Geek Therapy Staff Picks 2024
These are the year’s most impactful media, as selected by Geek Therapy staff.
Josh Lockhart
Heroe's ACE blog, GT Awards Coordinator
Graphic Novel by _____
Tackles bullying and toxic masculinity in hockey. The Canadian Indigenous youth finds healing through connecting with culture and finding community.
This new iteration of The Doctor is a change from the usual – vibrant and emotional depth. If you haven’t watched the show in years, this is a great time to get back into it.
Want to laugh and cry all at the same time? This movie is for you. Helps you feel a range of emotions and remember parts of your childhood that you forgot about.
I’m all about cooperative games. This is a two player game where players, working together as a pilot and co-pilot, try to land a plane together.
I’ll just summarize: This movie is about building relationships, overcoming adversity, building community, while finding meaning and purpose. Not to mention the art is incredible.
Josué Cardona
GT Radio, GT Board Member
There’s a Bluey episode about everything at this point which makes it a great show to know, and the 2024 episodes in particular were very fun and emotional. Multiple episodes, particularly The Sign, addressed the hard choices we make for our family and also how it’s ok to change our minds. Also check out the book The Psychgeist of Pop Culture – Bluey
edited by our friends Kelli Dunlap and Rachel Kowert.
In one of the wildest and funniest video game franchises ever, you discover that a main character was diagnosed with cancer and has lost his will to live. The gameplay then changes from regular stat building to a “reawakening” designed to help you get back to the person you used to be physically and spiritually. It also adds a “Bucket List” of tasks and “Reminisce” points on the world map so you can reconnect with your past in order to gain inspiration or get closure.
The diss track heard around the world. Seriously, it on Song and Record of the Year a at the Grammys, was performed during the Super Bowl Halftime Show, and it’s officially playable on Beat Saber. This phenomenon is not only a popular song, it was a powerful conversation starter on cultural appropriation and colonization. (See Jessie and Stefanie’s picks for more on the song’s impact.)
My favorite anime… ever? The story starts many years after a long epic journey when the heroes reunite and reflect on their mortality and purpose. It’s a show about reflecting and learning from one’s past.
It’s basically a mood booster. Pure joy in video game form. Astro Bot won Game of the Year at the game awards because it’s a very good game, but most importantly I think it will put a smile on anyone’s face. You’ll enjoy it even more if you have some PlayStation nostalgia, but that’s a bonus. It’s also a unique sensory experience as it uses the PS5’s DualSense controller in ways that most games don’t.
Ariel Landrum
Happiest Pod on Earth, Education Coordinator, GT Board Member
Makes mental health themes and family struggles clear and understandable while still being entertaining.
Diversity, representation, and themes about discrimination (and banging singing).
Portrayal of emotions, sense of self, and experiences of puberty.
Representation of various internal motivations and story change allows for exploration of different parts (i.e. parts work).
Representation of diverse people, experiences of discrimination, and the original X-Men creators were on the Happiest Pod Podcast as guests!
Link Keller
GT Radio
A short, queer, indie game where you play through four scenarios exploring love, loss, and death. One of the few games that has touching and caressing as it’s main mechanic, and it left me thinking about intimacy for many hours more than its playtime.
90s nostalgia and the disquieting horror of burying your true self in order to fit in. A Trans narrative that can be applied to any aspect of life we fear to face, with a fun supernatural edge. Grabs you by the throat to tell you, the viewer, yes, you, THERE IS STILL TIME
An action-packed thriller about a man seeking revenge against the corrupt leaders responsible for his mother’s death. The Hijira community (queer, trans, and intersex people in India) is both lovingly depicted, and has a vital part within the action.
A hilarious and touching performance art piece in which comedian Chris Grace explores racialized identies in hollywood, and wears A LOT of wigs.
An exciting fantasy adventure that delves into the deepest dungeons of desire and consumption, and shows the awesome power of found family and a community aligned in purpose. Also, Laios is positive Autism representation (okay, it’s not explicit, but the community claims him <3)
Jessie Duncan
GT Board Member
Trans created movie about a trans experience that definitely brought up a lot of emotions for me and my friends. I had clients who discussed how it impacted them as well. Very important movie during a time when the government is trying to erase transness
The rap beef as a whole was a big cultural moment, though the effects on the genre weren’t as big as we wanted, but it definitely impacted the cultural zeitgeist. I’m pretentious for phrasing it like that. Anyway. The beef got people to reevaluate Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers which is an album about the therapy process and was something that came up with my clients. And GNX was brilliant. Also, as a Kendrick fan having a year of not just features was great.
So the Bridon Arc came out at the tail end of 2024 and it did have some themes around grief and the inability to let things go, but it’s a prequel season. The first 2 seasons touched on interesting themes around trauma responses and mental health and anxiety, managing others expectations, and suicide. But also time travel and murder. This comes with a trigger warning
Season 2 dealt with themes around processing lies told about your history and heritage and unlearning colonizer narratives with Supergirl. With Superman and Lois it discussed healthy communication in romantic relationships.
Various songs on the album discuss relationships, Love Me Not is about relationship issues, and One Wish talks about anxious avoidance attachment styles and toxic relationships. Also a Chicago native.
Stefanie Bautista
Happiest Pod on Earth
Shohei being acquired as a Dodger, setting off numerous tributes, murals, and a revival of Japanese/Asian representation in sports and Media, Kendrick dominating his beef with Drake and the release of GNX, a love letter to LA Culture and Music; Dodgers winning the world series and all that came with it; Ice Cube and other LA icons representing true diversity and what it means to be an Angeleno.
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Woody Harris
Rolling for Change
This album released early in 2024 responds to themes of grief, marginalization, empowerment, and love. It has helped me through many challenges in 2024. The songs in the album deal with death, growing older, living intentionally, and love.
This one won an Oscar. The story is a wordless drama following a group of animals as they deal with environmental disaster. Deals with themes of conflict, fear, curiosity, and hope. Breathtaking.
Speaks to some of the best aspects of the Star Trek philosophy and letting us as watchers see it through a sometimes more skeptical lens. Season 2 picks up the story focusing on the building of friendship, trust, and of course the prime directive.
While the episode is heavy handed in its message, it points to the dark side of “like” culture and oppressive marginalization. What could be more timely at this point in time?
This show sometimes pokes fun at therapy, but the discussions of boundary setting, and learning from mistakes is a powerful discussion starter for anyone interested in the process of therapy. This second season particularly deals with grief and forgiveness in a way that is unexpected and heartfelt.
Community Picks
Fan Letter is pure Geek Therapy. It involves a literal (and figurative) fan letter from an unnamed girl to Nami of the Straw Hat Pirates. Over the duration of the short film, Fangirl discovers Nami, is inspired by Nami, and by the end accepts her authentic self and knows her worth and value.
The driving themes are freedom, authenticity, community, acceptance, inspiration, validation, and positive self-worth all due to fandom.
– Raven Hoover
The main theme for Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is grief and how it can take different forms with where you are at in the healing process. There are 3 different characters who are grieving such as Sonic the hedgehog losing his mother figure and how it uses the love he has had for her instead of letting the grief take over, Shadow the hedgehog with losing his sister figure and how he let grief consume him until he talks it out with Sonic who shows mercy to him, and the last one being Dr. Gerald Robotnik who let grief consume him to the point he was suicidal and wanted to take everything out with him. As a new therapist I know I will be using this movie with my clients who are grieving, and currently I am using it with others in my family and explaining how grief can look differently. My favorite pieces of dialogue in the movie does come from Sonic and Shadow when they discuss how they see grief with each other:
“Shadow: When I lost her (Maria) I felt this pain for so long. It’s all I know.
Sonic:When I lost long claw (mother figure) I felt the same way.
Shadow: Did your pain eventually go away?
Sonic: No. But in time I learned there is something even more powerful than pain. The love we felt for each other. That’s what you need to hold onto Shadow. Maria might be gone, but your love with always remain.
Shadow: The light shines even though the stars are gone.”
– Abigail Fritz M.Ed, NCC
Fan Letter is pure Geek Therapy. It involves a literal (and figurative) fan letter from an unnamed girl to Nami of the Straw Hat Pirates. Over the duration of the short film, Fangirl discovers Nami, is inspired by Nami, and by the end accepts her authentic self and knows her worth and value.
The driving themes are freedom, authenticity, community, acceptance, inspiration, validation, and positive self-worth all due to fandom.
It is common for TV shows to present grief as something that either “goes away” or “gets families stuck”. The Way Home does not fall into any of these traps. They show grief authentically, as something that is integrated into the fabric of who we are. They show the pain, and that life goes on WITH it. Being time-travel series, they also have the opportunity to show that even when we have a chance to go back, we can’t go back. With ambiguous grief. they reflect the never-ending questions and even the horrible calls families receive.
They even show continuing bonds!
They do the same for family relationships: when we often see rifts being solved with a one-and-done conversation, we see the Landry family fall into the same patters, corrects, and falls again.
This show is one of the most authentic portrayals of life after loss I’ve seen.
– Shirley Shani Ben Zvi
Wild Robot is great for a movie to cry a long to. It also addresses finding purpose and belonging.