It’s been weird: Best and Worst of 2025
- vsandoval04
- Jan 8
- 8 min read
A weird end to a weird year that gave us some of the best media I’ve consumed in a while.
It was a strange year. The person I was in January would be so utterly confused at how we got to the person I was in December. But despite the many rises and falls and the many mistakes and achievements, it is in these strange years that we learn the most. And I can say with certainty, the lessons were slapped into me in 2025.
In this strange age we live in, where we think we are slipping into recession and the state of the world seems bleaker every passing day, we often turn to art for expression. This meant, of course, 2025 had some of the best media I’ve consumed in years. (And some of the worst…)
Welcome once again to my second annual Best Of The Year lists. Here are my favorite things from the year, the ones I hope will continue thriving in 2026 and the ones I hope will stay in 2025 and be forgotten forever.
But before anything, just two reminders: (1) These are just MY favorites and I’m not ranking based on quality or merits, only on my level of enjoyment and love for it. (2) I unfortunately did not consume all the media I wanted to consume because this is (sadly) not my full-time job that I get paid for, so there are definitely missing things here that, if I had the time to watch/read/listen, they would’ve likely changed this ranking.
Without further ado, let's rank!
🎬 Movies
Favorite Movies of 2025
K-Pop Demon Hunters
Wake Up Dead Man
Superman
Wicked: For Good
One Battle After Another
Materialists
Companion
Nonnas
F1
Final Destination: Bloodlines
*Editor’s note: No, I did not watch Sinners. Yes, I did want to watch it, but I just never got around to it. I’m so sorry Michael B. Jordan. Also, shoutout to Frankenstein, Zootopia 2 and Five Nights at Freddys 2, which I postponed watching and will probably be on my Letterboxd in early 2026.
Worst Movies of 2025
Regretting You
The Life List
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Notes on Movies
K-Pop Demon Hunters changed my life:
I was there when the dark magic was written. I watched KPDH about two days after it came out on Netflix because I saw Arden Cho and Ahn Hyo-seop were in it and saw the clip of Jinu and Rumi to the Business Proposal theme. As soon as I finished the movie, I saved all the songs on my Spotify and started telling everyone in my life to watch it.
The movie quickly became a global phenomenon because of its amazing original music and compelling storyline, and I was its biggest fan.
Wake Up Dead Man is like Conclave, but murder mystery
What a movie!! I love all the Knives Out movies, but this one hit a specific chord with the religious trauma aspect it brought. I loved the theme of religion as grace and kindness in the face of sin, and Josh O’Connor was the absolute perfect main character to portray the tormented but hopeful priest. Genuinely one of my favorites of the year.
Superman is punk rock
I’m infinitely grateful for James Gunn making more superhero movies because I eat them up every single time. Another movie that focused on kindness and humanity and made me love Superman in a way I had never felt about the Man of Steel. Also, it did help that he was portrayed by David Corenswet.
The runner-ups and their faults
I watched many movies in 2025 that actually came out in 2025 (rare occurrence), so it was genuinely hard to choose my favorites of the year. Despite being a little lower on the list, I have to give flowers to One Battle After Another, which I am sure will win some awards very soon, and Wicked: For Good, which I loved very much but had some strong feelings and opinions about.
If you care to read my opinion about those and some more movies of 2025, here’s my Letterboxd list ranking them.
📺 Television
Favorite Shows of 2025
Heated Rivalry
The Summer I Turned Pretty S3
Overcompensating
My Hero Academia S8
Stranger Things S5
Worst Shows of 2025
Stranger Things S5
Notes on Shows
Heated Rivalry brought back my fangirl era:
I haven’t felt the rush this show made me feel since I was a One Direction fan in 2013. This was peak storytelling, peak romance, peak yearning, peak everything. I don’t have the words to explain the experience this show was, I can only say it was so worth the watch and I’m so glad they had that $5 budget and a dream and made this masterpiece.
The Summer I Turned Pretty was the best summer ever:
Everything must come to an end, and after three beautiful summers of watching this messy teen drama, TSIP is finally over. I had the time of my life discussing and debating Belly’s horrible decisions with my friends and coworkers and watching the finale in a sports bar in Miami might be one of the Top 5 community moments of my life.
Overcompensating ate the house down boots:
Very few times a show achieves this level of camp millennial humor that the world thought was lost to the 2010s. Everything about the show is so fun and silly, but so deep and real at the same time. The comedy hits when it has to, and the moments of self and sexual discovery are explored perfectly. I hope Benito Skinner becomes the new Mindy Kaling and writes a million more shows of teenagers played by 30-year-olds.
The ST dilemma:
I feel about Stranger Things season 5 the same way I feel about Taylor Swift’s Life of a Showgirl: Due to my continued love and support for the art, I wanted to love it so much, but I cannot support releasing trash and calling it a masterpiece. ST had its ups and downs across seasons, but you would think after leaving the stakes so high in the finale of season 4 that they would go out with a bang in this final installment. You would be thinking wrong.
Without any spoilers, all I have to say is that the writing was subpar, characters seemed lobotomized most of the season, there was too much “tell, don’t show” and the ending, though sweet and nostalgic in part, did not do justice to the core of the story. Anyway, if you’re reading this and you’re the Duffer Brothers, I hope you never get to write or produce anything again.
📚 Books
Favorite Books of 2025
(except it’s just my favorite ones I read this year, and three of them are not from this year)
Katabasis
Wuthering Heights
Sunrise on The Reaping
The Last Graduate
Book Lovers
Notes on Books
Katabasis reinvented Dark Academia:
I’m so glad to have discovered R.F. Kuang this year! I had been recommended Babel before, but never got around to reading, so after reading this on a whim (a TikTok trailer convinced me), I was pleasantly surprised to love her writing. I have some gripes with this book, but overall, I think it has great storytelling and world-building and I loved the academic, mythologically accurate journey through hell.
Shoutout to my Hunger Games obsession revival:
Oh hell yeah!!! I was one of the original people flooding Twitter with requests for Suzanne Collins to write about the Haymitch games, so she did this exclusively for me. I went on a beautiful rereading journey of all the Hunger Games books (as I do every couple of years) after bawling my eyes out to Sunrise on the Reaping. It reminded me once again how crucial characterization and world-building is in literature, because it was beautiful to see characters that I already knew at other points in their life and to see the world of Panem in its full dystopian flair. Super mega excited for the movie in November 2026!
I love YA fantasy books
After a stint of two weeks where I seemed to need to consume every book ever written, I came to the realization that my favorite genre will always be YA fantasy. There are obviously better books and genres out there, but I don’t care. Nothing compares to the thrill I get from reading YA fantasy. This was perfectly exemplified by my read of the Scholomance trilogy (A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate and The Golden Enclaves). Although I had (many) issues with the writing style and the story didn’t have quite as good an ending as I hoped, I enjoyed reading those books so much. So whenever I’m in another reading slump, I know where to turn so the sleeper spy reader inside me wakes up again.
**Editor’s note: Also follow me on Goodreads and/or Storygraph to read my full reviews on these books!
🎶 Music
Favorite Songs of 2025
DtMF by Bad Bunny
Nobody’s Son by Sabrina Carpenter
BAILE INoLVIDABLE by Bad Bunny
Golden by HUNTR/X (lmao)
The Hand by Annabelle Dinda
La Perla by Rosalia
Lady Lady by Olvia Dean
The Giver by Chappell Roan
At Least I’m Hot by Renee Rapp
We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night by Sabrina Carpenter
The Longest Goodbye by ROLE MODEL
Gameboy by KATSEYE
The Subway by Chappell Roan
Abracadabra by Lady Gaga
Timelapse by KATSEYE
Favorite Albums of 2025
DtMF by Bad Bunny
Man’s Best Friend by Sabrina Carpenter
The Art of Loving by Olivia Dean
Beautiful Chaos by KATSEYE
Mayhem by Lady Gaga
Worst Music of 2025
The Life of a Showgirl by Taylor Swift
Notes on Music
DtMF struck a chord
I’ve already spoken about this before, but this album was a genre-bending, life-changing moment for me. At a time when political polarization seems at its highest and we are often divided by our culture and nationality, what a beautiful message this album was about taking pride in our heritage. This album made me nostalgic; it made me miss my home, it made me miss my childhood, but it also made me proud, it made me happy about my roots and my rich history. And that sentiment of pride in your patrimony, despite its flaws and ugly side, is a crucial one to embrace right now.
I <3 KATSEYE
I also rediscovered Katseye this year! I had seen them before because of the Dream Academy competition, but I decided to randomly watch the documentary on Netflix and I fell in love with these girls. The Gap commercial, Gnarly, the tour, Internet Girl. All of it! They are my new favorite pop group I’ve adopted and I hope they will succeed so much.
Me and Taylor broke up:
I’ve heard cheers and I’ve heard booing, but this is not about public opinion, this is about me and her (Taylor Swift). Take this as the official announcement that we are broken up. As an avid TS listener and a haver of multiple vinyls of her albums and a significant amount of merch, anyone could have told you I was a big fan of Swift. However, due to recent developments (her release of the worst album ever known to man), I had to make the hard decision to take some space away from her. Now, is this a permanent decision, or will I come crawling back if/when she releases good music again? Only time will tell.
Ins and Outs for 2026
IN
- rings
- eyeliner
- forest and earthy scents
- physical books
- lists
- talking things out with someone before acting on it
- calling your friends
- rooftop bars (and bars in general)
- financial responsibility
- roadtrips
- accountability
- going to the movies
- street fairs
- routines
- diva
- walks outside
- reading
- sunday reset
- telling people you love them while you can
- being chalant
- vlogging
- travel
- stretch & water breaks
- following through
- do not disturb
- being a villager
- audiobooks
- partiful and gcal invites for everything
- shared calendars
- planning ahead but not getting upset when the plan has to change
- whimsy
OUT
- ai
- labubus
- begging people to make an effort
- feeling guilty for indulging
- airpods
- crossbody bags
- girl dinner
- super sweet coffee
- phone time in the morning
- “protecting your peace”
- consumerism
- jealousy
- manchildren
- liquor
- taylor swift
- bad posture
- stressing over monkeys and circuses that are not yours
- being scared of change
- aesthetics
- doomscrolling
- waiting for the “right time”
- being nonchalant
- misinformation
- dumbing things down
- minimalism
- microplastics
- unproductive gossip
- performative anything
- OVERSHARING
- skinny culture
- chronic contrarians
- procrastination
Thank you for accompanying me on the journey that was 2025. I hope to write a lot more in 2026 and to watch/read/listen to many more things that I can criticize later on.
Toodles!
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