The Kirby Series is a franchise near and dear to my heart. Kirby Super Star Ultra was the first game that really got me interested in games, and the series has never left my heart since. If the 3ds was still a supported console, my reccomendation for where to start would easily be Planet Robobot, but since that's not the case, I'd also like to shout out Forgotten Land for switch. It's a bit of a change of pace for the franchise, but its a fantastic game all the same. Wanya!
Bloons TD6 is the latest evolution of the coolmathgames classic and I am. Very slightly obsessed with it. It's a game that seems, on the face of it, really easy to get and play, but there's an absurd amount of intricacies and strategies to Bloons. It's kinda hard to articulate why I like the series so much without getting Really Into It, and I might do that at some point, but the series by itself is Good Fun.
Disco Elysium fundamentally changed a lot of my thoughts on life. It's the kind of game that's best experienced blind, even the name of the player character is technically a spoiler, but just know it's a game about identity in trying times and that's somethign that resonates with me very strongly.
Wasteland 3 and Fallout New Vegas share a spot on the list because I like them both for mostly the same reason: they are prime examples of what a AA Rpg can and should be. There's meaningful character expression and roleplay set against a complex political situation the player character must manuever to their benefit. You might have played New Vegas already, but if you haven't played Wasteland 3, you owe it to yourself to do so.
Movies
Speed Racer (2009) is a movie that most would not traditionally consider a masterpiece, and it's probably not the Wachowski's finest work. But at the same time, I can't help but call it my personal favorite for how densely fun and engaging it is as a product. It works as a literal story, a fun romp about high stakes boxcar racing in the future, but it also works in the metaphorical as a story about maintaining artistic integrity in a world obsessed with commerce.
Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) I am a huge fan of Heisei-era godzilla and absolutely adore Mothra's design in the 1992 godzilla vs. mothra, but if I yhad to pick just one godzilla movie for anyone to watch, it would be Godzilla vs. Biollante. I adore everything about Biollante as a concept for a movie monster, working as both an insurmountable enemy for our antihero to face, but also as a realization of the thematic undercurrent of the best godzilla media, that being Godzilla and Pals as the rage of mother nature.
TV
Gravity Falls is my quintessential comfort show. It has moments that I do take umbrage with but on the whole its got this nice and cozy atmosphere and focuses on a relationship between two siblings that I see pretty strongly reflected in my own relationship with my sister.
Twin Peaks is a show whose appeal is hard to really articulate. People have tried, but the simplest explanation I can give is that it's a show that traps you in a very particular atmosphere and in a very particular place and does not let you go. It's a show that can feel stifling at times, but in a familiar way. It's also a direct inspiration for a bunch of my favorite media.
Books
Portrait of Dorian Grey really demonstrated to me that sometimes classical literature is considered a classic for a damn good reason. Still and incredibly gripping and quietly uncomfortable text that highlights a lot about what Beauty means both aesthetically and morally.
Needful Things was something I didn't really expect to get into. My mom was always a big Steven King fan and, being a rebellious kid, I kinda deliberately never engaged with anything Steven King for the longest time, and I see now how foolish that was. Needful things is a gripping horror story from beginning to end. It's not jumpy or overtly horrific, but so many sequences had my skin crawling for so, so long afterward.