We have come to a crossing in the road which we can’t, nor should, ignore.
I started The Burrow Reviews as somewhat of a passion project. The site was born in the holiday season of 2017, a year in which I had spent several months prior reeling with grief. My relationship with loss has never been a primary focus of the content I’ve provided through the publication—or blog, whichever you’d prefer. But it did provide me an outlet to express my creativity and love of cinema; something my mother and I shared before she passed.
What started as a means of healing became a fixation. Days and nights, months and years passed. After launching the site, I decided I needed to tackle an even larger learning curve: YouTube. I learned to code, navigated non-linear editing software, flexed my knowledge of audio and video equipment. Skills that I hadn’t quite grasped before became critical functions in the work I did. We launched a podcast, Into the Burrow (now known as Cine-ish) to discuss the television landscape of the late 2010s and provide our audience a more intimate picture of our lives.
Somewhere along the lines, the goal shifted from utilizing my education of film to discuss and critique major studio pictures to supporting grassroots filmmakers across the entire world. Our platform on the web became a staple of true independent productions and uplifting the whispered voices that hadn’t yet been found. The success we found from our coverage of mainstream entertainment culture set new eyes on these smaller projects, and for that I couldn’t be more thankful. After all, we’d been working with other creators and artists in the foreground on work you may have not ever heard of and it was wholly fulfilling.
We altered our entire branding strategy from 2022-2024 and decided to go in a different direction. No longer were we just providing only reviews and news coverage—we transformed to TBR Media. Video essays became the most popular staple on our YouTube channel and we leaned heavily into that. In addition, we carefully produced several specialty-content pieces that we hoped would bring more of our personalities to central focus. Drunk Trivia, Close-up, and Boiling Points. All passion projects—and still, each one of them failed to capture positive traction. Maybe it was the production quality or just a handful of bad ideas, but we remain proud of the work we accomplished.
For 2025, the focus has shifted yet again. After a nearly eight month hiatus we are returning to our path of content creation. Only, we’re adapting to a simplified approach: podcasting, streaming, and occasional videos. Sadly, this means that we leave behind some important work in the past: namely, independent film coverage. We deeply appreciate all the artists and filmmakers that helped create a vibrant independent media circuit who help shape the trajectory of local art in all corners of the planet. Thank you, again, for many wonderful years of heartfelt indie spirit. This may mean that you are no longer on board for the ride moving forward, and we completely understand and owe you are deepest gratitude.
Behind the scenes, we’ve been slowly upgrading equipment, planning our flagship content, and working towards developing new strategies of engagement. We’ll be sure to share more on this in the upcoming weeks, but rest assured that not everything is changing. Video essays, reviews, and Cine-ish will remain a key part of TBR Media. If you’ve come to us for industry news over the years on YouTube or via the podcast, we want to ensure you that while coverage may look different—it will ultimately be a secondary area of focus. Discussion of entertainment related news will be filtered into videos, podcasts, and streams; and we encourage comments, questions, or super chats pertaining to various topics.
With all that being said, we thank you for your continued support throughout this journey over the years. Expect a more unfiltered, raw version of our hosts present in streams, videos, and podcasts going into the new year. There will be more articles, more comedy, and less seriousness (where applicable). Let’s make it fun. Let’s celebrate creativity, passion, and entertainment—especially in these next few years as chaos ensues in our politics and online discourse. Now more than ever, TBR Media is…
Your Movie Refuge.