Gallery: 14 Pop Culture Masterpieces You Should Have Savored by Now
Universal/Everett Collection01BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II, Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, 1989. (c)Universal/courtesy Everett
[*The Back to the Future* trilogy](http://amzn.com/B0054OGQM8) | The best ’80s movies wrapped adventure and comedy into a single package—but none as iconically as *BTTF*.
02culture-people-chapelle
*[Chappelle’s Show](https://youtu.be/4eHMgXlugIU)* | After the Internet but before YouTube, Dave Chappelle’s short-form series was both incisive and viral—and paved the way for today’s sketch boom.
03culture-people-arrested-dev
*[Arrested Development](https://youtu.be/y1_HPx6h1do)* | Mitchell Hurwitz’s mid-’00s family farce married the long-form plotting of a drama with the cleverness of … well, of nothing else.
04TheSandman
*[The Sandman](http://amzn.com/1401225756)* | Fantasy and comics came together like never before in Neil Gaiman’s sprawling literary tale of Morpheus and his family of immortals.
05culture-people-freaks-n-geeks
*[Freaks and Geeks](https://youtu.be/-R24HH7ophg)* | Before Judd Apatow and Paul Feig (and James Franco and Seth Rogen) took over movies, they made magic with this valentine to teen nonconformity.
06snowcrash
*[Snow Crash](http://amzn.com/0553380958)* | Researchers had been interested in virtual reality since the late ’60s, but Neal Stephenson’s 1992 sci-fi thriller gave the mainstream its first taste of the VR future.
07culture-people-half-life
*[Half-Life 2](https://youtu.be/ID1dWN3n7q4)* | First-person shooters arose in the ’90s, but they were mere trifles compared to this gripping, complex 2004 title that elevated a scientist to a hero.
08Batman-The-Dark-Knight-Returns
1986’s dark heroes | The rise of the antihero in pop culture? You’ve got Alan Moore’s *[Watchmen](http://amzn.com/1401245250)* and Frank Miller’s *[Batman: The Dark Knight Returns](http://amzn.com/1563893428)* to thank for it.
09culture-people-limbo
*[Limbo](https://youtu.be/Kyk0Xoku8Ms)* | As the games industry got bigger and bigger, the best games got smaller. This gloomy monochrome 2010 puzzler is a huge reason why.
10Funcrusher Plus
*[Funcrusher Plus](https://youtu.be/cVyXe5lFKpc)* | For years, rap’s only division was coastal—until Company Flow faced off against labels with an “independent as fuck” ethos in this 1996 masterpiece.
11culture-people-omega-man
*[The Omega Man](https://youtu.be/NUkU18MrBzU)* | It wasn’t the first adaptation of *I Am Legend*, nor the last, but this 1971 sci-fi footnote is a cult favorite for good reason.
12the-earthsea-cycle-childrens-books
[*The Earthsea* cycle](http://amzn.com/0547773749) | From 1968 to 2001, these six novels by Ursula K. LeGuin redefined what fantasy could be and forged paths that J. K. Rowling would later tread.
13culture-people-the-wire
*[The Wire](https://youtu.be/zmIvu1yg3bU)* | HBO first established “prestige TV” with *The Sopranos*, but David Simon’s blistering mid-’00s indictment of inequality is still the form’s sublime ideal.
14Kid-A
*[Kid A](https://youtu.be/PSrMeiWSZ9M)* | By supplanting their usual guitar-driven rock with a new sound, Radiohead heralded an era when digital music wasn’t “electronic”—it just *was*.
