Good Riddance to 2025

In some respects, 2025 has been a difficult year for me, particularly the past month. Our cat Socks, who was just a few months shy of being 14 years old, died on December 16, People who don't have pets may not understand this, but Socks truly was a member of our family and we still miss him terribly. To make things even sadder, an old neighbour died this month and then a close family friend died on Christmas day. Combine this with the deaths of many beloved celebrities, electronic devices (both a computer and a cell phone) giving out on me, and various other factors I will not discuss here, and 2025 has become a year that I am pretty much glad is coming to an end. 

I think for many fans of classic television, movies, and rock music. 2025 will be remembered for the death of many greats throughout the year. Among the greats from the worlds of film and television who died this year were director David Lynch, Gene Hackman, Richard Chamberlain, Val Kilmer, Jay North, Jean Marsh, Will Hutchhins, Cora Sue Collins, Ruth Buzzi, Joe Don Baker, Mara Corday, George Wendt, Loretta Swit, Pippa Scott, Michael Madsen, Gerald Harper, Loni Anderson,  Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Randy Boone, Pat Crowley, Grahame Greene, Polly Holliday, Robert Redford, Claudia Cardinale, Patrica Routledge, Diane Keaton, Samantha Eggar, Diane Ladd, Sally Kirkland, Rob Reiner, and many others. Among those connected to film and television were two friends of friends,, film distributor and archivist Michael Schlesinger, who died on January 9, and props collector and film archivist Bob Burns, who died on December 12. We lost several big names in the music world this year as well, including Sam Moore of Sam & Dave, Marianne Fiathfull, Roberta Flack, David Johansen, Joey Molland of Badfinger, Clem Burke of Blondie, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, Sly Stone, Lou Christie, composer Lalo Schifrin, Connie Francis, Ozzy Osbourne, George Kooymans of Golden Earring, Mark Volman of The Turtles, Sonny Curtis of The Crickets, Chris Dreja of The Yardbirds, Ace Frehley, and yet others.

I have to confess that I don't pay too much attention to new television shows these days, even with as many of them are on streaming. I thoroughly enjoyed Daredevil: Born Again. I also liked Good Cop/Bad Cop, an Australian/American show that aired here on The CW. Unfortunately, it looks like it has not yet been renewed, which doesn't surprise me given the path The CW has decided to take of late. Other than those two shows, I pretty much stuck to the shows I have been watching for the past few years without adding anything new to the mix. I did actually watch some of the movies that came out recently. I particularly enjoyed Flow (2024), Companion (2025), Sinners (2025), The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (2024), Superman (2025), and The Fantastic 4: First Steps (2025).

My hope is that 2026 is a far better year than 2025. At the very least, I hope that I don't lose any close friends or pets this year, or that many beloved celebrities die this coming year. If anything, I hope that everyone has a prosperous and healthy new year.