A Year in TV Land: 2025
Jan. 2nd, 2026 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
enter_remigesWe're back in TV land, baby! Apparently I got terminally distracted when writing my 2024 wrap-up last year, so here's that one as well, if you would like to see me hype Black Sails. I think I watched one (1) movie this year (it was the Muppet Christmas Carol), so this is pretty much my entire watch list in roughly chronological order. As usual, I enjoyed everything unless otherwise stated. Stars are assigned based on how much I liked something / how much I remember it / general Vibes at the time of posting.
Favorite Show: Haikyuu!!
I realize I rated other shows higher with the star system, but Haikyuu!! was such a confluence of my favorite things. Procedural-adjacent shows! Sports! The power of Friendship! Underdogs! Characters with a lot of heart! Ensemble casts! The great highs and lows of victory and defeat! Finding your capital-P Person! I loved the anime, loved what I've read of the manga (aka the ending where the show left off + me starting again at the beginning), and loved the fanvids and fics. This is the show I felt most fannish about, even if I don't (currently) want to write anything for it.
Favorite Season: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 6
I'd heard that season 6 was polarizing, so I'd gone in with tempered expectations, but I LOVED it. *clenches fist* I Can Be Normal About Grief and Its Manifestations.
Favorite Episode: The season finale of The Bear, "Goodbye" (S4E10)
So fucking cathartic, holy shit.
Primary language: (E)=English, (K)=Korean, (C)=Chinese, (J)=Japanese, (S&D)=Swedish and Danish
** Silo (E)
Yessss, post-apocalyptic society! Let's go! I really want to know what comes next, though I haven't yet picked up the books to see if they're any good.
**** Buffy the Vampire Slayer (E)
You know who'd never seen Buffy before? *points thumbs at self* Me! Technically I think I watched the first five-ish seasons last year, but I had a blast. Loved Faith and Buffy and Willow and Spike and Giles (who I apparently knew from Ted Lasso first, which was wild) and watching full seasons of TV again rather than its emaciated contemporary counterpart (the 6- to 8-episode series). I went in pretty much unspoiled except for something about Dawn, and I loved that entire experience for me. New pop culture references: unlocked.
*** Severance (E)
I'm ALSO behind on having seen Severance (though uhhhh not as far behind as I was on watching Buffy /o\). Great cinematography! (I say, knowing nothing about cinematography.) Loved the weird fucked-up world + the Horrors + the Drudgery.
** Angel (E) (DNF)
Angel loses stars for KILLING ITS WOMEN! >:[ Why did you do that. Why. Anyway, I didn't actually finish this because I got Big Enraged about but I enjoyed seeing more of the characters from Buffy (and getting to like Wesley and Cordelia) and getting to meet new characters + the Atmosphere.
* Moving (K)
Forgot I'd watched this! Kids (and parents) with superpowers! The boy... bounces? No gravity? The show also bounces (pun intended) around in the different timelines. I did finish this, but it obviously didn't make a huge impression.
*** High School Return of a Gangster (K)
Fun premise! A middle-aged gangster *points to the title* wants an education, dies, and winds up in the body of a bullied high school boy. This is very much "gangster" with the edges sanded off, but I enjoyed the development of the relationship between our migrated gangster and the class president (?) at the school. Originally a BL, but the decision to get rid of that aspect in the show felt like the right move due to the age difference of the characters and the circumstances.
***** The Bad Kids (C) (Ongoing)
I haven't yet finished this yet (no spoilers please!) so the rating may change, but it FEELS. Feels what, you ask? ATMOSPHERIC and REAL and INTENSE. I can almost taste the heat coming off of the pavement and feel the dirt ground into clothes. Three kids witness a murder, then try to blackmail the murderer for money. And boy, can these kids ACT.
**** 911 (E)
Remi, you say, am I reading the stars correctly? You wrote down four stars here? One star less than the show you were just raving about? With the atmosphere and the acting and the sense of reality? Yes. Yes, you would be correct. It's camp and over-the-top and the timeline makes absolutely no sense, and it fills me with incandescent joy. GOD I love serialized network television. I am starved. My fields have been bare for so many years.
** Dark Winds (E)
Mysteries! Supernatural elements! The young up-and-comer with the fast car and the settled lieutenant in the beat-up truck! Working together! Yes. My library had the first two seasons on DVD, and I'll watch the most recent seasons when they get those.
*** We're the Ones Who Live (E) (Ongoing)
ALSO haven't yet watched the last episode, rip. I just wanted to leave them happy for a while and I feared the finale. ^__^; Michonne is my FAVORITE and I loved seeing her and Rick on screen again. Together! At last!
* The Last of Us (E)
I'd encountered no spoilers for the second season, so I was quite surprised at one of the major twists early on. Nothing particular stick out to me about the show, except that I wanted more from the ending.
*** My Hero Academia (J)
My first foray into anime! I'm not going to lie, I love formulaic / procedural / episodic shows centered around a larger conceit (superheroes! in school! competitions!) so I was Here for this show. The final season is out now, but I read the rest of the manga because I wanted to know what happened so badly.
**** Haikyuu!! (J)
SECOND foray into anime! Volleyball! The whole-hearted pursuit of dreams! The power of Friendship and Sports and the indomitable spirit of one Hinata Shouyou who loves volleyball So Much! As seen by this being my favorite series of the year, all of this was my entire jam. The whole cast of characters (including the secondary characters who come from rival teams) has my entire heart, and I began gobbling up fics with the speed and power of a Dyson 5000. I also read the rest of the manga, and the ending was *chef's kiss*
**** Run with the Wind (J)
More sports, but this time running! A team of (mostly) underdogs run the Hakone Ekiden, which is relay race where each participant runs roughly a marathon distance. I had no idea that was a thing, but I was incredibly into it as both a lapsed runner and someone who loves (again) Sports and the power of Friendship! \0/ This was one of my requested fandoms for Yuletide.
** The Bridge (S&D) (Ongoing)
More mysteries! Definitely on the grittier side of what I watched this year, but I enjoyed the female detective and being Anxious and adding a new language designation to my watch list. Apparently this show helped sparked the whole Nordic mysteries craze? I finished the first season and got distracted halfway through the second, but I'll likely come back to it some time.
***** March Comes in Like a Lion (J)
And the sports animes continue, but at a slant. This one is about shogi (do not ask me to define the rules of shogi) and follows a high school boy who's a professional shogi player and his struggles with depression / being largely estranged from his adoptive family. I thought that this was beautiful, both with some of the composition choices in scenes and the handling of the subject matter. Like Haikyuu!!, there are no villains, only complicated characters, and there were several times that I had to change who I was rooting for in shogi competitions as the show rotated certain characters so different facets were revealed. ALSO about the power of Friendship and Kindness (though less about Sports, at least sports as a meaning-making activity rather than as a job). I was quite surprised by where it ended and was less enthusiastic about the ending than the rest of the series, but not enough to knock off a star. Googling revealed that there was (yet again) more manga that hadn't gotten adapted. Did I read what I could of the manga? Obviously. This was another fandom I requested for Yuletide.
- Jujutsu Kaisen (J) (DNF)
WHY would you just TELL your audience that meaningful emotional connections had been made, rather than SHOWING THEM? Even in a montage? Baffling choices all around.
*** Attack on Titan (J) (DNF)
In my running streak of watching but not entirely finish shows... *waves hand*. I quite enjoyed the first three seasons. Action! Intrigue!And I liked the CONCEPT of a time skip and enlarging the world of the show in the final season, but. Maybe I got caught up in what I thought was happening rather than what was Actually happening, but I kept going "Ah, I see! A double cross! A triple cross! A... quadruple cross? Wait, what?" and like 90% of the characters' motivations and reasons for making certain choices were completely opaque to me. Why are you making stupid choices? Please explain. It also didn't help that our main cast of characters got broken up to facilitate more Plot Developments that I honestly didn't care about.
*** Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (J)
Enjoyed this bunches! Loved the brothers' quest to restore their bodies + the neat magic/powers system.
*** The Bear (E)
Went back and added a star *gestures at the top of the page about my favorite moment*, but there were so many moments that stuck out for me in this season. This is by far my favorite season of The Bear. Maybe it's been too long since I watched the other seasons, but it felt like grief (and the ripple effects and consequences of grief) were much more prominent in this season in a way that really worked for me. And I did add Emmylou Harris' "Tougher Than the Rest" to my favorites playlist.
As always, feel free to leave a comment if you want to share a show you loved this year or have any recs! \0/
Favorite Show: Haikyuu!!
I realize I rated other shows higher with the star system, but Haikyuu!! was such a confluence of my favorite things. Procedural-adjacent shows! Sports! The power of Friendship! Underdogs! Characters with a lot of heart! Ensemble casts! The great highs and lows of victory and defeat! Finding your capital-P Person! I loved the anime, loved what I've read of the manga (aka the ending where the show left off + me starting again at the beginning), and loved the fanvids and fics. This is the show I felt most fannish about, even if I don't (currently) want to write anything for it.
Favorite Season: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 6
I'd heard that season 6 was polarizing, so I'd gone in with tempered expectations, but I LOVED it. *clenches fist* I Can Be Normal About Grief and Its Manifestations.
Favorite Episode: The season finale of The Bear, "Goodbye" (S4E10)
So fucking cathartic, holy shit.
Spoilers
Having Carmy and Richie (and Syd and Carmy) finally communicate and start to clear the air? Richie talking about how he thought Carmy blamed him? The emotion? I was *clenches fist even harder* normal about it, so normal about it, it affected me a normal amount.Primary language: (E)=English, (K)=Korean, (C)=Chinese, (J)=Japanese, (S&D)=Swedish and Danish
** Silo (E)
Yessss, post-apocalyptic society! Let's go! I really want to know what comes next, though I haven't yet picked up the books to see if they're any good.
**** Buffy the Vampire Slayer (E)
You know who'd never seen Buffy before? *points thumbs at self* Me! Technically I think I watched the first five-ish seasons last year, but I had a blast. Loved Faith and Buffy and Willow and Spike and Giles (who I apparently knew from Ted Lasso first, which was wild) and watching full seasons of TV again rather than its emaciated contemporary counterpart (the 6- to 8-episode series). I went in pretty much unspoiled except for something about Dawn, and I loved that entire experience for me. New pop culture references: unlocked.
*** Severance (E)
I'm ALSO behind on having seen Severance (though uhhhh not as far behind as I was on watching Buffy /o\). Great cinematography! (I say, knowing nothing about cinematography.) Loved the weird fucked-up world + the Horrors + the Drudgery.
** Angel (E) (DNF)
Angel loses stars for KILLING ITS WOMEN! >:[ Why did you do that. Why. Anyway, I didn't actually finish this because I got Big Enraged about
Spoiler
Fred's death* Moving (K)
Forgot I'd watched this! Kids (and parents) with superpowers! The boy... bounces? No gravity? The show also bounces (pun intended) around in the different timelines. I did finish this, but it obviously didn't make a huge impression.
*** High School Return of a Gangster (K)
Fun premise! A middle-aged gangster *points to the title* wants an education, dies, and winds up in the body of a bullied high school boy. This is very much "gangster" with the edges sanded off, but I enjoyed the development of the relationship between our migrated gangster and the class president (?) at the school. Originally a BL, but the decision to get rid of that aspect in the show felt like the right move due to the age difference of the characters and the circumstances.
***** The Bad Kids (C) (Ongoing)
I haven't yet finished this yet (no spoilers please!) so the rating may change, but it FEELS. Feels what, you ask? ATMOSPHERIC and REAL and INTENSE. I can almost taste the heat coming off of the pavement and feel the dirt ground into clothes. Three kids witness a murder, then try to blackmail the murderer for money. And boy, can these kids ACT.
**** 911 (E)
Remi, you say, am I reading the stars correctly? You wrote down four stars here? One star less than the show you were just raving about? With the atmosphere and the acting and the sense of reality? Yes. Yes, you would be correct. It's camp and over-the-top and the timeline makes absolutely no sense, and it fills me with incandescent joy. GOD I love serialized network television. I am starved. My fields have been bare for so many years.
** Dark Winds (E)
Mysteries! Supernatural elements! The young up-and-comer with the fast car and the settled lieutenant in the beat-up truck! Working together! Yes. My library had the first two seasons on DVD, and I'll watch the most recent seasons when they get those.
*** We're the Ones Who Live (E) (Ongoing)
ALSO haven't yet watched the last episode, rip. I just wanted to leave them happy for a while and I feared the finale. ^__^; Michonne is my FAVORITE and I loved seeing her and Rick on screen again. Together! At last!
* The Last of Us (E)
I'd encountered no spoilers for the second season, so I was quite surprised at one of the major twists early on. Nothing particular stick out to me about the show, except that I wanted more from the ending.
*** My Hero Academia (J)
My first foray into anime! I'm not going to lie, I love formulaic / procedural / episodic shows centered around a larger conceit (superheroes! in school! competitions!) so I was Here for this show. The final season is out now, but I read the rest of the manga because I wanted to know what happened so badly.
**** Haikyuu!! (J)
SECOND foray into anime! Volleyball! The whole-hearted pursuit of dreams! The power of Friendship and Sports and the indomitable spirit of one Hinata Shouyou who loves volleyball So Much! As seen by this being my favorite series of the year, all of this was my entire jam. The whole cast of characters (including the secondary characters who come from rival teams) has my entire heart, and I began gobbling up fics with the speed and power of a Dyson 5000. I also read the rest of the manga, and the ending was *chef's kiss*
**** Run with the Wind (J)
More sports, but this time running! A team of (mostly) underdogs run the Hakone Ekiden, which is relay race where each participant runs roughly a marathon distance. I had no idea that was a thing, but I was incredibly into it as both a lapsed runner and someone who loves (again) Sports and the power of Friendship! \0/ This was one of my requested fandoms for Yuletide.
** The Bridge (S&D) (Ongoing)
More mysteries! Definitely on the grittier side of what I watched this year, but I enjoyed the female detective and being Anxious and adding a new language designation to my watch list. Apparently this show helped sparked the whole Nordic mysteries craze? I finished the first season and got distracted halfway through the second, but I'll likely come back to it some time.
***** March Comes in Like a Lion (J)
And the sports animes continue, but at a slant. This one is about shogi (do not ask me to define the rules of shogi) and follows a high school boy who's a professional shogi player and his struggles with depression / being largely estranged from his adoptive family. I thought that this was beautiful, both with some of the composition choices in scenes and the handling of the subject matter. Like Haikyuu!!, there are no villains, only complicated characters, and there were several times that I had to change who I was rooting for in shogi competitions as the show rotated certain characters so different facets were revealed. ALSO about the power of Friendship and Kindness (though less about Sports, at least sports as a meaning-making activity rather than as a job). I was quite surprised by where it ended and was less enthusiastic about the ending than the rest of the series, but not enough to knock off a star. Googling revealed that there was (yet again) more manga that hadn't gotten adapted. Did I read what I could of the manga? Obviously. This was another fandom I requested for Yuletide.
- Jujutsu Kaisen (J) (DNF)
WHY would you just TELL your audience that meaningful emotional connections had been made, rather than SHOWING THEM? Even in a montage? Baffling choices all around.
*** Attack on Titan (J) (DNF)
In my running streak of watching but not entirely finish shows... *waves hand*. I quite enjoyed the first three seasons. Action! Intrigue!
Spoilers
Me not even being surprised when two of the recruits told Eren that they were Titans, because I straight up didn't believe them. Me: No you're not. Why are you lying? Did you hit your head? Anyway, loved that.*** Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (J)
Enjoyed this bunches! Loved the brothers' quest to restore their bodies + the neat magic/powers system.
*** The Bear (E)
Went back and added a star *gestures at the top of the page about my favorite moment*, but there were so many moments that stuck out for me in this season. This is by far my favorite season of The Bear. Maybe it's been too long since I watched the other seasons, but it felt like grief (and the ripple effects and consequences of grief) were much more prominent in this season in a way that really worked for me. And I did add Emmylou Harris' "Tougher Than the Rest" to my favorites playlist.
As always, feel free to leave a comment if you want to share a show you loved this year or have any recs! \0/
no subject
Date: 2026-01-03 03:54 am (UTC)Also, I saw you wrote one of my FAVORITE Yuletide fics. I still love your writing, it turns out. :)
no subject
Date: 2026-01-04 02:49 am (UTC)And ahhhhh, thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. <3 I'm behind on answering ao3 comments, but you left me such a lovely one. The Long Walk grabbed me right around Yuletide season and wouldn't let go, so I felt very lucky to get matched on that fandom. Go evil time loops! \0/
no subject
Date: 2026-01-06 02:54 am (UTC)HOW did you only watch ONE MOVIE???? <-says person who watched maybe 2.5 tv shows, so i recognize the irony here XD but i think that's also why i'm shocked by this, bc even i can manage like... 4-5 movies a year lmao
hey remi do you know who Tougher Than the Rest is originally by
"I Can Be Normal About Grief and Its Manifestations" yes very convincing i definitely believe you uh huh
this is really suggesting to me that i should try watching some anime! i promised someone else i'd watch Yuri on Ice but maybe after that i can proceed to something from your list!
i always love reading these from you <3
no subject
Date: 2026-01-07 05:52 am (UTC)Yesssss, I fully support Buffy watching! Come join me in watching media very late! \0/
alksdjfaldksjflakj LISTEN, the only reason I watched the one (1) movie I did this year is because it was Holidays with Family. /o\ I find movies to occupy the same space for me as short stories (which I also don't really read) as being too short to contain everything I want / really get invested in the characters (like TV shows / novels) BUT too long to watch in one sitting, which makes me antsy. ...pay no attention to my ability to binge watch TV episodes for an equivalent or longer time. It just feels like a lot of commitment!
!!!!!! SPRINGSTEEN!!!! Love that you know this (not that I thought you wouldn't).
0:) If I say it enough times, it Will become true. 0:)
Yes! I fully support dragging you into anime (even if it's a brief excursion). I'm clearly going to recommend Haikyuu!! (Sports! Friendship! Lots of fic recs from yours truly!), but you should let me know if you try it / something else!
yayyyy, I'm glad you enjoyed my time in TV Land! I've enjoyed keeping track of what I watch for the past few years, and now I just need to figure out what I'm watching next \0/