📺 The Media Guide S5E2

Week 2 here we go!

Yesterday we published our special edition covering the best shows of 2024 and the most anticipated shows of 2025 for [+] subscribers. It's over 2,000 words and pretty great, if you ask me. This coming Sunday will cover albums, with comics and movies to follow in the subsequent weeks.

Feel free to upgrade if you want to check it out, or you can see the plain top ten list below. Whatever floats your boat.

📰 Best Shows of 2024

RoL Special Edition

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📺 New Shows

💻 Severance S2 (Apple) — 17 Jan

My most anticipated returning show of 2025 is already here. It's been awhile so I don't remember much about the first season other than loving it and the reviews for season two seem to be extremely positive so far.

🤡 Harley Quinn S5 (HBO) — 16 Jan

I think Harley Quinn might be the second best (non-anime) animated show airing right now. The perfect balance of comedy, super heroes, absurdness, and snark. You don't really need to watch previous seasons either if you want to just jump in to season five this week.

🏰 Castlevania: Nocturne S2 (Netflix) — 16 Jan

I haven't gotten around to Nocturne S1 yet, but Castlevania is great and only got better as it went on so I'm assuming (hoping) the same will be true for Nocturne.

🏆 2024 Top Ten

1. Ripley S1 (Netflix)
2. A Gentleman in Moscow S1 (Paramount)
3. Shogun S1 (FX/Hulu)
4. Fantasmas S1 (HBO)
5. We Are Lady Parts S2 (Peacock)
6. Say Nothing S1 (FX/Hulu)
7. The Boys S4 (Amazon)
8. The Day of the Jackal S1 (Peacock)
9. The Diplomat S2 (Netflix)
10. The Gentlemen S1 (Netflix)

Monday

• Skeleton Crew (Disney) 1:8

Thursday

• Bookie (HBO) 2:6
• The Pitt (HBO) 1:3
• Harley Quinn (HBO) 5:1
• Castlevania: Nocturne (Netflix) S2

Friday

• Silo (Apple) 2:10
• The Sex Lives of College Girls (HBO) 3:9
• Severance (Apple) 2:1

Sunday

• The Agency (Paramount) 1:9
• Dexter: Original Sins (Paramount) 1:7

💽 Release of the Week

🪘 Onda by João Selva

The fourth album from Brazilian musician. It's in Portuguese so you likely won't understand a single word (like me), but it's a really great, uplifting record with elements of jazz, funk, and samba soul.

🏃 Runner-ups

🐕 Who Let the Dogs Out by The Lambrini Girl

The first full length LP from this East Sussex punk band. A really fun an surprising garage rock album that goes hard and feels very modern—maybe too modern—but it's also pretty funny.

🥸 Perverts by Ethel Cain

The featured release from friends of the foof, Crucial Tracks for this week. As Jason mentioned, it's not for everyone, but it's a fascinatingly haunting experimental, drone-y dark ambient record. This feels like an album I'd throw on at 1 AM, home alone in the dark with a glass of cognac.

📝 What Else?

• Spiral Your Way Out by zzzahara
• Distant Relatives by Distant Relatives
• UNALASKA by AWKWARD i

🦸 No. 1's

🤖 Robot Tod (Floating World)

I feel like Farel Dalrymple has been working on Robot Tod for ages. I remember seeing sketches of Robot Tod years ago on Instagram or Patreon. Robots, foxes, wizards and more in this post-apocalyptic, psychdelic, magical world.

🔍 Finders/Keepers—Horizon Experiment (Image)

Another Horizon Experiment book, this one from Vita Ayala and Skylar Patridge about a thief who steals artifacts from museums to return them to their native origins.

🦫 Ultimate Wolverine (Marvel)

Chris Condon (That Texas Blood) and Alessandro Cappuccio (Vengeance of the Moon Knight) to bring a new take on Wolverine in the Ultimate universe.

🦆 Shadow of the Golden Crane (Dark Horse)

A new book from the world of Hellboy with art by Michael Avon Oeming.

🕵️ You Won't Feel a Thing (DSTLRY)

And finally a new Scott Snyder + Jock book. It's a murder mystery where a detective's past comes to bit him.

📝 What Else?

• The Moon is Following Us (Image) #5
• Minor Arcana (Boom) #5
• The Nice House by the Sea (DC) #5
• FML (Image) #3
• GI Joe (Image) #3
• I Hate Fairyland (Image) #19
• The New Gods (DC) #2
• Skin Police (Oni) #4
• The Terminator (Dynamite) #4

🎥 New Movies

🔍 Presence

Lucy Liu stars in this new Steven Soderbergh directed supernatural horror written by David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Kimi) that delves into a a family who moves into a new home and becomes convinced they are not alone.

🤖 I'm Still Here

Some more Portuguese stuff this week. I don't know much about this one, but it got some Golden Globe nominations and assuming it's eligible, it could get some Oscar noms for foreign films as well.

📝 What Else?

• Grand Theft Hamlet
• Wolf Man
• Back in Action