2019: Movies, Music & TV

I already shared my Best Books of 2019 and today I'm going to share my top songs, TV shows and movies from this past year.

Most Listened-To Songs

Disclaimer: I don't completely trust Spotify's end of years stats so I rely on my favorite music tracker last.fm to help me put together this list! But surprisingly, they both more or less told me the same thing about my 2019 listening habits.

.. that I listen to a lot of Ariana Grande;
.. my #1 song of 2019 was "Say It" by Maggie Rogers;
.. my main genre was pop, with random country moods;
.. I favor upbeat songs and catchy beats (see 90% of the playlist on the right);
.. but I do love a good love song (see "How Dare You Love" by Miranda Lambert which I'm still obsessed with);
.. that I need to get back to my indie rock/alt-rock roots.

My music goal of 2019 was to find more bands to fall in love with. This was a total fail but I'm going to try again in 2020!

Top TV Shows

My TV habits really didn't change much this year! I still gravitate towards fantasy/sci-fi/mystery type shows with the occasional period or present-day drama. I still love to binge (obviously). But I'm watching across a variety of streaming services now (probably too many!) and I watched a bit more anime than usual.

Best of new-to-me shows | Violet Evergarden, Burden of Truth, Snow White with the Red Hair, You, Good Omens, The Witcher, The Mandolorian

Must-watch mini-series | Unbelievable

Surprisingly entertaining | A Discovery of Witches, The Boys, The Umbrella Academy, Vampire Knight

Oldies that still rocked | Grey’s Anatomy, This Is Us, Stranger Things, The Crown, The OA Part II, Poldark, The Magicians (until the S4 finale), The 100, Jessica Jones

Necessary "worst of 2019" mention | Game of Thrones Season 8, Veronica Mars Season 4 — we’re pretending these two seasons don’t exist.

Top Movies

Of all the categories this surprised me the most! I started drafting my list of favorite movies from 2019 a couple weeks ago and I realized there was only one movie I'd seen all year (so far) that would make it onto this list. Because while the other movies I had seen in theaters were enjoyable enough,  they weren't anything I'd personally rave about. I even watched a bunch of movies on Netflix this past week to see if anything would make the cut (one did and it wasn't the Marriage Story like I had hoped; I did not enjoy that film). So in the end, here I am with a short list of three movies.

Avengers: Endgame • I still feel this was the perfect Avengers movie. There's nothing I would've changed (except that I did kind of miss buff Thor). It was the perfect balance of drama, comedy, action and nostalgia. I rewatched it again recently and it still gave me all the feelings. Even though I'm sad that arc of the MCU is over, I am happy that it got the proper send-off after spending so many years and movies with these characters!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker • I seem to be in the minority (maybe?) when I say that I loved this installment. It should go without saying but I'll say it it anyways just in case – the originals will always be my favorites and no new Star Wars film is ever going to top them. That said though, I thought this was a really strong ending to this particular arc. It surprised me, had heartfelt nods to films (and characters) past and was just super enjoyable. There were a couple things I didn't like but overall, I thought it was good.

A Man Called Ove • After reading and loving the book last month, I knew I wanted to watch the movie and I finally got a chance to yesterday. It's probably one of the best adaptations I've seen. It really stayed true to the source material but they did make some slight tweaks that I thought made a ton of sense for film. The heart of it and the most important parts stayed the same. The casting was spot-on and they truly made this beautiful story come to life.

***

What were some of your favorite music, movies and songs from this past year? 

Better yet - anything you'd like to recommend to me?