decision to end Succession with its fourth season and kill off Brian Cox’s Logan Roy provided a narrative thrust that allowed HBO’s prestige drama to bow out in top form. Creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong gave us everything we wanted in the finale, as we watched Logan’s damaged children try to grab and hold onto the reins of power in a dramatic boardroom showdown. He also gave us something we didn’t know we needed—a rare moment of silly sibling bonding that we knew was too good to last, just like the show itself. [Cindy White]

One of the biggest stories in Hollywood this year is the battle between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. It’s been almost two months since the writers went on strike in their quest for a much-needed new deal, bringing a halt to production on films and TV shows. The AMPTP has yet to reach a deal with the writers, and now comes the threat of a SAG-AFTRA strike, too, as actors also prepare to strike for better working conditions and compensation. [Saloni Gajjar]

While it always seemed unlikely that James Gunn would drop the ball for the conclusion of his Guardians Of The Galaxy trilogy, Marvel has had a shaky track record lately. So the pressure was on, not just to deliver a satisfying ending to some of the most beloved movies in the MCU, but to restore some faith in Marvel as a whole. Unsurprisingly, Gunn delivered, with a heartfelt, emotional finale that explored Rocket’s backstory and gave the Guardians crew the sendoff they deserved. [Jen Lennon]

In stark contrast to Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 stands Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. It always seemed like a weird choice to introduce the MCU’s new big bad in an Ant-Man film, because the first two movies are some of the funniest in Marvel’s ever-expanding catalogue. And sure enough, the tonal shifts in Quantumania were just weird: the humor and the drama felt like they existed in two separate worlds that never came together. That’s been a recurring problem in the MCU for a while now, but when you can’t even get the balance right with Ant-Man, something’s really wrong. [Jen Lennon]

The Idol, as a whole, is a bizarre mess that we can’t seem to look away from, but there is one good thing to come from this show: Jennie from the K-pop group BLACKPINK. Jennie steals every scene in which she appears, showing everyone around her what actual talent looks like as the rest of the cast fumbles their way through extremely cringy dialogue. She may not get much to do (another one of the show’s innumerable sins), but whenever Jennie shows up, at least we know we’re in for some excellent choreography. [Jen Lennon]

HBO has had a lucky streak of Sunday night TV this spring with Succession, Barry, and Somebody Somewhere airing back-to-back-to-back. Unfortunately, this lineup was replaced by Sam Levinson and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye’s music drama, The Idol. That’s a downfall if we’ve ever seen one. Hidden underneath the layers of terrible dialogue and unnecessarily graphic scenes is an exciting storyline. Yet, each time The Weeknd comes on screen, he zaps the fun out of it with an icy, flatlining performance. The show never figured out Tedros, which means we’re stuck with watching The Weeknd’s shoddy work that is being labeled as “bad on purpose.” [Saloni Gajjar]

Expectations for Rihanna’s return to the stage for the Super Bowl LVII halftime show were almost unmeetable. The singer has famously not released an album since 2016’s Anti, and fans had resigned themselves to the fact that Rihanna probably would not debut new music at the game. The resulting greatest hits performance, her first televised gig in over five years, proved that Rihanna still has what it takes to command the world’s biggest stage. She also managed to pull off one major surprise: revealing a baby bump, her second child with A$AP Rocky. While the performance was bittersweet for fans, who realized they definitely weren’t getting a new album anytime soon, they’ll always have that halftime show to fall back on. [Drew Gillis]

With the AMPTP holding out on a deal with film and TV writers, Fall TV schedules are looking rough. Some networks, like ABC, are relying heavily on unscripted reality shows to fill primetime slots; others, like CBS, are fully committed to the delusion that the writers strike will end in time for scripted shows to return in the fall. But since that’s extremely unlikely to happen, we’ve all got a fall TV season full of endless singing and dating competitions to look forward to. Yay. [Jen Lennon]

Poker Face brought episodic storytelling to a prestige TV format, and while there were a lot of brilliant results from that decision, the one we really want to talk about is its effect on guest stars. Poker Face was able to draw in some incredible actors who couldn’t otherwise commit to a full TV show—a single episode is a much easier sell. Thanks to that, we got guest stars like Nick Nolte, John Ratzenberger, Lil Rel Howery, Hong Chau, Adrien Brody, Ellen Barkin, Chloë Sevigny, and Ron Perlman, all of whom were absolutely delightful. [Jen Lennon]

The 2023 Golden Globe Awards were perfectly fine, but they certainly didn’t make a strong case for the show’s return after the scandals that rocked the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and led to cancelation of the ceremony in 2022. Then in June came word that the Golden Globes were being sold to private equity firm Eldridge Industries, along with Dick Clark Productions, and that the HFPA was being turned into a for-profit company. Pro tip: if you’re an awards show trying to avoid controversy, maybe don’t turn your voting body into employees who are financially incentivized to make decisions that are in the best interest of the company, rather than simply rewarding the shows and films that deserve recognition. Just a thought. [Jen Lennon]

Jack Black adds joy to pretty much everything he touches, but he was especially delightful as Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The casting was perfect—who better to voice a campy evil king? He brings all his over-the-top Jack Black-ness to the role, making it easy to love and hate him in equal measure. [Jen Lennon]

Despite reassurances from the Universal Pictures marketing department that Chris Pratt’s Mario voice would actually be really great, it turned out to be pretty terrible. Pratt’s take on the Italian plumber was just his regular voice with a mild and inconsistent Brooklyn accent, which, why even bother? They should’ve just kept Charles Martinet, who’s voiced Mario in the video games since 1991. [Jen Lennon]

Let’s be clear: there was no reality in which Yellowjackets wasn’t going to have a big cannibalism moment, but after teasing it for the entire first season, there was a question about how much longer the show could draw it out. Luckily, they got right down to business in the second season as the team devoured Jackie in episode two. It was gruesome, gory, repulsive, and strangely hypnotic—in other words, it was absolutely perfect for the show. [Jen Lennon]

Is it surprising that one of the best shows of the year got the chop from HBO, given everything that’s happening over there? No. Is it a bummer? Absolutely. Perry Mason is a singular series, a noir(ish) project with shades of other man-against-the-system masterpieces like, say, Chinatown. It’s thematically timely, gorgeously shot, and carefully cast, with Matthew Rhys giving a career-best performance as the messy and idealistic lawyer at the center of it all. I’ll miss Mason’s drinking sessions with Strickland (Shea Whigham), the arcs of Della (Juliet Rylance) and Paul (Chris Chalk), the excellent use of Los Angeles and the show’s score, and devouring Matt Schimkowitz’s insightful recaps each week. [Tim Lowery]

If you missed the cultural discourse after episode five of HBO’s The Last Of Us, we’re either proud or sorry to tell you that, for a moment, everyone kinda wanted to get down with “big daddy mushroom.” That’s how Adam Basil, the actor inside the costume, described his character, a sort of extra-mutated zombie elevated by a fungal infection. Basil also called the beefy fungus boy a “sex icon,” which might be a bit of a stretch, but then again ... that swagger is pretty hard to deny. [Jen Lennon]

Elon Musk’s Twitter nonsense continued into 2023, after he acquired the site in October 2022. Though he promised an end to his short but chaotic reign in December 2022, he didn’t actually step down until six months later, which meant he still had time to force his petulant behavior onto a public that really, really did not want to engage with him. Case in point: he paid for Stephen King’s verified status against King’s own wishes, which really sums up Musk’s Twitter stewardship in a nutshell. [Jen Lennon]

This time a year ago, even die-hard Vanderpump Rules fans knew that the show’s best days were in the distant past, and it probably wouldn’t be long before it was time to call it a day. How nice it was to be wrong; with Scandoval (i.e. Tom Sandoval cheating on his life partner, Ariana Madix, with co-star Raquel Leviss) the series got an adrenaline shot straight to the heart. Ariana’s confrontation with Tom at the top of the season 10 finale is one of the greatest moments in reality television history, with scorched-Earth dialogue that feels almost ripped from an Edward Albee play. But despite what skeptics may believe, this wasn’t scripted; if these people were that good at acting, they wouldn’t be on Vanderpump Rules. No, this was just pure, brazen betrayal, and we couldn’t get enough of it. [Drew Gillis]

This one stings, as Padma Lakshmi is the best to ever do it as far as the whole cooking-competition hosting gig goes. With an excellent palette and food vocabulary but also a nice sense of humor, empathy, and calm, Lakshmi helped keep this insanely intense show on an even keel. As Christina Izzo, who recapped the most recent season of the series for us, so wonderfully put it in her piece on Lakshmi’s departure after 17 years: “When Padma says something tastes good, you believe her, because she’s not only the Top Chef viewer’s guide through all of the QuickFires and Restaurant Wars and ‘mise en place’ races but also its plate-licking proxy, a through-and-through food geek able to seamlessly navigate cultures.” Luckily for us, she’ll still be around—er, on our TV sets—thanks to Taste The Nation. [Tim Lowery]