Recommendations: The Best of 2025

Well, the year 2025 is over and not a moment too soon (though who am I kidding, 2026 is looking equally grim). This post may be a bit late, but I always get there in the end, so here are my top recommendations for the year that’s just passed: everything I read, watched or played that struck a particular chord and which may help you escape the hideous burden of day-to-day reality.

I actually found it rather difficult to narrow things down into a reasonable list (especially given my OTT gorge of pop-culture franchise material in July), which speaks to the surprising quality of my reading/watching year.

2025 was divided into several themes, and though that sounds like it might impinge on just enjoying myself, it actually gave me the structure I needed to focus on specific interests while also finding new material in each subject, whether it be Arthurian legend, Greek myth, Tudor drama, pirates, unicorns, folk horror, or Magical Girls.

There was also a surplus of television shows that were cancelled after one season, though many of them I was watching for the second time: Crossbones, Nautilus, Around the World in Eighty Days, NBC’s Dracula, Sinbad, Atlantis (okay, that one had two seasons), The Winter King, Camelot, Cursed, Onyx Equinox – and I’ve just this month finished Emerald City. So yeah, I broke my own rule about not starting new shows until I was sure they’d be finished, but there’s still something a little fascinating about projects that get greenlit but are unable to gain enough traction for a continuation.

As it happened, my New Year’s Resolution was to avoid American-made or US-based material, which saw me in good stead for most of the year (sans July, and a few films in December) and made for a nice change of pace. The decrease in violence – specifically gun violence – on the screen was extremely noticeable, and so my viewing intake was considerably more restful as a result. Of course, this meant I missed out on a few shows I’ve been meaning to catch up on (Elementary, 1923, Welcome to Derry) but hey – they’re not going anywhere.

Blog-wise, I managed more reviews and commentary than most years (I see on the sidebar that even though my activity gradually decreases with each year that passes, I managed three more posts than in 2024). Personal highlights include a Contrast/Compare between Black Sails and Andor, an in-depth look at the treatment of Rebecca and Rowena in Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, meta about the Evolution of the Vampire in projects like Dracula, Nosferatu and Carmilla, Ranking the 39 Episodes of the BBC’s Robin Hood, and reviewing every episode of MGM’s Robin Hood (still no word of a renewal on that front, so I can probably add it to the above list of single-season shows).

There was also an uptick in fandom drama this year, or so it seemed, whether it’s the tedium of the culture war, the astounding lack of media literary in your average viewer, histrionics surrounding thwarted shipping endgames, or stories once again being held hostage by the whims of the loudest online voices. I may have more to say about it in a later post, as bloody hell was it a headache.

Finally, we lost a lot of talent this year, from Robert Redford to Diane Keating, and though I always feel a little uncomfortable about noting such things on a blogpost (it feels so superficial somehow) I was especially saddened to hear of the early death of Michelle Trachtenberg at just thirty-nine years old, who I’ll always remember as Harriet the Spy and Dawn Summers. Likewise, Val Kilmer was probably more of a Han Solo to me than Han Solo himself as Willow’s Madmartigan (sorry, I came to Star Wars later in life!) and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as the very sinister, but equally very compelling Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat (conversely, it would appear I went through my villain phase very early in life, at age ten or so).

And of course Rob Reiner, whose death was a terrible shock and part of an ongoing investigation. I’ve no idea what I could possibly say that could be in any way meaningful, only that The Princess Bride was a staple of my childhood, as it was for so many others.

Robin Hood: One Enemy Falls, Another Rises

My thoughts on this grand finale are super late, but that’s because a dozen other things (including Christmas and New Year) got in the way. Ah well, it’s an excuse to watch the episode for a second time, just to refresh my memory.

We start with Robin waking up in the forest next to Marian, having had a dream/nightmare about Adric and his father’s voice, encouraging him to fight to the bitter end. Mkay? Robin has spent this entire season prevaricating over what he’s going to do, how he’s doing to do it, and whether or not it’s the right thing to do, and it seems he still needs guidance from beyond the grave.

Woman of the Month: Huntrix

Rumi, Mira and Zoey from K-Pop Demon Hunters

The Year of the Villainess is over and it’s with some relief that I return to the good guys. We need them now more than ever, and the natural choice of heroines to headline January is a no-brainer. K-Pop Demon Hunters took over Netflix last year, and did so entirely on its own merits. With little in the way of promotion, it was down to word of mouth that these girls got the attention they deserved, and well – I give fandom a lot of flak, but sometimes it gets things right every now and then.

Rumi, Mira and Zoey are famous K-Pop stars: they write their own songs, choreograph their own dances, and look out for each other in the glitzy world of superstardom. But they’re also secret superheroes, lending their voices and talent to the upkeep of a magical barrier that keeps demons securely locked away.

Though Rumi is technically the lead, all the girls get their own little mini-arc. Mira finds it difficult to emote, Zoey feels torn between her Korean and American heritage, and demons are exceptionally good at playing on their insecurities. Rumi has it the worst though, for as the offspring of a demon and human, she has to hide her true self from the world.

Of course, it all gets resolved with the power of song, friendship and positive thinking. Okay, that sounded a little glib, but this is the first time that three female characters have featured in a Woman of the Month post, as I found that I couldn’t really separate them. That aforementioned blend of song, friendship and positivity is so intrinsically linked to all these girls and their relationship with each other that it forms the emotional centre of the story itself – and I honestly think that’s the secret ingredient that made this film a hit.

(Along with all the little things; details as simple as scenes of the girls being incredibly silly or stuffing their mouths with food. How often do you get to see THAT in a movie about women?)

At the start of the film, there’s a tantalizing glimpse of the women that preceded Huntrix in the line of demon hunters throughout history (I’d definitely turn up for a prequel about them) and hopefully any potential sequel will delve into how these girls were recruited and trained in the first place. Until then, we have this impossible movie to enjoy: three female protagonists, a largely women-led production, absolutely no support or promotion from Netflix, themes of mental health and the connective power of music… and it was a smash hit.

Reading/Watching Log #121

No prizes for guessing what this month’s theme was: I have been very into Christmas ghost stories since October, and was looking forward to diving back into the vibe – even though here in Aotearoa, we’re facing high twenty-degree weather. I’m sure something atmospheric is lost given that there’s no snow or darkness outside, but perhaps one day in years to come, I’ll be able to revisit all this material in its rightful setting.

I also took a mad dash to squeeze in as many of this year’s most prominent genre films (Sinners, Weapons, Wake Up Dead Man, K-Pop Demon Hunters) since I need some material for my annual “Best Moments of Film and Television” list. The last Babysitters Club books of 2025, more Magical Girls and the final season of Doctor Who for the foreseeable future, and the year ended on a relative high.

I dearly wanted to see the Twelfth Night adaptation that played recently at the Delacourte Theatre in New York, but unfortunately PBS didn’t allow for international viewing – given that I started this year with Twelfth Night, it would have been nice to finish with it too, but I had to contend with some clips and the hope it’ll turn up available in due course.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. If possible.

Meta: Comparing/Contrasting Andor and Black Sails

“Love, it seems, has triumphed over virtue.” 

– Renault, Casablanca

This year I completed two incredibly good television shows: the second (and final) season of Andor (2022 – 2025) and all four seasons of Black Sails (2014 – 2017). You don’t need me to tell you that one garnered considerably more online discussion than the other, but on recommending Black Sails to a work colleague recently, I found myself saying: “it’s just like Andor!”

It wasn’t until I got home that I thought back to my comment and wondered why exactly I had made that comparison. At first glance, the shows have very little in common: one is a sci-fi espionage thriller set in a galaxy far, far away; the other a historical epic set during a specific period in our own history (the Bahamas, 1715) with many characters based on real-life people. One comprises a small part of a sprawling, multi-million-dollar Disney franchise, while the other is a high-budget but relatively little-watched Starz show that ran for a respectable four years.

Yet they both boasted high production values, talented casts, and hefty themes concerning warfare, oppression, conviction, the moral and emotional cost of resistance, and the question of how far an individual can pursue a righteous cause before it’s deemed (either by themselves or the audience) that they’ve gone too far.

Both have ensemble casts full of morally complex main characters, that have set themselves for or against a powerful Empire, a struggle in which they’re called upon to make difficult moral decisions, come into conflict with their allies just as much as their enemies, and face the impossible choice between protecting those they love, or sacrificing everything to the furtherment of a cause they believe in.

More specifically, both narratives revolve around the concept of revolution – why people fight for it, and what price it exacts from those who engage in it. Just as Cassian Andor and the rebels of Star Wars are mired in espionage against the Galactic Empire, so too are the pirates of Black Sails gradually preparing for war against the British Empire.

I’ve seen each show be described as a workplace drama, which is a fair assessment of each one if you take into account they interest both stories have in the concept of “the work” (or “the cause”), how a character can find themselves working with those they may dislike or distrust to achieve their goals, and how when they exist in this space, friendships and morals and love will inevitability be left behind because the work/cause is paramount.

Coincidentally, the shows are also prequels to pre-existing material: Andor to Rogue One (which is itself a prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy) and Black Sails to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.

Most importantly, both are extremely well-written. For this reason, I’m in the mood to delve further into the details of each show, how it is they have such simpatico with each other, and why each one is almost universally regarded as that most elusive of subjectivities: good. Sometimes, it’s just nice to gush about things you enjoy, and in doing so, I can hopefully provide you with a litany of reasons as to why you should watch these shows.

SPOILERS FOR ANDOR AND BLACK SAILS

Robin Hood: I Choose You

It’s Christmas Eve-Eve, so I’m going to have to try and keep this one short. That shouldn’t be too difficult, as this episode is mostly table-setting for the season’s grand finale (and possibly the show’s grand finale, as there’s been no word on a renewal just yet, and that’s never a good sign).

Robin Hood: The True Price of Defiance

Here we are with just three episodes left to go, and somehow this show feels like it’s still warming up. Time certainly flies!

As per the previous episode, the Saxon Elders (including Robin’s Uncle Gamewell) are locked up in Nottingham dungeons, awaiting their fate. The Sheriff states that he’s going to pull the old “you’ll all be executed unless Robin turns himself in” ploy, though after freeing one of the prisoners to deliver the message, he divulges to his new captain that this isn’t the real plan. It would appear that scheming and plotting has finally entered the chat…