The 10 Best TV Episodes of the Year
4. Friday Night Lights, "The Son"
Full disclosure: DirecTV viewers got to see this episode in December 2009, but NBC finally aired it this summer. So, it counts! (Unless you want to pay for us to get DirecTV.) When Matt Saracen learned debilitating news about the father he hardly knew, we witnessed a revelatory range of emotions that incurred a Facebook rally for a Zach Gilford Emmy nomination. It didn't work, but he'll always be an Emmy nominee in our full hearts. FNL is one of the few emotional dramas that never feels melodramatic, and here, it dealt with the Iraq War in a totally believable, heartstopping episode.
3. Community, "Contemporary American Poultry"
Community's ascent since its abysmal series premiere is almost unbelievable. When the show progressed, its writers took chances with format, referential in-jokes, and a kind of playfulness that I associate with bygone gems like Fawlty Towers. Many would argue the "Modern Warfare" paintball episode was the show's most deliriously brilliant, but I'd say the Goodfellas-referencing "Contemporary American Poultry" which chronicled, yes, a chicken finger shortage at Greendale, was more of a hilarious surprise. More than any other comedic episode this year, it made me laugh in that unhinged Ray Liotta way.
2. Breaking Bad, "One Minute"
Breaking Bad's third season, which will henceforth be known as "The One Where It Got Really Evil," was a bracing lungful. "One Minute" is responsible for a large share of that devastation, as it saw enough unexpected gunfire and supercharged betrayal to fuel our nightmares for years. The show's realism may have taken a slight hit, but that's nothing compared to the horrifying shock and remaining aftershocks that the episode incurred.
1. Mad Men, "The Suitcase"
As the years pass, we're subjected to more Mad Men episodes that simply push plot along and lose themselves in Sterling-Cooper(-Draper-Pryce) business handling. "The Suitcase," however, concluded with resounding audience exhaustion. We were treated to a share of freakish occurrences (including Duck's guerrilla defecation attack), but nothing topped the breakdown Don endured after he received news that Anna had died in California. His candor with Peggy -- the show's (and TV's?) best character -- resulted in an almost unbearably moving exchange, the type fans had been dying to glimpse for three seasons. Don's teary tenderness, Peggy's plainspoken sympathy, and bizarre non-sequiturs like Roger's revealed hookup with Ida Blankenship, made "The Suitcase" not just the best Mad Men episode of the season, but its finest episode ever. That it was the best episode of any television show this year is as obvious as Duck's drinking problem.
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I would put Meet the Grandparents (Raising Hope) and Another Bad Thanksgiving (Cleveland Show) as contenders for this list.
Oh Louis. I'm with you all the way with your top 3, but that live 30 Rock was the worst!
Dimo, you are family around here. You may disagree with me.
For today only.
LOST's finale was one of the worst endings of all time. OF ALL TIME.
yes, Lost was horrible---i think the season finale of the Big C could be in the top ten.
Count me in as Glee-hater. But hey, the great thing about tv this year is that we viewers have had an embarrassment of riches!
I'd add these episodes for your consideration:
-True Blood, 3.9 "Everything is Broken" - Was there a more jaw dropping/laugh out loud moment on tv this summer than when Denis O'Hare as the vampire King of Miss. wooshed on to a CNN-type newscast, pulled the heart out of the anchor with one hand, told America vampires wanted "to eat your children!" and then smiled into the camera finishing with "...and now for the weather. Tiffany"?
-Justified,"Pilot" - Timothy Olyphant's "Rayland Givens" dispenses frontier justice in modern Miami and is banished to his homestate of Kentucky. Once there the ghosts of his childhood hang over him and he squares off against Walton Goggin's "Boyd" a bomb-detonating, drug-dealing, white supremacist. The dialog snap, crackles and pops. A great hour of tv.
-Treme, 1.9 "I'll Fly Away" - The season finale where most of the season's plots paid off: Khandi Alexander and Melissa Leo both had outstanding scenes of emotional catharsis. We see the awesome and haunting St. Joseph's Day performances by "Big Chief" (the show's conscience), and a Best-of-New-Orleans tour by Steve Zahn's Davis (the show's comic relief). A melancholy and hopeful end to a season of intimate storytelling. That the Emmy's ignored "Treme" is just sad.
-Fringe, 3.8 "Entrada" - You could pick almost any episode Fringe aired in 2010 and you would have a weird, funny, touching, suspenseful, intensely creative hour of tv. The audaciousness of "Lost" without the audience-expectation-burdens that weighed so heavily on that show. Anna Torv is bringing the intensity of early-season "Alias" with steely resolve, John Noble is an acting tour-de-force as crazy-insane "Walter" and icy-scary "Walternate".
Party Down: tie for episode 2.5 "Steve Guttenberg's Birthday" & 2.10 "Constance Carmell Wedding"
"Guttenberg's Birthday" is technically the better episode as the gang gets to cater their own party and impromptu script reading ("Are science fiction and heart mutually exclusive? One word: 'Cocoon'"). But seeing Ryan Hansen as the extremely clueless"Kyle" sing a song that could double as metaphor for the Hollywood rat race or the Holocaust (or as he put it "Holo- what?" in "Carmell Wedding" was one of the funniest scenes of the year. Adam Scott and Co., you will be missed.
-Eastbound & Down, 2.2 "Chapter 8" Appalling, offensive, ridiculous, and original. This episode of E &D featured the return of Kenny's demented sidekick Stevie who follows a trail of breadcrumbs (hookers) down to Mexico where he reunites with Kenny and is immediately shot in the leg, and thrown in shower. Over the next 48 hours he meets Kenny's menagerie of friends and animals (among them a boa constrictor in the fridge and a donkey in the carport) is thrown on coyote truck to be smuggled back into the States against his will, returns and begs Kenny to let him join "The Resistance". 30 minutes of manic energy, stereotypes, and strange comic timing.
-Parks & Recreation. Almost any episode from '10 could compete for best episode of the year. This show gets more laughs from just showing the murals in the Town Hall than some comedies get in a whole episode.
Would have swapped "Community", "Modern Family" (both funny but "year's BEST? No.) or "Grey's (though it was their best eps in YEARS) for "Fringe" eps"White Tulip" or the 2 part "Over There" eps. Actually either of those eps were better than the "Lost" Finale too.
A pretty decent list. The episodes chosen for Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad and Community were all worthy.
However, that Mad Men episode is overrated as hell. That show has done much better. Also, Never Been Kissed" represents Glee at its worst, not best.
Good choices!
One show missing from that list. 'Boardwalk Empire'. I think it is the most finely scripted,acted,& directed television show out there!I also think it is the program most deserving of its Golden Globe nods!I've found EVERY episode to be truly sensational.
Finally the world recognizes Steve Buscemi as the great actor he is,rather than "that guy who played in Fargo,I think his name was Steve!"
BTW,"Gleebaser" is my new favorite term!
You never fail to amuse and inform:)
I loved "the suitcase". I have re-watched that episode more times than I can count. Thanks for including the live 30 Rock episode. Never understood why it got such a beating. I loved it!
What! Nothing from The Big Bang Theory? Any episode of this show is better than any season highlight of Mad Men,whose premise can induce snoring from insomniacs. The trendy gayness of Glee and sappy sentimentalism of Friday Night Lights are factors that should work against them even being considered for a place on this list. TBBT is one of TVs highest rated shows and to ignore it is just plain WRONG!
Mad Men is so overrated.
Harry, your championing of Big Bang Theory renders your criticisms of Mad Men and Friday Night Lights invalid.
If these are the best then Virtel has no idea what a good show is. Surely his tastes do not reflect the masses