2025 Recommendations Round Up

And some anti-recommendations as well.

Dec 28, 2025

This year I did a lot of recommending and not that much musing compared to other years. I’ve been trying to fill my time with creative distractions that edify me rather than terrifying me, the way politics does. I didn’t exactly ignore politics; I just moved my thoughts about it to my other newsletter The Pushback. As you may recall, I tried moving this newsletter over there too, and I lost a few people in the process, so for now, this is the home of my personal stuff.

Anyway, back to the Content. Here’s stuff I consumed and occasionally even enjoyed in 2025. I realize, looking at this list, was that I stayed sane this year by trying to consume as many works of art as I could. I’m going to do a separate post about my new year’s resolutions but immersing myself in creativity was a goal that I didn’t realize I achieved until I made this list. If you want to discuss any of these or have questions or recommendations, let me know!

Movies

This is by far the most movies I’ve seen in one year in as long as I can remember. And I saw nine of them in the theater (marked with *) so if it turns out that cinema had a renaissance in 2025, I will be taking credit.

Saturday Night
Wicked*
Ladies and Gentlemen, 50 Years of SNL Music
Sly Lives!
Just One of Them Days*
Casablanca
Black Bag*
The Friend*
The Wedding Banquet*
Complete Unknown
Yacht Rock Dockumentary
Pitch Perfect
Pitch Perfect 2
Bring It On
Old Guard 2
Rogue One
Bourne Supremacy
LA Confidential
La La Land
Naked Gun*
Devil Wears Prada
Mulholland Drive
One Battle After Another*
House of Dynamite
Thursday Murder Club
The Commitments
My Mom Jayne
Rental Family*
Sinners
Perfect Days - I haven’t finished this yet. It was recommended to me by a couple people, and I thought I’d like it based on my love of other Japanese things that are very sweet, but I actually found this too boring to enjoy.
Marty Supreme*

Music

This time the (*) means I saw the band live.

Doe Chii
Everyone Says Hi
Samantha Fish
Les Savy Fav*
Ida Maria
Destroy Boy*
Sleater Kinney*
Ladybug Transistor*
Ron Sexsmith*
Magnetic Fields*
Pointer Sisters*
Animal Mouth
Fijiana
Artificial Go
Gelli Haha
Eric Satie
Shudder to Think*
Fela Kuti

Comedy

Sarah Milliken*
Zarna Garg
Robby Hoffman (didn’t finish)
Sarah Sherman (didn’t finish)

Television

The Day of The Jackal
Queer Eye
Silo
Welcome to Wrexham
Severance
The Pitt
SNL 50th
The Falcon
Top Chef
The Studio
Last of Us
Househunters International
30 Rock (Season 1)
Andor
Agatha
The Four Seasons
The Residence
Ultimatum: Queer Love
Dept Q
Unforgotten (Season 6)
Broadchurch (Seasons 1 and 2)
Daily Show
That one Jimmy Kimmel episode that everyone watched
Project Runway (Season 21)
Is It Cake? Halloween
Down Cemetery Road
Slow Horses (Season 5)
Real Housewives of Salt Lake City (Seasons 1 and 2)
Midnight Diner (Seasons 1 and 2)

Podcasts

Good Hang (Amy Poehler)
Pod Save America
The Ezra Klein Show - these last two are in the “full disclosure” category. I was inclined to leave them off the list but I do listen to them so go ahead and make fun of me if you need to.
Wiser than Me (Julia Louis-Dreyfus)
Woo Woo with Rachel Dratch
Culturistas
Fear No Man - The Fela Kuti Story