Well, Thanksgiving is tomorrow, Grandma is rolling out the pie crusts, and we need to think of something to be grateful for – quick!

We will enjoy the delicious feast, of course. But if we can’t think of anything else to say when we’re all going around the table, then Grandma will find out that she helped raise an ingrate!

We already tried dredging something up by reflecting on our year. It started with the devastating LA wildfires. Then, Silicon Valley raced forward on generative AI, even though its hallucination-prone bots depend on massive copyright infringement, as we told Congress. In fact, to build just one AI tool, companies like Meta will happily torrent 80 TERABYTES worth of stolen books, not to mention burning more fossil fuels than the average person uses in 50 YEARS.

You can see why we are upset. But we do not want to bring that energy to Thanksgiving dinner. Grandma deserves to feel the gentle warmth of our appreciation, not the roaring blaze of our hair on fire. So, we best get our blood pressure under control and find something goddamn grateful to say!

Fortunately, we have a tradition that fixes bad attitudes in time for Thanksgiving. The day in advance, we publish a roundup of creative works that entertained and inspired us throughout the year.

Here are our selections from 2025! After recalling the work of so many talented creatives, we think we are ready for Thanksgiving!

Creation: Loot (2022-)

Creatives: Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard (showrunners), Maya Rudolph and Adam Scott (cast members)

Why We’re Grateful: After a day at work, where we’re continually fighting uphill battles to hold Big Tech accountable, we need to decompress with a timely workplace comedy. None makes us laugh as much as Loot, starring six-time Emmy® winner Maya Rudolph (Big Mouth, SNL).

Rudolph plays a well-meaning but out-of-touch billionaire named Molly, who came into her money by getting the next best thing to a rich dead husband: a rich AT-FAULT LIVE ex-husband, played by Adam Scott (Severance). Due to the divorce settlement, Molly gets $87 BILLION from her ex-husband’s tech fortune. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, she decides to take a more active role at her philanthropic organization.

Season three finds Molly – not to mention her long-suffering staff – stranded on an island populated by obscenely wealthy nudists, led by a retiree named Gerald (Henry Winkler). Happily, we can look forward to new episodes ridiculing tech titans through December 10.

Creation: 1923 (2022-2025), Landman (2024-), and Tulsa King (2022-)

Creatives: Taylor Sheridan (writer/showrunner)

Why We’re Grateful: Taylor Sheridan has given us hours if not weeks of entertainment, and his prolific imagination shows no signs of stopping! This year alone, he has written new episodes for not only Mayor of Kingstown but also three television Westerns, a genre Sheridan knows well, in part from firsthand experience on ranches.

Starring Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford, the period drama 1923 continues the saga of the Duttons by following events on their family ranch between the two World Wars. Tulsa King centers on Dwight “The General” Manfredi (Sylvester Stallone), a New York City mafia boss starting over in Oklahoma. Finally, in Landman, an unscrupulous businessman (Billy Bob Thornton) wrangles Texas oilmen and Mexican drug cartels.

It is often said that Sheridan writes for Middle America, but his shows have an across-the-board appeal. That’s why articles about his storytelling can be found in places as disparate as The Pioneer Woman, the website of Food Network star Ree Drummond, and the London Times!

Creation: Pants (2016-)

Creatives: Josh Mecouch (artist)

Why We’re Grateful: It takes a depraved imagination to come up with the characters in the digital cartoons of Josh Mecouch. As he admitted, his ideas “show up on [his] mind’s doorstep like a cat bringing you a dead bird.” And as we will now admit, when we stumbled upon Mecouch’s offerings, we felt seen.

These cartoons could easily have been drawn from our own life. If we realized nine pairs of eyes were watching us from the bushes, our first thought would absolutely be, “Ten of us here… Perfect for a basketball game!” On outdoor walks, we have likewise struggled against the urge to scare birds by showing them the attack cat in our clear backpack carrier. As for throwing a party to sniff seasonal candles? We call that a Saturday.

Many of Mecouch’s cartoons have been collected in a book, Pants World. He also publishes short comic strips at the website Formal Sweatpants. Since Mecouch learned to create the illusion of movement by studying the work of animator Preston Blair (Pinocchio, Fantasia), we can nourish the hope of seeing “Pants: The Animated Film” someday.

Creation: 21c Museum Hotel, St. Louis (est. 2018)

Creatives: Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson (franchise founders)

Why We’re Grateful: We were relieved to learn that the 21c Museum Hotel in St. Louis had recovered the penguin stolen in September. The hotel’s mascot, a life-size orange statue, was worth $4000! Fortunately, it had a microchip. But seriously, we are grateful for all the exhibits at the hotel, because they give us even more amazing art to enjoy when visiting St. Louis.

To enter the hotel’s galleries, visitors ascend a staircase gorgeously decorated with a mural called The Way Out West. Resembling a collage, the mural combines images from photographs taken across St. Louis. Several of the exhibits are about to change, but one of them, The Future is Female, will remain through the first half of 2026.

Of course, soon after the orange penguin was liberated but then mysteriously returned, a similar misfortune struck the Louvre. If France’s crown jewels turn up again by tomorrow, then art lovers everywhere can rejoice, because Thanksgiving will be complete!

Creation: Cloud (2024, U.S. Release 2025)

Creatives: Kiyoshi Kurosawa (director)

Why We’re Grateful: Some of our favorite films of 2025 have been fables of internet-powered dangers – drone warfare in Weapons, social media rabbit holes in Bugonia, remote-controlled combustion chambers in Thunderbolts*. (Okay, that last one is pretty rare.) But a film still being discovered by U.S. audiences is Cloud, a 2024 crime thriller about online shopping.

It’s no joke, as evidenced by the story of internet reseller Yoshii Ryôsuke. Under the alias Ratel, he buys products as cheaply as possible and then sells them at a large markup. Unfortunately, his online behavior makes him some enemies… and they prove terrifyingly effective at hunting him down.

This suspenseful film comes from writer-director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, past winner of Un Certain Regard prizes at Cannes for Pulse (FIPRESCI Prize, 2001), Tokyo Sonata (Jury Prize, 2008) and Journey to the Shore (Directing Prize, 2015). For a new film by an auteur of this caliber, we would almost resell our Thanksgiving feast – but that would disappoint Grandma.

Creation: Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025)

Creatives: The Weeknd

Can you imagine what kind of person would NOT be grateful for 20+ new tracks from a four-time Grammy® winner? It would have to be some basement dweller who also hated fresh air and sunshine. But we have an irrefutable reason for appreciating The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow, which is… it’s FUCKING AWESOME! And that is our highly correct opinion.

Hurry Up Tomorrow is a tragic yet beautifully rendered conclusion to the story of the “motherfucking starboy,” a persona The Weeknd cultivated over multiple albums. We won’t spoil the story, but we were impressed by the album’s emotional range. For instance, while “Baptized in Fear” is soulful and haunting, “Open Hearts” feels fun and light-hearted because of its funky beat.

Of course, we’ll miss the persona that The Weeknd appears to be retiring. But we have a feeling that the musical career of Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd’s real name) is far from over.

Creation: Los Angeles Silent Film Festival (est. 2025)

Creatives: American Cinematheque, Retroformat Silent Films, Mount Saint Mary’s University

Why We’re Grateful: We enjoy reading history in a book, but we prefer seeing it unfold on a screen. That’s why we were thrilled when one of our favorite theaters, Los Feliz 3, hosted the inaugural Los Angeles Silent Film Festival. Taking place from September 12-14, 2025, the festival had nine films on its program, five of which were screened in new restorations.

These 100-year-old films are foundational parts of cinema history. One gem, Frank Tuttle’s Lovers in Quarantine (1925), struck us because its plot so closely resembles those of today’s romantic comedies. Clearly, the formula was perfected in the silent era!

Wonderfully, the theater was packed with people eager to watch a film that has not been shown since 1925. Now that touches film lover’s hearts, even ones as calloused as ours!

Creation: Getting Killed (2025)

Creatives: Geese

Why We’re Grateful: This album is not for everyone… but we’re able to lead you to it because of our unerring good taste. You’re welcome, we almost added – but our capacity for gratitude would REALLY have to get out of hand before we started expressing it on behalf of others.

Still, you’re clearly a sophisticated consumer of high-quality content, since you read our blog, so we think you will be intrigued by Getting Killed. It’s the latest album from Cameron Winter and the band he has kept together since high school. (Read more in this interview.) Pitchfork called the album “one of the best, strangest, and most compelling rock records of the year.”

We have spent considerable time rocking out to Geese’s strange sounds, so we cannot disagree!

Creation: Your Friend, Nate Bargatze (2024) and more

Creatives: Nate Bargatze

Why We’re Grateful: The Nashville-based comedian Nate Bargatze set numerous new records for ticket sales in 2024, and his star has continued to rise. He hosted the Emmys® this year, and his latest special, Your Friend, Nate Bargatze was nominated for both a 2025 Emmy® and a 2026 Grammy®.

If you have not yet had the pleasure of seeing Bargatze, “the nicest man in stand-up,” then definitely check out this celebrated SNL skit, where Bargatze plays George Washington, outlining a new vision for America to inspire his troops during the Revolutionary War.

We can always count on Bargatze to give us something to look forward to. Famously, he specializes in jokes fit for the whole family, so we can rewatch his shows over the holidays! And next year, Bargatze is launching Nateland at Sea, starring in The Breadwinner, and moving forward on plans to open a Nateland Amusement Park.

Onward to the Feast

That’s our roundup! Writing it made us feel much better. Of course, we’ll need to make another list next year, assuming Big Tech has not replaced us all with machines. But for now, we’re ready to be the most delightful version of ourselves – a bit cranky, sure, but not enough to ruin anyone’s Thanksgiving.

We hope our roundup introduces you to some new artworks to enjoy while moving through the holiday season. We’ll be thinking of you, feeling lucky to have your friendship and support. Thank you for sticking by us, even when we get angry!

Now, go and show Grandma she was right to start a family! And for goodness’ sake, do the dishes if you didn’t do any of the cooking.

Happy Thanksgiving!