Snowed In: The Pop Culture Blizzard Playlist

Image via Complex Original

Watch it: with your boys, of course

Another satisfying half hour (and the ninth best episode of the entire show, by our estimation) in the series' strongest season, this episode is doubly relevant with Sundance '15 going down this week. It's also a crucial stepping stone in the Rise of Vincent Chase, the moment when he officially landed the lead role in a James Cameron flick. Plus, Turtle and Drama's duel for the affections of the gang's very pretty driver is never not funny.

Watch it: with a family member young enough to appreciate this without a nostalgia boost

Before she captured the hearts of every bro with an HBO subscription, Entourage's Sloan was the Teen Hero's Dream Girl™ in this movie that every '90s baby remembers fondly while everyone else is acutely aware that it's pretty fucking corny. But like, does anything in adulthood even come close to matching the feeling of waking up to a day off from school, free to sled and get as many snowballs off as your heart desires? Knit hats off to this movie for at least trying to sum up that feeling.

Watch it: with your friend who watched every minute of last year's FXX marathon

The joy of waking up to a snow day, undercut with a special "lesson learned" moment in Bart using that day off to study. Plus the camera pan of every Springfield resident flourishing in the snow is eternally epic. 

Watch it: with your girl

So, yea, this episode still takes place in sunny California, but that doesn't stop party-planner Marissa Cooper from earning her social chair title with a super dope winter wonderland inside Newport High's halls. What better event than a school dance to finally kick the season into gear, with two love triangles and a secret love child for added melodramatic measure.

Watch it: with anybody, because everybody loves Fresh Prince

This is a standout from the Lisa-era, whereupon Carlton feels deprived of Will-time and engineers a Bros Only ski trip. Naturally, they end up stuck on a mountain cliff because Carlton always overdoes it. The way they get down is even more ridiculous, but Will+Carlton, isolated in extremely absurd circumstances, is Fresh Prince's most slam-dunk formula.

Watch it: with that last person who somehow still hasn't seen it yet

Timely on two counts: relive a snowy day with Peak Bill Murray™ and pray that Punxsutawney Phil doesn't let us down next week. One blizzard is enough, and we're about ready for winter to be over now.

Watch it: with your fellow single, lovelorn friends

The last truly great season of the frustratingly uneven rom-sitcom boasts one of the series' best half-hours, and a strong reminder of why the show inspired such a fervent following. It has all the hallmarks of a typical HIMYM episode: cartoonish hijinks—Barney and Ted achieve their lifelong dream of starting a bar when a group of college students seek refuge from the snowstorm; high stakes romantic uncertainty—if Lily and Marshall stop practicing long-standing rituals in their relationship, does it make them mature or just sparkless old marrieds?; and of course, a little narrative sleight of hand by way of story chronology. Five seasons later, that same kind of time trickery would be severely played out, but here, it's still great and in service of an admittedly very sweet ending. This may be Ted's great love story but damn if Lily and Marshall didn't routinely steal the spotlight.

Watch it: with your nerd gang who missed out on IMAX tickets

In the event that you're not fully nerding out next week and seeing this episode on the big screen, allow the weather to give you an excuse to rewatch Game of Thrones' most underrated episode. The first time around we were all too busy weeping from *spoilers*  death (dude, catch up already for real, though) to realize that this hour, set exclusively at the icy Wall protecting Westerosi civilization from the aptly named Wildlings, is actually as fire as Castle Black is freezing.

Watch it: with your Dad

Lowkey, the best selection in Liam Neeson's late-career badass reawakening. Sure, seeing the god flex his particular set of skills against faceless Eastern-European goons is fun, but Liam versus a pack of bloodthirsty wolves?! Every other mountain survival film with boring obstacles, like climbing and avalanches and shit, is immediately rendered swagless.

Watch it: with a fellow TV nerd/Coen bros. superfan

You could watch The Coen bros. classic instead, but Noah Hawley's pseudo spin-off was one of the best things on TV last year, and the imminent snowstorm that's teased for the first half of the season does not disappoint. The blizzard conveniently coincides with the shit hitting the fan in just about every story arc, crescendoing with not one, but TWO massive shoot-outs. Lorne Malvo's set-up to keep the police busy might just be the most unnecessary cruel thing his chaos-for-the-fuck-of-it character pulls all season, but damn if those snow-flecked hail of bullets doesn't look pretty. Meanwhile his snow-blind face-off with Mr. Numbers and Mr. Wrench is an exercise in viewer conflict. Can't all three awesome hitmen just get along?

Watch it: someone who has the patience to appreciate early Seinfeld

Not one fleck of snow is ever actually seen on-screen, but the threat it poses—and ensuing damage—is extremely relevant. And also, extremely relatable. So much so that when Jerry learns the ultimate lesson in Why He Can't Have Nice Things, it's more cringe worthy than funny. We've all had a day where we favored flossing in a new piece over deferring the swag to weather dot com.

Watch it: with a newb horror fan who hasn't peeped yet

This is one of the best horror films of all time. It's peak Kurt Russell, matched only by Escape From New York, and peak John Carpenter, matched only (maybe) by Halloween. If there's an absolute worst place and time to do battle with a clever, shape-shifting alien parasite, a snowstorm in the Antarctic is it. 

Watch it: with your dad

How does one die harder, you ask? In and around a snowstorm-plagued DC airport while bland mercenaries that make you yearn for Hans Gruber do villainous things like blowing airplanes up. The action makes up for sequel inferiority, though. Bonus relevancy points awarded for a dope snowmobile shootout.

Watch it: with a fellow Breaking Bad stan who's anxiously anticipating Better Call Saul

Of course the setting switches up to bleak, snowy New Hampshire for perhaps the darkest episode across the entire series. While everyone he left behind in New Mexico is enduring hell-on-earth (girlfriends get murked, babies get threatened), Walter White shivers in the loneliest cabin ever, devolving from The One Who Knocks into a sad shell of a man with a barrel of money and a paid friend in Robert Forster. When discussing Breaking Bad's final season, "Granite State" gets lost in the sauce, sandwiched between the tour de force "Ozymandias" and the series finale. But the dour penultimate hour is a quiet success unto itself.

Watch it: with your boy who's still playing 2014 catch-up

Self-explanatory. Warning: will probably harsh your snowed-in good vibes with increasingly bleak twists and turns (train pun not intended). 

Watch it: while alone, and in complete isolation, as Jack Torrance would've wanted

The only thing more beautiful than Jack Nicholson slowly, gleefully losing his mind is Stanley Kubrick's gorgeous exteriors of the snowy Overlook Hotel. Depending on how long the blizzard lasts, you'll probably be descending into madness yourself, marathon be damned. Plus, every self-proclaimed Twitter comedian already has this image saved to drafts for would-be fire tweets anyway; may as well honor #BlizzardTwitter by watching the source material.

Watch it: with your nerd gang

Hoth! Wampa attacks! Tauntaun shelter! Roughly only the first quarter of the best Star Wars film to date takes place on the dangerous ice planet aka worst planet to set up rebel headquarters ever, but it feels like a whole movie unto itself. Snow battles, new creatures, Han Solo absolutely killing it in the intergalactic Canada goose, and snow-blind Obi-Wan hallucinations—this might be the most exhaustive planet pit stop across both trilogies. Queue this up when nostalgia-fueled snow appreciation begins to wane and you just want to get the fuck out of your house already.

Watch it: with the whole family for added surprise scare fun

As winter weariness sets in, allow this underrated B-movie to remind you that things could be, like, a million times worse. Like being trapped in Alaska with a horde of especially gnarly-looking vampires looking to exploit 30 days of no sun and get a late Thanksgiving poppin off.