RIP 2025 (2025-2025)
In the past I’ve gone month by month through the year, even if not much happened. This year I’m just going to play the hits.
Previous RIPs: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024.
Listening
- Minutes: 12,924 (⬆️ 58%)
- Top artists: Taylor Swift, Frank Turner, Green Day, State Champs, Fall Out Boy
- 🆕 Listening age: 30 (lol)
TS12 was a highlight (of course) but The Paradox was my favorite new band.
Watching
Movies
Didn’t see too many this year, but we made it to the 20th anniversary edition of Revenge of the Sith, plus Fantastic Four (very good - finally a real Galactus!), Thunderbolts (very good), Captain America (meh), and Superman (really excellent - the DCU is off to a good start).
TV
It was quite a year for TV. The single best thing I watched in 2025 was Andor, an incredible piece of work on so many levels. Not only was it one of the rare shows I have gone back to watch again and again, it actually elevates the films - the last three episodes combine beautifully with Rogue One and A New Hope.
Other things I enjoyed:
- The Pitt: Noah Wyle was amazing, the hour-by-hour aspect worked well and enabled storylines to be set up to pay off “hours” later, and the realism had me flinching in places (the floating face injury 🤮).
- Black Doves: Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw were fantastic.
- The Diplomat: Soapy af, great cast. Very much enjoyed the mini-West Wing reunion in season 3.
- Peacemaker: Easily the most consistently funny show of the year, but with a ton of heart.
- Mobland: Another great cast: Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren madly chewing scenery, and Tom Hardy doing Tom Hardy things.
- Dept Q: Didn’t expect to like this as much as I did, but very much looking forward to another season.
- Pluribus: Not sure about that ending - or the wait for season 2 - but the best premise of the year.
- Stranger Things: The final episode is tomorrow so it’s yet to be seen if they stick the landing1 - but the final season has been great so far.
Best reality show of the year: The Traitors (US). 20 reality show cast members playing Werewolf in a Scottish castle while Alan Cumming serves escalating amounts of cunt. Probably the best argument that we’re living in a simulation, because this show was absolutely custom-made for me.
Most reliably fun show: Strange New Worlds. I have long been a critic of the tendency to mine the pre-TOS era for increasingly diminishing returns, but SNW made me eat my words. Great cast, a visual feast (the sets! the ships! the costumes! Pike’s hair!), and just plain fun viewing.
Best show about sport (that’s not really about sport): Shoresy. From beyond-humble beginnings as a throwaway character in a whole other show (whose face was never even seen!), Shoresy has built an ensemble cast around strong characters, a kickass soundtrack, and a particularly Canadian worldview. You don’t need to love hockey to enjoy it, but it sure doesn’t hurt. This is the show I rewatched more than any other, and I picked up something new every time. Go check it out.
Speaking of sport: So far so good for my Broncos and Avalanche 🎉 Not so much the Cardinals or Buffaloes. NFL GamePass has been slowly improving but is still pretty shit, MLB.TV is reliably fantastic (but I’m concerned about the broadcast landscape for next season, given how DAZN have fucked the NFL coverage), and getting every home and away broadcast of every NHL game for free on Disney+ has been a very pleasant surprise.
Reading
Lots of music biographies, not much fiction. Comics-wise, DC’s Absolute line is still the best thing being published right now, and the X-Men books continue their slide into irrelevance.
Travel
Zero travel, first time (other than the pandemic) in ages.
- Countries visited: 0 (no change)
- Flights: 0 (⬇️ 100%)
- Distance flown: 0 km (⬇️ 100%)
- Time in the air: 0h 0m (⬇️ 100%)
- Swarm checkins: 666 🤘 (⬆️ 44%)
- Swarm mayorships: 95 (⬆️ 339%)
- Status: None (nor do I expect this to change, so I won’t keep tracking it)
Health
- Steps: 1,107,775 (⬇️ 13%)
- Weight: ⬇️ 0.3%
- Average sleep time: 7h 53 min (⬆️ 10%)
Work
- Days unemployed: 0 (⬇️ 100%)
- Days in contract work: 0 (no change)
- Days in permanent employment: 365 (⬆️ 44%)
Hopefully this is the last year I need to track this stat.2
This post was made possible by Apple Photos, Swarm, Spotify, Trakt, and my Bluesky/Mastodon history.