It occurs to me that I’m way overdue my self-imposed schedule for updating my progress on my overall viewing goals for 2025, so I thought I’d hammer that out. To review, at the start of the year I came up with a list of 25 new things that are due out this year that I want to watch, and 25 old things that either I wanted to watch for the first time, or possibly to rewatch for one reason or another. My last update about all this was here, back in May.

How have things gone since then?

Things that came out in before this year, that I’ve made progress on…

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 4

I’m rewatching this with my younger two daughter, aka the two daughters who will actually be interested. Last time we’d seen up until episode 15, First Contact. Now, months and months later, we’ve gotten ourselves up to episode 17, having viewed Galaxy’s Child and Night Terrors. Our slow progress is largely because one of those two daughters has been away since July, and in fact she wasn’t around for Night Terrors (but we don’t want to rush ahead of her too much). Anyway, I was surprised at how much more cringey Galaxy’s Child was than I remembered (Geordi is gets pretty inappropriately entitled when he is having his argument with Leah Brahms), while Night Terrors was pretty much how I remembered–some creepy moments combined with some genuinely stupid dream imagery of Troi flying through space.

Star Trek: Short Treks

After Strange New Worlds finished this past season (see below), and taking advantage of our temporary Paramount+ subscription, I was determined to reach a state, even temporarily, where I had viewed all the Star Trek media that is out there. So I started watching Short Treks with my daughter. I’d seen most of these before, but not all of them.

There are two seasons of these short episodes (running from 8 to 18 minutes). The first group of four pretty much all spin-off of Star Trek Discovery‘s first season (which it came out after) while the second lot of 6 built more off Discovery’s second season, especially with its introduction of Pike, Spock and Number One, before they spun off into Strange New Worlds.

They are all decent, mostly, with a few standing out. I enjoyed Ask Not, largely thanks to Anson Mount’s performance as Pike–the story focuses on him testing a cadet with one of those “you don’t know it’s a simulation” situations. And Calypso from the first season tells an effectively emotional story, which I now understand (thanks to my daughter’s interest in Greek myth) hews quite closely to the story of Odysseus and Calypso as told in The Odyssey. On the downside, there is a Tribble-centric episode called The Trouble with Edward that I felt was a bit mean-spirited.

Unfortunately, something was amiss on Paramount+ and so one episode, The Girl Who Made the Stars, didn’t play properly (or at all), so I still have not seen all the Star Trek cinematic media that is out there.

Madame Web

I watched it and commented on it here! If you want the short version, I ended my comments with “It’s not the worst superhero film I’ve ever seen, but it’s definitely one of the bad ones.”

Superman movie serials

I definitely started this, and am maybe halfway through the first serials from Columbia pictures in 1948. It’s got all the limitations you’d expect but in general has been reasonably enjoyable. I’ll wait until I get done with things to talk about it in any detail.

Superman and Lois season 3

Season 3? Surely I meant season 4, didn’t I? That’s the season that I only finally finished a couple of months ago. I’ve enjoyed this take on Superman quite a bit, and before the James Gunn movie might have counted it as my favorite. (Christopher Reeve is certainly the most iconic, and probably the most nuanced version of the character that was possible in the comic environment of the 70s, but I personally prefer the more modern “Superman is Clark first” take on the Man of Steel). The fourth season is the final one and it managed to pack a lot of story into its ten episodes. We see Superman die and the fallout that results from that, we see his resurrection, we see Jon Kent gaining powers, we see Superman’s identity being made public and we see his final confrontations with both Doomsday and Lex Luthor. And finally, in an extended epilog, we get to see the boys grow up and both Clark and Lois die and be together in some sort of heavenly eternity.

Not every beat landed perfectly but on the whole it was an emotional and decently told season, and a fitting farewell for a series that succeeded more frequently than it failed.

Stateless

I watched and wrote about this six episode Australian drama here.

Things that came out (or are coming out) in 2025 that I’ve made progress on…

A Minecraft Movie

For the first of four times on this list, movies on a plane saves the day! I wrote about this one here.

How to Train Your Dragon, Karate Kid: Legends & Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning

All of these I just watched on my most recent set of flights, and are detailed here.

Ironheart

This was pretty decent as far as Marvel streaming series goes, which is impressive given how little interest I had in the Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) character after Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. But the show managed to tell a decently emotional story about the woman, making her someone I could care about and also cheer for when the moment demanded it. The story has Riri joining a group of young revolutionary thieves who are led by a charming guy who of course turns out to be a complete psychopath. She does all mainly for money to do her work, but of course comes to regret it.

Tonally, the show spends a lot of time trying to be a bit gritty and urban, but then it also throws in a bunch of stuff about combining magic with Riri’s Iron Man suit. The main bad guy, the Hood, has a magic cloak courtesy of a mysterious provider–teased to be Dormammu from Dr. Strange mythos, but then turning out to be Mephisto (Marvel’s version of the devil), who gets introduced into the MCU here. So it’s a little all over the place.

I don’t really like the idea of Mephisto but the show is still not bad (and thus a big step up from some other MCU streaming series). Cloak works well as a one season villain, but to my regret is set up to do more if the show continues . And I find his gang, who all function as supporting bad guys, incredibly obnoxious, but to my great relief the series didn’t end with Riri having to team up with them or anything like that.

The Thursday Murder Club

I’m enjoying the fact that there seem to be a lot of big budget mystery movies being made. This is a Netflix project, based on a popular book that I haven’t read, in which a group of senior citizens in an aged-care home get together to solve cold cases. The main cast features Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie, plus Jonathan Pryce, David Tennant and others, so there’s a lot of talent in front of the camera. But the movie is only okay–passably entertaining but there’s nothing particularly exciting going on in terms of the mystery itself, the process of solving the mystery, or the interactions of the characters along the way. Some drama is manufactured by having characters realize things at just the right moment to try to force tension out of the situation, but it’s not really successful. After I watched it I realised it was directed by Chris Columbus of Home Alone fame, and I thought, “Oh yeah, that fits.”

Silo – Season two

I managed to finish this show before giving up Apple TV for a bit (of course, now that the new Stranger Things has started, I’ve got it back). It’s interesting–a compelling concept about Juliet Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) finding herself in a different silo where everyone was killed when revolution broke out and people went outside into the poisoned atmosphere, and her realising that if she does not get back to her own silo, the same thing is going to happen there. Along the way she is both and helped and hindered by an unstable guy played by Steve Zahn. Meanwhile, back in her own silo the very troubles she is worrying about are taking place…but incredibly slowly.

I mean, maybe not actually all that slowly, but it definitely feels that way. From the beginning of the season the stakes and the situation are clear, and we basically know what is going to happen. But then it takes the rest of the ten episodes to actually watch that play out, and in my mind all of that is too slow. Season one was a bit like this too–this show has got some interesting things going on, but it’s paced out over way too many episodes. It’s a shame because I feel like this show should be great, but it just can’t quite get there.

Only Murders in the Building season 5

This is underway right now. The comedy mystery series featuring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez is still very entertaining, though sometimes threatens to be too silly for its own good. The current season is about the murder of the Lester, the doorman of the Arconia (the old New York apartment building which is the setting for this series) and the revelation that the building has a secret casino which has operated for years in its basement. I have no idea who murdered Lester at this point, or what overall is going on, and to be honest I don’t care that deeply about it. But, unlike The Thursday Murder Club, I find the process of the characters investigating it all a lot of fun to watch.

Andor season 2

I watched this a little while ago and mostly liked it–you can read about it here.

Doctor Who season 2 (aka series 15)

When I last did one of these posts there were only two episodes of this left. I have now seen them of course, and wrote about them here and here. There were some good qualities, but overall the two episodes featured one of the most pointless episodes (Wish World) and one of the worst put together episodes (The Reality War) that I have ever seen. Then it all ended with a bizarre cliffhanger and the unpleasant realisation that nobody knows when this show will actually continue, although various people at the BBC have insisted that it will. In fact, they have told us not to worry, the TARDIS isn’t going anywhere. But actually, if you think about it, that sounds like bad new. If the TARDIS isn’t going anywhere, than there are no adventures to watch. Oh well, we will see.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Superman

The two most anticipated superhero movies of the northern hemisphere summer both came and went, and I saw them both. I loved one of them beyond reason, and mostly enjoyed the other, while still feeling a bit of disappointment in it. Which was which?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3

I had mixed feelings about this season of this show, which given that Strange New Worlds has been my favorite series in this current Star Trek production era, is a bit of a letdown. There were strong episodes and character moments, but also a lot of awkwardly paced storylines, an unfortunate preoccupation with franchise callbacks, and some convoluted efforts to try to fix the shows so-called “canon problems”–places where some fans (and apparently some creators) may feel that that it’s a big problem that the show deviates from established Star Trek continuity. I have felt like that in the past but more recently I tend to agree with something my daughter said after one of these episodes–either follow canon or break canon, don’t try to do both.

Anyway, my favorite episode of the season was the premier, Hegemony part 2–a gripping conclusion to the last season cliffhanger. The worst episode was the fourth one, A Space Adventure Hour, where the series decided it wanted to do a holodeck episode. To be clear, my distaste for this episode had nothing to do with any perceived continuity problems–it’s because it felt like a pointless retread of tropes from previous Star Trek series, without bringing anything new (or anything interesting) to the table. When you’ve only got ten episodes in a season (and only four and a half seasons to work with in total, it turns out) that feels like a waste.

Still, I generally like the show, and so far still call it my favorite Star Trek series of the modern day.

So, to summarise (bold face means that I’ve started the movie or show, or have advanced from where I was at the start of the year, and strikethrough means it’s finished.)

• Slow Horses season 4
• Pachinko Season 2
• My Adventures with Superman seasons 1 & 2
• Star Wars: Clone Wars season 1
• Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3 season 4
• Star Trek: Short Treks
• Daredevil season 3
• Andromeda season 3 (and beyond)
• Timeless
• Max Headroom
• Quantum Leap
• Doctor Who – Evil of the Daleks
• Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
• Madame Web
• The Bionic Woman season 1
• Superman movie serials
• What If…? season 3
• A Christmas Story Christmas
• Babylon 5 The Road Home
• The Bear season 2
• Parasite
• Batman: Caped Crusader
• Superman and Lois season 3
• All Creatures Great and Small season 5
• Stateless

• A Minecraft Movie
• How to Train Your Dragon
• Ironheart
• Star Trek: Section 31
• The Thursday Murder Club
• Captain America: Brave New World
• Jurassic World: Rebirth
• Karate Kid Legends
• Wonder Man
• Daredevil: Born Again
• Thunderbolts*
• Stranger Things 5
• Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Story
• Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning
• Silo – season two, episodes 8-10
• Only Murders in the Building season 5
• All Creatures Great and Small season 6
• Andor season 2
• Wicked: For Good
• Doctor Who season 2 (aka series 15)
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3
• Tron: Ares
• Severance season 2
• Superman

Doing well, but still a long way to go! Tron: Ares is actually out right now, but I’m visiting relatives in the Netherlands so it’s unlikely to make it onto the schedule!