The end of the year is our chance to define our time as it happens, and for critics to choose those works they feel will live on in posterity. Basically, it’s a chance for everyone to look super smart. But each year there are dozens of other works that make up the pop culture landscape which for whatever reason—too commercial, too silly, too “unimportant”, or just too obscure—don’t quite make the cut.
Each year we poll our staff, contributors, and fans for their favorite art of the past year. From that base we select a top ten. Over the next few days we will be revealing our winners in Podcasts, Books, Music, Film, and Television, but first here’s a list of some of the outliers that appeared on various lists but just missed the final cut.
TELEVISION
Keegan Michael Key of Key & Peele (Image © Comedy Central)
Key & Peele
Futurama
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Shameless
Nicole Byer of Girl Code (Image © MTV)
Girl Code
The Mindy Project
Hemlock Grove
Comedy Bang Bang
Laura Dern and Luke Wilson in Enlightened (Image © HBO)
Enlightened
The Following
The Blacklist
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
FILM
Gru and his Minions in Despicable Me 2 (Image © Universal)
Despicable Me 2
Star Trek Into Darkness
The Conjuring
Blue Jasmine
Prisoners
Olga Kurylenko and Tom Cruise in Oblivion (Image © Universal)
Oblivion
Man of Steel
42
Warm Bodies
All is Lost
Sandra Bullock in Gravity (Image © Warner Bros.)
Gravity
Frozen
Philomena
Frances Ha
MUSIC
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
The Weeknd
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Kanye West
Haim
Sky Ferreira
Sky Ferreira
Beck
Sara Bareilles
Robin Thicke
Justin Timberlake
BOOKS
Nathan Graziano
Some Sort of Ugly by Nathan Graziano
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
Dave Eggers
The Circle by Dave Eggers
Doctor Sleep by Steven King
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
PODCASTS
Jordan Morris and Jesse Thorn
Jordan Jesse Go!
Gobbeldygeek
WTF with Marc Maron
Risk!
The Indoor Kids
