What is art?

I believe that artforms improve over time. The more art that came before, the more the artist can assess what worked and what didn't—and iterate on it. Movies, music—everything—is often better than it ever was.

I know that's controversial. I know nostalgia, romanticization, and wanting to signal our refined, studied tastes blind us to this. But I believe it to be true.

Granted, all new art isn't consistently better than prior art. Economics and culture pressure new art into optimizing for vanity metrics.

But the best art of each era usually trends to being better than the best art of the prior era. If you keep your eyes open and don't dismiss newcomers, that is.

And so I present to you my favorite media, without shame that there isn't a greater representation of older art.

Television

• Make Happy — A truly original comedy special that doesn't forget to be funny
• True Detective (S1) — Atmospheric, intellectual, and exhilarating storytelling
• Rick and Morty — Inspired, inventive storytelling that pulls no punches
• Making a Murderer — Masterful affinity-building and long-term storytelling
• Jones vs. Gustafsson — Two great UFC fighters going toe-to-toe for 30 min
• Between Two Ferns — Wildly bold and inventive self-indulgent comedy
• Counterpart — Brilliant plotting, brilliant character study, and very slick
• The Boys — Rich characters, rich perversion of culture, and unafraid
• Tiger King — Masterclass in how to space out the release of information
• Others — Sherlock, Barry, Altered Carbon (S1), Westworld (S1), Death Note, Daredevil, The Office, Who Is America?, Patriot, Star Trek: Discovery (S1), Nathan For You

Films

• Searching for Sugarman — A triumph of documentary narrative storytelling
• The Matrix — Intellectual, philosophical, and visually dazzling storytelling
• The Prestige — A great example of stimulating plotting and character building
• Whiplash — A great example of character-based, emotional arc storytelling
• Free Solo — The filmmaking is fine, but it's Alex Honnold who's fascinating
• Finding Frances — An absurd documentary about the human condition
• Into the Spider-Verse — A dazzling feast for the eyes, and original fun
• Others — Heat, Edge of Tomorrow, Nightcrawler, 500 Days of Summer, Man on Wire, Moon, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Collateral, MacGruber (for not caring), Peanut Butter Falcon, Punch-Drunk Love, Zootopia

Songwriters

1. Wild Beasts
2. The National
3. SZA
4. Death Cab for Cutie
5. Frank Ocean
6. Radiohead
7. dvsn
8. Brand New
9. Hippo Campus
10. The Weeknd
11. Bon Iver
12. Tash Sultana
13. John Mayer
14. Angus and Julia Stone
15. Ben Howard
16. Geographer
17. Kendrick Lamar
18. RY X
19. Zero 7
20. Fink
21. Matt Corby
22. Bonobo
23. Lauryn Hill
24. Raveena

Craftspeople

• Hans Zimmer — Film composer
• John Mayer — Songwriter
• SZA — Songwriter
• Israel Adesanya — Fighter
• Ben Gibbard — Songwriter
• Lauryn Hill — Songwriter
• Christopher Nolan — Film director
• Aaron Sorkin — Screenwriter
• Elon Musk — Engineer
• Marc Rebillet — Musician

Quotes

• "If you gave him an enema, you could bury him in a matchbox." —Christopher Hitchens
• "You're telling me I can dodge bullets?" "I'm trying to tell you that—when you're ready—you won't have to." —Morpheus
• "In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move." —Douglas Adams
• "The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself." ―Carl Sagan
• "We take it for granted today, but a single Dorito has more extreme nacho flavor than a peasant in the 1400s would get in his whole lifetime." —Matt Crowley