MFV #257 – United by betrayal Explicit

Just in time for your 2026 return to work (and only one day late due to Nick’s holiday overindulgence schedule), it’s the MFV end of year round-up for 2025!

Featuring the usual reflections and individual top five round-ups for the core podcast areas of both TV (12:18) and film (43:42), and then Nick and Alastair attempt to reach a single unified top three. Will this be the year they finally come to blows?

Plus bonus chat about Studio Ghibli movie Spirited Away and Image comic series Monstress.

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2025: A year in film

Superman

Looking back at 2025, there was a lot to enjoy in the cinema this year. There was no radical change compared to what has been released over the last ten years, and there is no sign of where the future might lead, beyond more of the same. That said, this year did manage to serve up a range of high-profile enjoyable movies, which is more than some recent years.

Let’s start with some of the brighter moments from this year. Superman was an excellent summer blockbuster, filled with the right amount of action, humour and heart. Gone are the days of DC making everything dark and gritty in an attempt to replicate the success of The Dark Knight. This film reminded me why superheroes are fun and why they make such good subjects for films. James Gunn found a blend of action and comedy that was a slightly more family-friendly take on his signature style that still felt fresh and not an attempt to copy Marvel’s mix of action with ironic snark.

Marvel came back from their break with three movies this year. Their summer offering, Thunderbolts*, also brought the humour and the fun with a rag-tag group of assassins, spies and villains teaming up to take on an existential threat. Led by the always excellent Florence Pugh, and with a brilliantly silly supporting comedic performance from David Harbour, this was another really fun outing to the cinema and reminded me why Marvel has dominated superhero blockbusters for the better part of 20 years.

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Nick’s Top Ten TV 2025

Once again, it’s time for me, Nick Bryan, to creak my written TV critic muscles back into action for their one annual outing, after another year of only outpiping my opinions via the spoken word in this podcast (apart from the occasional capsule review in my newsletter).

This is the fourteenth time I’ve done this, and you can re-experience all the previous write-ups below:

As ever, this is entirely my opinion, I’m veering away from the consensus on a few items here. Artistic preference is ultimately subjective and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.

This year, it was another competitive one, several list veterans didn’t make it. Even though the heaving mass of peak TV has slowed, there’s still more than enough to fill this chart and keep me guessing.

We start with an unsurprising entry for me…

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MFV #256 – A.K.A. The Shirtless Sailor Explicit

This festive fortnight, Nick and Alastair cover one of the big Christmas movies of this year, the new Benoit Blanc mystery Wake Up Dead Man (15:01), plus the latest season of political comedy-drama series The Diplomat (27:00).

Plus some bonus chat about acclaimed crime miniseries Task and ecological scifi play The Precipice.

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MFV #255 – The Man With The Infinite Bum Explicit

This fortnight, Nick and Alastair enter the gothically dark world of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (16:27), and the edgelordishly dark universe of youthful Boys spin-off Gen V’s second season (28:18).

Plus Alastair’s heard new Sprints album All That Is Over, while Nick’s finally finished his long binge of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel.

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MFV #254 – Capitalism Vs Predator Explicit

This fortnight, Nick and Alastair venture into the deadly landscape of Predator: Badlands (15:44), then the even scarier dark underbelly of the internet in W0rldtr33 volume 3 (29:10).

Plus Nick’s read Eight Billion Genies by Charles Soule & Ryan Browne, while Alastair’s watched Ballad of a Small Player on Netflix.

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MFV #253 – The Dr Cox Effect Explicit

This fortnight, it’s espionage and political drama on both sides of the pond with A House of Dynamite (13:36) and Slow Horses season 5 (29:40).

In slightly lighter territory, Alastair’s also watched Wednesday season 2, while Nick’s been living and dying with The Celebrity Traitors.

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MFV #252 – Apologies to the bird-blind community Explicit

This fortnight, another double-superhero podcast, with DC’s Peacemaker season 2 (20:44), plus Marvel Zombies (38:55) from, shockingly, Marvel providing token Halloween content. Some spoilers on that Marvel Zombies review.

Also including a belated Wicked review from Nick, plus Alastair’s annual dispatch from London Film Festival, covering movies such as H is for Hawk, The Chronology of Water and Fucktoys.

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MFV #251 – A haunted doll wouldn’t behave like that! Explicit

Nick and Alastair return to smash the system (exhaustedly) with One Battle After Another, then flee from icky extra-terrestrials in Alien: Earth.

But first, Alastair’s returned to the menace of adorable robot dolls in M3gan 2.0, while Nick’s back in the world of The Office US for the first season of The Paper.

And then it’s time for One Battle After Another (18:08), the widely acclaimed new movie from Paul Thomas Anderson about Leonardo DiCaprio looking ruined in a dressing gown.

Finally, it’s Alien: Earth (36:09), the polarising new spin-off series which finally gives the xenomorph some like-minded friends.

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MFV #250 – It was always Carnage Explicit

To celebrate a ludicrous 250 episodes, Nick and Alastair once again recommend each other some favourites – this time, it’s Netflix series Alice in Borderland and 90s superhero-cyberpunk comic Spider-Man 2099.

But first, Nick’s caught up on the latest seasons of the two US sitcoms he watches – Ghosts US and Abbot Elementary – while Alastair’s watched 2024 movie Queer

And then they enter the real business, with Alastair recommending Nick Alice in Borderland (20:21), a Japanese series on Netflix in which desperate people must play sadistic party games to survive in a hellish alternate Tokyo, a show he got very into during the pandemic.

Lastly, Nick’s suggestion for Alastair is Spider-Man 2099 (36:15), the original late-90s series by Peter David and Rick Leonardi, introducing the iconic future version of Spidey to the world, and Nick to darker and more morally complex comics.

You’ve got about a week left to back Nick’s latest Kickstarter for action-fantasy comic Worrywart! Featuring a fun story of violent family feuds, plus amazing art by Lane Lloyd.

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