Dear Readers,
Keeping track of everything I watch helps me understand why consume so much in the first place. Like many people, I’m often just looking for entertainment/escape/distraction. I also want to keep up with the cultural conversation, and be a reliable source of recommendations. But as someone who makes TV for a living, I’m also always looking for inspiration, references, and even cautionary examples. And 2019 had a whole lot to love and learn from.
In a nutshell: foreign films dominate the top of my list, indicating once again how strong the movies are that make the leap to North American theaters. And since there was so much good TV this year, I decided to rank shows based on their channel/service. HBO and Amazon Prime have the highest batting averages for greatness, while Netflix still manages to take a disproportionately high amount of actual shows watched.
Also, the best comedy of the year was a (French) Canadian film. It had to make the list.
Here’s a full breakdown, based on having seen 205 movies and 501 episodes of television this year:
Top 10 Films of 2019
- Jallikattu
- Parasite
- The Farewell
- The Cave
- Uncut Gems
- Jojo Rabbit
- Marriage Story
- The Mustang
- Menteur
- The Art of Self Defense
Better Than Necessary
Joker
Dragged Across Concrete
Hustlers
Inexplicably Underseen
Ad Astra
Queen and Slim
The Laundromat
Foreign But Not Forgotten
The Wolf’s Call
Climax
The Wandering Earth
Overrated By Everyone Else
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
The Two Popes
Her Smell
Unapologetically Awesome
John Wick 3: Parabellum
6 Underground
Hobbs vs. Shaw
Satisfying Sequels
Toy Story 4
Avengers: End Game
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Didn’t Disappoint
Knives Out
Us
Midsommar
A Little Horror That Went a Long Way
Countdown
Ready or Not
The Perfection
Extra Special Indies
Wild Rose
The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Upgrade
Docs You Can’t Knock
One Child Nation
American Factory
Diego Maradona
Wasted My Time Watching
Serenity
Cold PursuitThe Dirt
Backdraft 2
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Cruise
Happy Death Day 2U
Through Black Spruce
The Kitchen
This Year I Finally Saw (and Loved)
All the King’s Men (1948)
The Right Stuff (1983)
The Natural (1984)
Major League (1989)
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Dave (1993)
TV SERIES WATCHED IN 2019
Ranked per channel/service
Amazon Prime
- Fleabag (S2)
- Catastrophe (S4)
- Jack Ryan (S2)
- Undone
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (S3)
- Modern Love
Apple TV+
- The Morning Show
- For All Mankind
Crave
- Broad City (S5)
- Homeland (S6)
- Billions (S4)
- Killing Eve (S2)
- The Launch (S2)
FX
- Better Things (S4)
- What We Do In the Shadows
- Baskets (S4)
- Fosse/Verdon
HBO
- Chernobyl
- Succession (S2)
- Barry (S2)
- Euphoria
- Watchmen
- Veep (S7)
- Game of Thrones (S8)
- Insecure (S3)
- Mrs. Fletcher
- The Righteous Gemstones
- Silicon Valley (S6)
- Black Monday
- Big Little Lies (S2)
- The Loudest Voice
Network TV (NBC/FOX)
- Songland
- The Masked Singer (S2)
Netflix
- Mindhunter (S2)
- Unbelievable
- Money Heist (S3)
- Delhi Crime
- After Life
- Top Boy
- The Society
- Stranger Things (S3)
- GLOW (S3)
- Dark (S2)
- The Movies That Made Us
- Russian Doll
- When They See Us
- Black Mirror (S5)
- Living with Yourself
- The Spy
- Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (S6)
- Black Earth Rising
- Criminal: U.K.
YouTube
- Cobra Kai (S2)
- Gourmet Makes
Yours truly,
Christopher