Best of 2025, Not from 2025

Cataloguing a now-40-year-old's increasingly juvenile entertainment picks from the past year, even when he wasn't hanging out with his kid. Not usually things that were released within the past year, unless they were suitably retro.

~ Best TV of 2025, Some from 2025 ~

Steven Universe (2013–19)

A candidate for the best cartoon not from my childhood, I tried this wholesome sci-fi comedy out with my five year old, who didn't care, so I enjoyed the daily treats by myself while we caught up on the rest of Sailor Moon (R & S, 1993–95) and biffed endless baddies with The Powerpuff Girls (season one, 1998–99). Taskmaster was back on top form (series nineteen, twenty and special, 2025), How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge) (2025) was the best optical Alan in a while, Curb Your Enthusiasm pulled it back at the end (season twelve, 2024), Severance season two (2025) was almost worth the wait, and the TV conversion of Uncanny (2023–25) was spookier than the podcast, until it jumped the hamster.

~ Best Film of 2025, Some from 2025 ~

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

A classic film about film when you can't be arsed with David Lynch. The scenic Nostos (1989) and surreal Keyhole (2011) were creative Odysseys, The Abyss (1989) and The Vast of Night (2020) were good sci-fi films from alternate ends of the budget spectrum, The Penalty (1920) was another uncanny silent gem, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) was a surprisingly worthwhile sequel, and ContraPoints' Conspiracy documentary (2025) was an entertaining encapsulation, if long YouTube videos count as movies. Jim Henson's Labyrinth (1986) held up 35 years after I first made that journey, but I was mainly passing it on.

~ Best Book of 2025, Not from 2025 ~

Various, Dungeons & Dragons: Ghosts of Saltmarsh (2019)

I'm between the life phases where playing Dungeons & Dragons is a possibility, but I can still enjoy getting lost in their needlessly detailed worlds. At the other end of the detail scale, Tyler Monahan's One Page Adventures (2022) bullet points were easier to adapt for our junior roleplaying needs. In unconventional conventional fiction, Rhys Hughes' The Crystal Cosmos (2007) was some of his best sustained silliness, John Gale's A Damask of the Dead (2002) was an aromatic bouquet, and Raina Telgemeier's autobiographical comic trilogy Smile (2010), Sisters (2014) and Guts (2019) were the best things I read with my precocious daughter to help wean her off unicorns.

~ Best Album or Playlist of 2025, Some from 2025 ~

Various, The Italo NONSTOP megamix (best songs selected)

YouTube user RoboMatic '86 curated the best shamelessly uplifting beats so I didn't have to explore any further. I was mainly obsessed with eccentric solo artists this year, from Penda's morbid sensory phantasmagoria Plague Cart Hallucinations (2022) to Virginia Astley's green and pleasant From Gardens Where We Feel Secure (1983), Steve Brenner's technopolitan Metropolis (1990), industrial cyborg Author & Punisher's Krüller (2022), chipmunk rocker Steröid's Chainmail Commandos (2025) and Alan Jefferson's over-reaching Yorkshire space opera Galactic Nightmare (1986). I belatedly learned that The Cure had done a new one too (2024), which was quite good.

~ Best Game of 2025, Some from 2025 ~

Onirim (Second Edition) (2014)

The rest of Shadi Torbey's Oniverse series never quite managed to dethrone the modern classic card game, but not for want of creative effort. Skypunk dice vexer Aerion (2019) and dystopian Bertha reboot Cyberion (2023) were my other faves. Sea Salt & Paper (with Extra Salt & Pepper, 2022–25) was my best non-solo card game, even if the six year old already beats me, and I enjoyed sanitising various dark fantasy roleplaying scenarios for our elementary pony-based system, possibly more than she did playing them. Less originally, I explored new Star Realms: Frontiers (2018–24) and the tiled plains of Carcassonne similarly continued to expand beyond reason (2007–14).

~ Best Spoken Word of 2025, Some from 2025 ~

Uncanny (2021–25)

From Haunted (2017) and The Battersea Poltergeist (2021) through the TV dissections, Danny Robins' pseudoscientific investigations into all manner of spoopy woo-woo (but mainly ghosts) are inevitably inconclusive but tirelessly enthusiastic. Some of my favourite living people popping up now and then was a nice bonus. I also enjoyed getting more dispatches From the Oasthouse (series four, 2025), for a few hours until they were used up.

As seen on

Best Things: 1985–2025