Television and film are often better time markers than years. “I don’t remember when that was,” you might say. “But it was the same year ‘Terminator 2’ came out.’” Our entertainment-preoccupied culture begs the question: what will define this academic year? What will we pinpoint when recalling Fall 2012 to Summer 2013 in a mass-media sense? You could simply say, “’Argo’ won best picture at the Oscars this year,’” but we mustn’t be afraid to think a little bigger.

Think, for instance, how this year changed the concept of Internet television. Thanks to Netflix, original series like “House of Cards” and “Hemlock Grove” were offered with all episodes available for streaming at once. Such practice separated out the binge watchers from the savoring ones. Viewers had to take a step back and reevaluate how to go about viewing their programs. By giving more control to the consumer, Netflix created a ripple throughout the episodic television world. What might happen to the traditional weekly viewer allowance of new episodes for future series?

Netflix also managed to delight an entire cult fanbase by providing a medium for the return of the cancelled sitcom “Arrested Development.” The rumors of a film, or perhaps a fourth season, had been rampant since the series’ untimely demise in 2006, but fans of cancelled shows know better than to honestly hope for results. The “Arrested Development” cast and crew defied all their skeptics, releasing 15 episodes — the entire fourth season — at midnight on May 26, 2013.

Film has seen its fair share of noteworthy events. Leonardo DiCaprio was once again denied an Oscar, despite a stellar performance as slave-owner Calvin Candie in “Django Unchained” (the year before, it was “J. Edgar”; the year before that, “Inception” and “Shutter Island”). Jennifer Lawrence exploded onto the Hollywood scene with her performances in “The Hunger Games” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” the latter of which won her the Best Actress Academy Award.

Will Smith had a chance to play Django in Quentin Tarentino’s Oscar-nominated film “Django Unchained,” but he turned it down because he felt Django’s character would be upstaged by Dr. King Schultz (played by Christoph Waltz, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal). He did, however, manage to make the M. Night Shyamalan post-apocalyptic film “After Earth,” with his own son as his co-star, but the film ended up flopping. Rolling Stone, in one of a wave of negative reviews for the film, called it “an unholy mess of platitudes and posturing that makes 90 minutes drag on like a life sentence.” Smith will probably bounce back, but 2013 might mark the end of the Shyamalan’s explosively short career. Same for Jaden Smith, whose lackluster performance was the core of many a film critic’s complaint.

This year’s current set of comedy actors has established itself. While years previous hark to such groups as Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller, or Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd and Steve Carell, 2013 has a more indie-movie stoner feel to its “frat pack.” James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogan, Jason Segel and Danny McBride mark this year’s go-to comedy team. With “Spring Breakers,” “21 Jump Street” and “The Watch” all out within months of each other, the probably peak of this particular group of funny men will likely be “This is the End,” the comedy where these actors, playing themselves, attempt to survive in a world ending.

Ideas in the entertainment industry tend to repeat themselves incessantly, but every year manages to develop its own specific flavor. How you want to remember that flavor in the years to come is up to you — but it’s still one we can call our own.

Maybe next year, Mr. DiCaprio.