News What to Watch What to Watch and Read for the Rest of 2025: The Books, Movies, Games, and Shows on the Reactor Staff’s Backlogs The holidays offer us a rare chance to watch, read, and play some of the things we’ve been meaning to get to By Molly Templeton | Published on December 19, 2025 Photo: Kepler Interactive, AMC Studios, Neon Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: Kepler Interactive, AMC Studios, Neon It is not quite the end of the year for publishing and its related industries, but it is close, and so this is the last What to Read and Watch post for 2025. What will Reactor’s staff be doing until the ball drops and the calendar ticks over? Well, watching stuff, and reading stuff, and playing stuff, and also maybe doing a little staring at the wall in absolute silence. You know. Decompressing! And also vegging out. May your solstice be hopeful, your holidays be bright, and whatever celebrations you engage with bring you all the joy you can handle.  We’re Playing New Games and Older Ones Bailey is going to play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a game I would very much like to play—it just won a nice big award!—but I am only allowed to have one gaming console, as I get obsessive and play games for eight hours straight. But Clair Obscur sounds fantastic. “Lead the members of Expedition 33 on their quest to destroy the Paintress so that she can never paint death again” is one hell of a description. I don’t know what it means, but I want to. Meanwhile I will still be trucking about Hyrule, in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, only occasionally helping those whiny little koroks and/or the sign guy. I have turned on all the lightroots, which is the best part of the game, and now must decide whether to re-engage with the plot or not. I have put [redacted] hours into a different playthrough of this game and never beaten it. I hate boss battles. So I’ll just run around some more. We’re Watching So… Many… Movies Everybody is going to movies. We are going to first-run movies (Dust Bunny, multiple times between multiple people) and second-run movies (Pan’s Labyrinth) and movies that are on Netflix, sure, but why not go to them in a theater (Wake Up Dead Man). We are going to Norwegian family dramas (Sentimental Value) and anything Paolo Sorrentino directs (La Grazia) and the movie that nobody will shut up about (One Battle After Another). We are going to historical films starring actresses with very modern faces (The Testament of Ann Lee). We would like to be going to Morvern Callar but the random screening at Portland’s classic indie theater is already sold out despite happening in January. (We—and this time I mean I—clearly screwed up.) If Resurrection comes to Portland, I will be seated. The New Yorkers will go to No Other Choice, and I will wait patiently for that one, too.  We are also watching movies at home, of course. Emmet will be indulging in their traditional Shane Black appreciation moment and watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (and maybe The Long Kiss Goodnight). I may finally get to Frankenstein. I may finally indulge in a Kelly Reichardt marathon and catch up to all her films, including The Mastermind, which Matt will also be watching.  Pretend You’re Alone on Earth and Watch an Entire Series at Once The Pluribus finale is coming, and if anyone I work with is not watching, I don’t want to know about it. Bailey will also be watching Heated Rivalry, a show I have learned an astonishing amount about just from being a person who goes online. Bless you, hockey romance fans, every one. Leah plans to watch Interview with the Vampire, and so do I; I started it but got behind and now I have hours and hours to spend with those beautiful fuckups. I can’t wait. Emmet will also be hanging out with beautiful fuckups, but the ones in Harley Quinn. Have we talked about how the version of Bane in Harley Quinn is the most wonderful version of Bane imaginable? Never thought I could feel such affection for that character of all characters. But I love him. You could also anniversary-binge The Magicians or Mr. Robot or The Expanse, all of which turned 10 this year. (The Expanse snuck past me, but it just hit the 10-year mark this week! A day before The Magicians! I wish anything like either of those shows was on TV now.) The incredibly funny Australian mystery show Deadloch returns in February, and if you haven’t watched it, I cannot recommend it enough. If the opening scene, in which two teenagers have very believable reactions to finding a dead body, doesn’t win you over, I don’t even know what to tell you. No One Is Finishing Their TBR Stack Before the End of the Year But we’re gonna try, dammit. Leah intends to read Daniel Kehlmann’s The Director, which is inspired by the life of director G.W. Pabst. Bailey has her eye on Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang, which sounds dark and mysterious and has a nice pop of red on its cover, making it festive, however unintentionally. Matt is reading Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Puzzles and Games of the Broadway Legend, a book that he bought for someone else. This is how book people roll. Stefan reads Hogfather every year, and will continue to do so. I am debating whether I want to reread the previous two Book of Dust novels before picking up Philip Pullman’s final book about Lyra Silvertongue, The Rose Field. I also want to reread Bethany Jacobs’ first two Kindom Trilogy books before starting This Brutal Moon, but let’s be real: there are only so many hours in the day and days in the week, and I need to know what happens there. Kehlmann’s There are a lot of crows in Portland, and I really love them, and yet I still have not read Hollow Kingdom, which is set in Seattle (close enough!) and stars a “foul-mouthed” crow. It may be time. I may pair this with Caskey Russell’s The Door on the Sea, which involves an “endlessly vulgar” raven. Everything about this book appeals to me. (I must also note that it is a year for mouthy birds. I’m in favor. More, please?) However you spend your last few weeks of 2025, Emmet suggests that you wind down with one of their annual traditions: Listening to the Bing Crosby and David Bowie duet on “Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy.” The sketch is so awkward that I could not watch it. My colleagues are truly made of stronger stuff than I. Happy holidays, everyone! [end-mark] The post What to Watch and Read for the Rest of 2025: The Books, Movies, Games, and Shows on the Reactor Staff’s Backlogs appeared first on Reactor.