Pop Xulture Newsletter # 40 - End of 2025 Favorites
Welcome to my 40th Newsletter! Writing for you has given my life additional purpose so I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of you reading and subscribing over the last few years.
Below you’ll find: (1) A list of my 2025 articles, (2) My favorite media consumed this year, (3) Media consumed for my 1985 vs. 2025 article, and finally, (4) some of the cool stuff I’m working on for the new year. (You can read my 2022 favs, my 2023 favs, and 2024 favs.) Enjoy!
#1 - My 2025 Articles:
Back to the Future: The Musical (website)
Severance, Season 1 and the Christian’s Basic Responsibility
Why Christianity’s New Fad of Denouncing Empathy is Actually Narcissistic (website)
Mini-Article: Muzak’s Musical Manipulation (website)
Back to the Future: A 40th Anniversary Lesson in Adaptability
1984 vs. 2024: Miami Vice & Racism & Music (website)
Mini-Article: Why Fictionalized Crime is the Most Flourishing Streaming Genre (website)
Mini-Article: Space Songs (website)
Mini-Article: Timebridge: How 2024 Revived 1985 (website)
Mini-Article: Thanksgiving TV Episodes 2025 (website)
“1985 vs. 2025” – slated to publish with Christ and Pop Culture early January 2026
#2 - Media Favorites Consumed (But Not Necessarily Created) in 2025
Just as I gave you my favorite media consumed mid-way through the year (read Newsletter # 34), here’s a smattering from the last six-ish months (with sporadic commentary):
TV Shows
Dept. Q (2025, Season 1). I loved this show so much I wrote a blurb for Christ and Pop Culture which will be coming out any day.
Poker Face (Season 1)
House of David (Season 1). Not just one of the best Christian shows I’ve ever seen (sadly, the bar isn’t high), but one of the best shows I saw all year. Get started because Season 2 came out recently.
The Paper (Season 1)
Stranger Things (Season 5). The series finale aired today and I loved it. I’m sure trolls will spout hatred, but I thought it subverted most people’s expectations while pulling off two possible endings.
The Night Agent (Season 1)
The Penguin. Set in the immediate aftermath of Matt Reeves’ The Batman (2022), the show centers around Colin Farrell’s unrecognizable Penguin, which deservedly won two makeup Emmy’s. If you like unraveling mysteries, mobster media, and psychological scenarios of what makes monsters, watch this show.
TV BONUS: Shows I Started but Haven’t Finished (Yet)
Pluribus (Season 1)
The Handmaid’s Tale (Season 1)
Films
Mank (2020)
KPop Demon Hunters. I don’t know anyone who didn’t enjoy this film, which is pretty monumental! That’s due to a clarity of vision from creators Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans who, despite breaking many records, have remained resolute in keeping the concept intact (i.e. rejecting a live-action adaptation, etc.).
Heretic (2024)
James Gunn’s Superman (2025). I had to ask myself, Has DC’s live-action cinematic universe failed so many times that I think Superman was good when maybe it was just mediocre? But I’m at peace saying the film was genuinely good, blending the absurdity and necessity of superhero drama with humor which, since there are really only two players in the game, gets close to Marvel’s recipe.
Weapons (2025)
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (2025). As always, del Toro’s visuals are a masterpiece. Granted, as an unqualified arm-chair editor I would have cut around 30 minutes and added a scene or two building Elizabeth’s relationship with The Creature, but overall a very enjoyable film.
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
The New Yorker at 100 (documentary)
Books
FYI: I read more books than what’s mentioned below, if you want to see my list go to: Chris Fogle’s Goodreads.
When Narcissism Comes to Church by Chuck DeGroat. In researching my forthcoming humility book, DeGroat’s work was indispensable for a therapist’s view on arrogance within Christian church leadership. If you want to know why we’ve seen so many pastoral scandals and abuse cases recently (and how to solve them), read this book.
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone by Stephen King
Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community by Brett McCracken. A necessary book for the church to understand why so much of practicing the Christian faith is naturally uncomfortable.
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
Becoming the Pastor’s Wife by Beth Allison Barr. I devote a major section of my forthcoming 1985 vs. 2025 article to this book because it’s incredibly important to understand the history and man-made motivations behind relegating women to “acceptable” ministries. Get out of your comfort zone and read this book.
God Has a Name by John Mark Comer
Music
Memphis May Fire’s entire “Shapeshifter” album is phenomenal but having “Overdose” feature Christian Lindskog from Blindside was a taste of perfection. And later that taste became a meal with Blindside’s “Dead Weight”!
I love finding foreign bands and Shepherds Reign mesmerized me for several months this year. One of my favorite songs is “Samoa Mo Samoa.”
Speaking of foreign bands, Her Last Sight’s album “SEASONS // WINTER” is pretty great and I especially love “The Fall.”
Silent Planet’s “Mindframe” feels like all the best portions of the band’s journey.
#3 – Media Consumed for my 1985 vs. 2025 Article:
Here are some of the 1985 film, TV shows, books and music I consumed in preparation for my article:
Luc Besson’s Subway. I really enjoyed this French film written, directed and produced by Luc Besson as part of the cinéma du look movement, a reaction to the New Wave aesthetic (not the ’80s “New Wave,” but from the ’50s-’60s).
Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future. I loved everything about this BBC original: the dystopian cinematography, futuristic predictions (many of which have eerily transpired), and offbeat sarcasm. Naturally, this made-for-TV-movie spawned several equally quirky spinoffs.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Atwood. The first of Atwood’s dystopian series is especially relevant in light of women’s current strangling of independence. Since I curated this 1985 list for my forthcoming 1985 vs. 2025 article, it’s worth mentioning that Hulu’s adaptation was immensely popular when it premiered in 2017 primarily because of viewer’s concerns around Trump’s first term (as were book sales).[i] It should be no surprise then that the 2025 series finale had some of the highest viewing numbers in Nielsen’s history!
The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul. One of my best reads of the year - accessible hardcore theology.
Tina Turner’s “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome).” I’ve long wrestled with the paradox of a song for the protagonist Mad Max to declare “We don’t need another hero.” (Yes, I’m a pensive nerd.) There is something communal yet independent, despairing yet hopeful in Turner’s anthem.
Wang Chung’s “To Live and Die in L.A.” A fantastic song. As I said here the melody is “haunting yet hopeful.”
1985 BONUS:
Check out Eric Serra’s “Guns Don’t Kill People” performed in Subway’s tense climax.
Here’s my curated list of the songs I bet you’ll be shocked all came out in 1985:
Pat Benatar “We Belong”, Dead or Alive “You Spin me Round (Like a Record), DeBarge “Rhythm of the Night”, Don Henley “The Boys of Summer”, Katrina and the Waves “Walking on Sunshine”, Huey Lewis and the News “The Power of Love”, Madonna “Like a Virgin” and “Material Girl”, John Parr “St. Elmo’s Fire”, REO Speedwagon “Can’t Fight this Feeling”, Run-D.M.C. “King of Rock”, Simple Minds “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”, Starship “We Built This City”, Tina Turner “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)”, Tears for Fears “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and “Shout”, Wham! “Careless Whisper”, “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”, Foreigner “I Want to Know What Love Is”, Dire Straits “Money for Nothing”, a-ha “Take on Me”, by Wang Chung “To Live and Die in L.A.”
#4 - Upcoming in 2026
I’ve given serious consideration to hosting a podcast in 2026 and have written some humorist essays which I’d love to publish somewhere. As always, I’ll be publishing exclusives for you on topics such as: how wrong it is for Christians to amass political power, my annual highlights from WonderCon, and possibly another creativity entry, among others. Happy end of 2025 and kick off to 2026!
Thanks, in Him,
-Chris (the Bearded Wonder) Fogle
[i] As I said in my 1984 vs. 2024 article: “Interestingly, upon Trump’s 2024 win, book sales of Nineteen Eighty-Four shot up (similar to when he won in 2016), as well as other dystopian narratives, including The Handmaid’s Tale (again, as when Trump won in 2016), ‘about a country in which women are brutally repressed.’”