{"id":40882,"date":"2026-01-01T10:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T15:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=40882"},"modified":"2026-01-01T11:38:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:38:34","slug":"40882","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=40882","title":{"rendered":"Craig&#8217;s Best of 2025: Films \/ TV \/ Books \/ Posts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/zone\/2026\/z010126best_of.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Happy New Year!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">As we start 2026, let&#8217;s take a look at the <strong>BEST OF 2025<\/strong>. I hope you see something that you enjoyed or gets you interested to check out. Here we go&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Movies and Television Series<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2025, I watched 375 movies and tv series. That number is down 21 from last year. My favorite films and limited series released in 2025 included (in alpha order):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>A House of Dynamite<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>aka Charlie Sheen<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Amateur, The<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>American Manhunt: Osama Bin Laden<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Americas, The<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Caught Stealing<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Chaos: The Manson Murders<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Duster<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Havoc<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Last Samurai Standing: Season 1<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Mayor of Kingstown: Season 4<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Paradise: Season 1<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Pitt, The<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Reacher: Season 3<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Sean Combs: The Reckoning<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Sinners<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Sly Lives<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Surviving Black Hawk Down<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Tulsa King: Season 3<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Wick is Pain<\/em><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>WWE Unreal: Season 1 <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Books<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In 2025, I read 37 books (down 9 from last year) My favorites from this year included (in the order I read them):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">1. <strong>Joe Ledger: Secret Missions 1<\/strong> by Jonathan Maberry<br \/>\n2. <strong>The Big Empty<\/strong> by Robert Crais<br \/>\n3. <strong>Joe Ledger: Secret Missions 2<\/strong> by Jonathan Maberry<br \/>\n4. <strong>Burn to Shine<\/strong> by Jonathan Maberry<br \/>\n5. <strong>The Friends of Pancho Villa<\/strong> by James Carlos Blake<br \/>\n6. <strong>Blue Moon<\/strong> by Lee Child<br \/>\n7. <strong>King of Ashes<\/strong> by S.A. Cosby<br \/>\n8. <strong>Ceremony<\/strong> by Robert B. Parker<br \/>\n9. <strong>Hatchet Girls<\/strong> by Joe R. Lansdale<br \/>\n10. <strong>Hunter&#8217;s Moon<\/strong> by James Byron Huggins<br \/>\n11. <strong>Orphan X<\/strong> by Gregg Hurwitz<br \/>\n12. <strong>Front Sight<\/strong> by Stephen Hunter<br \/>\n13. <strong>Fever House<\/strong> by Keith Rosson<br \/>\n14. <strong>November Road<\/strong> by Lou Berney<br \/>\n15. <strong>Hush Money<\/strong> by Robert B. Parker<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>My Most Popular Posts of the Year<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I continue to find some surprises in what became my most popular posts each year. Here are the top ten for 2025 and some thoughts for each&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>10. The Syfy Channel\u2019s 2025 \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d Christmas Marathon Schedule is Up!<\/strong> &#8211; <em>The Twilight Zone<\/em> Marathon Schedule posts are always popular. Last year the <em>TZ<\/em> New Year&#8217;s Marathon Schedule clocked in at #10.<\/p>\n<p><strong>9. The 25 Best \u201990s Movies<\/strong> &#8211; New to the top ten!<\/p>\n<p><strong>8. Evidence Points to Gary Francis Poste as The Zodiac Killer!<\/strong> &#8211; Fell from the #2 spot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>7. Wolverine (and that scary smirk) by John Byrne!<\/strong> &#8211; New to the top ten!<\/p>\n<p><strong>6. The Dichotomy Philosophy Quiz<\/strong> &#8211; New to the top ten!<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. RIP: Johnny Crawford<\/strong> &#8211; New to the top ten!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>4. Syfy\u2019s <em>Twilight Zone<\/em> 2025\/2026 New Year\u2019s Marathon Schedule is Up!<\/strong> &#8211; The<em> TZ<\/em> New Year&#8217;s Marathon announcement moved from the 10th spot to #4!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>3. Batman \u2013 <em>\u201cIt Was a Dark and Stormy Night\u201d<\/em> by Snoopy (Charles Schulz), Len Wein &amp; Walt Simonson!<\/strong> &#8211; No change. Was in the #3 spot last year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>2. Schwarzenegger in <em>\u201cKing Lear\u201d<\/em> &amp; Robin Williams in <em>\u201cJack and the Beanstalk\u201d<\/em><\/strong> &#8211; moved from the #1 spot last year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>1. <em>\u201cCAUGHT STEALING\u201d<\/em> screenplay by Charlie Huston, directed by Darren Aronofsky, starring Austin King, Regina King &amp; Zoe Kravitz \u2013 The Trailer is Here!<\/strong> &#8211; Making it&#8217;s first appearance on the list and in the #1 spot.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>My All-Time Most Popular Posts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>10. The 2021<em> TWILIGHT ZONE<\/em> New Year\u2019s Eve Marathon is Coming and the Full Schedule is Out!<\/strong> &#8211; <em>The Twilight Zone<\/em> Marathon posts are always popular.<\/p>\n<p><strong>09. Gadot &amp; The Rock Strike a Pose<\/strong> \u2013 this is the fifth year in a row that the Gadot &amp; The Rock Pose post has remained in the 9th spot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>08. Steve Reeves as Superman<\/strong> \u2013 this is the third year in a row that Steve Reeves as Superman flew in to the 8th spot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>07. TOP 10 MOST ICONIC HORROR MOVIE VILLAINS!<\/strong> &#8211; For the second year in a row.<\/p>\n<p><strong>06. Billy the Kid Photo Discovered<\/strong> \u2013 holding strong for two years in a row.<\/p>\n<p><strong>05. Dracula Through the Ages<\/strong> \u2013 moved to the 5th spot last year and held on for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n<p><strong>04. SYFY\u2019s 2023\/2024 Twilight Zone New Year\u2019s Eve Marathon Schedule is Up!<\/strong> &#8211; remains our 4th most popular post for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n<p><strong>03. Zodiac Killer Code Cracked?<\/strong> &#8211; Came in 3rd last year and held that spot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>02. Louis Meyers: Evidence He Was the Zodiac Killer<\/strong> \u2013 our second all-time most popular post for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n<p><strong>01. Schwarzenegger in \u201cKing Lear\u201d &amp; Robin Williams in \u201cJack and the Beanstalk\u201d<\/strong> &#8211; our all-time most popular post for the third year in a row.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s always interesting to see which topics resonate with fans and continue to be popular long after their initial post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Happy New Year! As we start 2026, let&#8217;s take a look at the BEST OF 2025. I hope you see<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,54,65,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-movies","category-trivia","category-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40882"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40888,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40882\/revisions\/40888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}