11 best pieces of media I consumed in 2025
Don't try to make sense of it, just enjoy the content...
Each year I like to compile and conflate everything that I've watched, read, attended, listened to or whizzed past into one content blob list. I think it started as a facetious response to the enshittification of culture but has now turned into a very serious endeavour. Maybe there's some grand sentiment or insightful commentary to be made of this list, but really it's just things that I liked, and maybe you'll like too.
- Tina Fey giving advice to Bowen Yang on Las Culturistas - podcast clip
In just a 60-second clip, Tina Fey covers so much ground. The first hook is her summary of Emerald Fennell films always taking that sexually-violent third act turn that we have to pretend to be surprised at (can't wait for 'Wuthering Heights' btw). Then she hits Bowen with the "you hang out with Ariana and Spongebob" line, and finishes it off with "authenticity is dangerous and expensive". A perfect summation of celebrity culture in 2025.
- nosferatu vogueing - YouTube
My first film of 2025 was Robert Eggers' Nosferatu and I think they missed an opportunity during the PR campaign to get ol' Willy Skarsgard to pop some Madonna moves on the red carpet.
- Everybody's Live with John Mulaney - television series
It's too hard for me to pick just one highlight from this run so I've included the best of reel. For those who may have missed it (and reading the papers it seems that was everyone), Everybody's Live was a live broadcast on Netflix with guests, sketches and musical acts, all from the mind of Mulaney. For me, the weeks long build up to Mulaney fighting three 14-year olds was an epic 'are they actually doing this?' experience.
- Happy Healthy Citizen of the Developed World Blues performed live by Ball Park Music - music performance
One of my favourite bands performing one of my favourite songs live in an intimate performance space?! Nothing beats a unifying sing-along with a crowd of strangers!
- The second time I watched the 'River of Hills' sequence in One Battle After Another - film scene
Posited by many as the best film of the year (P.S. my top films will be coming soon, P.P.S. go vote in the Fleapit film poll of the year here). Going in for the rewatch, knowing what is coming and yet still being absolutely gripped in tension on the edge of my seat is the sign of absolute cinema.
- Genesis Owusu at the Sydney Opera House Studio - music performance
An absolutely electric performer at the top of his game, Genesis Owusu is perhaps Australia's finest musical talent today. A small crowd packed into the Studio at the Opera House to participate in a spiritual experience as he performed brand new, unreleased material.
- Jafar Panahi at the Sydney Film Festival - films/live events
I've spoken elsewhere about Jafar Panahi at SFF but I truly believe it's worth reiterating. It was such a blessing to hear from one of the best filmmakers speak on each of his films at the festival. Such a generous act and worthy of endless praise.
- 4K restoration of Mullet - film
Perhaps I went into this with my guard down but this film floored me. It was the most that I'd felt seen on Australian screens. My family, friends, neighbours and locations. It is a brutally honest and melancholic look at regional Australian culture.
- The missing word challenge for Bronwyn on Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee Christmas Special - television
This show is a perfect blend of absurd and serious competition but this segment in particular uses one of my favourite comedic techniques - the long joke. I love it when comedy wastes the time of everyone involved and circles around from funny, to not funny to hilarious.
- Tom Walker wears an iPad on his face for Paul F. Tompkins to appear on Demi Lardner’s Grouse House show So You Want To Win A Penis Pump - web series
Do I really need to explain it beyond the title? It's wildly absurd.
- The way Boris Johnson says 'ChatGPT' and 'AI' - podcast clip
This year was endlessly consumed by the discussion, proliferation, ridicule and intrusion of AI into every part of our lives. If you find yourself on the same side as Boris Johnson on any matter, you know you're doing something wrong. I hate AI. I hate ChatGPT. But I do love the way ol' BoJo pronounces both and it immediately entered my vocabulary.
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