2025: Fire, Cruise, (The) Pitt, KPop, Andor, Hamlin & More

In L.A., 2025 was a year many thousands of residents, especially entertainment folk, would like to forget. Whether their homes went up in flames, or their jobs evaporated, it was rough. Wasn’t much better for showbiz at large, but there were bright spots and interesting developments.

Here’s some of what caught my eye in 2025 … with some news about the future sprinkled in.

From Altadena to the Palisades: The Day Chunks of L.A. Went Up In Flames

The terrible Palisades and Eaton Fires on Jan. 7 have scarred the greater L.A. area, likely for decades. The effect on the entertainment industry — which had large clusters of people affected in both locations — has yet to be fully calculated.

But, on Jan. 22, I published an interview with former CBS entertainment chief Kelly Kahl (his first since leaving the network) about how he thought the industry might cope.

He said:

Well, I certainly hope the conversation has something to do with, “How do we take care of our employees?” Because I’ll speak for myself, but literally every person I know who works in entertainment knows somebody whose house literally went up in smoke.

Click here for the post (which includes the full video interview).

For months, government barricades kept people from seeing exactly what happened inside the devastated burn zones in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Altadena — but we did have eyes on the situation, thanks to some intrepid YouTubers.

Back in April, I looked at the fires’ aftermath (the last time I drove up the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, the scorched palm tree in the picture was still there), and at the YouTubers who used their access to create a remarkable historical record of destruction.

On a happier note, there was the miraculous survival of the tabernacle in the Palisades’ Corpus Christi Catholic Church.

Click here for that.

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The Chosen and Threading the Ecumenical Needle

Season Five of The Chosen hit theaters in the spring, concluding on Easter Sunday. After Season Four omitted the Transfiguration and all but fragments of the Bread of Life Discourse from its dramatization of the Gospels, I was eager to see how the show handled the Eucharistic aspect of the Last Supper.

Series creator Dallas Jenkins has a challenging job, steering amidst the doctrinal differences among Catholics, Orthodox, and all the various Protestant and nondenominational groups.

Ultimately, the Last Supper was intact, but at the cost of its theological underpinning. Click here for my thoughts on that, from May.

The Explosive Growth of YouTube

Had a stimulating conversation, posted in May, with entertainment blogger Christian Toto about the rise of the streaming service and its ever-spreading dominance of the space.

Click here for stats and our whole conversation.

The Rise and Slide of College QB Shadeur Sanders

One great thing about sports is that its stories are often useful metaphors for general life lessons. The hype around Sanders, and his eventual dramatic slide in the NFL Draft, is one of those — as I outlined in a post in May.

Click here to see what truths this whole incident revealed.

Say What You Like About Tom Cruise …

… but the man is a legit movie star, one of a dwindling and aging population of actors whose mere presence in a project can put bums on movie-theater seats.

In late May, on the occasion of the release of the final (?) Mission Impossible movie, I reviewed the Catholicism sprinkled throughout the franchise, and what Cruise’s respect for his audience has meant over his career.

Click here for that.

Somehow, Disney Star Wars Produced the Miracle That Was Andor

I’ve had only marginal interest in the Star Wars TV series coming out of the House of Mouse, and almost none in the movies (just the reviews have been enough to keep me away).

But, then came Andor, the prequel series to the movie Rogue One, a direct prequel to the first Star Wars movie (which, I’m thrilled to say, will be returning to theaters in its original form in 2027 for its 50th anniversary).

In June, after the series finale, I reviewed the phenomenon that was Andor — truly Star Wars just for grownups — and how it fit into George Lucas’ universe.

Click here for all my thoughts.

A Remarkable Tale of Survival, Faith and Family

After reading two of his autobiographical books, I caught up with Fox News foreign correspondent Benjamin Hall, talking on Zoom from his home in London.

Severely injured while covering the early days of the Ukraine war, Hall overcame the loss and damage of limbs, an eye, his brain and more to not only live but to return to work.

His inspiration throughout was his wife and children — and the ordeal eventually brought him closer to the Catholicism of his childhood.

No good reporter wants to become the story, but click here to read about and watch Hall’s inspiring tale.

Finding Faith in F1: The Movie

A good journalist always has his or her radar on, and sometimes noticing a single moment can lead to remarkable discoveries.

In July, I looked at F1: The Movie, Brad Pitt’s rousing sports saga about Grand Prix auto racing. Hearing how the film handled a “Hail Mary” reference sent me on a trip that led to learning surprising things about one of the film’s producers, race driver Lewis Hamilton.

Click here to learn more.

As for My Favorite Film of the Year

I was a latecomer to Sony Animation and Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters. But it quickly became my favorite film of 2025, even though. going in, I knew almost nothing about K-Pop music and even less about Korean folklore.

The soundtrack lives rent-free in my head, and if the film returned to theaters for a third time for a singalong screening weekend, I’d be there … again.

Click here for my September survey of the film with an eye to Catholic audiences; and here for my October return to it, spotlighting its resemblance to Tolkien and what it taught (or reminded) me about storytelling.

I Finally Made It Into The Pitt

In September, about nine months after it premiered, I finally wrote about HBO’s outstanding medical drama The Pitt, with each one-hour episode representing an hour in a long day in a Pittsburgh ER.

And, nine months turned out to be a bit prophetic, since the ideas of pregnancy and abortion figure into the storyline — but not in the way I expected.

I’m not even sure it turned out the way the writers expected — but click here for my examination of what happened. BTW, Season Two premieres on Thursday, Jan. 8.

So, the Emmys …

… hired clean Christian comic Nate Bargatze as host and became the most-watched edition of the kudocast since 2021.

Huh, who could have predicted that?

Click here for the September post about it all, which includes a behind-the-scenes video for Bargatze’s new movie The Breadwinner, hitting theaters on March 13.

Circling Back to the Buffalo Bills’ Ultimate Survivor, Damar Hamlin

On Jan. 2, 2023, I watched Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffer a cardiac arrest and essentially die on the field during Monday Night Football.

The amazing outpouring of prayer and faith affirmation in the wake of the incident, and Hamlin’s survival and full recovery, inspired posts in 2023 and 2024. And I even gave a talk about the subject, and the sports media’s puzzling cluelessness about faith in football.

But it wasn’t until late November of this year that I got to ask questions of Hamlin himself, in an email Q&A for a Hallmark movie spotlighting his work with young cardiac patients.

Click here for a look at The More the Merrier.

And, Last But Not Least: Costner, Christmas and a Father Stu Connection

Too many cable and network-TV Christmas specials are either about everything but the Nativity, and if they are about the Nativity, they’re likely to be inaccurate at best.

But, Kevin Costner Presents: The First Christmas, which aired on ABC in early December (and can be now watched on Hulu and Disney+} was a refreshing change.

It was actually a relatively accurate recounting of the Biblical Nativity, and featured some surprising talk from Costner about his personal faith.

And, most surprising for me, my Montana pal Father Sean Raftis was the Catholic voice in it, arriving on a path that led through the story behind the film Father Stu.

Click here to follow that particular daisy chain of events.