Things I enjoyed in 2025

During this time of whatever it’s important to y’know.

So let’s do that! Here are some things that I enjoyed for the first time in 2025 probably, regardless of when they were made.

I’ll mostly lean towards less obvious stuff cos it’s fairly pointless highlighting stuff everyone knows about. With the exception of…

Pluribus (2025) (tv)

Everyone knows about this one already. I’m sure we’ve all had plenty of people telling us to watch this. But, for once, they’re right!

It’s like they took a good Star Trek episode premise with its interesting sci-fi situation and all the philosophical questions and ethical conundra that entails, span it out into a full series, and then made it very character focused. It’s slow in a rewarding way, intentional and darkly funny.

What did we learn?

• Don’t(?) shout at it

Dinner in America (2020) (film)

You won’t believe me 20 minutes in but this is the most charming, heart-warming romance I’ve seen in forever. I was blubbing for the last 1/3 or so.

Two misfits meet and stuff happens. I don’t want to say anything. Just watch it.

What did we learn?

• You are punk as fuck

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020) (film)

A fella works in a café and discovers that the TV in the café and the monitor in his flat above are connected, but the TV in the café is two minutes in the future.

It’s all presented as a continuous take which gives it a nice kinetic feel as the characters get their heads around the intricacies of the time paradox.

It’s very playful and a ton of fun.

What did we learn?

• Japanese monitor cables are really long

The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily (2025) (game)

Imagine if they took JRPG turn-based combat but somehow actually made it fun. Impossible, you say, and I would’ve agreed, but they’ve only gone and bloody done it!

Narratively it’s about a crazed noble, Scarlet, who’s launching a rebellion against the king or emperor or something. You play as Lily who’s tasked with reining in Scarlet’s more genocidal tendencies (or not) and winning the war while also… streaming the battles and gaining followers. It’s quite silly. The dialogue’s witty and engaging and, unusually, there’s not too fucking much of it.

There’s a strategic overmap which actually has some nice strategy to it due to a cool supply-chain mechanic. And battles themselves are only three turns, which transforms what’s usually a spam-best-attack slog into something very intentional and thoughtful.

What did we learn?

• The revolution is televised

Under the Silver Lake (2018) (film)

An odd, hazy, symbolist polemic. Playfully dissects our relationship with entertainment in general and celebrity and Hollywood in particular. Sort of oozes in and out of the aesthetics and forms of classic Hollywood in a way that reveals within them a looming menace. It’s unsettling and beautiful and delightful. One of them where saying too much would spoil it a bit.

What did we learn?

• 🐶🔪💵🏃💃🎈🦉🚗751

Patriot (2015) (tv)

CIA operative gets a non-official cover job at a Miluake piping company in order to do CIA stuff. Clearly depressed and traumatised, we follow him as he does what’s expected, almost entirely alienated from reality and the people around him. At night he sings folk songs about his activities to process his emotions. It’s weird and dark and funny.

(caveat: I’ve only watched one of two seasons so far)

What did we learn?

• The CIA does bad stuff 😮

Welcome to Me (2014) (film)

A woman with borderline personality disorder wins the lottery and then pays for a TV talk show about herself. Will this alienate her further from those around her? Or will it help people understand her and she them? OMG I DON’T KNOW WATCH AND FIND OUT!!!!!!

It neither romanticises her ‘illness’ nor fetishises her struggle and feels (to me, as someone who doesn’t have it) true to how that disorder might feel.

What did we learn?

• Bananas are in their own container

Superman (2025) (film)

James Gunn sure knows how to make a comic book film. I’d not heard of him before but apparently “Superman” is a strong alien from a long-running series of comic books.

I enjoyed this film a lot. But more than that it was just really fucking refreshing to see a fun, actually-heroic, humanised Superman after the exhausting, miserable, loud, boring, violent, excessive, long, dark grey mess of the Snyder DC films.

It’s fun!

What did we learn?

• Everyone wants to fuck Jimmy Olsen

<3

I want to say thank you to the people with whom I enjoyed a lot of these on our discord server: Ghosty, Wing, Dani, Char, Temhr, Hamish, Anjune, Nado, ait and the ones I inevitably forgot. You made my year brighter, thank you <3