Good media of 2025

I consumed a lot of stuff in the last year. Here are various things I enjoyed.

Films

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

A tense Iranian thriller that looks at political unrest and feminism through the lens of a family of women where the father is a judge—an instrument of the state—who is forced into opposition with them. I thought everything came together well to deliver its political message but also tell an enjoyable story.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes

A very clever little Japanese film made in COVID lockdowns that uses screens as a method of time travelling. Fun stuff.

Grey Gardens

A bizarre and entertaining US documentary from the 70s about a mother and daughter, cousins of Jackie Kennedy, now estranged from high society and living in a falling-down house. A bit like watching a car crash.

Voyage to Cythera

A Greek film from the 80s, I barely cared about the plot but I loved it as a vehicle for some beautiful long shots and a dreamy but sad, resigned vibe. Very evocative.

El Sol del Membrillo

A lightly-fictional 90s Spanish film, this is another slow one about a real painter, Antonio Lopéz, trying to make a painting capturing the sunlight on his quince tree. This is nearly “slow TV” in terms of forcing us to be patient, to sit in one scene and take in the details, much as the painter does himself. I liked that.

Come See Me in the Good Light

I was all set to find this too twee, too soppy, too American. But Andrea nearly immediately won me over and I found this lovely and affecting. It made me realise how little a shift is required in order to see things in a more positive light.

TV

Last One Laughing (various countries)

The premise is 10 comedians stuck in a tiny studio for 6 hours, all trying to make the others laugh in order to get them out, with the last remaining becoming the winner. This is often more “fun” than genuinely funny. If you like British comedians, the UK version is a good place to start as it has a solid lineup. The Australian one is much worse! It’s been interesting to try some of the other countries’ and note some cultural differences. Spain did well and is very cohesive and communal compared to the usual individual chaos. Norway and Australia are stuck in dick- and poo-joke territory. This show has also taught me that the best comedians are those who have the confidence to commit to a joke even if they don’t know if anyone will notice.

Bäst I Test

We watch a bunch of international Taskmasters and this Swedish one is my current fave aside from the original, probably because David Sundin is such a funny guy. Funny and fun.

Hanno Ucciso L’Uomo Ragno

An Italian dramatisation of the formation of a band called 883. Despite never having heard of the band, and it all filtered through very questionable machine-translated English subtitles, this did a great job of telling a fun story of two random dudes becoming pop stars.

The Hot Spot

The previous year I had really enjoyed Brush-Up Life as a Japanese comedy about a woman who gets to relive her life many times, showing the small and large ramifications of making different decisions. I’m not super familiar with Japanese humour but I wanted to find more in this vein. The Hot Spot has a similar silly premise, about an unassuming guy who has superhuman powers and the things that happen as more people come to him for help. While it’s not quite as good, it similarly has some genuinely hilarious moments that I still reference. I have no idea how to find more shows like this, let me know if you have suggestions!

The Rehearsal

While it didn’t live up to season one’s heights, I still appreciated Nathan Fielder’s commitment to the bit. Nobody else is doing anything like it.

Common Side Effects

A US cartoon from the fellas who made Scavengers Reign, this has a similar creepy feel to it. It’s an old cliche that capitalism always consumes and sells back critiques of itself, but I did enjoy the premise of “what if there was a drug that cured everything” in the context of opposition to the US health care system and Big Pharma.

Books

I’ll quote my Goodreads reviews here.

Lent by Jo Walton

I found this surprisingly moving.

Girolamo Savonarola was a real Domenican friar in Florence. If you’ve heard the phrase “bonfire of the vanities”, it’s this dude who popularised the idea. Among other things he believed god spoke through him in prophecy, and when King Charles of France invaded Italy, he convinced Charles that Florence was destined to become a holy city, “the New Jerusalem”, effectively under Girolamo’s rule, and Charles was impressed enough that he spared the city and went along with it. Unfortunately he was still hanged and burned by the end of the fifteenth century.

This book is about that guy, and those events, except in our more fantastical version, Girolamo can really see demons and cast them out. Among other things. It’s mostly historical fiction of theology and politicking in what I found to be a compelling time and place, which also happens to have a fantastical element. Medici! Borgias! Michelangelo! Demons!

Girolamo is a strong character with depth and I found his particular plight compelling. He is someone who loves god so deeply but can never achieve the communion that he so desperately wants. He has failed and is seeking redemption and forgiveness without knowing if those things are truly possible. This resonated with me.

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Our protagonist is a young woman in a cell with another 39 women. She has no memory of life before being in the cell, which has no natural light or connection to the outside world. She knows of men only as guards who communicate only with a crack of the whip.

To say more about the plot would be to spoil things, suffice to say that as years pass, circumstances change.

This is a beautiful, sad book about love, culture and community, finding meaning in life, and what it means to be human. Our protagonist is a kind of “stranger in a strange land” in a way that reminded me of Piranesi (high praise). Through her naïve eyes we can see our humanity from a unique angle, and explore the strange world she has ended up in. These two things come together in a way that really worked for me—the drive to understand the world of the book and how it came to be, and the reflection on humanity.

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

We’re coming up to Gelon’s cove now. There are caves in the cliff that you can see when the tide is a little lower. Some people say this is where Odysseus was imprisoned by the Cyclops. I reckon that’s why Gelon first brought Desma here. It’s beautiful, certainly, but Gelon always needed something else. Most people believe in the myths ‘cause we attach them to real places, and it adds to what’s already there, but with Gelon, it’s the contrary. He believes in what’s right in front of him through the stories we tell.

This is the story of Lampo and Gelon, two out-of-work potters in Syracuse, what is now Sicily. The Athenians have just attacked the island and lost, and now the prisoners of war are slowly starving to death in the town’s limestone quarry. Gelon’s obsessed with Athens and plays, and he wants to use those remaining Athenians to put on a production of Euripides’ Medea. Lampo’s his best mate, so of course he’s helping. They’ll be the directors. And crucially, their voices are modern day Irish. Grand so.

Lampo and Gelon are great characters and Lampo is an excellent choice for the voice of the narrator in this first person narrative. He’s a right dickhead, but he knows it, and he can be be earnest and honest when the situation calls for it even if his default mode is dicking around. Gelon’s the brains of the operation but he’s also the brooding one, still mourning the loss of his son and wife. I believed in these characters, they are so strongly written and Lampo especially as narrator gets the lion’s share of the character development, and it works. The Irish flavour is such a good choice and it’s funny, rarely in a laugh-out-loud way, but the light tone plus the incongruity of these ancient Greeks speaking anachronistically definitely made for a strong combination. I’d love to have a whole set of ancient epics told this way.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

“Why would you want to keep in practice being wrong?” Call asked. “I’d think it would be something you’d try to avoid.”
“You can’t avoid it, you’ve got to learn to handle it,” Augustus said. “If you only come face-to-face with your own mistakes once or twice in your life it’s bound to be extra painful. I face mine every day—that way they ain’t usually much worse than a dry shave.”

As well as being good life advice, this quote sums up pretty well the difference between Gus and Call, our two cowboys who are bromance BFFs and our protagonists of this story. Augustus McCrae is the freewheeling, womanising philosopher who won’t shut up, and Captain Call is the taciturn, hardworking one who finds it extra painful to come face-to-face with his own mistakes. These ex-Texas Rangers turned horse traders and cowboys secretly love each other even though they annoy the dern piss out of each other. (Apparently they are modelled on two real life cowboys who were called Goodnight and Loving! There’s a “Goodnight-Loving Trail” in Texas which is truly an amazing name.)

This is a rollicking good yarn! Put that quote on the back. I don’t think I need to read much about cowboys to have had my fill for one lifetime, so I agree that this is indeed the definitive cowboy story to read.

Games

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

One thing I enjoy the most from playing games is immersion—a sense of really feeling within a story, being transported elsewhere. This is why RPGs are my fave, I think. KCD2 gave me immersion in spades. I was nearly as bad at combat as in the first game, and occasionally played with a “god mode” cheat on so I could survive fights until I gitted more gud. Combat aside, this was a beautiful detailed world that I loved spending time in, and a definite refinement of the ideas of the first game. Other studios should take notes from Warhorse, and I hope they keeping making games in this vein.

(I thought these folks were redeemed with their better handling of women and minorities in the sequel, apologies if I’ve accidentally played a fash game.)

Baldur’s Gate 3

I really liked Divinity: Original Sin 2 and I was, and am, still annoyed by Larian’s next RPG using a stupid tabletop D&D system with artificial restrictions like “you need to rest to regenerate spell slots”. An unpopular opinion perhaps, but I think tabletop rules rarely translate well to computer games. Anyway, I tried to play this in 2024 and hit a game-breaking bug. I reported it and it didn’t take too long for it to be fixed. Then I tried again and a few hours later hit another game-breaking bug. I reported it, Larian replied (I appreciate it!), but didn’t fix it for about a year. I finally finished this in 2025 when I could once again progress and I had a great time. I used some mods to increase weight limits and restore spells with short rests only, because I play games to have fun and not to be frustrated.

Ghost of Tsushima

More Ubisoft-action-RPG than pure RPG, I loved the setting but most of all was surprised to find that this game actually forced me to gain some coordination and master stances, blocking, and parrying, instead of mashing keys. Who knew it could be done. I still don’t think I’ll ever try Elden Ring though.

Caravan SandWitch

I love an open world exploreathon and I thought the vibes in this one were great.

Escape From Lavender Island

90s-inspired open world fever dream trip made predominantly by one guy, and I have so much respect for that. Not all of it was to my taste (the reward for finding some stuff was to hear dreary meaningless stories) but I absolutely respect the artist and his vision for being pretty singular. It’s inspiring to me as an aspiring indie game dev, and the sort of thing that should be held up to show that indie games can be art.

Albums

Kabutomushi and Animaru by Mei Semones

I found a lot of new music this year but so little of it really affected me. Pretty depressing to realise that. Fortunately I had Mei Semones to redeem my musical year somewhat. I love her bossa-nova inspired noodly guitar + strings vibe. Catchy stuff.

Animal Poem by Anna Tivel

I hadn’t heard of Anna before so it was nice to find someone new to me who has such a discography already! The songwriting here really grew on me.

The Vault by Maruja

Did I mention I love noodly guitar stuff? This is somewhere around jazz/math rock/post-rock and disappointingly for me, while this is a bunch of extended jams that are (ha) extremely my jam, their actual A-side material doesn’t follow this format at all and is much weaker. Anyway forget about that. This album, at least, is fun to my ears.