11 votes

TV: Your personal year in review for 2025

This is your place to share any and all thoughts on your TV watching for 2025.

What you talk about does NOT have to be limited to this year’s releases.

Feel free to share:

  • Favorites
  • Disappointments
  • Surprises
  • Memorable moments
  • Self-reflections
  • Anything else!

Let us know how your 2025 went.

3 comments

  1. kingofsnake
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    Personally, I liked Severance a lot. My partner and I have enjoyed the Witcher for all of its Harlequin novel meets LoTR aspirations and the latest season didn't disappoint. Neither did the...

    Personally, I liked Severance a lot.

    My partner and I have enjoyed the Witcher for all of its Harlequin novel meets LoTR aspirations and the latest season didn't disappoint. Neither did the taller, plainer Hemsworth boy.

    Finally, I just started the Chair Company and it's fantastic. That's exactly how I sound and look when I navigate a company website.

    5 votes
  2. Kerry56
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    I've enjoyed many different TV series this year, some new to me and some re-watches. Department Q was a surprise. I'd never heard of it, but it turned out to be very good. I think I liked it...

    I've enjoyed many different TV series this year, some new to me and some re-watches.
    Department Q was a surprise. I'd never heard of it, but it turned out to be very good. I think I liked it better than the fifth season of Slow Horses, which itself wasn't terrible, just not up to the level of the previous seasons.
    Squid Game Season 3 was predictibly sad, and not as shocking as the earlier seasons. Not bad.
    Landman Season 2 is still ongoing, and is maintaining its quality so far.
    I rewatched Silo season one and continued to the second season. Really quite good.
    Murderbot was quirky and a little disappointing. It just fell flat for me.
    Stranger Things season 5 isn't finished, but the first four episodes were better than I expected. We'll see how they end everything soon enough, and I have more hope for that than I thought I might.
    Wednesday Season 2 lost most of its charm.
    A Korean series, called Weak Hero was interesting. I watched both seasons.
    The Pitt was outstanding.
    Pluribus has been better than expected. Not finished yet, of course.
    And I tried to watch Severance. I went back to the first season and got through the first two episodes before giving up. It was both boring and weird.

    4 votes
  3. culturedleftfoot
    (edited )
    Link
    I feel like I watched a ton more TV this year than usual. It's probably not that much in the grand scheme of things, but it's surely more than I need. Completed Blackadder Goes Forth - Maybe my...

    I feel like I watched a ton more TV this year than usual. It's probably not that much in the grand scheme of things, but it's surely more than I need.

    Completed


    Blackadder Goes Forth -
    Maybe my second favorite season of Blackadder, but possibly the most crushing ending to a series I've ever seen. Great stuff.

    Genius Game a.k.a. The Genius UK -
    I'm a BIG fan of the South Korean variety show The Genius (it's easily the best reality game show out there. EASILY, I say). It's one of a select few shows I can throw on a random episode of whenever I don't know what I want to watch and it's always peak. So, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone brought it west, and this year ITV and former Doctor Who, David Tennant, tried their luck... and failed miserably. There's a fair amount of cultural context that goes into making The Genius so great, which is not impossible to substitute into the UK, but this production was always a gamble that wouldn't get the kind of budget it would need make it a success. The weak cast did not help; it could have surely done better including some celebs to spice up the mix, but they didn't put up the cash. No surprise, really.

    Justified -
    My first rewatch of the entire main series, leaving aside City Primeval. Great writing + great characters + great acting = success.

    The OA (season 1) -
    I can't remember who recommended this... I'd seen it mentioned a few times as an interesting show and tried twice before, unsuccessfully, to make it past the first 20 minutes of the first episode. I gave it one more go this year and wasn't exactly convinced, but intrigued enough to just keep watching one more episode. I made it to the end of season 1 and it definitely made me roll my eyes a few times, but it kept hinting at paying off and the season finale was just about worth it. Judging by the trailer, the second season looks like it picks up the pace, but if not, I might be happy to leave it here. Can anyone convince me to watch it?

    Samurai Jack -
    It's okay I guess, but I was pretty disappointed I bothered, as I mentioned in one of the previous TV Tuesday threads. I wouldn't have missed anything by skipping it.

    Shogun (2024) -
    My second rewatch of this masterpiece of a show - an achievement in its own right. Typing this up now is making me want to go for number three. DAMN IT THIS SHOW IS SO FREAKING GOOD.

    Tiger King (season 1) -
    I didn't watch this when it was all the rage, and having seen it I now understand why people were flipping out... you can't make this stuff up. Count me out for season 2 though.

    The Wheel of Time (season 3) -
    Yes, the show kinda hits its stride in this season, but it was just too late... they didn't make a big enough splash with the first season for the kind of money they have to spend to make the show good. It's a shame, as I am sympathetic to this adaptation and the challenges of making something worthwhile of this franchise, but I'm also not surprised Amazon dropped it. I would be very surprised if someone else picked it up.

    I watched a few specials worth mentioning as well.

    ESPN refers to their 30 for 30 series of documentaries as films but I have a hard time seeing them as such. This year I made a list of the ones I wanted to see, and I ended up watching about a third of all the releases through 2018. While I have a large appetite and appreciation for a variety of sports, I'm not at all invested in the mainstream US media sensationalism on its sports or reductive view of its athletes, and found these to be refreshingly much more palatable affairs. The best of the bunch were examples of proper journalism where you didn't need to necessarily be a fan of the sport beforehand, the ones that told a story that sprawled beyond the field/court, e.g. Once Brothers, The 16th Man, Into The Wind, The Two Escobars, What Carter Lost. They reveal tales that should be much more well-known - I didn't know that Muhammad Ali went to Iraq to bring home American hostages after Iraq invaded Kuwait! How conveniently that story's been forgotten in today's Islamophobic USA.
    The major hits like The Last Dance and O.J.: Made in America absolutely deserve their plaudits, but I'd encourage anyone to take a look at the list and see which other stories catch your eye.

    You may have heard of Derek Delgaudio's In and Of Itself when the play was kinda going viral years ago... I kicked myself for not going to see it in person. Stephen Colbert was left so in awe of the show that he produced a taping of it; it's been available on Hulu for a couple years but I only found out this past June. Even with enough knowledge of the mechanics of the magic to peek behind the curtain somewhat, I found the experience of following along and grappling with the questions that Delgaudio raises incredibly powerful. It lingered with me for weeks afterward. You should watch it!!

    Sean Combs: The Reckoning debuted in the aftermath of billionaire Diddy/Love/P. Diddy/Puffy/Puff Daddy's trial for sex trafficking and racketeering, and multiple lawsuits for sexual assault and abuse. The four-part series shone a UV light on his career, and there's a whoooooooooooooole lot of dirt to be found. It fleshed out (via first-hand accounts!) many of the rumors and allegations that have swirled around Diddy for decades, including celebrity orgies, solicitation of underage prostitutes, and the murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious BIG. Beyond that, it's yet another scandal that makes you think about the kind of depravity that goes on behind the scenes in the entertainment industry that the public will never know about.
    This was a much better watch than I expected it to be. It's also executive produced by 50 Cent, who has slyly been Diddy's nemesis for years and is petty enough to put up his money to fund an exposé and show you why, lol.

    Still Watching


    'Allo Allo -
    I started the series in late 2024 I think. Currently about 60% through, in season 5. Not the most sophisticated humor, but it's good to see some normal-looking people onscreen. I can't imagine the cast if they ever attempted a Hollywood adaptation. A 50-year-old, balding main character with a belly and a lazy eye, with probably a good 50% of his costars also middle-aged, with wrinkles and jowls and pudges? Never mind their actual acting ability, it'd be a focus group nightmare.

    Gargoyles -
    After Samurai Jack, I figured I'd go back and watch this, as I never knew how the storyline ended. Currently about 1/3 of the way through season 2.

    1 vote