2025 really was a clusterfuck clown car of a dumpster fire of a year, wasn’t it? And 2026 isn’t exactly starting out much better. So let’s take a moment to celebrate the small slices of life we did manage to enjoy.

TV: My TV watching dropped off hard this year. The only full season of a series I watched in 2025 was South Park. Trey Parker and Matt Stone didn’t just go after Cheeto Mussolini; they took swings at some of his toadies too, including Kristi Noem and Pete Hegseth. I still can’t get the “Pete Hegseth is a Fucking Douche” song out of my head.

That said, the series I enjoyed the most was a Netflix miniseries about the far-too-short presidency and assassination of James Garfield called Death by Lightning. While the show takes some historical liberties for dramatic effect, the cast is outstanding, especially Nick Offerman as Chester A. Arthur. It’s another role that feels tailor-made for Offerman, but more on him in a bit.

Movies: I actually watched a couple of movies in 2025. And I do mean a couple.

Of course, I had to watch Superman. Was it the best Superman movie ever? Hard to say. But it was the first Superman movie that really captured the inherent weirdness of comic books. It balanced goofiness, drama, and spectacle in a way that felt right, and it even managed to get me a little misty in places.

The movie I enjoyed most, though, was an Amazon Prime release that flew way under the radar: Sovereign. It stars Nick Offerman as a man deeply entrenched in the sovereign citizen movement, dragging his teenage son along with him.

If you’re not familiar with sovereign citizens, you’ve probably seen clips of them online. They’re the people who drive without license plates, licenses, or insurance, insisting they don’t need any of that because they’re “traveling,” not driving, right up until they start screaming “I do not consent” while being tased by police. Calling sovereign citizenship a conspiracy theory almost undersells it; it’s more like a tangled rat’s nest of overlapping conspiracies.

When I told Lady Gray Offerman was in this movie, she asked if it was a comedy. It is very much not. Sovereign is based on real events, and the consequences are quite grim.

2025: the year of The Offerman.

Music: Music was easily the entertainment highlight of my year.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had an affinity for bands fronted by women. Frontman, frontwoman, you know what I mean. There’s a longer story behind that, but the short version is that I like seeing women succeed in male-dominated spaces. And in 2025, I was absolutely feasting.

The year kicked off with The Way. (affiliate link) by Dorothy. Their sound is southern rock filtered through ’90s girl-power country, but with a message that feels firmly rooted in the present. I especially loved how the album uses religious imagery to explore mental health struggles. It also contains my favorite lyric of the year, from the song “Bones.”

But some things are better when they break you
Not for the hurt but the breakthrough

Next came Re-Evolution (affiliate link) by New Zealand metal band Devilskin. I’ve always appreciated how lead singer Jennie Skulander uses growled vocals without leaning on them as a crutch. Re-Evolution feels like their most mature release yet. My favorite track is “Half-Life of Dreams,” largely because I can deeply relate to its take on chronic insomnia.

Halestorm has been one of my favorite bands since I first saw them live way back in 2010. . I genuinely believe Lzzy Hale is one of the best songwriters working today, and their 2025 album, Everest (affiliate link), might be their darkest yet. It’s not Slayer dark, but it does include a song called “Rain Your Blood on Me,” so take that as you will. This may be my favorite Halestorm album so far, at least until the next one drops. It also features my song of the year in “Gather the Lambs.”

The year wrapped up with Finnish metal band Battle Beast and their album Steelbound. (affiliate link) Don’t worry, they’re not one of those church-burning Finnish metal bands. Battle Beast has always leaned into an ’80s throwback sound, and Steelbound feels like a full-on love letter to power anthems from that era. I am fully on board. Check out “Twilight Cabaret.”

My album of the year, though, was Neon Void (affiliate link) by Sumo Cyco. I’ve been a fan for a few years now, and they’re the only band I currently own a shirt for. Sumo Cyco can be an acquired taste. They’re part pop, part punk, part dance, but mostly metal. Frontwoman Skye “Sever” Sweetnam can switch from harsh vocals to torch-song delivery in an instant. Every track is a catchy banger. There’s no skipping tracks on this album.

Comics: 2025 was the year I finally accepted that I’m a crime-comics guy even though I don’t consume much crime media otherwise. Reading crime stories after covering crime all day can feel a bit like coming home from work just to talk about work.

Two titles really stood out in this genre. The first was Out of Alcatraz (affiliate link), by Christopher Cantwell and Tyler Crook from Oni Press. It imagines a world where the infamous 1962 Alcatraz escapees actually survived. As I said in my review, it’s extremely well done.

My comic of the year was the graphic novel The Knives: A Criminal Book (affiliate link) by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, by Image Comics. Again, what grabbed me, as I said in my review, was how it connects crimes across the country through relationships between its characters. That discovery led me to realize there’s an entire Criminal universe, which I’m now working my way through.

Podcasts: I finally stopped listening to the one podcast I followed religiously. Once something starts to feel like an obligation instead of something I look forward to, it’s time to move on. That’s not a knock on the show; it’s just how my lizard brain works.

That doesn’t mean I stopped listening to podcasts entirely. Rachel Maddow released another limited-run series focused on historical events with modern parallels. This time, Burn Order examined the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

YouTube: I love history, and I love pro wrestling, so it was only a matter of time before I fell down the rabbit hole of wrestling history. My channel of the year was Wrestlespective, especially his series about past wrestling promotions called Defunct Championship Wrestling.

Wrestling: Speaking of wrestling, once again, I only watched AEW. It’s all I have time for, and I won’t watch WWE anyway given their relationship with the Saudi government. I also only watched one AEW pay-per-view this year because I don’t have $60 to drop on every event.

You’d think my favorite moment of 2025 would’ve been Hangman Page finally taking the world title from Jon Moxley in their Texas Death Match at All In. It was great, but the standout for me was actually the women’s Blood and Guts match. I thought it blew last year’s men’s match out of the water. (Video NSFW for blood.)

Video Games: As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of The Legend of Heroes series. While Trails Through Daybreak II came out last year, I was more impressed by the remake of Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter. I didn’t think I was going to like it, but it exceeded all expectations.

I also had a blast with the Suikoden I&II HD Remaster. I played both on the original PlayStation back in the day, and they still hold up remarkably well. I was especially happy to finally complete Clive’s storyline in Suikoden II without resorting to speedrunning tricks.

My game of the year, though, was the legendary Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I’ve been gaming since the Atari VCS, and I’ve never experienced writing this strong in a video game. I’ve also never had a game make me genuinely emotional until this one, and that was within the first hour. Believe the hype. It’s one of the greatest games ever made. My only complaint is the parry system, which absolutely wrecked my aging gamer hands. That’s on me, though, as I use a controller like it owes me money.

Politics: If 2025 could be summed up in one phrase, it’s “the cruelty is the point.” The current administration of Cheeto Mussolini wants us sick, poor, and uneducated. The ideal conditions for a would-be dictator.

Every day, the cognitive dissonance of his cult-like supporters becomes more staggering, especially when the evidence of his contempt for them is right in front of their faces.

If you want something more specific, here is my post on Rat Fuck Jr. blaming school shootings on video games. Because apparently we’re still recycling that argument after 27 years.

Personal: Like 2024, this past year had its peaks and valleys, but overall, there was more progress than not.

I’m still struggling with ADHD and the executive dysfunction that comes with it. I was diagnosed back in 2001, but I dismissed it at the time, and no one really explained to me the full scope of what that diagnosis meant. I’m happy with where I am now, but I can’t help wondering how different things might have been if I’d received proper treatment earlier. I should be seeing a therapist, but I haven’t had meaningful health insurance in over a decade, and paying out of pocket just isn’t feasible.

I also hit some financial hardship in 2025. I’m not facing homelessness or anything like that, but it took a serious mental toll and pushed me into a deep depression for much of the year. You’d think that would’ve motivated me to write more to make up the difference but, again, executive dysfunction.

Even so, I managed to publish 191 posts on the old crime blog, put out 12 very rough videos on my YouTube channel, and even released some exclusive content on my Patreon. (hint, hint) My goal for 2026 is to write at least 200 crime blog posts, with more writing here as well.

And last but certainly not least, I got to spend another year with my partner, Lady Gray. I have never met anyone who understands me so well, and in 2026 we’ll be celebrating our tenth year together. I write for an audience of one, and she’s it.

And that closes the books on 2025. Here’s hoping we can survive 2026, but so far it doesn’t look that good.