To be honest, great TV series has been great for changing my perspective in different ways. When you see the same characters over many episodes, they start to grow on you and develop empathy for characters that are remotely similar to you. I also find the creative process of developing a TV show interesting and inspiring. My personal favourites are Stranger Things, Suits, Sense8, Black Mirror (no deep character work since it's an anthology, but the sci-fi themes are very good), Gossip Girl, Master of None, 13 Reasons Why (depressing and many people are against watching it, but I think it's a good show to watch once), Crazy Ex Girlfriend and How to Get Away with Murder. Those are the shows that keeps me wanting to know what is next. I'm also planning on watching House of Cards and The Handmaid's Tale. TV series may not be the best recommendation if you are doing VCE though
In terms of films, I love Lady Bird, Call Me By Your Name, Birdman, A Separation, Moonlight, Shape of Water and Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel (I really like how Wes Anderson shows a quirky side of humanity with his characterisation and development of unlikely friendships).
For books, I really enjoyed Exit West and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, both by Mohsin Hamid and The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Both very accessible and relevant in today's political climate in regards to India and the US today. Also The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Diaz), Conversations with Friends (Sally Rooney) and Sour Heart (Jenny Zhang) discusses many coming-of-age and gender issues in an engaging literary fiction manner. Frankenstein (it's an accessible modern classic) and well as anything by Dostoevsky if you like classics. If you are after non-fiction, I would recommend Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (Duflo and Banerjee), as it is very well-researched yet accessible to people with no Economics background. Also The Brain That Changes Itself and The Brain's Way of Healing by Norman Doidge, both books cover various themes in Neuroplasticity through using a patient's story.