All my villains, break a law to this

The 2025 that was

Scoured the blasted landscape of my memory of 2025 to try to recall just what I watched, what I listened to, what I read over the past 12 months and wtf year did we just live through?

Lists are fun, fodder for barbershop conversation, arguments that are never truly meant to be settled, but these things, I’ve discovered, can also beat senility back for just a little, remind me of that tiny gem of an experience I’d picked up off the shoreline all those months ago, how brightly it shined before events overtook my wonder or my joy or my relief and you’re thrust back into the Sisyphean task of trying yet again to stumble upon or manufacture another encounter—however brief—with the Sublime.

So, without further ado, a few of the faves I experienced this year, only some of which came out this year.

Books I enjoyed:

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez

Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road - Kyle Buchanan

A Flag for Sunrise - Robert Stone

Amulet - Roberto Bolaño

Missionaries - Phil Klay

A People’s History of Soccer - Mickaël Correia

Life’s Work - David Milch

Movies I enjoyed¹:

Bugonia

BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions

Sentimental Value

A House of Dynamite

One Battle After Another

Sinners

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera

F1

Black Bag

TV I enjoyed:

Andor

The Studio

Adolescence

Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War

The West Wing²

Albums I enjoyed:

BODIES - Thornhill

private music - Deftones

The Sky, the Earth & All Between - Architects

The End Will Show Us How - Tremonti

Debí Tirar Más Fotos - Bad Bunny

motionblur - Split Chain

Follow the Leader - Korn

Games I enjoyed:

Cyberpunk 2077/Phantom Liberty

Black Myth Wukong

FC ‘26

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I look back at how little TV I watched and am tempted to think Netflix might be onto something when they say their biggest competitor isn’t Warner Bros or Paramount but rather YouTube. In my defense, much of it—I dare say the majority—was for research, but isn’t it all at the end of the day? Still, finances got tight this year and it wasn’t like I had a YouTube subscription to put on the chopping block. Maybe that’s the lesson: make your ad-tier free. Anyway, I digress.

The year’s over and what I feel more than anything else is relief. It began with several huge things looming—two book launches and an international trip—and here I am thumbing through my 2026 calendar and absolutely delighting in how empty it is. Having a book published is a net joy, and “hassle” is not the first word that comes to mind for most people when it comes to the topic of telling people about the thing you’ve been working on for the past however-many years, but I cannot say I’m not exceedingly grateful I won’t have to do it like that again for the foreseeable future. Amazing the ways in which dread can curdle a beautiful thing.

Usually, my end-of-year reflection is more robust, redolent with wisdom, lessons learned from the chaos of a year, things to take into the New Year that will undoubtedly help me to become a better person, the best version of myself and all. There’s usually some accounting of accomplishments, the words written and the places seen, and I’d originally planned on writing about how I’d found God again in Ireland and about how He’d kept me in the warmest embrace for the first four months of the year while I was busy having the most fun I’ve ever had as a writer. I really did. And I don’t think it’s a matter of the sheen having worn off or those things suddenly lacking in import as the newness falls away. It’s rather that your boy is tired. This year feels more like something I survived than anything else. A body drags itself across the finish line. The defeated boss disintegrates, my own healing flasks empty. Made it to the end, but at what cost?

Usually, this would be the part where I talk about the ways in which this new openness to the appearance of the Divine carried me through the omnishambles of 2025 and how the Sublime is now something I am better prepared to meet in 2026, but, again, your boy is tired. Exhausted. Épuisé, as the French would say. And not a little misanthropic. I blame the AI bubble taking so long to burst.

However 2026 meets me/you/us, I hope we/you are ready for it. I hope there’s some good in it. In the meantime, I now have to rush off to watch Pulp Fiction with a loved one before it vanishes from Netflix and there’s pizza, so things can’t be all that bad.

Get some rest.

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Now reading: Conversation in the Cathedral - Mario Vargas Llosa

Now listening: Raw - Thornhill

1. Also seen for the first time this year: Rocky IV and Taxi Driver, both of which provided monumental watching experiences, particularly because Rocky IV was seen on the big screen. Also also, I finally saw Sur mes lèvres (one of Jacques Audiard’s earliest films) for the first time and maaaaaaaaan.

2. Still on S1. That death penalty episode is my favorite episode so far, my God. Sorkin was on one.