Quentin Tarantino, Euphoria, Breaking Bad, The Beths and more: It's TimeOut's best of 2019

Margot Robbie as Sharon Tait in Once Upon A Time ... in Hollywood. Photo / Supplied

In a vague nod to the tradition of compiling an end-of-year review, the team behind the Herald's TimeOut entertainment magazine today reveal their favourite bits of pop culture this year. Only one of them cheated by failing to stick to the one-in-each-category brief.

DAVID SKIPWITH

Best movie: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

I love Los Angeles, 1960s counterculture and Quentin Tarantino, so it was a special treat to have all three converge. A great cast, brilliant writing and fantastic cinematography.

Best TV show: City on a Hill (Soho/Neon)

Kevin Bacon was fantastic in this gritty crime drama, playing corrupt but revered FBI veteran Jackie Rohr, who works with Brooklyn-import District Attorney Decourcy Ward (Aldis Hodge) to bring down a blue-collar Irish Catholic family of bank robbers from Charlestown.

Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge star in Boston crime drama City on a Hill. Photo / Supplied

Best gig: The Chemical Brothers, The Dome, Sydney, November 2

I'm still buzzing. The British duo played all their bangers and showcased material from new album No Geography during an epic and sweaty two-hour set.

Best album: U Know What I'm Sayin? — Danny Brown

Another brilliantly progressive, uplifting and quirky record from the Detroit rapper, with A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip at the controls of the mixing desk. So good.

Rapper Danny Brown's album U Know What I'm Sayin? is brilliantly progressive. Photo / Getty Images

KARL PUSCHMANN

Best Movie: El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie

I didn't get to the cinema much this year so, yes, I'm going with a made-for-TV movie. El Camino was the coda to Breaking Bad I didn't know I wanted. While it's largely unnecessary to its five-season narrative it was still a joy to return to the show's awful, awful world. With no concession given to casual viewers, this truly was one for the fans. With inventive camerawork, incredible performances and humour that operated on various levels, this was cinema at its finest — even though it was on the telly.

Best TV Show: Future Man (Lightbox)

The second season of this time-travelling action-comedy saw our heroes having to fix the future timelines they screwed up when they saved their actual timeline in the first season. The show embraced the paradoxes — and dangers — of time travel in a way that was mind-boggingly clever but also incredibly funny and bone-crunchingly violent. Which pretty much ticks all the boxes.

Future Man embraces the paradoxes - and dangers - of time travel in a mind-boggingly clever way. Photo / Supplied

Best Gig: The Prodigy, Trusts Arena, Auckland, February 5

Having seen The Prodigy before, I knew they'd be good but I did not expect them to be as brutal and vital as they were. They tore through their set with a dangerous energy that put you on edge and threatened to push you over at any moment. After a blazing 90 minutes of rave horns, room-filling synth lines, chainsaw guitars and humongous grooves they got booed for announcing they were about to play their last song. No one wanted them to end. They felt modern and current and like they were on the cusp of a new beginning. Two short weeks later it really would be the end.

Best Album: Schlagenheim — Black Midi

Black Midi's uneasy alliance of punk's simplicity and prog-rock's extreme technicality made for an album seemingly in conflict with itself. Fortunately, the band delivered on this contradiction, balancing each challenging moment with a catchy chorus or memorable riff. Geordie Greep's cartoonishly sinister vocals were just the weird icing on this weird cake of a record that my ears devoured.

Black Midi's Schlagenheim is a weird but ultimately satisfying listen. Photo / Supplied

LYDIA BURGHAM

Best movie: Booksmart
Olivia Wilde's coming-of-age piece made my face ache from grinning. It was relatable, hysterically funny and restored my faith in the teen comedy genre. Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein gave perfect performances.

Billed as a the young woman's Superbad, Booksmart - the directorial debut from Olivia Wilde - is relatable and hysterically funny. Photo / Supplied

Best TV show: Euphoria (Soho/Neon)
When I finished this, I was in awe. The visuals were stunning, the hip-hop-based soundtrack immersive and the acting great. The show puts teen substance abuse under the microscope through narrator Rue (Zendaya) who dazzles along with the rest of the cast.

Best gig: Maggie Rogers, Powerstation, Auckland, June 1

Simply joyous. The American singer combined an electrifying stage presence with faultless vocals. That and an enthusiastic crowd reminded me why I love going to gigs so much.

Maggie Rogers' June show at the Powerstation was simply joyous. Photo / Getty Images

Best album: Norman F***ing Rockwell — Lana Del Rey
A near-flawless sixth album. The lyrics and impeccable production make for heavenly listening. It's Lana at her fully-formed artistic best.

CHRIS REED

Best movie: Joker

Peterloo, Mike Leigh's take on a 19th-century massacre by mounted troops at a peaceful demonstration in Manchester and The Day Shall Come, Chris Morris' satire about the domestic fallout from America's War on Terror were, stylistically, very different critiques of power. But for visceral and abiding impact I can't go past Joker, although the boy in me is hoping against (new) hope that in a week I'll be able to say Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Best TV show: Everybody In The Place: An Incomplete History of Britain 1984 - 1992 (BBC/YouTube)

This Time With Alan Partridge was a wonderful return for Steve Coogan's worryingly normalised creation, the second series of hitman-cum-actor dramedy Barry was excellent and Russell Crowe was outstanding as dreadful Fox News boss Roger Ailes in The Loudest Voice. But Everybody In The Place ..., a one-off doco about the political aspects of the rave movement in late 80s Britain pipped it. I lived through it, and I've grown increasingly despondent about the commodification of DJ culture ever since.

Best gig: The Beths, Hollywood, Auckland, November 16

Idles at the Tuning Fork way back in January were raucously authentic, I caught a great Ride show in California in October and Noel Gallagher was wonderful in his not-bothered-what-you-lot-think U2 support slot in October, but The Beths absolutely smashed it at their homecoming Saturday show last month.

The Beths on the red carpet at the recent New Zealand Music Awards. Photo / Dean Purcell

Best album: Rose City Band — Rose City Band

The Specials shocked everyone with Encore, Fat White Family cleaned up — a bit — on Serfs Up, Fontaines D.C. provided post-punk thrills on Dogrel and J-Walk did Balearic bliss on Mediterranean Winds. I liked the retro-simplicity of Pip Blom's indie-pop debut Boat, the intricacy of Aldous Harding's Designer and Hania Rani's spellbinding solo piano compositions. But the lilting wonkiness of Rose City Band's country psych edged it.