January.
A few things I experienced this month.
Music
Alligator Bites Never Heal
Doechii remains the first artist I reach for every single day.
Sometime in maybe April or May of 2024 I got into a Doechii fixation where I was listening to her music and her music alone. It was such a beautiful time. There’s something about Doechii that just speaks to me on the deepest level possible. If I’m not in the mood for anything else, I’m always in the mood for Doechii.
Podcasts
Guilty Pleasures Podcast
LISTEN TO THEIR HOT FROSTY EPISODE.
This is just an overall fun podcast with three unique personalities that mesh well. I’ve listened to this podcast since 2023 but then I just got crazy busy and didn’t make time for them. When I came back, I immediately remembered why I love this podcast so much. It feels like talking shit with the best people you know.
Shows
Shrinking S2
This show feels like The Good Place. Meaning that no matter how crazy things get, there’s this sense that everything will be okay.
EVIL: (started watching back in 2021 and got too scared. Got rid of my paramount+ account when the new iCarly got cancelled) 2023 and 2024 were about getting into horror. 2025 feels like a stronger embrace of it
Shrinking: AppleTV is soooo bad at promoting its series’… Shrinking is a beautiful show that follows a therapist as he aims to help a young vet while also dealing with the recent death of his wife. Oh! He’s also trying (and failing) to keep it together for his teenage daughter. But even through every mournful memory, every punch in the face, and each of the ups and downs that come with friendship reconciliations, we watch as he becomes a better person.
High Potential: the fun ncis, csi, and psych of it all. A fun procedural following a lighthearted and FUNNY protagonist with an eidetic memory and a penchant for seeing things others can’t. I started this in 2024 and immediately knew we had a hit on our hands. If you want 9-1-1 before it got insane… and you miss the lighthearted beats and scene analysis of Psych then THIS is the show for you
Movies
Nosferatu (2024)
Intentionally the first film I watched in 2025.
NOSFERATU. OH MY GOD NOSFERATU. PLEASE I NEED TO SEE IT AGAIN ROGER EGGERS YOU GENIUS MAN. NOW I FEAR I HAVE TO TAP INTO THE REST OF YOUR FILMOGRAPHY.
Beauty (skincare, scents, makeup)
The CLEARLY Breakout Routine honestly blew me away!! That’s honestly an expected reaction from me given my history with Topicals. I love that brand DOWN. I trust everything they put out because they’ve proven themselves time and time again to be a brand for the people by the people. Everything they do is done with skin conditions in mind. They’re transparent with ingredients and ingredient changes. They educate their audience on different skin conditions in order to destigmatize them…
Art (external)
William H Baker. Watching him recreate scenes from Oscar Nominated Best Picture films was nothing short of remarkable and honestly even inspired me to make this instagram carousel after watching how he kind of recreated an outfit from Poor Things. After watching that two part series, I was curious about everything else William had done. He has this way of making filmmaking accessible and exceedingly fun to engage with from the outside. He makes the process exciting and has this way of being overtly inspirational.
Art (mine)
This carousel I made during my week off from work. I’ve been feeling really stagnant as a creative. But this felt like a real artistic revival even if only for a moment. I experience burnout extremely often just by nature of the people-facing job I do in conjunction with my commute. This makes creativity and socializing especially difficult for me. This topic could probably be an entire blogpost of its own tbh but I love creating late at night. I think that’s when all my best ideas happen (also when I start creating random social media accounts). There’s something very calming about being the only person awake and kicking.
Experience
My friend and I found ourselves in the middle of a good old fashioned karaoke night. We didn’t participate but it was a nice reminder that life exists outside our own personal bubbles. Although I def could’ve done without the White passport bro singing racially specific Black songs and shouting, “America is the best and if you think otherwise you can leave”. The rest was amazing. It was genuinely so fun to watch other people completely blow past the fact that they were singing in front of strangers. They were singing and laughing and sometimes out of sync with the songs and each other but it was beautiful. I couldn’t help but smile. Because even if they were messing up. At least they were having fun. So much fun happens on the other side of anxiety. I hope I can be like that one day.
Surprises of the month:
The Inheritance on Hulu. I was having a movie night with a friend and saw this in my suggested. I got halfway through the trailer before shutting it off and adding it to my list of potential movies. In my head I thought of it like this, “Like Knives Out but maybe worse? Has potential” and when I got to my friends’ we watched the trailer in full and found out… it’s like if Knives Out was Abigail… and as an enjoyer of both I was locked IN. Just to be clear, this isn’t me saying it was good. This is me saying it was better than anticipated fdsjfldj. From the jump I had a pretty clear idea of where this movie was headed. And I was exactly right. The twist was exactly what I thought it would be down to motivation and execution. But the tension this movie had and the scares (again I’m still getting into horror so I’m but a freshly born horror babe) kept me invested. *also, watching a movie with a friend makes for extremely fun fear experiences.
Media I’m excited for in 2025:
Companion movie. I’ll be so honest. I was terrified of this movie when the teasers first came out. I’m not a huge fan of gore or watching people in pain (ironic considering I’m getting into horror). So as excited as I was at the visuals and the two leads, I couldn’t get over the sympathetic pain I felt. THAT BEING SAIDDDD the newest teasers got me excited. Gore terrifies me but the comedic aspect has really sucked me in. Seems to give off some Ex machina vibes👁️
OPUS, Death of a Unicorn, Love Me, Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, Novocaine, Hell of a Summer, School Spirits Season 2
Interesting 2025 releases:
Bob Trevino likes it, Clean Slate, Until Dawn, Love Hurts, Fear Street: Prom Queen
Unexpected 2025 releases:
FNAF 2, Final Destination: Bloodline, DROP, George A. Romero’s Resident Evil, Verona’s Romeo and Juliet, The History of Sound, Honey Don’t!