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The Best Of 2025

New Year’s Eve has been and gone, so happy new year everyone!

The coming year will undoubtedly be lovely, but let us look back at all the good stuff 2025 brought us. This is the best I watched, read and played in 2025.

Oh, and good to know: these things were not necessarily released in 2025. They are simply things I experienced for the first time last year.

2025 Stats
Films watched: 81
Shows watched: 40
Books read: 10
Games played: 8

TV

  • The Pitt is the very best show I watched this year. A mix between 24 and ER, but executed brilliantly. Every episode had me on the edge of my seat. 5 stars.

  • After more than seven years, Cobra Kai, one of my favourite shows, came to an end this year. A worthy ending to a fantastic series. 4.5 stars.

  • A big TV surprise for me was Paradise, a show that had me glued to the screen every episode. 4 stars.

  • One of the most impressive shows of the year is undoubtedly Adolescence: a series everyone should watch. Honestly, it should be mandatory viewing in every secondary school. 4 stars.

  • First books, then a series of Scandinavian films, and now a British remake: Department Q is a really cool show. 4 stars.

  • Even though the finale came out on January 1, 2026, I watched most of the final season of Stranger Things in 2025, so it belongs on this list. Look, it was not the best season, but I thought it was a worthy ending to a great show. 3.5 stars.

Also good:

  • Hostage - 3.5 stars
  • Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man - 4 stars
  • The Madness - 3.5 stars
  • Ransom Canyon - 3.5 stars
  • Wednesday season 2 - 3.5 stars
  • Monster: The Ed Gein Story - 3.5 stars

Films

The trend of watching less continued for me with films too. I only watched 81 films this year, which is pretty low for me. Still, there were a few gems I can recommend to everyone:

  • The Lost Bus - 4.5 stars
  • The Fantastic Four - 4 stars
  • Sinners - 4 stars
  • Mufasa: The Lion King - 4 stars
  • Thunderbolts* - 3.5 stars
  • Fountain of Youth - 3.5 stars
  • F1: The Movie - 3.5 stars
  • The Long Walk - 3.5 stars

Books

A few years ago I rediscovered my oldest hobby, and now I read every day again. This year I read ten books, and the most beautiful one was Films Die Nergens Draaien. It is a children’s book about grief, accepting yourself and making memories.

What makes the book so good is its layering. It is also an incredibly beautiful book for adults. I read every chapter with a lump in my throat, and during the final chapters I could not hold back my tears anymore. Highly recommended.

I also read a lot of thrillers. The books by Sam Holland were literal nightmare material. Start with De Echoman and then read De Twintig. You will not regret it.

Finally, I can recommend James by Percival Everett, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but through Jim’s eyes. A beautiful adventure novel. Read it in English, because the old English spoken in the book is translated very strangely into Dutch.

Games

I still do not really call myself a gamer, but over the past three years I have been in a flow where I start up a game several times a week. Maybe I am a gamer after all.

These are the games I enjoyed the most.

  • God of War - brutal action game and one of the best ever. I enjoyed it intensely, and the sequel is very good too. 4 stars.

  • Arc Raiders - I only played this for about a week, because after that I rediscovered an old addiction. But Arc Raiders is a very fun looter shooter. People online are friendly, which is a first ever? 4 stars.

  • EAFC 26 - Ah yes, my old addiction. Back in the day I played nothing but FIFA, but that was about ten years ago. Until I went away for a weekend with a friend at the beginning of December and we started playing again. Since then I have done little else but get frustrated every time I lose. 5 stars.

  • Cyberpunk 2077 - I played this for the first time in 2024, but I wanted to do a new playthrough and play the DLC. It was a joy all over again. This is genuinely one of my favourite games of all time. 4.5 stars.

  • Idle Slayer - The only phone game here, and one that has had me in its grip for months now. I cannot really explain it, but in principle you do not have to do anything. It is an idle game for a reason. 4 stars.

  • Assassin’s Creed Shadows - For the first time in years I played an AC game again. The last time was somewhere around 2010? Anyway, in this one you get to play ninja, and the combat is lovely. 3.5 stars.