Right now, we are absolutely spoiled for choice when it comes to entertainment. TV shows, movies, and games all come out at such a fast and furious pace that it’s hard to keep up. Not all of them are worth your time, of course — which is where we come in.
The best entertainment of 2023
A curated guide to the most interesting games, movies, and TV shows of the year.
Our team spends a lot of time immersed in the various realms of pop culture so that we can handpick our favorites for you. That could mean a hot new indie game you might’ve otherwise missed or the streaming series that will become your new obsession. Either way, if you’re finding it hard to sort through the flood, this is the place to find a curated selection of the best stuff.
And like last year, this page will be updated regularly throughout the year — so make sure to check back in whenever you need some help.
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Television
- Max’s Scavengers Reign captures the beauty and terror of a truly alien world
- Castlevania: Nocturne is a revolutionary epic that does the franchise’s best games justice
- Ahsoka brings mystery back to Star Wars
- Apple’s sci-fi drama Invasion ramps up the tension in season 2
- Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire is the next brilliant sci-fi anthology you’ve been looking for
- Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 is pure signal in a franchise full of intergalactic noise
- Peacock’s Mrs. Davis is a wild, outlandish, and gorgeous indictment of AI
- You are not prepared for the final season of Star Trek: Picard
- Poker Face is Peacock’s first truly great original series
- Disney’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is a slick, stylish break from the MCU and all its baggage
- Servant’s final season gets off to a blistering start
- HBO’s The Last of Us is a compact adaptation that puts you in the passenger seat
Games
- In Alan Wake 2, you will never feel safe
- Dave the Diver is one of the year’s best games, and it’s still great on Switch
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder never stops surprising
- Spider-Man 2 on the PS5 has twice the spider-men, twice the emo fun
- Starfield is a stellar sci-fi refresh of the Bethesda RPG formula
- Pikmin 4 embraces the series’ hidden horror roots
- Oxenfree II is a perfect spooky sequel — and one of Netflix’s best games
- Final Fantasy XVI adds blood and grit but doesn’t change the series’ soul
- The System Shock remake is a delightful surprise
- Street Fighter 6 is worth it for the excellent campaign alone
- Humanity is a brilliant puzzle game that never runs out of ideas
- Tears of the Kingdom is a legend retold with slightly less wonder
- Burning Shores’ focus makes it the best part of Horizon Forbidden West
- Coffee Talk is just as warm and cozy in its sequel
- Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp shows that great games age beautifully
- Resident Evil 4 remake is a modern blockbuster with an old-school heart
- The Dead Space remake is a grisly cut of classic horror
- Wild Hearts is a fresh take on Monster Hunter with a dash of Fortnite
- Forspoken is better than its bad name implies
- Season: A Letter to the Future is a soothing bike ride through the end of the world
- Don’t forget about Persona 3
Film
- Godzilla Minus One is a brilliant reckoning for the king of monster allegories
- A24’s Dream Scenario is a shapeshifting parable about our obsessions with viral fame
- Killers of the Flower Moon is a devastating snapshot of America’s truth laid bare
- This Barbie is a feminist parable fighting to be great in spite of Mattel’s input
- Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron is a beautiful relic — and the end of an era
- Across the Spider-Verse is an animated masterpiece that upends Marvel’s Spider-canon
- Suzume is everything that’s beautiful and moving about Makoto Shinkai’s imagination
- Beau Is Afraid is an exercise in laughing to keep from screaming
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the new gold standard for video game films
- Talk To Me is a potent dose of unrelenting teen horror
- Creed III brings Adonis’ story full circle by trading in one set of daddy issues for another
- M3gan is a midrange delight about the horrors of 21st-century parenting
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