 OK, so this project got a bit away from me. I’d planned to do an individual column for each of the expanded categories of shows, movies, and books I’ve consumed this year. I got a few done, but even over the extended winter break, I just didn’t find the time and energy to get them all done.
So, it’s catch up time. I’m just going to share my lists with limited commentary, as it’s already January 5th and I’ve got other things to work on. So, let’s call this a speed round! Documentaries Watched: All the Empty Rooms American Oz Becoming Led Zeppelin Being Eddie (Murphy) Billy Joel: and so it goes I Like Me-John Candy Ken Burns American Revolution Ladies and Gentlemen: SNL Music Lilith Faire Live Aid Michael Jack Schmidt Pee Wee as Himself Sly Lives-Hulu SNL 50 beyond Saturday night Stiller and Meara: Nothing is Lost Sunday Best: Ed Sullivan Super/Man: Christopher Reeve story The Beach Boys Allen Iverson I adore a good documentary. I even like some bad ones. This year there were a lot of good ones. My top three for the year are:
Strong year overall, but I’m a huge Ken Burns fan and huge American Revolution aficionado, so I was an easy mark for this one. The others were all good, though the American Oz one was a little weird, but I was on a plane watching that one. Solid year otherwise. Stand Up Comedy Specials I am a huge stand-up fan. Love it live and in any other format. This year, I watched: Brett Goldstein: The Second Best Night of your Life Drop Dead Years: Bill Burr Jimmy Carr: Natural Born Killer Kevin Hart: Acting my Age Marc Maron: Panicked Sarah Silverman: Postmortem Single Lady: Ali Wong Your friend, Nate Bargetze Ricky Gervais: Mortality Not a bad one on there as stand-up is a genre that if it’s bad, I’ll turn it off. Most things that get me to watch an episode or two, unless it’s awful, I’ll try to slog through. But with stand-up, if I’m not into it after 10-15 minutes, I’ll at least take a break. These are ones I watched all the way through. My top three specials of the year:
All very solid. Brett’s bit about the Muppets made the difference here, and he’s very funny, and he’s ROY KENT, so that was fun too. I’ve followed Bill Burr for years and actually met him a few times back in the day, so I enjoy his work. Love Sarah Silverman in everything she does and this was her strongest set in years. If I were doing five, Marc Maron and Gervais maybe make it in, but I’m only doing three. So that’s that. SCI-FI, Comic Booky Sorta Shows I felt like these shows needed a category to shine in away from drama, so that’s what I did. Here are the shows in this genre that I watched in 2025: Daredevil Born again Daryl Dixon season 3 Doctor Who season 15 Foundation season 3 GEN V season 2 Ironheart Silo season 2 Star Wars Andor season 2 Star Trek Strange New Worlds season 3 Marvel What If? season 3 Sisters Grimm Stranger Things Season 5 A lot of fun shows here. Many of these I watched with my eldest, sometimes in online watch parties while she’s at college, so that was a treat. So, my top five in this category are:
Gen V was running away with this category until the final season of Stranger Things dropped. It was just too good, too fun, and too much a love letter to my 80’s childhood to not make that jump. BUT, Gen V season two was remarkable. I was kinda meh on the first season, but I like its co-show The Boys, and I enjoyed it. But the writers of Gen V had to rewrite the entire second season when one of its major stars died. It led to a really interesting and poignant series of episodes that focused on loss and grief and finding one's way through it. Yes, I see the pattern of things I resonate with… Silo and Foundation are just phenomenal. Apple TV is doing some fun things with Sci-Fi shows, and those two are great. The books that Silo is based on are awesome too. And Strange New Worlds is a lot of fun too, doing that cool Star Trek thing where they are commenting on the world around us through the lens of the future. As Ursula LeGuin once said, “the future is a metaphor for now,” and Star Trek is good at embracing that. I’m looking forward to the new Starfleet Academy show this month. Star Wars: Andor was very good too, but they stuffed three seasons into one, and that hurt them, but I liked it and am sad it’s done. BEST BOOKS of 2025! Well, books, right? I read some of those this year too, right. You know, since I kinda work in that world a little? Well, yes, though I fell short of my reading goal for new books this year. Some of that is impacted by the fact that I’m rereading books I’m teaching in my classes, I’m reading the books of authors I’m working with at FLP a lot, plus, I’m writing my own books too. For example, THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOME, which we soft launched in the fall. Plus, students write papers I have to mark. So, I read all the time, but I get less time to read for fun than I’d like at the moment. Here are the books I completed this year, though I should mention that I’m 38% through Ron Chernow’s gigantic Mark Twin Bio, which hurt overall numbers. Vera, or Faith: Gary Shteyngart The Name of this Band is R.E.M. Peter Ames Carlin Anima Rising: Christopher Moore Spaceman of Bohemia: Jaroslav Kalfar What Happened to the McCrays? Tracey Lange Sunrise on the Reaping: Sazanne Collins The Husbands: Holly Gramazio Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: Gabrielle Zevin The Life Impossible: Matt Haig The Shadowed Land: Signe Pike Hole in the Sky: Daniel Wilson Not all of these are new, but they were first time reads for me, unlike, for example, my 13th read of LeGuin’s The Word for World is Forest and my 9th read of Cho Nam Joo’s Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982. (Those are novels I teach) From this group, no real clunkers, as I’ll put a book aside if it’s not working for me. Daniel Wilson’s latest felt like a step down for me from his previous novels, but there was a lot I enjoyed. My top three of the year are:
I loved The Husbands. What a fun and challenging premise. It was funny and heartbreaking all over the place. The audacity of the idea made me feel better about the premise of my current work-in-progress. The same can be said for Tracey Lange’s What Happened to the McCrays? as well. I’ve enjoyed all of Tracey’s novels to date and this one actually helped me figure out a structural issue I was having with THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOME, so I do need to thank her for that next time we hang out. And I simply adore everything Christopher Moore has written and will run, not walk, to read whatever he writes next. He’s funny, crass at times, and weaves an amazing story every single time. I’ve had the good fortune to hang out with him in the past and he’s just as advertised. If you’ve never read his work, I envy you: you could start his whole catalog today for the first time. TV DRAMA SERIES This is our prestige category, of course. There were so many good shows that we watched this year. This is the list of them: 1923 Season 2 A Thousand Blows Adolescence All Her Fault Chief of War Death by Lightning Diplomat Season 3 Duster Dying for sex Gilded age Season 4 Kobra Kai Final season Mobland Morning Show Season 4 Night agent 2 Outlander: Blood of my Blood Outlander Season 7 Paradise Reacher Season 1 Severance Season 3 Slow horses Season 5 Task The Bear Season four The Lowdown Wednesday Season 2 White Lotus Season 3 Your Friends and Neighbors Pluribus Down Cemetery Road Yeah, I know that’s extensive. But they were all SO GOOD! This really is the platinum age of television. I’d watch all of them again, but there’s even more good stuff coming! Here’s my top five, and this one was hard to whittle down.
That was harder than expected. I had to leave Slow Horses Season 5 and the amazing Dying for Sex off the list. Honestly, everything on that list could make an argument, except maybe for the new White Lotus season, which I didn’t care for. Mobland was excellent too. Paradise too. So much good stuff, but I made my list. Adolescence is a must watch. It’s a hard watch, but a needed one. The way they filmed it was fascinating and the actors were amazing. You can’t look away. My old Princeton friend Ethan Hawke’s The Lowdown was so much fun. Clever, heart filled, and a great ride. Pluribus is phenomenal. Task was so powerful, and it’s a Philly show, which always hits me in the right place. And Chief of War wasn’t perfect, but it was excellent and focused on a period in Hawaiian history that I’ve long thought needed to be explored in a show. Jason Momoa is great in the role and it was brilliantly shot. I can’t wait to see what they do in the second season. So…without further ado! OVERALL TV TOP TEN LIST! So, all that said, here's my top ten TV shows of the year overall.
So, that’s the year! What did you like and what are you looking forward to in the new year?
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