Tag Archives: james-gunn

2025 entertainment to remember

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Who doesn’t love a good year-in-review? Well, plenty of people. But here’s one anyway.

2025 was a shitshow for a lot of people, and I hope 2026 is an improvement. For me, 2025 was the year I self-published my 1984-set high school crime novel THAT OCTOBER, saw a bunch of short fiction and pop culture pieces published and joined with some friends in Constellate Creatives, where we’ll offer help to writers in the form of editing, publishing and marketing.

But like Milhouse from “The Simpsons,” you might be asking, “When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?” Or in this case, when is he gonna talk about something fun, like pop culture? Movies, TV shows, books.

I won’t try to tackle books here and I’ll note that some of my favorite books I read in 2025 haven’t been published yet. So that’ll wait.

In the meantime:

MOVIES: I don’t see a ton of movies in theaters. I catch a lot of movies on streaming services. So far this year, probably my favorite and best movie I saw, first in theaters and then on streaming, was SINNERS, Ryan Coogler’s story of race and vampires in Depression-era Mississippi. Just an absorbing, exemplary film and one that proves Hollywood can reach moviegoers/viewers with something daring and origiinal.

I think SUPERMAN should carry that definition too. Yes, we’ve seen sooo many takes on the classic superhero by now. But James Gunn’s SUPERMAN gave us one of the best, most original and fully-fleshed-out comic book worlds ever.

On the Marvel side, I really enjoyed CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, THUNDERBOLTS* and FANTASTIC FOUR. The latter seemed really safe and un-ambitious but was the best-by-far adaptation of my favorite comic book heroes ever.

Among streaming series, I think PLURIBUS was the best I saw, maybe tied with THE PITT. The two series couldn’t be more different, but PLURIBUS was thoughtful and funny and THE PITT was like a shot of adrenalin.

IT: WELCOME TO DERRY was also outstanding, I thought, with some of the best scares and characters and most authentic Stephen King atmosphere of any screen translation and expansion in years.

PARADISE was a good end-of-the-world contrast to PLURIBUS. BALLARD was a very good continuation of BOSCH. LONG BRIGHT RIVER was also quite good, moody and solemn and endearing. MURDERBOT was brutally funny. TASK was somber and intense. THE HUNTING WIVES was looney fun. THE BETTER SISTER was grim and affecting.

I wanted more of most of these series but admit I felt a little cheated of a proper conclusion when they ended with another season clearly in mind (or hoped for). I really want more DERRY and PLURIBUS and don’t mind feeling used and teased.

‘Superman and Lois’ and goodbye to the Arrowverse

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At the time of this writing, only one episode remains for “Superman & Lois,” the CW series, and even as I type those words, it feels like I’m reaching back into the distant past.

That’s not the case, but it feels like it. The CW series “Arrow” began in October 2012 and, while it had some low points, did what no TV series has been able to accomplish before or is likely to accomplish again: Take a core group of DC Comics characters – Green Arrow and his supporting cast, and later the Flash and Supergirl and eventually Superman and many others – and make a vast, interconnect set of series and storylines about them. Though the aforementioned series and others like “Batwoman,” “Legends of Tomorrow” and “Black Lightning,” the producers called up some of the greatest and some of the most obscure supporting characters from DC comic books, cast them well and gave them not only their standalone adventures but crossovers, so many crossovers.

Every one of the 700 or so episodes – a staggering number – wasn’t all that it could have been, but most were perfectly entertaining stuff and had some moments that comic book geeks thought they would never see in a live-action form:

A race around the world between the Flash and, in this case, Supergirl

The League of Shadows/League of Assassins, Batman villains repurposed for Green Arrow, who became something of the Batman of this universe

Serious-minded stories and mostly-comic-book-authentic plots that even depicted the Crisis on Infinite Earths stories

Costumes that were a little bashful at first but that became flat-out geekgasmic comic-book-authentic eventually. (You know, it took a long time for Marvel to get Wolverine in that yellow outfit.)

The appearance of characters that we may never see in live action again – at least not done with this much integrity.

I’m giving short shrift to “Superman & Lois” here and I don’t mean to, but with the final episode of the final season set for December 2, we’re not sure how the series will play out, eventually. I can guess that it will end well; “Superman & Lois” has been, literally and figuratively, set apart for its entire run since 2021. Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch got their start in their roles on Arrowverse shows, but once “Superman & Lois” began airing, the 50-plus episodes over four seasons took place on an alternate Earth from the rest of the heroes. It probably made it easier, this holding the series at arms length from where it began, as the other series were ending. I did miss some interaction with the other heroes, however.

There’s a lot to like about “Superman & Lois,” from the leads to the consistency of the (undoubtedly less expensive to shoot than Metropolis) Smallville setting to final-season portrayal of Lex Luthor by Michael Cudlitz, best remembered from “The Walking Dead.”

There’s been some very good live action DC Comics moments in the past few years, notably the Arrowverse series and the Titans series. “Superman & Lois” ranks up, up and away among the best.