The Guide newsletter is 100 issues old this week. To mark that little milestone we’ve put together a list of 100 pop-cultural things (films, TV shows, albums, podcasts, games, internet ephemera) that we’ve enjoyed, or which have otherwise lodged themselves in our brains, since the newsletter began. Don’t think of it as a definitive countdown or anything: it’s more a look back at some cultural highs and memorable moments from the past two-odd years. Without further ado:
Severance’s brain-scrambling “Sims meets Twin Peaks’ Black Lodge” opening credits … and just Severance, generally.
Kendrick Lamar promoting 2022’s most anticipated album by dropping a single, The Heart part 5, that wasn’t on said album and was also better than anything that was on it.
Tár, and the return of properly divisive, arguments-on-the-drive-home from-the-cinema movies.
The Forks episode of The Bear, AKA the one where Richie aces a week’s work experience at a fancy restaurant. Secretly the best episode of season two, even though the family dinner table argument episode that preceded it hogged all the attention.
Being back in a sweaty, roiling moshpit after two years of glumly watching videos of them on YouTube.
Spencer, the Kristen Stewart Princess Diana movie, which everyone got wrong: instead of being an underwhelming royal intrigue drama, it was a brilliantly unhinged comedy horror.
The criminally underloved Station Eleven, a drama about a pandemic released at the end of a pandemic and somehow still feelgood TV.
The often hilarious scramble to get Beyoncé/Taylor Swift tickets and the lengths fans went to see them in the flesh (“I guess I’m going to … Warsaw!”).
Football Manager mobile: less a recommendation than a warning. Do not download this game on to your phone. You will become horribly addicted. Your life will be ruined.
The Tubs’ irresistibly catchy album Dead Meat – jangle is back, baby!
That great slow burn sensation of people discovering Squid Game and telling their friends, who loved it and told their friends (granted, assisted by Netflix plastering it all over their homepage).
A three-hour, dialogue-heavy movie about a theoretical physicist making half a billion dollars – damn it Christopher Nolan, you’ve done it again!
The BBC’s breathtaking doc Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland, quite possibly the definitive account of The Troubles committed to film.
The ability of the internet to briefly make the negroni sbagliato with prosecco the most popular cocktail in the world (arguably one of the few good things House of the Dragon gave us).
The sheer massiveness of Dune on a whopping great cinema screen – bring on Part Two!
Waking up the morning after the 2022 Oscars expecting to see headlines about how many gongs Power of the Dog won and instead finding out that Will Smith did … WHAT?!
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (pictured above), a game so vividly realised that you had to stop yourself from plunging your head into your telly while playing it.
The boom in genuinely good music memoirs (even if they are simply filling a gap created by the slow death of the music press).
A brilliant final series of Pen15, the best teen comedy since Freaks and Geeks.
Succession’s inspired decision to completely ignore Covid – because, of course, the super-rich had the luxury of ignoring it too.
Sweet Bobby and Hoaxed, podcasts that marked out Tortoise’s Alexi Mostrous as a master of smart true crime.
Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Oscars triumph, and the rise of fleshed-out, non-cardboard cutout roles for Asian actors on the big screen.
The rise of Olivia Rodrigo, Gen Z’s answer to Avril Lavigne, and beloved of millennials too.
The intergenerational brilliance of Hacks, the best comedy about a comedy since BoJack Horseman.
Ice Spice and PinkPantheress, the two queens of instantly viral fizzy pop, collaborating on a track that of course went instantly viral.
Jennifer Egan finally returning to her A Visit From the Goon Squad stomping ground with The Candy House, and reminding everyone that she is the first author to properly nail our frazzled relationship with tech.
“These gays, they’re trying to murder me!” - god bless you, Jennifer Coolidge.
The preposterous hugeness of Elden Ring, an extremely straight-faced fantasy game that somehow even the most fantasy-averse people seemed to be playing.
The soundtrack to Licorice Pizza, stuffed to the gills with glorious 70s deep cuts, including the Classical Gas-style cover of Greensleeves you never knew you needed.
Ramy season three … if it ever makes it to the UK, that is.
Amelia Dimoldenberg levelling up from the chicken shop to the red carpet.
Emily In Paris and And Just Like That embracing their intrinsic cringe to become (whisper it) very watchable.
The relentless rise of on-screen chundering.
Tom Cruise, pictured below resuscitating the action movie with his ‘‘feel the G’s” performance in Top Gun: Maverick.
The Udún episode of Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power – an eye-popping spectacular that reminded you what they’d spent all that money on (shame about the rest of the series).
All 95 minutes of Cocaine Bear.
Austin Butler going so ham in Elvis that he lost his original accent for two years.
Christine and the Queens erasing all memory of the shaky Redcar with a stonking concept album based around Angels In America.
James Marsden, TV’s new unlikely king of playing himself, with brilliantly savage self-send ups in both Party Down, and of course, Jury Duty.
Everyone and their dog’s very brief love affair with the BeReal app.
Happy Valley’s Catherine Cawood coming back for one final showdown with Tommy Lee Royce – and the note-perfect Kieran Hodgson parody it inspired.
Dreaming Whilst Black, the A24/BBC comedy that often felt like a Black British version of The Office, and delivered on the hype around it.
A really exciting new wave of British rappers breaking through, including Finn Foxell, Nemzzz (pictured below), Potter Payper and of course Central Cee.
Beau Is Afraid, quite possibly the last great “here’s a talented young auteur, let’s give him far too much money and freedom and let him make whatever he wants” movie.
All four hours of the Boogie Nights mega-episode from cracking movie recap podcast The Rewatchables.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Laura Poitras’s film about Nan Goldin’s art, anti-opioid activism and general badassery.
Paul Mescal’s ascent from Normal People to the big leagues, via an Oscar nom and bringing an understated menace to Stanley Kowalski.
Jennette McCurdy’s eye-opening child star memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, which was even better as an audiobook.
Atlanta’s two final seasons: three was a bold sometimes baffling step into the unknown, four was a playing of the hits, albeit in a completely original way.
The memes and parodies spawned by The Idol which were, sadly, much more entertaining than the show itself.
Couples Therapy, which could have so easily been voyeuristic schlock but managed to be insightful and affecting.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, the gaming novel that became a mainstream sensation.
Brilliantly bizarre Sesame-Street-gone-wrong webseries Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared being resurrected by Channel 4.
Barbie hoovering up the next generation of British and Irish stars, including Ncuti Gatwa, Emma Mackey, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan and – most incongruously of all – Jamie Demetriou.
The occasionally very gnarly This Is Going to Hurt breathing new life into the hospital drama.
The rise and rise of K-Pop – even while BTS have been on hiatus.
Charli XCX finally, finally topping the album charts with a subversive take on mainstream pop, Crash.
The seemingly endless drama around Don’t Worry Darling – infinitely more interesting than the film itself.
We Are Lady Parts creator Nida Manzoor (pictured below) continuing to reorient how British TV and film depicts young south Asian women with charming kung-fu movie homage Polite Society.
Crazy Ass Moments in Nu-Metal History, a Twitter (X?) account that somehow manages to dig up an inexhaustible number of clips of Deftones playing on daytime TV shows.
Top Boy never letting up for even a moment – roll on the final series.
The irresistible genre polyamory of Steve Lacy’s Bad Habit, which – to crib from its Wikipedia page – “is a psychedelic and lo-fi R&B and bedroom pop ballad that mixes elements of baroque pop, grunge, soft rock, punk, synth-pop, indie rock, neo soul, funk, slacker rock, jangle pop, indie pop and hip hop”. That all?
Nathan Fielder’s brilliant cringe-a-thon The Rehearsal, best watched through your fingers.
The Traitors (but only the UK version, mind!).
Normal Gossip, the podcast that proved that normies are far more entertaining than the same conveyor best of celebrity guests.
Titane, the funny, thrilling, often unwatchable Palme D’Or winner, which came complete with a Cronenberg-esque sex scene involving a Cadillac.
Everyone – even David Hockney – giving Crocs the seal of approval.
Julia Fox’s rise from Uncut Gems to internet mainstay, via a stint as Kanye’s GF.
Jenna Ortega (pictured below) making Wednesday Addams cool again.
Only Connect’s sorting wall – so good the New York Times has seemingly pinched it
The relentless Lesley Manville – excellent both in critically acclaimed goodness like Sherwood, and utter tosh like Citadel.
Chat Pile’s Why and the invention of the furious protest metal track. (“WHY DO PEOPLE HAVE TO LIVE OOOUUUTSIIDE”).
Netflix’s ridiculous (and ridiculously watchable) killer thriller You continuing to eat itself, including completely reimagining the geography of London.
Barbarian’s ludicrous smash-cut – a rare moment where a horror film manages to be both absolutely terrifying and very funny in a window of a couple of seconds.
John Wilson’s lovely landlady in How To With John Wilson, who managed to briefly convince us that landlords might not all be complete monsters.
Those hints this year, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania flopping, that Marvel’s chokehold grip on cinema might slowly, slowly be loosening.
The very moving, very surreal final series of Stath Lets Flats.
BookTok almost singlehandedly rescuing the literary biz.
Amid the sadness around Paul O’Grady’s death, the reminder in obituaries, tributes and endless hilarious YouTube clips, of what a gamechanging, transgressive figure he was in British culture.
Pop culture mystery-solving podcast Decoder Ring, which always delights, whether it’s investigating Columbo’s popularity in communist Romania or the role of Sideways in the slump in sales of Merlot.
David Simon returning to Baltimore with We Own This City (starring Wunmi Mosaku) and managing to provide a fine compliment to The Wire, rather than a retread.
Aussie electro-poppers Confidence Man establishing themselves as the festival band par excellence in the post-pandemic era. The Pyramid Stage beckons.
Daring reimaginings of trad musicals, notably Fish and Fein’s moody, sexy Oklahoma! and Rebecca Frecknall’s immersive Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club.
A kids’ cartoon about a family of cute dogs somehow attracting Sopranos-level reverence from its parent fans.
Great venues big and small managing to cling on – and even thrive – despite a brutal decade so far for the entertainment industry.
The Last of Us somehow squeezing a bit more blood out of the desiccated zombie genre (mainly by not being a zombie show at all).
RRR’s Naatu Naatu scene, a gigantic spectacle it was impossible not to grin from ear to ear at.
Apple TV+ consistently smashing it out of the park with shows like Bad Sisters, For All Mankind, Slow Horses, Silo, etc. Now it just needs to find someone to watch them.
Aftersun, Charlotte Wells’ achingly bittersweet holiday resort drama, which stayed with us longer than any other film on this list.
A golden moment for hardcore punk, with Turnstile taking the genre to arenas and Soul Glo, Scowl, Zulu, Gel and others pulling it in interesting new directions.
The trailer for Poor Things, which even by Yorgos Lanthimos’s standards looks set to be thoroughly messed up.
Biased, we know, but David Squires’s strips for the Guardian football desk are a weekly joy, packed with great sight gags and pop-cultural references (and they’re occasionally gut-punchingly poignant).
The return of Bennifer (pictured above), a celeb relationship worth rooting for.
Ellie and Natasia, grotesque sketch show heirs to Vic and Bob.
Oral histories! Michael Cragg’s Reach for the Stars on 90’s pop’s dark underbelly and Kyle Buchanan’s Blood, Sweat and Chrome on the wild making of Mad Max Fury Road, among others.
The stunt scenes on Barry, which could have taught a fair few green-screen heavy films a lesson in spectacle.
Signers continuing to be the real headline acts at festivals, as the head-banging interpreter at the Foos’ Glasto set showed.
Beef’s brilliant opening scene, a road rage freak out that made you want to flip the bird at the first driver you encountered.
One that’s not out just yet, but gorgeous romantic drama Past Lives will knock your socks off when it arrives next month. An early Oscar favourite?
Words: Gwilym Mumford and Hannah J Davies
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