2025 Year In Review: The Shows, Games & Films Actually Worth Your Time
Fri Dec 19 2025
Why 2025 proved gaming matters more than ever and the shows that reminded us what great storytelling looks like.
In this conversation, also available on YouTube (https://youtu.be/8XgCmQOtb2w?si=o4qIDtZTglgW9EW-) Russell Binder and I reveal:
➡️ Why Severance was 2025’s most relevant show
➡️ The game that made us forget about GTA 6 (for five minutes)
➡️ Netflix’s $83 billion Warner Bros acquisition and what it means for the future of entertainment
➡️ How Slow Horses became the show everyone should watch
➡️ The Last of Us, Fallout and why video game adaptations work
➡️ Jake Paul vs. AJ - Boxing’s credibility crisis?
➡️ Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 & The Years Best
➡️ 2026 And What We’re Actually Excited About.
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TIMESTAMPED CHAPTERS:
00:00 Year-End Reflections 2025
00:25 The TV Shows That Earned Your Time
02:47 Films That Stuck With Us (And Why)
08:22 Netflix’s Empire Building & The Streaming Wars
11:49 Boxing, Jake Paul & Sports as Spectacle
15:34 Gaming’s Defining Moments of 2025
19:02 The Podcasts & Books Worth Your Attention
22:14 2026 Preview: What We’re Actually Excited About
26:33 Final Thoughts: Why Stories Still Matter
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FEATURED SHOWS & GAMES:
📺 Slow Horses • Severance • The Last of Us • SAS Rogue Heroes
🎮 Kingdom Come Deliverance II • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 • Hollow Knight • Planet of Lana • NBA 2K • PGA Golf • Mafia: Old Country • Wanderstop
🎬 Masters Of The Universe • Street Fighter • 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
🔮 Coming in 2026: Judas • GTA 6
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📺 Watch Next: Ken Levine on Why He Spent 10 Years Making His Most Personal Game ( • "My Atari Was My Best Friend" - BioShock C... )
💬 Drop a comment: What was YOUR moment of 2025? The show, game, or film that you can’t stop thinking about? And what you’re most looking forward to in 2026.
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2025 reminded us that great storytelling transcends medium. Whether it’s Slow Horses proving spy thrillers can be character studies, Kingdom Come Deliverance II showing historical games can be art and some of the best storytelling ever in games, or how Netflix is reshaping the entire entertainment landscape with aggressive acquisitions, this year challenged our assumptions about what entertainment can be. This conversation explores why certain games, shows, and films broke through when most content disappeared into the algorithmic void and what that tells us about where entertainment is heading in 2026. Enjoy
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Why 2025 proved gaming matters more than ever and the shows that reminded us what great storytelling looks like. In this conversation, also available on YouTube (https://youtu.be/8XgCmQOtb2w?si=o4qIDtZTglgW9EW-) Russell Binder and I reveal: ➡️ Why Severance was 2025’s most relevant show ➡️ The game that made us forget about GTA 6 (for five minutes) ➡️ Netflix’s $83 billion Warner Bros acquisition and what it means for the future of entertainment ➡️ How Slow Horses became the show everyone should watch ➡️ The Last of Us, Fallout and why video game adaptations work ➡️ Jake Paul vs. AJ - Boxing’s credibility crisis? ➡️ Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 & The Years Best ➡️ 2026 And What We’re Actually Excited About. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ TIMESTAMPED CHAPTERS: 00:00 Year-End Reflections 2025 00:25 The TV Shows That Earned Your Time 02:47 Films That Stuck With Us (And Why) 08:22 Netflix’s Empire Building & The Streaming Wars 11:49 Boxing, Jake Paul & Sports as Spectacle 15:34 Gaming’s Defining Moments of 2025 19:02 The Podcasts & Books Worth Your Attention 22:14 2026 Preview: What We’re Actually Excited About 26:33 Final Thoughts: Why Stories Still Matter ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ FEATURED SHOWS & GAMES: 📺 Slow Horses • Severance • The Last of Us • SAS Rogue Heroes 🎮 Kingdom Come Deliverance II • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 • Hollow Knight • Planet of Lana • NBA 2K • PGA Golf • Mafia: Old Country • Wanderstop 🎬 Masters Of The Universe • Street Fighter • 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple 🔮 Coming in 2026: Judas • GTA 6 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Subscribe for entertainment analysis that goes deeper than hot takes 📺 Watch Next: Ken Levine on Why He Spent 10 Years Making His Most Personal Game ( • "My Atari Was My Best Friend" - BioShock C... ) 💬 Drop a comment: What was YOUR moment of 2025? The show, game, or film that you can’t stop thinking about? And what you’re most looking forward to in 2026. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 2025 reminded us that great storytelling transcends medium. Whether it’s Slow Horses proving spy thrillers can be character studies, Kingdom Come Deliverance II showing historical games can be art and some of the best storytelling ever in games, or how Netflix is reshaping the entire entertainment landscape with aggressive acquisitions, this year challenged our assumptions about what entertainment can be. This conversation explores why certain games, shows, and films broke through when most content disappeared into the algorithmic void and what that tells us about where entertainment is heading in 2026. Enjoy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.