I burst into tears the other day while watching the season finale of Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat. Sniffling, I took off my watery glasses and said to my husband, “This is hopecore, this is hopecore.” I don’t think I realized until that moment how badly I’ve been craving media that reminds me that people can be good, actually. Humanity can be good. The world isn’t completely doomed and bad and horrible. What a concept! I had forgotten.

I’ve been meaning to start hatewatching the latest season of Euphoria but tonight I decided to resume Love on the Spectrum instead, because like Company Retreat, it’s overall optimistic and delightful. Don’t get me wrong, I do love being a hater and that can be enjoyable in its own way, but I suppose in the present moment I’m choosing to pursue happiness and levity wherever and whenever I can find it. Consuming wholesome stuff just makes my heart happy. Maybe you’ve been feeling the same way lately.

Here’s a little list of hopecore recs in case you’re needing them. Let me know your recs too. I hope (!) you’re having a wonderful week.

• My favorite movie, Once. I mean, the song “Falling Slowly” alone is the epitome of hopecore. It’s so hopecore that I walked down the aisle to it. Also, the fact that this film was shot on a budget of roughly two dollars has always made me feel like the characters are real people. It barely looks like a movie; it just looks like life. You can rent Once on streaming platforms like Prime Video, or you can come to my home and watch it on DVD. Whatever works.

• Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, a stunning documentary about Fred Rogers that will probably make you cry. I know this rec sounds maybe too corny but I genuinely think this is quite good. Mister Rogers literally says at one point, “Love is at the root of everything - all learning, all parenting, all relationships. Love or the lack of it.” Haha! Ouch! Okay! You can watch this movie free with ads on YouTube.

• “everythingoes” by RM of BTS, a song that was such a comfort to me in the early years of the pandemic and is still a comfort to me now! I’ve fallen asleep to mono, the EP this song is on, an innumerable amount of times. I like this cute little lyric video I found. I’ll also link this Rolling Stone interview clip I saw of him today where he says something quite poignant, which is completely unsurprising because he’s always dropping wisdom. Yes, he and I are both Virgo suns with Libra Mercuries, we’re great communicators.

• The Celebrity Traitors UK - I knoooooow, I know, Traitors is typically very cutthroat, and this season is too, but I also found it extremely wholesome. Everyone in this cast adores each other so much and are all aware that they’re playing a game and it’s lovely and sweet. I’ve been calling this season the Great British Bake Off of the Traitors franchise. You can watch this show on Peacock, perhaps in less than 24 hours just like I did.

• You know what, I’ve been thinking about BTS so much lately that I have to also plug this old video of them performing “Answer: Love Myself.” Their era of albums centered on the theme of self-love will always be so iconic and healing.

• Lizzy McAlpine’s first ever performance of her now viral song “Spring Into Summer” - she wrote the song mere hours before performing it, and she and her band proceeded to create this beautiful, magical moment that is thankfully captured in 1080p!

• Ending this list with nine-year-old Alexander Zhou’s delightful piano performance at NPR’s Tiny Desk. This has gone extremely viral not only due to his piano skills but also his OFF THE CHARTS charisma. Again, this is a child. But he’s more charming and well spoken than most human beings. Bless him.