Flavours of the Months: November & December 2025...

A long-awaited return, shredding the streets, and burning rubber are just some of what's been setting the tone of my November/December 2025...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

LOOKS:

The Chair Company: Season 1 - cringe-comedy mystery thriller created by Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin. Thankfully it's been given a second season, because the last episode ends on a cliffhanger with the conspiracy entirely unresolved!

Death By Lightning - four-part mini-series created by Mike Makowsky, directed by Matt Ross, and based on Candice Millard's book 'Destiny of the Republic'. It tells the story of the election and brief tenure of the United States of America's robustly principled 20th President (James A. Garfield, played by Michael Shannon) and the conniving, desperate, deluded, pathetic, habitual liar of a man who assassinated him (Charles J. Guiteau, played by Matthew Macfadyen). Brisk and to-the-point with powerful characterisation, it neither dawdles nor rushes, and it even finds room for some well-balanced humour to make for an entertaining watch. Masterful.

It: Welcome To Derry: Season 1 - for a show sold on the image of Pennywise, and as a prequel to the two It movies from a few years ago set to explore the origins of the aforementioned killer clown, Welcome To Derry sure as all get-out takes a long damn time before the icon himself shows up (the arse-end of episode five-of-eight, to be exact). The show doesn't particularly illustrate why it needed to be made, either, other than cashing-in on a recognised intellectual property in these risk-averse times in the not-so-creative industry as it currently stands (oh, for another 'New Hollywood' era).

There's various characters that I do like, but sometimes they feel as if they've been parachuted-in from a very different kind of show altogether, one that is keenly fascinated with race relations in the 1960s, for example, which is especially odd considering how 1962 Derry looks far more diverse than 1989 Derry: White, Black, Latino, Native American - and yet Asians of both Subcontinent and Eastern origins have predictably been overlooked. Pacing wise the show is unsteady, unsure when to display some real narrative progress and when to slow things down a touch. There's some effectively gooey sequences, but frights and chills are a bit rare to come by. Peaks tickle the fancy as they should, and even tug on the odd heart string, but too often Welcome To Derry can just feel a bit like fan fiction.

F1: The Movie (Blu-Ray) - director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer bring Hollywood glamour and blitz to the world of Formula 1 (with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton also producing), in what plays like Top Gun Maverick for the pinnacle of motorsport. Sure, the narrative is Hollywood all over (particularly so for those who are familiar with how things really work in the sport), but it still works damn fine all the same and entertains throughout. As a keen F1 fan, while I could see numerous little things that don't quite ring true, or are realistically speaking pure fantasy, it was still a real blast with charismatic leads and tip-top action, the latter being captured in a similarly breathtaking way as Top Gun Maverick. A big, brash, and very stylish crowd pleaser.

Pluribus: Season 1 - the new show from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan. The teaser trailers sensibly maintained a near-total veil of mystery around what the show was about, and that was a great way to go into it. Gilligan and co have done it again, albeit in a very different manner: the pitch being 'a miserable woman has to save the world from happiness'. I don't know how far they can take the concept (although a second season is confirmed), but this is strange and unique storytelling in a wonderful way.

Stranger Things: Season 5 - the final season of The Duffer Brothers' genre-blending phenomena for Netflix. It's been three-and-a-half years since the fourth season came along, so the gang all look quite old for their parts considering the time elapsed in real life versus in the show itself (but it's nowhere near as egregious as 1978's Grease!), and such a wait really screws around with audience expectations. For one, your hopes are very high with such a long build-up, and for two, unless you do a re-watch then you're gonna be a bit 'outside of the vibe', meaning it takes longer to get warmed-up to the new material.

The first batch of episodes is good, but far from excellent. There's a great deal of heavy lifting to be done for starters, but also some treading of water or going back over familiar territory (e.g. we already know why Hopper is reluctant to allow Eleven into dangerous situations). There's entertaining stuff to be had, but the show simultaneously has to hit the ground running and ease us into proceedings (after yet another years-long wait between seasons), which is no easy task. However, Dustin's dogged and confrontational defence of Eddie, who is wrongly regarded in town as a Satanic killer instead of the misfit hero that he was, is one of the more emotionally resonant side stories.

There's lots of strands that need to be wrapped-up in this final season, so there are plates spinning everywhere you look, but despite the sort of scattered and hectic nature of the first four episodes, it's still awesome to be back in Hawkins, and the fourth episode certainly delivers a hefty helping of awesome sauce. The second round of episodes (three in total) comes chock-full of exposition, but the 'science bits' are deftly handled to succinctly illustrate complex ideas - but did the heart-to-heart moments need to come so often and take so long during high stakes moments of import?

The sheer volume of characters sometimes gives the show a sense of handling more akin to an oil tanker than a Ferrari, and as a result we're continually cutting back and forth between numerous strands of plot, often to the point that you lose some of the suspense and dramatic rise that you might otherwise have been afforded if we didn't need to rush off and make sure the other plates keep spinning before they fall off their sticks. The compressed timeframe in which all of these events occur is a tricky one, too, making the majority of season five feel like a third act rush to the finish line, but with mountains of exposition to wade through, at the expense of being able to take a real breath here and there to smell the roses, or even allow some of the characters to get enough screen time: Mike and Eleven as a couple, likewise for Hopper and Joyce, and new military villain Dr Kay are all good examples of this.

It's the culmination of a very long road, so in that alone it's must-see telly, but the requirements and strictures imposed upon this final season - the sheer weight of expectations - also cause a lot of trouble in trying to pilot this gargantuan beast across the finish line. Fortunately, the finale doesn't rush it's closure and affords all the survivors something worthwhile and heartfelt, making up for some of the lost 'quiet time' felt in the preceding episodes. I'm looking forward to the spin-off animated series, but hopefully it doesn't suffer from prequel-itis (i.e. we already know future events, so stakes are hindered).

Going Postal: The Legacy Foretold - documentary about the notorious videogame franchise "Postal", telling the story of the birth of parent company Running With Scissors, the creation of the controversial games (particularly the fan-favourite Postal 2), the disastrous fate of Postal 3, the fumbled attempt at a movie adaptation (at the hands of Uwe Boll, of all people), and the return to their roots with Postal 4 (which I've never played because, unlike Playstation, Xbox don't allow it on their platform).

Fallout: Season 2 - Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet's videogame-to-streaming TV adaptation makes a most welcome return, albeit parsed-out in measily one-episode-per-week morsels (not even a three-episode initial round to get you hooked!). Thankfully, we didn't have to wait sodding ages for the next season (I'm looking at you, Stranger Things), so I was still primed for the new batch of episodes and was sucked-in immediately. A hell of a lot of fun!

Demolition Man (Blu-Ray) - an absolute fucking classic of 90s action cinema.


SOUNDS:

Motorhead "The World Is Yours" (album)

Rob Zombie "Heathen Days"

Moby ft. Kronos Quartet "God Moving Over The Face of the Waters"

ZZ Top "Afterburner" (album)

Carpenter Brut "Sexkiller On The Loose", "Leather Temple"

M83 "Resurrection" (album)


VIBES & FLAVOURS:

Streets of Rage 4 (Xbox Series S) - much like the classic trilogy of Sega beat-em-up games from the late 80s/early 90s, SOR4 requires you to be brutally aggressive in your play style, even on the easiest setting, because you will be beset with a slew of bad guys all in need of a jolly firm slap about the chops. Difficulty spikes come and go with curious irregularity, such as spamming you with enemies during one level, or the unfairness in finishing off certain enemies who drop explosive items when they cark it. However, despite the somewhat harsh difficulty settings (a 'very easy' mode would've been nice, just for those wanting to have fun without yelling at their screen for the aforementioned quibbles), the game was enjoyable. The art style was an upgrade to the familiar look and feel of the original games and was one of the best elements of SOR4, which didn't try to do anything overly fancy with the trusty formula. Good stuff.

Killer Frequency (Xbox Series S) - I don't usually play this kind of game, but Team17's 1980s retro puzzler proved to be a fun few hours as you take the role of a radio DJ in a small town while a killer is on the loose. You are tasked with saving the various town residents who call in to the show and have to solve puzzles and follow clues to guide them along the way. I almost saved everyone, but one of the teens snuffed it during the big escape, despite doing my damnedest to follow the blatant clues quite closely, so to not get the associated achievements was irksome. You also have to suspend disbelief as to why so many people seem to have mobile phones in 1987, but that's only a small thing. All said and done it was a good play.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2 (Xbox Series S) - the intro video, set to 'Guerilla Radio' by Rage Against The Machine, instantly transported me back to my high school days playing Tony Hawk on a mate's Playstation. Having not played a game in the series since Proving Grounds a couple of console generations ago, I got off to a fumbling start, but after a few hours and some much-needed upgrade stats I was feeling my way back to the vibe of it. 'Sick scores' are often beyond me, but I was gradually ticking off goals and collectibles in an experience that is fun but a little frustrating at times, and did manage to unlock all the parks (albeit with a little help from the Trophy Tom YouTube channel).

Tony Hawks' Pro Skater 3 & 4 (Xbox Series S) - having got into my groove (which isn't stellar, I'll admit), and looking for some new territory to shred and goals to harvest, I figured strike while my fingers are in the zone. Skating the first level in this game versus the previous one was like night and day, simply because I was warmed-up. I also like the ability to deselect songs you don't like from the soundtrack rotation - if only more games had this sort of an option. Raking in cash is also much less stingy than in the previous game, so I quickly unlocked Bam Margera to really ramp-up the 2000s nostalgia factor.

"Diddly Squat: The Farmer's Dog" by Jeremy Clarkson