Vultures 20 Most-Read Stories of 2023
From Britney to Taylor and The Simpsons to Succession, we covered a lot of ground.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Tracy Ma, Bobby Doherty, Mark Seliger, HBO, MEGA/GC Images
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Tracy Ma, Bobby Doherty, Mark Seliger, HBO, MEGA/GC Images This year’s most-read post on Vulture was, unsurprisingly, a piece of Taylor Swift journalism. The star certainly had an eventful year, dominating venues, restaurants, condiments, and headlines. But she was far from the only thing that captured our attention—or yours. Here are the 20 Vulture stories that our readers spent the most time with in 2023.
Worth noting: We intentionally omitted TV recaps from this list, instead collecting our most popular show discussions in a separate article.
TV
20. The Simpsons Is Good Again
After 34 seasons, 750 episodes, and a decades-long funk, the show innovated its way back to popularity and relevance. Read the story.
Celebrity
19. ‘Where Is Britney Spears?’
After her conservatorship ended, some of her fandom latched on to a new theory: What if she had never been freed at all? Read the story.
Books
18. The Women Are Smart. The Men Are Sincere. And the Ending Is Always Happy.
Emily Henry cracked the modern romance novel. Read the story.
Theater
17. The Final Sondheim
The complete, from-beginning-to-end story of how Stephen Sondheim, David Ives, and Joe Mantello created the musical Here We Are. Read the story.
Movies
16. Power Bottoms
The NYU classmates behind the year’s most delightfully dumb comedy. Read the story.
Exit Interview
15. Winning Time Will Not Shoot for 3
Producer Kevin Messick breaks down the HBO series’ abrupt cancellation and how they turned season two’s ending into a series finale. Read the story.
The Industry
14. Reality Check
The boom — or glut — in streaming documentaries has sparked a reckoning among filmmakers and their subjects. Read the story.
Superlatives
13. The Most Overlooked and Transformative of the Who, According to Roger Daltrey
“I was dealing with being in a band with three complete addicts, and it wasn’t easy.” Read the story.
Podcasts
12. Can Anyone Trust The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling?
The podcast says it wants to have a conversation. What it really wants to do is give a sermon. Read the story.
Origin Stories
11. Unraveling the Greatest Writers’ Room Story Ever
“Who Jackie?” has been retold for 28 years — much to the surprise of the Roseanne writer who said it. Read the story.
The Law
10. Alec and Hilaria Against the World
The actor is back on the Rust set. Since the death of Halyna Hutchins, his marriage has taken on a starring role. Read the story.
Close Read
9. Succession Did It in Episode Three
“Connor’s Wedding” is a triumph of anticlimax. Read the story.
The Industry
8. Romeo and Juliet Was a Tragedy
In 1968, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were the world’s most famous teens. In 2023, they sued Paramount for abuse. Read the story.
Stage Fright
7. The 100 Hardest Video-Game Levels of All Time
Dizzying shooters, agonizing puzzles, and water stages (ugh) that raise the question: Continue? Read the story.
Making A Movie
6. Spider-Verse Artists Say Working on the Sequel Was ‘Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts’
Four animators say unsustainable working conditions are behind the success of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Read the story.
Profile
5. Drew Barrymore Is Figuring It Out Live
Her radically intimate daytime show is as much therapy for her as it is for her guests. Read the story.
Screen Time
4. The Decomposition of Rotten Tomatoes
The most overrated metric in movies is erratic, reductive, and easily hacked — and yet has Hollywood in its grip. Read the story.
Endings
3. The ‘Troubling Reverberations’ at the End of Oppenheimer, Explained
It’s the most shattering ending of anything Christopher Nolan has made, and maybe even of any studio blockbuster in recent memory. Read the story.
The Industry
2. The Binge Purge
TV’s streaming model is broken. It’s also not going away. For Hollywood, figuring that out will be a horror show. Read the story.
Champagne Problems
1. ‘She Eats, She Pays, She Gets the F– Out’
Servers, bartenders, and owners explain what happens when Taylor Swift visits their NYC restaurants. Read the story.
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