You would have felt pretty left out of a lot of conversations this year if you didn't know who Heisenberg was, why The Red Wedding was such a heart-wrenching experience or what Jay Z and F. Scott Fitzgerald had in common.

Our writers knew exactly what was going down, though, and they've given us their favourite films and TV shows from 2013.

Our Five Favourite TV Shows Of 2013

1. Breaking Bad

It all came to an end after a pretty brutal 12-month-long cliffhanger had us in suspense for the most part of the year. While it's never nice to see the end of such brilliantly written, acted and shot television, there's no way anyone can accuse Breaking Bad of outstaying its welcome; we remained absolutely gripped for the duration of its five seasons.

Our writers really liked it, with the show receiving more than twice the number of votes that the second placegetter received. As annoying as all the waiting has been, you can't deny it has worked a charm for the show, which will go down as one of the greats of all time.

This is the third year running that Breaking Bad has topped our list of favourite TV shows; who will take the reins in 2014?

2. Game Of Thrones

We reckon it could well be the fantastical HBO series that has more sex, violence and widespread cult acclaim than just about anything we have ever seen in the past. Game Of Thrones had another mammoth year in 2013 as its third season had fans excitedly (and often illegally) downloading it each and every Monday.

It invaded the political sphere, as former Prime Minister Julia Gillard confessed to being an enormous fan and even spoke a little Dothraki, a Game Of Thrones Australian tour gave fans a little more to be excited about, while the infamous Red Wedding episode had people absolutely up in arms.

3. Mad Men

That Don Draper, man, we just can't get enough of him. Though 2013 (or, more to the point, season six) will always be known as the year Draper hit the bottom, before redeeming himself somewhat. Or will it? While Mad Men is universally acclaimed, the individual characters are the topic of much heated debate.

We only have one more season (though, annoyingly, two more years) of the show left and there'll no doubt be some crazy twists in store throughout the remaining 14 episodes.

4. The Walking Dead

We're smack bang in the middle of season four of The Walking Dead and it seems the show's popularity just continues to grow. Rick Grimes might have chilled out a bit, but he's still there, front-and-centre, the walkers are still kinda scaring the crap out of us and Daryl Dixon is taking care of business wherever it may be necessary.

The second part of season four showing next year means that the show is in with a chance of another year in the top five and the fact is has been renewed for a fifth season suggests this is one show that's not going anywhere.

5. Girls

Few shows can lay claim to prompting as much internet critique in regards to feminism, the power of rich kids in show business, sexualised content and general suitability than Lena Dunham's Girls, which is great for Dunham and great for the HBO network that has commissioned the show. The only downside of that, is that we can sometimes lose sight of the fact that Girls is damn entertaining television that people of a certain age – and those who can still remember being that certain age – can relate to. There aren't really any shows that are as warts and all about the lifestyles of modern day twenty-something fuck-ups and, if that makes you uncomfortable, that's a damn shame.

We welcome a third season of Girls, which premiere's in January, as will so many internet commentators just hoping and praying that things get as sensational as they did in season two.

Our Five Favourite Films Of 2013

1. Gravity

It wasn't long and the storyline was simple, but the pure visual brilliance of Gravity made it our writers' favourite movie of the year. Much like Breaking Bad in the TV category, this was an overwhelming winner with over twice the number of votes than any other film in the list.

It looked brilliant, George Clooney and Sandra Bullock were both incredible in their roles and it was an engrossing tale about life in space and the trip back to earth. We have no doubt the awards shows in the early part of 2014 will see Gravity in exactly the same light as our writers did.

2. Django Unchained

There was a lot of buzz about Django Unchained, but given it was released almost a whole year ago it's no surprise that this buzz has died down a little in the meantime. Not enough to keep it our of our writers' lists of favourite movies though, but Tarantino flicks have a habit of making it in no matter what.

Django… was an incredibly violent and profane film that had some up in arms about its liberal use of blood and poor language, but probably had more people raving about yet another brilliant film from Quentin Tarantino and kick arse performances from Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio.

3. This Is The End

It probably had the best cast of anything released in 2013 and the stupid apocalypse comedy of This Is The End ticked all the right boxes for our writers, who ranked it as the third best film of the year. A bunch of the coolest celebrities in the world go to James Franco's house for a massive party, but shit goes very wrong and there's a mammoth global apocalypse that only a few of them live through.

It's not the cleverest movie ever made, but the performances from Franco, Michael Cera, Craig Robinson and Jonah Hill are absolutely superb and there are plenty of laughs to be had throughout its duration. It also features the Backstreet Boys.

4. Before Midnight

In 1995 director Richard Linklater gave us Before Sunrise, in 2004 he gave us Before Sunset and now, in 2013, he released Before Midnight. Just like the past two films in the series, Linklater shared credit for the screenplay with actors Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy and, just like the past two films, it received universal acclaim from critics and audiences all over the world.

The characters are now in their 40s and shit is more real than ever; the kids are growing up and the relationship isn't as strong as it probably should be. It might sound a bit trite and lame, but in Linklater's hands it's nothing short of captivating.

5. The Great Gatsby

Just sneaking into the top five (Blue Jasmine fans have every right to be pissed) is one of the more polarising films of the year; the long-awaited Baz Luhrmann helmed remake of The Great Gatsby. The fact is, it's one of the greatest stories of all time so there was no way that a reimagining of it through the lens of Luhrmann was going to come without controversy.

The critics seemed pretty split on it, but it did enormous numbers at the box office, so you can bet that this won't be the last we hear of Luhrmann – or Our Baz, as we like to call him – being given the keys to more great tales and millions of dollars to make them all shiny and strange again.

You can tell us what you loved in our Readers Poll and you can win heaps of awesome shit for doing so.