I really feel like we’re in a kind of golden age for television and film, particularly television. Sure there’s still plenty of crap that gets shoveled out for us to consume while we devour six-dollar popcorn, but many big-budget movies and TV shows are getting more critical acclaim than they ever have before. Maybe social media is causing Hollywood to be more cautious about bad word-of-mouth, maybe the standards really have risen. Regardless, 2015 has been another good year for screens both big and small.

Better Call Saul
The more restrained prequel to Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul follows the path Breaking Bad’s most popular side character took to get where he was when he met Walter White. I was extremely apprehensive about this show at first. I figured it would try to be too much like Breaking Bad, or it would throw in too many wink-at-the-audience Easter eggs, or it would be tonally confused, or all of the above. But it didn’t suffer any of those problems, and feels like a separate entity from Breaking Bad but at the same time just connected enough that it still feels like a prequel. Bob Odenkirk is funny and relatable in the title role; it’s never been easier to love a crooked lawyer.

Jurassic World
So the humans make a hybrid dinosaur, right? And it can like camouflage and stuff, and it’s way way bigger than a regular T-Rex. So Chris Pratt has to get on a motorcycle and control raptors to take it down and there’s also pterodactyls and a big water dinosaur, and a T-Rex and it’s just so cool.
It’s about dinosaurs, and they fight, and it’s really cool.

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Early on this year, Netflix released a new show sort of out of the blue. Sure there was some advertising for it, but it was nothing compared to what we see for shows like House of Cards or Orange is the New Black. The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt broke into Netflix in early March and thousands of people immediately fell in love with the show. It has that same surreal sense of humor that 30 Rock had, but with more relatable settings and characters despite the ridiculousness of the plot at times. Plus it has an amazing theme song.

Jessica Jones
The Marvel movies this year didn’t really do a whole lot for me. Ant-Man was fun and different, but not nearly as funny or cool as last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and Age of Ultron was okay, but ultimately disappointing. Marvel TV shows, on the other hand, are a different story. Jessica Jones just came out a few weeks ago on Netflix, to lots of critical acclaim, and for good reason. This is a show with not only a female main character, but primarily female minor characters, too. Obviously, that doesn’t make it automatically good, so it’s a good thing Jessica Jones is a dark, intense, and gripping superhero-noir. It deals in darker themes than any of its Marvel counterparts, even Daredevil, and features perhaps the most realistically frightening villain I’ve ever seen in David Tennant’s Kilgrave. Krysten Ritter is incredible in the title role, and I know I’m not alone when I say I can’t wait to see more of Jessica Jones in the future.

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
We rode the hype train all year, and I’d say it paid off. The first good Star Wars movie in 32 years is something I never thought I’d get to see. I thought that was it after the disasters of the prequels; that even if they wanted to make more they’d never be able to after that. Boy am I glad to be wrong. The Force Awakens is a return to what made Star Wars great. There’s no talk of taxes or politics or Gungans, just the Force, Jedi, and a big fun adventure. Plus, it brings interesting new topics to the table, such as the humanity of Stormtroopers and the addition of 4000% more women to the Star Wars Universe. Episode VIII in 2017 can’t come quick enough.

The Martian
This one sort of surprised me. Sure, there’s been a lot of good space movies in the past few years, but this one still snuck up on me. All of a sudden, everyone was talking about how great The Martian was, how amazing Matt Damon was in the lead role, how this was the best sci-fi movie to come out in recent memory. And it really is that good. It’s engaging, funny (“It has been seven days since I ran out of ketchup”), and thought-provoking. If you’re the kind of person who wishes sci-fi would ditch the laser guns and teleporters, this is the movie for you. It’s realistic sci-fi for a contemporary audience. There’s even some math involved.

Daredevil
Another release from earlier in the year, Daredevil released on Netflix in April and created pleasantly surprised buzz all over the internet. Many were skeptical about the show, since the last live-action Daredevil was quite possibly one of the worst superhero movies ever made. But people gave it a chance and let a new Matt Murdock into their hearts. This show gets pretty much everything right; the action, the acting, cinematography, writing, pacing, and even the smaller scope works to its advantage. Matt Murdock isn’t necessarily saving the entire world, but it still feels real and important. By the end of the show I cared more about Hell’s Kitchen way more than I cared about that city in Age of Ultron (what city even was it?); the difference being that where the Avengers movies are sometimes clumsy and plodding, Daredevil is engaging and thoughtful. It’s one of those shows that just begs to be re-watched, and anticipation for season 2 is high.

Inside Out
Maybe it’s not fair to the other movies I saw this year to call this one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, but Inside Out is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It is, as far as I’m concerned, the second best Pixar movie to date (behind The Incredibles, obviously). Like most good family movies, it’s funny and heartfelt at the same time. But the thing that puts Inside Out above its peers is just how deep this movie can cut into our emotions. It’s so relatable and so moving that I cried on first viewing, and after talking about the film with friends and classmates I learned I was far from the only one. Emotions are powerful, and this movie knows just how to tug at them in the most real way. The idea of cartoon personifications of emotions sounds overly silly on paper, but it turned out to be an incredible way of showing the way our emotions work in an easy to understand way. Inside Out will forever change the way we think about emotions and mental health; it’s a movie that should be seen by everyone. It teaches empathy, respect, and understanding, which is not something many children’s movies can boast.