EW staffers reflect on the entertainment that provided the ultimate escape this season.
The song never caught on anywhere besides a few spin classes, gay clubs, and the EW offices.
But “Despacito” be damned, its my anthem of the summer.

Columbia Pictures; WILSON WEB/TNT; Erica Parise/Netflix; Melinda Sue Gordon/Warner Bros.; RCA
responses and a lot of laughter-fueled tears.
IfGirls Tripteaches us anything, its that friends are worth fighting for.
Oooh, also to stay away from absinthe.

Justin Coit/Freeform
Gerrad Hall
The Leftovers
Im still picking atThe Leftovers.
The HBO series based on Tom Perrottas 2011 novel was never meant to be loved.
I mean, whats toloveabout the tragic vanishing of 140 million people and the end-times fervor that follows?

FYI/You Can’t Turn That Into a House
In a surreal 2017 brimming with real-life anxiety, they were my disturbed band of brothers.
Damn it, Ubisoft man, you got me!
I mean… umm, y’all know what I mean!!"

Interscope Records
and “Man, Cersei do you not watchProject Runway?!
Instead, what we got was so much weirderand so much better.
To paraphrase a certain FBI agent, this is one damn fine television show.

Universal Pictures
I mean laugh as in laugh-out-loud, snurf-your-coffee laughing.
I hadnt realized what a balm a really great comic novel could be in times like these.
For example: I didnt know how riveting fight scenes could be until I had someone to root for.

HBO
Now excuse me while I go learn how to shoot arrows at men while flipping backwards off a horse.
For the first female-led, female-directed superhero movie, it knocked it out of the park.
Yeah, I counted em.

Ubisoft
Boys saved my summer.
She also lampoons the reactions to the lampooning?
It’s, like, three-dimensional chess with a banging hook.

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
This feels like Swift’s final formher Black Swan ascendancy.
Just put those colors on, girl, she sings on the affecting title track.
Come and paint the world with me tonight.

NBC
Ive been belting out Praying in my apartment ever since it dropped (did I just admit that?)
The combination of Keshas triumphant story and best-of-her-career music made this my go-to.
If digital files wore out the same way records do, Id be in trouble.

SHOWTIME
Had there been 10 more episodes on deck after this first set, I would have happily kept going.
(For example, we finally learn the origin story of punchline villain Kite Man.
And the best part?

Knopf Publishing Group
It’s still not over and will continue beyond the summer.
AndHomecomingdelivered on that exact promise with panache.
MS
Mac DeMarco’sThis Old Dog
The indie-rocker’s third album contains his most immediate, heartfelt songwriting.

Clay Enos/Warner Bros.
Few albums sounded as good on repeat in recent months.
And with NetflixsHomecoming King, Hasan Minhaj shows why hell be next.
The highlight is an extended story about his relationship with a white girl who stood him up at prom.

Official Charli XcX/Youtube
Probably not, but definitely the cure for a boring night.
And, boy, does she divulge.
I been secretly banging your homeboy, she continues.

TriStar Pictures
Why you in Vegas all up on Valentines Day.
), I would like to pen a heartfelt thank you to Dua Lipa for saving summer music.
To my favorite debonair pop diva, I am forever “Lost In Your Light.”

TV Land
Alex Heigl
Splatoon 2(Nintendo Switch)
Ever wanted to be an ink-squirting squid?
Like I can’t stop playing.
Why am I still typing?

TaylorSwift/YouTube
It’s time to go ink.

Shorefire Media

Melinda Sue Gordon/Warner Bros.

Erica Parise/Netflix

DC Comics

FilmNation

WILSON WEB/TNT

Columbia Pictures

Alessandro Bosio/Getty Images

Neon

Netflix

Dark Horse Comics

RCA

A24


Warner Bros.

Erika Doss/AMC

Static Shock Records

Nintendo