Things I Appreciated in 2025

There is an aphorism that tells us that bad times produce good art. I think there’s some truth to that, but I think it’s probably more fair to say that hard times calibrate us to look for different things in the art we enjoy. In a less destructive year, I might have found Bugonia to be a sharp black comedy about humanity’s self-destructive tendencies. In the current climate, I found it a somewhat obvious and misanthropic (though cinematographically stunning) bummer of way to spend a couple hours. So it goes, you know?

Although, personally, I had a really excellent year. There’s definitely some cognitive dissonance when I pair that with one of the most violent, destructive, and cruel 12 months in recent memory, a year that hurt many people, places, and institutions I care about very deeply. But for me, I’m doing well, and I found a lot of art to act as a joyful companion for a year that saw me move back to my home, reconnect in a big way with friends, and generally just feel at peace. I think maybe those feelings are reflected in some of the media I ended up loving in 2025. I share a little about my favs below; I’d love to hear about yours, too! (I expect some of the things I list are pretty universal, and that’s also nice. We all loved Sinners and Clair Obscur, right? Right??)

NB: For every headling below, in addition to heaping praise on new things I enjoyed, I’ve also included a “Hall of Fame” entry to highlight some past creations that I didn’t really dive into until this year but that ended up making a big impact on me!

I listened to 1373 albums in 2025, and these were my favorite new releases (I already covered my favorite songs of the year previously):

1. The Mountain Goats: Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan - I’m a sucker for a concept album, man. You tell me John Darnielle put together a record as though it was a musical about survivors of a shipwreck? I’m in. I’ve been a bit suspicious of Lin-Manuel Miranda before, I will admit, but I think his contribution here really sets this as a unique and special album from one of the most prolific and varied singer-songwriters of our time.

2. Craig Finn: Always Been - This is probably my favorite set of solo songs from the Hold Steady frontman. With production from The War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel, the album takes on a bit more of an earthy tone than some prior releases, creating a super homey sonic space in which to explore these interconnected, heartbreaking stories of people who’ve fallen on hard times. (Oh yeah, Always Been is sort of a concept album too; Craig even wrote a book of short stories about these characters to accompany it!)

3. Lucius: Lucius - Just absurdly beautiful indie pop; the melodies and harmonies that vocalists and songwriters Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig put together are entrancing. This album is so pleasant while full of strong emotion and even heartbreak. I love it.

4. Bruce Springsteen: Tracks II The Lost Albums, but especially Streets of Philadelphia Sessions - Although I do think Tracks II includes the worst album Bruce has ever released commercially (Faithless), it’s also chock full of good stuff, and, I think more importantly, fascinating windows into career paths that could have been. I especially value the mid-90s Streets of Philadelphia Sessions in this regard because, as is pretty common about Springsteen devotees, I think the 90s are far and away his worst decade creatively. Streets of Philadelphia Sessions shows off a stripped down, quiet, earnest 90s Bruce inspired by, of all things, West Coast hip hop that I think works absurdly well. Definitely worth listening to outside the context of historical curiosity.

Hall of Fame: The Hold Steady: Separation Sunday (2005) - Despite the fact that I’ve been a Hold Steady devotee for a good while, for whatever reason I never really found my way in to this record. But when they announced that they’d be performing it in its entirety at Riot Fest, I decided it was time. And, after a few careful listens, of course I ended up loving it, a love solidified by a killer performance at one of the coolest festivals I’ve ever been to.

I watched 37 seasons of television in 2025, and these were my favorite new entries:

1. The Rehearsal season 2 - Despite having an office full of fantasy character toys (see below), I’ve never had a hard time telling real from fictional. And yet, I cannot completely wrap my head about the reality-bending of Nathan Fielder, who, in The Rehearsal’s second season, crafts what I think is an honest-to-God excellent argument for why pilots (really, so many people) struggle in professional settings, but does it in a way that has me unsure if what I’m watching is documentary, scripted comedy, or prank show. It’s all of those and none of them, I guess. Ask me on New Years Eve 2029 and I’m likely to say this is one of the most compelling and excellent shows of the decade, probably even of all time. WAKE ME UP.

2. Peacemaker season 2 - I love how James Gunn writes men, and I love that this is a show about a guy who realizes he’s kind of a piece of shit but wants to be better, though the world doesn’t necessarily want to help him with that. It employs the fairly tired superhero trope of alternate universes in a way much more akin to Everything Everywhere All At Once than Avengers Endgame (“what if there was a universe where my dad loved me?” is a hell of a question), and it has a killer soundtrack to boot. Like, okay, you name the season finale “The Full Nelson” and then put Nelson the band in it? Yeah, you got me, James Gunn.

3. The Chair Company season 1 - If you took an I Think You Leave sketch as a starting point, made Tim Robinson’s character just a little straighter, and then dropped him into a banal conspiracy that evokes David Lynch, why pal, you’d have a tasty recipe on your hands. I love that this show has so many laugh out loud moments and memorable quotes (“I’m not gonna tell anybody Wendy’s is doing a nicer ham restaurant”), but its bizarre plot that strings Ron just enough to hook him and us into an office furniture rabbit hole also makes the show pretty subtle and super rewatchable. And rewatch I have.

4. South Park seasons 27 and 28 - This isn’t, like, the most brilliant satire, but I love that South Park just relentlessly goes after the dummies running our country week after week. It’s so refreshing to see a media institution that isn’t afraid of any litigous clowns and just revels in how silly and crude it can be to these people. The season(s) finale was also a pretty incredible study in bringing together wildly disparate plot threads that made the DM in me gasp, and I especially latched onto Jesus’s season-long arc from loving pal to red pilled-MAGAt, which honestly broke my heart a bit (“What happened to Jesus?” “Oh, he got all Christian”).

Hall of Fame: Midnight Mass (2021) - I used to be pretty aggressively critical of organized religion. Over the last decade or so, I chilled out quite a bit on that front. And while I don’t think, ultimately, a “live and let live” attitude is a bad thing, when my friend Chris introduced me to this religion-as-literal-vampire metaphor a few months ago, it rekindled a fire in me that I’m glad to revisit. This also made me a big, big fan of creator Mike Flanagan (see below!); I can’t wait to see what he does with Clayface over in the DCU.

I watched 34 movies in 2025, and these were my favorite new releases:

1. Sinners - Holy geez, what a film. I don’t know what else to say about this movie that hasn’t already been covered, but I loved that it was compelling, thrilling, funny, scary, thoughtful, and possessed of a killer catharsis at the end. Absolutely an all-timer. I’ve been saying “SAMMIE!” for weeks.

2. Superman - Bless James Gunn for putting the version of Superman I love on screen. This movie made me feel good to be a person, and it was honestly pretty righteous when one considers its stances on occupied Middle Eastern countries, manchildren tech bro billionaires, and the role of journalism in a free society. I am very, very excited to see what’s next for DC media.

3. The Life of Chuck - That Mike Flanagan love I mentioned kindling this year carried over to this Stephen King adaptation he directed, which I found to be super moving. This is the sunnier side of Flanagan’s usually macabre mind, and I don’t mind saying that its thesis that we each contain a universe inside us made me teary. A little schmaltzy? Maybe, but in 2025, I really valued art that connected me to something beautiful.

4. Companion - Kind of a sleeper, maybe, but I’ve been thinking about this movie all year. It’s hard to describe even a little bit of the plot without spoiling anything, which is part of its charm IMO, but I love the way the film blends horror, comedy, sci-fi, and thriller genres into a pretty incisive look at the trap of AI and the often nascent sexism of the “nice guy” (poor Jack Quaid, so often cast as a smarmy, violent incel. He seems genuinely nice!).

Hall of Fame: Chasing Chasing Amy (2023) - This is one of the most compelling documentaries I’ve ever seen. The premise alone is fascinating — a queer filmmaker, Sav Rogers, goes on a quest to figure out why they’re one of the only queer people in the world who loves Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy. But then the film turns into something differently entirely when Sav interviews Chasing Amy leading lady Joey Lauren Adams, and Sav’s experience of the film collides with one that is much more harrowing. What Chasing Chasing Amy has to say about what art means to us, and what happens when our personal narrative meets something much larger and fraught with pain, is fascinating, and I wish I’d seen this way sooner.

I played 9 video games and 64 tabletop games in 2025, and this was my favorite new one:

1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - I did not dive into a lot of new games this year, and my choice here is pretty obvious, but it’s obvious for a reason. Clair Obscur feels like a once-in-a-lifetime creation, a piece of media that honors my favorite genre of play but also updates it in ways that feel essential. Like, I’m not sure I could go back to a less interactive battle system, you know? Add to that an incredible story about the dangers of getting lost in our creative pursuits… man, I was chilled by the end of this game. Just incredible. Still gotta dive into that New Game+.

Hall of Fame: Rock Hard 1977 (2024) - I sadly didn’t get to play as many new tabletop games as I would have liked this year either, but I was fortunate enough to bring Rock Hard (designed by the Runaways’ Jackie Fox!) to the table a couple of times, and damn, this game kicks. The theming here is just top-notch; what could have been a rote worker placement game really makes you feel like you’re diving into the somewhat skeezy world of 1970s rock music, from placing your rocker standee in dingy clubs to avoiding the temptation of “sugar” to cranking dials on your amp-shaped player boards to indicate your proficiency in various skills. This instantly became a top 20 board game for me the first time I played it, and I’m hopeful to bring it to the table more in 2026.

I read 23 books this year, and this was my favorite new one:

1. Niko Stratis, “The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman” - I didn’t read a ton of books released in 2025, but even if I had, I think this would’ve been at the top of the charts. Here, Niko analyzes an often maligned category of popular music through the lens of gender expression, and what she uncovers is both wildly insightful and moving. My friend Molly sent me the chapter about Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” leading Stratis to a revelation about her gender, which was enough to get me hooked, but this whole thing is full of excellent observations. I keep thinking about Niko’s chapter on Sheryl Crow, and how everyone liked to talk shit about her when her first record came out. I remember that — my mom did it too. I had somehow internalized that Sheryl Crow was not a good person because of what radio DJs and newspapers and my parents said, which was all pretty much bogus anyway. Isn’t that weird? Almost like… sexism is baked into society?? Couldn’t be.

Hall of fame: The entire catalog of John Darnielle, but especially Universal Harvester (2017) and Master of Reality (2008) - I took a pretty long solo road trip this year, and it gave me a lot of time to listen to audiobooks. In that time, I devoured the fiction ouvre of aforementioned Mountain Goats mastermind John Darnielle, and I loved it all, but especially the two titles I named here. Universal Harvester might be in the running for my favorite novel of all time (or at least contemporary novel), and Master of Reality is just the most brilliant piece of musical criticism I’ve ever seen. Cannot recommend enough.

I added 44 robots in disguise to my collection this year, and these were my favorite new dudes:

1. Megatron (Studio Series 86): Just like the 86 Optimus that released last year, there was a real, true hit of nostalgia from taking this guy out of the package for the first time. Like, he popped off the screen of something that defined my childhood and into my adult hands. Just an incredible toy; I could care less that he doesn’t turn into a gun.

2. Megatron (Hearts of Steel): Man, just a year for Megatrons, huh? This alternate universe take on the Decepticon leader imagines the form Megatron might have taken if he came to Earth in the 1880s instead of the 1980s. I love it; I just think this is the neatest toy, and I love that mini figures can “man his cannon,” so to speak.

3. Bone Shaker and Twin Mill (Collaborative): Believe it or not, I was never really a Hot Wheels kid. That said, I think these Hot Wheels-licensed designs are just the coolest. What slick car modes, right? I love this collaboration as a way to introduce new designs to Transformers that spice up their usual vehicle modes. I’ll be following this entire crossover series.

4. Skybite (Age of the Primes): Transforming this guy made me feel like a kid. His robot feet. become. his shark teeth!! How fun. Hasbro put a lot of really delightful engineering into this toy, and I love it.

Hall of Fame: Trypticon (Titans Return) (2017) - I loooove the Transformers that turn into cities. I’ve been collecting them for years, hoping to eventually have space to display them. This year, I got that space, so I took them all out of their boxes and set them up. And man, Trypticon is by a pretty wide margin my favorite of them all. His monster robot mode is imposing and creepy, and his city mode is the biggest, most expansive base. I can’t believe I had the patience to let this guy sit in storage for years. He’s never going back!

Last year I used the end of this post to talk about some of my personal creations throughout the year as well. But, I feel like I’m kind of in the middle of anything I’d want to talk about right now, and besides, you know what I’ve been up to! I don’t need to remind you (except to say maybe snag Mortified tickets for our Valentine’s Day show?)! So I’ll just say that you’ll be hearing more from me in 2026, and I hope you all get to enjoy some safe and joyous celebration. Happy New Year, pals!