RIP 2015: Pop Culture in Memoriam

We need this list to stay in 2015.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Are you tired? We're tired. And while over here at Complex Pop, we're all really big pop culture fans, the huge breadth of movies, TV, video games, etc. that we consumed this year is making us in desperate need of a Calgon bath and a Rip Van Winkle level nap to prepare ourselves for 2016. 

But we can't complain that much, since 2015 was truly a wealth of riches from the celebs we got to speak to, the TV we watched, the films we loved and even the disappointments that the squad suffered. 

As we head into 2016, the pop culture horizon is looking bright, yet again full of comic book movies, #peaktelevision and godwilling a more diverse pop culture landscape in front of and behind the camera. So, there's some stuff that we think needs to stay back in 2015, our future pop culture landscape is brighter without it going forward. 

Let's pour one out to some of 2015's pop culture that needs to stay in 2015.

Netflix and Chill

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David Letterman

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Blake Lively's 'Preserve'

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Sigh, Blake Lively. Blake Lively is one of those character actresses who can’t seem to divorce her IRL image from an insufferable dimwit she once played on television—no offense, Serena van der Woodsen. While I’m sure Blake is a perfectly kindhearted person with well-meaning intentions, 2015 was the year the Internet hounds killed her millennial-targeted lifestyle site Preserve—and good on them because it was, for lack of a better term, fucking racist.

 

Preserve, for those who aren’t familiar (god bless), was a quasi-GOOP ecommerce and lifestyle advice blog that purported to “preserve” the long-forgotten traditions of the Antebellum South. You can probably see where this is a problem, what with slavery and other aspects of this part of American history that can do without tasteless nostalgia. For a sampling of how this manifested, an editorial titled “Allure of Antebellum” included the following passage, per Jezebel:

 

“The term ‘Southern Belle’ came to fruition during the Antebellum period (prior to the Civil War), acknowledging women with an inherent social distinction who set the standards for style and appearance. These women epitomized Southern hospitality with a cultivation of beauty and grace, but even more with a captivating and magnetic sensibility.”

 

Perhaps this comes as little surprise from a woman who was married on a plantation. But then there was that time Preserve dropped a recipe for “B's Blueberry Stud Muffins” during Black History Month that for some horrible reason evoked African American suffering as its selling point:

 

“The blues began in the deep South, as a means to voice injustice and hardship in the African American community—same place most great American music comes from. It has evolved to influence all kinds of popular music, and inspire many to take respite in good old, down and out, soulful singing. But it’s more than music. It’s a lingering mood that we kind of like, especially in the midst of the Valentine’s fuss.”

 

“The Blues evoke a time and a place that romances us with nostalgia,” it added. “Let’s go there. Blue looks good on you, baby.” The Internet responded appropriately but collectively asking, Excuse me, but what in the ever-living fuck, Blake Lively? As if all of this weren’t enough of a steaming pile of horse shit, the site also plagiarized because of course. Preserve officially decided to cut its losses in October, but not for any of the aforementioned reasons.

 

Officially, Lively told Vogue that she’d shuttered the site because her concept wasn’t fully baked before its launch. “We have an incredible team of people who do beautiful work, but we launched the site before it was ready,” she said, “and it never caught up to its original mission: It’s not making a difference in people’s lives, whether superficially or in a meaningful way.” But here’s the catch: Preserve may be coming back. She added:

 

“I’m going to take this hit, and the only way I can prove all the negative reactions wrong is to come back with a plan that will rock people. And I have that plan. And I’m so excited about it, and that’s what gave me the courage to do this, to say, ‘You know what, I’m going to give myself one more shot at this, and I really have to do it as well as I can do it this time.’”

 

No word yet on what that “plan” actually entails, or whether it’ll also be inherently racist. So, RIP Preserve in 2015. Let’s hope to Christ we’re not looking at a similar endeavor resurfacing in the New Year.—Catie Keck

Emily Ratajkowski

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Since her introduction to the world via trash man Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" music video, Emily Ratajkowski has felt like she has been EVERYWHERE, even though her IMDB page highly suggests that wasn't the case. In 2014, she was only in Gone Girl, playing mistress to trash man Ben Affleck's trash man Nick Dunne. It was a small part, but Ratajowski's Andie and her pouting (and her boobs) landed her on the map for 2015. 

So in 2015, Ratajkowski played love interest in two bro staples of the summer, Entourage and Complex Pop's Andrew Gruttadaro's most reviled film of the year We Are Your Friends, and while I haven't seen the latter, she is just there in the Entourage movie. She plays a thinly fictionalized version of herself and is only Vince's love interest. There's not much more to it than that. For a woman so beautiful (yes, she's very stunning), she has no presence at all which I can assume is par for the course in We Are Your Friends. Yeah, it's completely rude of me to assume that she has nothing else up her sleeve but 2015 hasn't proven to me that she does. So I'd be fine if Hollywood decided to cut their losses with Ratajkowski. 

Never have the words of wise sage Regina George been so pertinent in a situation. 

—Kerensa Cadenas

A Johnny Depp Comeback

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Baby Hitler

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