Dec 14, 2025
3 min read
Columnist Frazier Tharpe picks the ping-pong prodigy's biggest albums, TV shows, lyrics, performances, tours and movies of the year.
This is the weekly edition of Tap In, editor-in-chief Fraser Tharp's final word on the hottest online discourse about music, film and TV.Sign up here to get your freebie.
It's been a bit of a tepid year for pop culture – flashes of brilliance punctuated by long stretches in the middle.Here are the TV shows, albums, songs, movies, scenes, verses, bars and everything else that captivated me without reservation in 2025 - Tap In fashion.
Such is Drake's [still] compelling dichotomy that he can start a near-poetic verse like he does here, with a tortured, awkward attempt at wordplay ("some TLC shit because you're gonna need an ice pack for your left eye, got it?") and then drop it in his pocket and start skating like he's been skating for way too long.Iceman, Tiffany blue rocks / I've done a lot of shit from two mistakes... The truth is that sometimes it's deeper than just obsessing over good hair, you can become isolated like you're really in a really short song, even if it's only 30 seconds long.sensitive social media group went into a tizzy), a lot of the work I did was based on the power of that line, to be honest.
One of the coolest things about nas is vanguard.One of the greatest effects of his time and the generation before him.Like, they really love this shit.To see him shoot everyone from Raekwon and Glowce to keep rick rick to drop the biggest jobs this year before you get the evidence.And it didn't hurt that the guest verses that contributed to both of those albums were pretty good, too.
The writing, in addition to Patrick Ball's performance, created an interesting zigzag in the completely clichéd smarmy-hotsot-surgeon archetype.It's a line between the Serck-Aleck Asshole Doctor and the Hot Pentor who warms to teaching and teaching to teach - until he puts on huffing benzos or asks for a villain.The second season was set on its first day after the suspension;I'm rooting for this wreck to get it together.
A Time for Black Brits: Compassion makes BACEL's best R&B music right now, with Sampha's shadow brought to it by the powerful aphrodisiacs of two albums released this year.And Jim enters the line between hip-hop and something else in an interesting way, without being a movie in "Innat"?as UK rappers are looking for.
God Sort 'Em Out has got a knack for it.So many nodes that they are still releasing the video while they are talking.But the best album of the year (at least to everyone's surprise) is the song that's being overlooked.Pusha opens the track to boast that he's "writing this at sea," and it sounds like it—the busy, triumphant beat plays the conviction of a luxury cigarette boat.It plays like a soundtrack riding on clear blue waves.It's definitely the worst, least bad thing on the album;the benders feel elated and there is a sense of euphoria that lasts until Ab-Liva tags along to create a 75% gang reunion.Playing on ice as Rudolph!
A fun fact about Tap In is that the inaugural column is about the unique experience of watching The Morning Show, and I'm relieved to say that every word I wrote still holds true after a season, maybe even longer.To call this show a guilty pleasure or a hateful look would be reductive.I want to zoom into the writers' room in a group and see how they make creative decisions before donating their brains.science.The tone shifts from one scene to the next, like a lane jumper on the highway.Characters get random plot arcs over two episodes, then fade into the background.Subplots range from a parent I've barely met considering euthanasia to another torn between proposing to a woman who's never been on the show or rekindling a romance that hasn't been discussed in all three seasons.Co-star Reese Witherspoon has about five minutes of screen time per episode.Moment by moment, this show wants to be The Newsroom, Erin Brockovich, Broadcast News, Mad Men, The Insider and Harrison Ford's random romantic comedy with Diane Keaton and Rachel McAdams.There have been great shows that I've loved this year, bad shows that I've avoided, disappointments, and pleasant surprises, but nothing has gotten me so excited that I jumped in just for the mayhem like this series.I hope it lasts three more seasons.
We don't need to repeat all the reasons why people turned their backs on Ye, but the only thing sadder was the decline of the music along with it.Bully is the closest he's come to a return to form since the highs of [one of those iterations of] Donda [before the Rubik's Cube went awry again], maybe even more.If his antics (to put it politely) turned you off enough that you no longer care about the quality of his records, I understand.But "Preacher Man" — with its warm beat, beautiful sample and powerful crescendo on the hook — feels like a message from an old friend you haven't spoken to in years.
Haim's new album goes through his first two classics like "Relationship" has in the ribs.
The Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor had Trammell Tillman's name on it, but another year later, Hollywood journeyman James Marsden finally shined in a long-awaited moment.This guy's range is quietly unmatched - I couldn't have said it more eloquently than Angelica Jade Bastien.But so did his performance as the well-intentioned but dark president in Hulu's fun popcorn thriller from earlier this year.is now one of the first acts to really use all his different muscles.He's charming to the point of being unreliable, he's a bitch, but he's also a good guy.Hopefully the show's storyline still has a place for him in Season 2 (which I have in my inbox but haven't started yet), but pitting him against Jon Hamm will hopefully bring some much-needed spark to Season 2 of Your Friends and Neighbors as well.
I respect, respect, respect, but being confused is just the way you all treat others.And that's okay.But it's undeniably magical, this is the amazing Tramelill Tillman.Watching him brings one of the sermon readings to the IMAX screen: Not the most memorable character in the movie, the nicest character in the movie, I can't wait to see what he does next.
It's hard to pick all the star moments here.Pun "took the chains and touched the change like King Mids Mids."The obvious beginning of "300 bricks can make you sick."Cheeby is like "The old pack asked for the new cup to unite us."Yes, I'm just a list of genes in different lines ... in the case, the meeting point.Welcome, evil.
For the life of me, I'm not going to skip it because the album probably wasn't my favorite.One, you're wrong, but two, but for the New York Paraphrase, that's Beyoncé, our greatest living performer.If he has done nothing else, he will live up to that title.Get ready to go home and give the album another shot.
What is Virgil Abloh making Stowe's biggest Shakespearean inspiration?Two years ago on "Shoot Out in Soho," he told us, "With white clouds far from white clouds, Virgil said to me/Like my bitch, 'He doesn't know yet/Do I know Coca-Cola?'" Late Vision's interior decorating budget and meta design style. If he keeps up with one-liners and hooks like 'F.I.C.O.', a mainstream break will be here in no time.
This is one of the most distinctive, original, unpredictable – and, most importantly, laugh-out-loud funny – TV shows in a long time.A big part of that?It's filled with some of the most bizarre and deeply involved actors you will ever see.or are they?Some of these performances from the supporting characters Ron meets in Tim Robinson seem so lifelike that they could easily be people from a production off the street;Robinson rivals Josh Safdie's talent for watching a performance and getting that exquisite sense of wonder, and where does he get this eccentricity?
The Fifth Spy is one of the shortest on-screen assassins I've ever thought of, not to mention Yusuf Alisko, who is a revelation.(Super bonus: the soundtrack is more '80s rock, which deliberately seems to reflect Ron's level of aggression.)
"Gothic" will always be the best to hire; At least when it is finished, Hannan Hussionain ends the sarcastic disdaic and admits quips like spaghetti "a quig in the world" happened?What more could you ask for?
I'd love to see an adventure in two, and Sally Richardson-Whitfield's centerpiece, from the actress who stunned uncles of a certain age in A Low Down Dirty Shame to becoming one of TV's toughest directors, reaches her creative peak in Task, which I still stand as the best TV show of the year.Most of the show's accolades go to Delko's tear-jerking monologues or heartwarming scenes of empathy between lost souls.takes, but with Richardson-Whitfield behind the camera, Task delivered perhaps the tightest action sequence on the small screen in 25. The collision course of factions, anti-heroes and villains in the woods of Pennsylvania that opens episode 6 is a masterpiece of suspense and visual storytelling, charting shootouts, heists, various hand-to-hand combat and almost 2 death fights.a minute that never fades or loses focus.All due respect to Mark Ruffalo, Tom Pelfrey and Fabian Frankel, but there better be an Emmy with Sally's name on it next year.
Listen, we all have our base moments.
One Battle After Another is the best movie of the year and I think Leo, so good it almost looks easy, deserves a second Oscar.But Martysey's odyssey with passion and ultimate crime is just my sweet spot.(I'm the same person who also wrote the oral history of the gem that was released.) The good ones are the most tolerant, charming gems, and the most emotional Marty.Three times (unlocked, one battle) and every time I was locked out.Watching it is like witnessing a speed change in Timethee Chalamet's career and skills in real time;I imagine that's what you want to feel like for Best Actor at the 2026 Oscars, I'll be watching with my fingers crossed.
For some reason, he can understand that the idiot who has no problem with Kawthaan is this happening this year.It's been a while to cover some time, but if we look at it carefully and network television it's presented to see if it doesn't work.Shame to be ashamed
If you can't understand the pictures and execution here because it was done by PAP or someone set it up, I don't know what to say.I've seen twelve things during the year, it's still high acting, it's still high, program, step, continue to draw in the line.Everything related to "Peekaboo", ending with "TV", and yes, what is happening in 2025.
