#pleasantly surprised

[slutforpringles]

[waggishcomics]

Guys!!! Everyone needs to see this movie!

Two main characters: Likable and well-developed

Humor: Cute and fun

Dialogue: Well-written and had subtext

Art style: Incredibly unique

Animation: BEAUTIFUL and just breathes life and passion from the crew who worked on this movie.

World-building: Naturally told

Music: Majestic and magical

Pacing: EXCELLENT! They gave room for scenes to breathe and had quiet moments when needed.

Story: Heartwarming, wholesome, conflict felt natural, victories were earned, and it taught a relevant moral for today.

Final score: 9 out of 10

[dramalove247]

2025 Roundup: Exceeded Expectations

Expectations can be weird. Sometimes a series benefits greatly from low expectations. Others suffer when we expect too much and feel let down, even if objectively we know we are being unfair by holding it to a higher standard. But expectations can influence our experience.

This post is dedicated to some of the 2025 shows that exceeded our expectations. This doesn't mean they are our favorites, but each of these surprised us.

Khemjira Our expectations were high, but they hit it out of the park! FIVE STARS! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

My Stubborn This one definitely benefited from low expectations. And it was total junk food. Still, can't believe how much fun we had watching this with our tumblr peeps! This series was truly unforgettable 🤣

The Ex-Morning Never would have guessed we would end up loving this series so much, but we do! This one gave our 40 year old queer asses lots of feels.

Knock Out As two people admittedly who aren't big fans of contact sports (or most sports really...), we were not sure about this series, but were pleasantly surprised by how entertained we were. Plus. Keen was a firecracker and we loved him and his best boy!

The Heart Killers The trailer looked fun and we love gray characters, but with everyone lying and scheming and DRUGGING PEOPLE, the first couple episodes had us wondering if we even wanted either of these couples to be end game. It was like watching a train wreck waiting for the betrayal and then it was even more painful than we expected! But despite our early impression of these characters, they won us over and got us completely invested. We didn't see that coming.

Revenged Love The first episode had us grabbing popcorn and just hoping not to feel too dirty when it was all over. But we ended up loving these messy boys so much.... maybe definitely more than was healthy!

ABO Desire We started off real obsessed with this one and it definitely suffered from our early expectations as the weeks went on. But it made the list because it exceeded our expectations just by getting made! Mpreg was not on our 2025 bingo card! (But it's definitely on the 2026 one! We're looking at you Knot!)

We could add more, but we won't 😁 Which series did you watch that surprised you?

[unchaineddaisychain]

Update: it fucking slaps! This shit is dripping with 80s movie nostalgia

(@earwormed I started with The Long and Winding Road for you, friend)

[irlshannonlynch]

KIT CONNOR AS SCOTT SUMMERS????

[femboyblakely]

[lawsofoptics]

they should have made out here

[elpendrive]

why is grandpa max hot