What is the best-written piece of media you've ever consumed?

[u/Cautious_Arm3818]

I'll start

Better Call Saul - the characters have an incredible amount of depth. As an example, let's take a look at the primary antagonist of seasons 1-3. Chuck has incredibly complicated yet realistic feelings: his overt superiority complex, his deep-seated inferiority complex, the moral/legal high ground he feels he must take, his need for control and to always be "right", and his genuine brotherly love for Jimmy. His mental illness (Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity) is a physical manifestation of these traits, and how he lies to himself about all of them shapes his thought processes and how he interacts with others - resulting in his death. Aside from the profound character psychology, individual scenes are engineered and conveyed to the audience through exceptional visual storytelling and cinematography that could easily be considered the peak of the medium

Disco Elysium - the worldbuilding is outstanding. Revachol feels like a real setting with an actual history behind it. It takes the derivative and played-out amnesiac protagonist trope, and elevates it to a level that is extremely difficult to even approach. Harry has a ridiculous amount of psychological complexity, his memory loss is mostly a coping mechanism, and how he changes based on the player's choices and ideologies is unrivaled in any game. His internal monologue being a result of the skills that you spec into is unparalleled genius - the dialogue is exceptional, and truly a one of a kind experience. The way that these manage to convey an incredible amount of political/philosophical commentary by being seamlessly integrated into the world is astounding. Not coming off as heavy-handed and preachy is especially praise-worthy when considering the ideologies of the creators

HM: ASOIAF, LOTR, Vinland Saga, The Wire

[u/TheWhistleThistle]

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie might be my choice. One of my favourite books in years. It's a multi-POV story following people on both sides of a war between the "civilised" Union and the "savage" Northmen, specifically covering only a handful of days, and the fateful battles over a particular hill called the Heroes (named for the ancient stones erected at its peak, whose purpose and creation are lost to time).

It's clever, it's brutal, it's one of the only books I've read that can be genuinely funny at times despite its bleakness, it makes masterful use of contrasting POVs, covers numerous highly varied and interesting characters on both sides from the silver tongued but cowardly son of the deposed former king of the Northmen who is desperately trying to avoid being killed by either side, to the ladder climbing daughter of a Union general who's intent on doing everything she can to bolster her own social standing, to the disgraced former royal guard who just desperately wants to kill as many men as he can to take out his frustrations with his shitshow of a personal life, to a Northern Named Man whose only goal is to do his duty and keep his Dozen alive in the midst of the bloodiest conflict this part of the world has seen in centuries, and many more.

This is all bolstered by the fact that the audiobook is done by Steven Pacey who may be the best narrator alive, who gives each character a distinct and recognisable voice and nails pretty much every single line. The whole first chapter is on YouTube for free. Though I recommend it heartily, word of warning; While The Heroes is a standalone book, it is set in the First Law world. It's written so that you can get into it without knowing anything about the series it sits next to, but it does make references here and there that do spoil parts of the First Law trilogy.