A really confident season of Midsomer: from weddings to explosions to small town magazines to the spooky occult. I just enjoy spending time in Midsomer with Tom and Ben. I think it’s neat.
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Pokémon 1000 Piece Puzzle, Ravensburger
I had a blast with this, as I imagine all kids who grew up in the 90s would. Compared with the last puzzle I did, I found this much more enjoyable and a nicer balance of progress to challenge. I added a layer of challenge to the experience by refusing to refer to the completed image on the box. Well worth playing!
Life Skills for a Broken World, Ahona Guha
Guha puts forward a concise set of skills that we all need to thrive in an increasingly chaotic and uncertain world. This book is smartly designed, readable, and infused with real wisdom and wit. Plus bonus points for Ahona being a fellow greyhound carer and advocate.
Emperor of Rome, Mary Beard
A masterpiece. I’ve long admired Professor Beard’s work on Ancient Rome, and this her most recent work is a triumph of delving into the complexity and the fact and fiction of what it was to be a Roman Empire. By taking the Emperors as a category, Beard teases out so many fascinating details and stories, while also being very clear about what we actually know. Fantastic!Â
Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer
Timely and affecting. To watch this in the midst of genocide occurring in real time raises questions about mankind’s inherent brutality and our ability to transcend those darkest urges. This movie succeeds on all fronts and I think is required viewing for understanding humanity, both its presence and absence.
Boarders, season one
A smart, witty series told with verve and through a bunch of talented young actors. Some of the overall plotting was a little shallow, but I enjoyed this season tremendously.
These Precious Days, Ann Patchett
Few people write like Patchett, and so reading this, a collection of her essays, is a true delight. The topics she covers are varied and shine a light on her fascinating life and her evolving relationship with that great old inevitability of life, death! Reading these essays makes me want to be both a better writer but also, and I can think of no better testimony than this, a better person.Â
The Traitors, season one (UK)
This sucked me in completely and utterly. Held together by a delightfully arch and stylish Claudia Winkelman, this show leans in on what makes reality tv often so delightful to great effect. Warning: this show will have you looking for real estate in the Scottish highlands.
Skip and Loafer, season one
I am a sucker for this sort of gentle, warm slice-of-life/light-romance type anime. I found this one, though, especially charming and loveable. It allows its characters to be imperfect, it shows growth, and it has trans-representation. The art work is just wonderful, too: warm soft pastels. It hits familiar beats (trip to the beach! culture festival! choosing a school club!) but has enough new to say to make it a real delight.
The Power of Fun, Catherine Price
A book that rightfully reminds us that having fun is, in many respects, the point of life. As the pressures of late-stage capitalism conspire to make us think the only thing that matters is productivity, Price (and others) are leading the vanguard of arguing for a better, more fun life.Â
Pluto, season one
A real triumph of story telling, art, and philosophy. It also feels incredibly timely given the modern explosive growth of AI tools: no matter how advanced we may become technically, we remain, in many regards, angry, confused, scared primates. Pour one out for North No. 2, a real one.
Society of the Snow, JA Bayona
A lot of tears in this one. Hard to watch, but infused with hope, love, courage and humour. Inspiring, truly, as all stories of survival against the odds—that is, human resiliency—always are. Many fascinating details in this interview about how it was made: the challenges of getting funding for a film in Spanish; working with new actors (who are uniformly amazing); that some of the actors lost over 20kgs; and that the surviving survivors (and their family) endorsed the film.
Babette’s Feast, Gabriel Axel
An incredible gentle movie about grace, care, community and the life-affirming powers of a jolly good meal. And perhaps a call against ascetism, no matter how tempting it might be.
Infinite Craft, Neal Agarwal
This took me by surprise; a simple game where one combines basic elements (fire, earth, wind, water) to get to increasingly absurd places, like Super Drow Jesus. I love the energy and fun of this game, from such simple set up so many surprising things happen. The little dopamine hit of making the first discovery. Play it!
The Book, Alan Watts
Watts is a special mind indeed; writing about philosophy in such a clear, accessible way is a genuine triumph. So much of this book resonated deeply with me, I feel repeated readings will be required to full absorb Watts’ ideas. I think, at its core, this book is an attempt at a cure of our modern pathology of seeing ourselves as lonely, disconnected and minor.Â
The End of Reality, Jonathan Taplin
A frightening and clear look at the power and malign influence of Musk, Zuckerberg, Thiel et al, as well as a consideration of the failure of neoliberal economics and the rise of the angry far-right, MAGA types. All in all, this only fuelled my fear as to the grossly irresponsible actions of big tech and the urgent need for strict regulation. Â
Mr and Mrs Smith, season one
This started off really fun—an intriguing blend of spy hijinks with slice of life goodness—but the back half was uneven, a little rushed, and unconvincing. Glover and Erskine are perfectly cast, and their house will feature in my dreams. I’m torn between wanting more and feeling reasonably content with how things ended.
The Madness of King George, Nicholas Hytner
Want to watch an excellent British film? One that speaks to everything that is powerful about UK cinema? This is an excellent candidate. It has a little something for everyone, and I think is quite interesting in the context of modern politics where we are often choosing between the lesser of two evils: the mad King or the useless prince?
Pokémon Concierge, season one
The single best thing to come from the world’s most valuable franchise since the first iconic games. Incredibly charming, thoughtful, warm and just delightful. When was the last time a piece of corporate IP branded media left you wanting more? Perfect.
How to Cook a Wolf, M.F.K. Fisher
one of the most impressive pieces of food writing I’ve ever had the pleasure to enjoy. Fisher writes with such incredible width, humanity and grace. The revised edition is sprinkled with parenthetical comments that make the experience of reading the book almost like a witty conversation with the author. Delightful from tail to top.
Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman
Burkeman is one of those writers who is capable of distilling such weighty and significant philosophical concepts into actionable and practical advice. As brilliant as his earlier book, The Antidote, and required reading for everyone seeking to navigate a finite life.
Midsomer Murders, season eight
A confident season, let down only really by one episode I did not particularly enjoy (an episode which seemed really quite dark in a way that Midsomer, despite its premise, often is not). As they take away, they also give: this season had one of my all time favourite protagonists: a retired Russian spy. I’ll say no more.
The Curse, season one
more from the very special mind of Nathan Fielder who is one of the most interesting voices in TV. I found this show really unusual; it was certainly confident in its decisions, only I was not always sure those decisions landed for me. The ending blew my mind. It’s a slow, lingering affair that sticks with one and I find it hard to rate as a result. But as I’m still thinking about it days after finishing it I have to then recommend it.
Demon Slayer, Mugen Train arc
On paper, Demon Slayer is not the sort of anime I’d naturally gravitate towards, but this kinetic show just works for me. The character art and animation are both strong, although the show uses this sort of early CGI (think Alex Mack-tier) type effect for the demon sometimes and it just throws me off. I’ve already moved on to the Entertainment District arc and am enjoying it.Â
Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian Studios
It’s a big game, a very big game to misquote the ad from the early 2000s. A steep learning curve if you’re not familiar with how to play D&D, like me, but a joyful, sprawling, engaging adventure for those who persist. A real maximalist delight and a success at that.
Authoritarian Century, Azeem Ibrahim
Exceptionally cogent and concise analysis from a rare mind; profoundly frightening in its implications, especially given the increasing possibility of a second Trump Whitehouse. A powerful call to bolster and support liberal democracies by moving away from the death-grip of neoliberal free market thinking; it has failed people, and these people are now turning to radical populist authoritarians. Some useful thinking on China, Russia, social media and conspiracies and the Far Right and Radical Islam, too.
Demon Slayer, Entertainment District Arc
A lot of fun. It is testament to the animation and art direction that I’ll happily watch a four episode fight when usually my eyes instantly glaze over in quick fight scenes. It’s violence for adults but story telling for kids.
Mrs Davis, season one
This is definitely a “give it a few episodes” to get going type of show. Once it does get going, it delivers a mesmerising and thoroughly modern exploration of faith. I will always try to support art that takes risks and big swings, and this show does and they mostly pay off.
Solo Lemon Mango
I never thought I’d add a soda to this list, especially something as commercial as Solo, but I spied this new flavour in the supermarket and it’s kinda exactly my thing. I know in my heart in hearts it’ll be short lived, but right now it’s the taste of summer for me.
They Cloned Tyrone, Juel Taylor
A hilarious and well acted modern subversive blaxploitation film. Smart writing, suitably ludicrous plot, and excellent acting from all. Watch with friends for the best time. And I hope Netflix invests in more films that look like this than films that look like The Killer.