I wish I could bring myself to start this article with a bit more cheer. For me personally, January was not an incredibly difficult month. I’m a cis male presenting white person in a hetero relationship. I don’t work for the federal government. I have a job with a good amount of pay and flexibility. Yet as someone who cares about procedure, who cares about the concept of norms and the law, as someone who has even the basest shred of empathy, I like so many others am horrified by the state of the world currently. I can’t say that what is occurring is beyond my wildest dreams, because boy let me tell you I have some wild dreams, yet the way things have gone down feels so much stranger than anything I imagined.

In times like this, it’s very easy to feel like I’m just wasting my time. I have a lot of talents, I’m fairly smart, I’m young, I feel like I should be doing more. Yet instead I spend so much of my time absorbed in media. In the month of January, I watched 3 movies, 18 episode of television, and 94 (mostly youtube) videos; I read 2 books, 39 comics, 100 chapters of manga, and 158 articles; and I listened to 101 podcasts. And I know this number is imperfect. If I counted every tiktok I watched 10 seconds of before scrolling, every article I read part way, all the books I picked up and then put back down, this would be a significantly longer and more complicated list. And this doesn’t even touch on music or videogames. Out of all this media, only 11 things crested 4.5 stars or above in my metrics, which is essentially my baseline for when something exceeds “average” and into the sphere of “meaningful.” These numbers represent hours and days of my life, and despite the hundreds of pieces of content I engaged with, only a handful felt meaningful to me. This was time that could have been spent volunteering, organizing, protesting, or more. It can be hard not to feel as though I’m just wasting my time on slop rather than engaging with the world.

To be honest, there is no denying that I am, at least partially. There are ways that I justify my decisions from myself, from having a demanding job in the public sector, to neurodivergence and mental health, to a desire to spend time practicing and improving my creative skills. And I certainly hope that the media I engage with turns out to be meaningful. But at the end of the day, there is more that I could and should be doing. However, even recognizing this, it does not mean that the media I take in is meaningless, nor is it meaningless to share the media that I find important. I want to improve my analytical skills, to delve into why I find something entertaining and worth recommending, to explore the positive and negative messaging within media, and to improve the way I write about and communicate these ideas. I to spread ideas, grow a community, and to engage in discussions on storytelling. I highlight creatives, to help them grow an audience and find sustainability. I want to tap into what makes media and stories such a core part of the human experience.

Recently, I listened to an mini-episode of Waypoint Radio from back in 2016 titled “A Note on Trump, Waypoint, and Why we Play.” In it, Austin Walker talks about why media, media criticism, and play remain important even in a time of rising fascism. There’s an element of hope and defiance in the episode that I’m struggling to muster for a second time, but I believe in what he says just the same. This is not merely some “Joy is an Act of Resistance” platitude, but rather an understanding that play and storytelling are an intrinsic part of human nature, that we can engage with media in a way that furthers our beliefs, and that it can complement but never supplement all the other work that needs to be done.

I have a long way to go in building this into what I want it to be, and I have a long way to go in becoming more involved in my physical community. If this is something I’d like to do seriously at some point, I should try to grow my readership. This has been a blast so far, and I appreciate the feedback, but a double, nay triple digit readership one day could be fund. We’ll see, we’ll see.

But for now, let’s look back at a truly insane month. It was a month where I dealt with death and illness, winter weather and grey skies. And as I said before, I did manage to find some media that was truly meaningful. Sadly I’ve undercut myself by talking about some of the best things already in the old weekly roundups, but from what beehiiv is telling me, not all of those roundups were read, providing me with the perfect opportunity to go over things again. So let’s jump into it.

The Best of Movies

Hundreds of Beavers is one of the most creative movies I’ve ever seen. Set in the mid-1800s, this comedy movie follows a bumbling brewer after he loses everything and is forced to become a beaver trapper, both to make it through the harsh winter and to win the hand of the woman he loves. What this plot synopsis can’t hope to capture is the zany and entirely off the walls comedy that is interlaced throughout this movie. It is the closest feeling I’ve ever had to a Looney Toon come to life, and knowing that the movie was made on a shoestring budget makes it all the more impressive. The start of the movie is unfortunately slow, but if you can make it through the first 20ish minutes, the movie will grab you by the throat and not let go until it ends. It has some of the most creative writing I’ve seen in a comedy movie, and that’s with hardly any dialogue to speak of. Through props, sets, and physical comedy, this movie manages to convey everything you need to be howling with laughter. I hope to see studios learn from this genuine masterpiece of a film. Watch it on Amazon, Kanopy, or Hoopla.

The only other two movies I saw this movie were Boy Kills World and Flow, both movies that I rated three stars for very different reasons. Boy Kills World excels at action, is adequate at comedy, but is truly abysmal in its writing, balancing it out to a pretty mediocre experience. Flow is a movie I wanted to love more. What could go wrong in a cute movie about a cat escaping a flood with other animals. The answer is nothing, but the problem is that there was also nothing to make it entertaining. There’s little to no explanation for why anything happens in this movie, the animals exist in this uncanny valley state where they neither intelligent nor animalistic enough to make things work, and the animation and art simply failed to wow me. It’s an impressive achievement that this was made by a small team in Eastern Europe, but that alone does not make a good movie. Flow is perfectly adequate for what it is, there’s just nothing special or memorable about it. And that’s a real shame.

The Best of TV

The best show I saw all of January was Rea.. Hah, no it was Billions.

Billions was by far the best show I watched in January. I already spoke about this in my top shows of the year piece, but January was the month I finished season 1. Something refreshing about Billions is how clear the show makes it when illegal activity is occurring. When I watch a “legal” show, often something that can snap me out of the show immediately is seeing lawyers or cops doing something blatantly illegal or unethical and then the show keeps trucking as though nothing every happened. In Billions, I don’t have to deal with this suspension of disbelief because the characters are very honest about the illegal and unethical things they are doing. Hedge Fund manager Bobby Axelrod and District Attorney Chuck Rhoades are two charismatic, narcissistic assholes hellbent on destroying each other. They are willing to do whatever it takes, break any law necessary, to bring the other down. The show certainly is not without flaws, and I hope at some point to do a more dedicated breakdown, but it’s an incredibly well written, well acted, and well shot show. Watch it on Paramount+.

Reacher was a much better show than I was expecting it to be though. I saw the first season in January, and if I had seen the second, then maybe Reacher would have beat out Billions. After spending most of December trying to find a crime, police procedural type show to watch, I finally came to Reacher. Reacher is an incredibly entertaining show, that is extremely good at what it does. Reacher follows retired army investigator Jack Reacher after he is framed for murder in a small town in Georgia. To discover who’s truly behind the murder, Reacher tears through the town like a hurricane. The show is exceptional at making the violence of the show incredibly visceral and over the top, with huge credit going to the foley team. Reacher is very much a guilty pleasure show for me, and I think it will be the first item to get its own dedicated piece this year. To me, the show is practically a comedy with how absurd and over the top it is, and I think the show doesn’t shy away from this interpretation, often putting in a humorous needle drop or line of dialogue to undercut the tension and seriousness of a scene. Yet a part of me knows that the show is going to be consumed incredibly earnestly by a large portion of its audience, who will see Reacher as an aspirational figure, and that somewhat sours the taste of this show. More on this to come. Watch the show yourself on Amazon Prime.

Aside from Billions and Reacher, it was a fairly underwhelming month. I tried to start Justified and Will Trent but both of those were too solidly cop shows for me to get into (for now at least). Abbot Elementary returned from winter break to deliver a couple of episodes I found at best underwhelming and at worst problematic. I think the show handled the portrayal of public sector striking shockingly poorly, and I fear that the show is starting to take a more centrist approach. And that’s not even getting into any of my concerns about narrative and character stagnation. However, the February episodes have given me some hope so we’ll see where things go from here.

The Best of Videos

The best video I saw this past month was this mini documentary about how Scholastic became the largest publisher of comics in the United States, largely thanks to the series Bone. The video was incredibly thoughtful and featured some great interviews with Bone’s creator Jeff Smith. This was how I learned that Smith went to my alma mater The Ohio State University, and that Bone had its roots as a comic in the student newspaper. A similarly thoughtful video I saw was this video on why no one reads anymore, which sadly didn’t teach me anything new, but I thought did a good job of explaining the current literacy cliff our society is barreling towards.

The channel I watched the most of the past month though was NorthernLion, specifically his let’s play series on the game The Bazaar. Some videos of VODs from Twitch streams, others made directly for YouTube, but the format of the game is perfect for NorthernLion’s trademark banter. NL is a youtuber near and dear to my heart, and he approaches games with a specific sort of singlemindedness that I always admire. The man is incredibly funny, often thoughtful, and the game itself is engaging enough as well to keep me hooked.

Finally, I had a fun time with two very different food series. First, I got very into the videos of Adam Witt when I was sick and couldn’t eat. Adam is unfortunately a quintessential millennial food creator in all the best and worst ways, but he does seem to be truly engaged in understanding the culture behind food, which allows him to explore a greater variety of cuisines than I see from most. On a markedly different note, I watched some videos from Prozd’s “Let’s try” series after seeing this video where he discussed potentially having to stop the series. Like many other series in this vein, Prozd tries most or all of a certain type of snack or restaurant menu, and then grades them. The analysis of the food isn’t anything particularly special, but I’ve always been a fan of Sung Won’s extremely dry wit and it would be a shame to see him have to stop something he seems to truly enjoy doing.

The Best of Books

January was a pretty dry month for me in terms of books. I only read two and was not particularly impressed by either. The Midnight Library was a book I read for a work book club, and while I found the general message to be worthwhile (life is worth living, we have plenty of choices ahead of us, choices matter, etc., etc.), I found that the execution was fairly clunky and the attitude towards mental health was off-putting. I wouldn’t personally recommend it, but it’s a book that definitely blew up and has been fairly well received by the mainstream, so you may be forced to encounter it in the wild. The other book I read I’ll talk about more fully in a future retrospective.

The Best of Manga

Both Hajime no Ippo and Show-ha Shoten reached very climactic moments in their stories. I already discussed at length in my top manga of the year post about the current Judgment Day Arc of the boxing manga Hajime no Ippo and why it is so excellent, but it took through January to bring the boxing match the arc has focused on to a close. I find it did so with a level of suspense and drama that was truly well deserved.

Show-ha Shoten is also focused on competition, but rather than sports, it’s all about comedy. The outgoing and expressive Taiyo and the clever but shy Azemichi have taken their comedy duo “One Way Ticket to the Top” to the height of the amateur comic scene. Now they are competing at the prestigious Wara-1 Koshien comedy competition to take home the top prize. I’m sure that some of the comedy is lost in translation, but even so the series is still incredibly funny and heartfelt. Azemichi in particular has taken all that he’s learned in the series up to this point to turn what he once believed were weaknesses into comedy gold. Seeing the two friends overcome their demons to truly shine is incredibly rewarding and entertaining. I fear the series may be wrapping up soon, but it’s been a truly beautiful ride.

On an entirely different note, I’ve been really impressed with how the historical series The Elusive Samurai is handling some of the struggles that can come up in a historical fiction series. The series follows the overthrow of a Shogun, and the attempts of his son to stay alive and take revenge in the aftermath. Historical fiction often has to deal with the fact that history can at times be unsatisfying. Characters who are important early on can be built up, only to die by illness or disease disease. This series is set in the 1300s, it was not uncommon for this to happen to people, and especially to soldiers. If handled poorly, this can be incredibly frustrating and anticlimactic. But I’ve been impressed with how this series in particular manages to address these situations with tact and bringing characters to satisfying conclusions, even if it isn’t some glorious end on a battlefield.

The best manga I read all month though was Shiba Inu Rooms, specifically chapter 19. Broadly, the series follows a socially awkward girl who moves into an apartment only to learn that the complex is haunted with the spirits of the former inhabitants: Shiba Inu puppies who died in a puppy mill incident. The only catch is that the dog spirits can talk. Chapter 19 deals with Kori having to go on a school trip and leaving her dog Mu alone for the first time since she moved in. It’s an incredibly touching chapter, which can be enjoyed without needing to have really any knowledge of the broader story. Any person who’s had and loved a pet can understand how close these two are, and the author portrays this dynamic beautifully.

The Best of Comics

In January, I caught up on the excellent Kingly by rereading the entire series. The goofy medieval comic following the childish failson Milord never ceases to amaze and delight, but I think the second chapter (of three currently) is my favorite of the bunch. I truly wish the series was available to read on something other than instagram, or that the series had more of a set upload schedule, but the fact that I keep coming back to and enjoying the series despite these inconveniences is a testament to how truly good this series is.

Elsewhere, Rose Tide Rising had a very solid month bringing it’s current narrative arc to a close. The Princess Rose attempted to leave her pirate protectors behind, only to learn that the rest of the world is not the magical, welcoming place that she expected it to be. But this experience only serves to bring her closer to very clearly signposted love interest Roha in a way that is incredibly delightful.

The Best of Articles

Patrick Klepek of Remap and Crossplay had two of my favorite pieces this month; one older one where he talks about losing his dad, and a newer Crossplay piece about why kids are obsessed with Squid Game. Nathan Shuherk of Schizophrenic Reads had one of my favorite takes on the Tiktok Ban, which managed to capture well the ambivalence I feel about the whole situation. 404 Media continues to do some of the best journalism in the business, publishing an incredible piece about one of the founders fleeing LA because of the wildfires and placing it in the larger context of climate change; how Pornhub has better ad share than YouTube; and the creation of a labyrinth to trap AI scrapers. Alex Peters aka Loloverruled published some great pieces on his substack Vanishing Points including a good interview with Hasan Piker; a heartrending piece where he grapples with his ex-girlfriend’s overdose and death five years ago; and one of the most honest takes on suicidal ideation I’ve seen in a while. I really enjoyed reading about what a mess the Arkansas Supreme Court is. Finally, Matt Stoller at Big had excellent pieces about monopoly problems surrounding streaming and fire trucks, and how the FTC might finally be backing right to repair.

The Best of Podcasts

Weird Little Guys had aired three of five episodes investigating the life of terrorist and racist Dennis Mahon. It was a truly wild story, documenting how Mahon attempted to create a public access racism show called Klansas City Kable and both won and lost court cases surrounding this. It explores how his twin brother was fired from American Airlines for wearing racist merchandise to work, despite always vehemently denying any involvement with the Klan. It explores Mahon’s ties to the Oklahoma City bombing and all the questions surrounding this event that will likely never be answered. It was a truly fascinating deep dive into one of the most unhinged yet successful White Supremacists of the past 50 years, one who I’d never even heard of before this show.

NeverPost reviewed their first year of operation and really went in depth about how difficult it is to make a career from podcasting in 2025, despite and maybe because of how many people are entering the market. Panic World released an episode that addressed January 6th with both gravity and nuance. I listened to the podcast Hysterical because of the before mentioned work “book” club, and finally got an answer to what caused Havana Syndrome. Rounding things out, Remap Radio spent almost 12 hours across three podcast episodes discussing their favorite games of 2024, and had a great interview with People Make Games discussing how conversations on crunch culture fail to cover outsourcing and the global south.

That’s all for now. Crazy how we’re basically a third of the way through February already. Next month I’ll try to have the February roundup out a bit quicker. We’ll see if I’m able to finish and publish top podcasts before the end of today, but if not you can look forward to that in your inboxes next week. Stay safe out there.

Soma