No year is what we imagine it will be, for all the good & ill that comes with it. It’s starting to feel bizarrely normal to come to the end of another year in the 2020s with such dread looming for the following year. Things on this planet are pretty dire, especially what humans are failing to do with urgency. I spend a lot of time in my head. I don’t come to any particularly enlightening conclusions, but I ponder things a lot. Who can say where we will be one year from this day? Such volatile times mean seeing our way through the fog is difficult. I hope that wherever this new year finds you, you are as safe as possible, and when the next one comes, your safety continues. And for those lacking safety, may the cause of their harm be obliterated in the following months.
Let’s talk about PopCult Reviews in 2023.
In 2022, the blog had an annual view total of just under 40,000 & a visitor total of just under 30,000. It was my best year to date. Then 2023 happened. Wow.
My 2023 annual view total was just under 119,000 views, with a visitor total of over 86,000.
That works out to 202% growth in views & 188% growth in visitors.
My reading of those numbers goes to two places:
The breadth of content I have covered over the last 8 years of reviving my PopCult is such that my “net” is more expansive, so I’m catching more.
The inclusion of solo tabletop RPG reviews & actual plays has brought in a lot of new viewers, as you will see in the top posts I wrote and published in 2023.
Also, I do not have the brain to monetize this growth as far as I can tell other than promoting my Patreon, which I don’t do well or consistently.
Imagine what I could do if I actually put effort into promoting PopCult. Ha!
Top 20 Posts of 2023
- Solo Tabletop RPG Review – Artefact
- Solo Tabletop RPG Review – Notorious
- Solo Tabletop RPG Review – Thousand Year Old Vampire
- Patron Pick – Eternal Summer
- The Short Films of Ari Aster Part Two
- Movie Review – Imitation of Life
- Movie Review – The Five Devils
- Patron Pick – The Spongebob Squarepants Movie
- Solo Tabletop RPG Review – Ironsworn Part One
- Movie Review – Grey Gardens
- My Favorite Crying Scenes
- The Short Films of Ari Aster Part One
- Solo Tabletop RPG Review – Ironsworn: Starforged Part One
- Looking at Art – Mural de La Plena
- Comic Book Review – Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Spider-Man No More
- Solo Tabletop RPG Review – Ironsworn: Starforged Part Four
- Movie Review – 12 Angry Men
- Comic Book Review – Superman: Space Age
- Looking at Art – Chinese Horse
- Movie Review – Insidious: The Red Door
Looking at what was popular, it definitely shows solo ttrpgs as a significant driver. Ari Aster’s short films were popular, too. There’s an interesting mix of classic movies (Imitation of Life, 12 Angry Men, Grey Gardens) and new fare (The Five Devils, Insidious: The Red Door). Of all my comic book reviews, Spider-Man and Superman rise to the top.
I also have to give a nod to my defunct “Looking at Art” series. I tried something new in the first quarter, along with the solo ttrpgs. I enjoyed it, but it was also a lot of work because I was diving into something with a lot of angles to come at it from and not an excellent background knowledge in the subject. I still love learning about the arts and artists, but I don’t think I am ready to write about them in a way that flows.
I don’t have plans right away for anything new, but just getting better at the stuff we already do on the blog. Here are some things coming in the New Year.
Movies
January
We’re starting with a short series called Some French Classics. These are movies I’ve heard a lot about (one I am revisiting after nearly twenty years) and carved out some room to watch. The line-up is:
Grand Illusion, The Rules of the Game, Night and Fog, Hiroshima mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad, and The 400 Blows.
The second half of January will be our Palestinian Cinema series. I figured one thing I could do during this ongoing genocide in Gaza is share art from the people under fire. I want to see the stories they tell and what it can help us to understand about them and their struggle. The titles in this series, for those who want to watch along, will be:
Chronicle of a Disappearance, Divine Intervention, Paradise Now, Salt of This Sea, The Time That Remains, Five Broken Cameras, Omar, It Must Be Heaven and Gaza Fights for Freedom
Many of these are available on Kanopy if your library system subscribes to that service.
February
The first half of this month will be Wiseman’s Eye, which focuses on the documentary work of Frederick Wiseman. He made many films examining the institutions that drive America and tries to see them from every angle possible. The movies we’ll be watching in that series are:
Titicut Follies, High School, Law and Order, Welfare, Public Housing, Juvenile Court, and City Hall
February will finish with a series spotlighting the work of Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène. I had seen a trailer for the restoration of his 1966 feature film, Black Girl, and became interested. This clip from TikTok convinced me to add him to my must-watch list. The films in this series (which I think are all available on the Criterion Channel) are:
Black Girl. Mandabi. Emitaï, Xala, Camp de Thiaroye, and Moolaadé
From March to August, I have some ideas but am leaving a lot of space to let happenstance guide me. I’ll also be putting up polls on my Patreon where patrons can choose film series themes for some of those months. That said, I have some film series planned for later in the year.
In August, The Crime: The Atomic Bombing of Japan will look at how the atrocity of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki have been portrayed in cinema from both Japan and other nations.
I am planning to attend some of the movies shown at the 2024 Leiden International Film Festival, which runs from late October through early November. I looked at last year’s slate and was annoyed I couldn’t go because so many films I didn’t see in December that likely would have been on my favorites lists were playing. I will also be reviewing those films here, so I’m very excited about that for the new year.
I will also be doing a series on Pier Paolo Pasolini in November. I am considering watching and putting up a review of Salo, or 120 Days of Sodom, on Election Night in the States. It feels appropriate. I’ve never seen it, but I know a lot about what is in it. This is one of the few films I am actually nervous about watching. Beyond that, I am fascinated to finally watch Pasolini’s work. His filmography sounds incredible, and I can’t wait to dive in.
Comics
I decided to be very ambitious for the first two months of 2024 when it came to comic books. I am reading and reviewing The Uncanny X-Men Omnibuses Volumes One through Five and the Mutant Massacre and Fall of the Mutant omnibuses too. I’ve only read Chris Claremont’s legendary X-Men run in fragments and will bite off a big chunk of it with this series. Thinking about reading & reviewing the back half in the latter part of 2024.
In March, I’ll be reviewing James Robinson’s Starman series, which I have read before but that was almost twenty years ago. Also tucked in there is Mark Russell’s incredible Flintstones series that came out of nowhere in the mid 2010s. After that, I will slow things down and look at some more niche books that have been getting a lot of acclaim in the best of 2023 lists. Those comics include: Carmilla the First Vampire, Daniel Clowes’ Monica, Parasocial, and Spectators.
TV
I typically leave television more open to plan as I go, but I do have a few things I plan on watching in 2024
We will be finishing out The Venture Brothers Seasons Six & Seven and the movie finale in the first two months of the year. I will also be watching Lars Von Trier’s The Kingdom finally. I have heard good things, seen a bit and it looks wonderfully weird. I have also been thinking about watching Pamela Adlon’s Better Things. That show seemed to be on a lot of Best Of lists when it was airing and I think Adlon is very funny.
Solo TTRPGs
So much to play and so little time.
January will kick off with a two-part review/actual play of Blades in the Dark using the Alone in the Dark solo rules. That will be followed by a three-part Into the Odd review/ap using the Alone in the Odd solo rules.
In February, I will be playing with the work-in-progress materials of Eldersworn, a Lovecraftian hack of my favorite Ironsworn. I have seen some people who have played with what exists thus far really loving the way the mystery mechanics work, so excited to try that out too.
At some point in 2024, I want to return to my ongoing Starforged homebrew universe. I also have an idea for another Supersworn mini-campaign that combines elements of the Teenage Mutant Turtles and X-Men, heavily inspired by The Days of Future Past story arc. I have a list on my computer of everything I want to play and I cannot imagine I will get it all in by the end of the year. I feel very lucky to have so much.
I think we are in for another year of tumult, another chance to make better choices individually & collectively. I hope that PopCult can at minimum point people towards some art that helps them connect with the world a little better.
PopCult Reviews 
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