2025 Year in Review

It’s been a good year! Time to remember with holiday cheer.

Reminder!

Just a reminder that I’m moving the useful content to my new Substack starting next month. That’s where you’ll find a weekly newsletter with quotes, concepts, and creative activities, and a bi-monthly newsletter with longer-form articles on applied creativity and creative analysis.

This newsletter will be a monthly slop dump of whatever is on my mind, so, if you’re into that, please stay here!

The Year in Review

Y’all this was an amazing year for art (imho). In my seasoned age, I hate a lot of stuff (sorry Wicked: For Good and Fantastic Four), but this year, I found a lot of stuff that really delighted me.

Below I’m highlighting just a few things that I’d recommend from 2025. If you have other suggestions, please drop a comment. I’m always looking for things to not hate!

TV

My gawwwdddd. Y’ALL. This year in TV for me… I can’t even pick one, it’s been too good:

1. Severance: Love this sci-fi show. It’s perfectly weird, brilliantly shot, and well-written. Season 2 (released this year) had some weird/dud episodes. But a dud episode of Severance is still like a 9 when compared to other series. Very excited to see what happens next.

2. Andor: If you didn’t know me as a 10-year-old, I lived and breathed Star Wars. I bought all the figures, knew every character’s name, and subscribed to the Star Wars Insider magazine. I saw Phantom Menace four times in theaters—several times alone, because most people thought it sucked. I haven’t really enjoyed anything Star Wars since that 1999 fever dream, but Andor has made me love it all over again. It’s Star Wars for adults: action-packed, thoughtful, and thematically complex. I’ve blogged about it before, but Stellan Staarsgard’s speech from Season 1 on being a rebel is flawless.

3. There were a few other shows that I was very into this year:

   1. White Lotus: Season 3 wasn’t as good as the previous, but it was still a tense, fun watch.

   2. Gilded Age: This show is not great. But I’m obsessed. Rich people doing stuff has never been so tepidly riveting.

   3. Pluribus: The only reason this doesn’t get its own entry is because I’m not done with it. I’ve seen the first few episodes and it’s an incredibly original investigation of what it means to be human.

Movies

I sadly had to retire my AMC A-list account for a minute, but I saw a lot of movies this year while it was still active. The best of the best:

1. One Battle after Another: I thought this movie would be all hype, but it’s incredible. Funny, emotional, and action-packed. If it wins Best Picture, I will have no qualms (not one!).

2. Twinless: WOW. I had no expectation going into this and loved every minute. A drama about family, love, and friendship wrapped up in a bizarre dark comedy about twins. Can’t recommend enough.

3. Hamnet: I teared up during the trailer, so I knew this one was going to be intense. It lived up to every expectation. A twist on Shakespeare using his family life to ponder what inspired his play Hamlet. Have a box of tissues handy. Maybe watch alone so you can ugly cry in peace.

Books

This was actually the weakest category this year. I kind of hate that I didn’t find a banger, but, you know, that’s what 2026 will be for!

My top books this year:

1. A Swim in the Pond in the Rain: George Saunders analyzes great works of Russian literature. I’ve read most of this before, but I finished it this time and his craft tips are A+. If you’re a writer, this is a can’t miss book.

2. The Mysteries of Udolpho: This book was written in the late 1700s and was one of the first Gothic novels to achieve widespread popularity. It’s unevenly paced but has some gonzo twists and fun mysterious elements that made it worth the journey. It helped that I read it with one of my besties and we got to text about the insanity of some of the plot twists—and the weird tact of describing scenery for 10 pages then putting an assassination attempt in a single paragraph. Special props because this is where I found the phrase “With Mild Dignity” which is so vague that I’m obsessed with it (and renamed my newsletter in its honor).

3. The Gift of Not Belonging + Quiet: I put these together because reading them was a lovely recognition of my own introvertedness. It was nice to read a few books that were like “You know what? Maybe extroverts need to shut up and listen.” I also realized I drink a lot socially because I would rather be at home with a book always, so I’ve been pondering that quite a lot, lol.

My Own Work

I also had a pretty good run on my own work this year. I was able to complete:

• 5 short stories

• A screenplay

• A draft of a nonfiction book

• A “final” draft of a novel

• Half a manuscript for another novel

The tone and themes are all over the place (which is classic Tedd). I’ve been investigating grief, family, love, intergenerational gay relationships, serial killers, horror, and the nature of art.

As part of investing in my own business, I’m also going to invest more in sharing my work. I’m hoping to submit to contests, agents, contests, and publishers this year. I sometimes forget that I have to share stuff. Hopefully, more of that in the future!

Conclusion

Thanks for reading! It was overall a really good year for me. I hope it was awesome for you and your loved ones as well. Things are a little chaotic socially, politically, and technologically, but we have each other which is pretty wonderful :)

Next year is scary with the new business and the unknowingness of it all. But, the unknowingness of it all is part of the joy in it, yeah?

Happiest Holidays and celebrations to you all! Here is to a fabulous 2026!

This month’s song is a new Christmas song I heard on a playlist. I kind of love a sad Christmas song? If you don’t, just forget this and listen to Kelly Clarkson’s “Underneath the Tree.”