The 15 Best Episodes Of Television in the 10/11 Season

Only one episode per show to make it interesting. Let's do this.

15) Wildfire, The Walking Dead

While there was certainly some awful in amongst it there, I did very much like this episode of The Walking Dead. It seemed like it came from a stronger, more thoughtful show that I would watch every week without having to make allowances. Yet again I want a strongly written show about survivor psychology, and I'm pretty sure everyone else is fine with a dumb show about pawning zombies with crossbows. Why can't it be for both of us?

14) You Don't Know How It Feels, Cougar Town

A show whose title makes it nigh on impossible to advocate let alone admit to liking (I mostly socialize with film studenty types, and you know I have an image to uphold) But the anonymity of the internet is perhaps the perfect setting to say that this has in fact become a pretty good show, not world-bending necessarily, but a fun place to be for 20 minutes a week. And this episode, utilizing a terrific guest performance from Scrubs' Ken Jenkins, is the closest its got to balancing that sense of fun with actually being about something.

13) Pilot, The Killing

Its well known that The Killing didn't progress exactly as we would have all hoped, after a promising start it became very clear that this show didn't know how to be a serialized TV show, and instead frustratingly bided time for its entire run. To the point where I imagine you could just watch the first episode and its approaching last and see all the story the show has to tell. It's a shame, because I really did like the first episode. It told a familiar story sure, but it was bleak and pretty dark and featured some great performances and a very strong ending.

12) A Golden Crown, Game Of Thrones

Look, I don't hate this show. It's a good show by any definition, but measured against the best of the best, it falls flat. And I'm tired of people saying its the natural successor to The Wire and its the best show on television and that kind of thing. Because its not, its way too stupid for that. But what I liked about this episode is that it made a transition from stuttering drama series to confident action series. The show is way too expositional to do character in any interesting way, but a Golden Crown showed it could just stop trying to be great and be AWESOME instead and that would be fine. It contained a terrific spin on the usual fantasy duel trope, and had many grim moments of violence, including one that will stay with me for a while. Good shit.

11) Chicken N' Corn, United States Of Tara

Now me and the rest of the world had problems with Tara when it began. It was a painfully smug affair, albeit one where there was a terrific central performance from Toni Collette. But its another show that grew into something much more interesting once people had grown tired with it and this third season in particular has been great, becoming almost a horror series in principle, seeing Collette develop a new personality whose coming after the older ones. And this engaging, dark turn is punctuated nicely by the presence of Eddie Izzard as Collette's therapist, delivering one of my favorite performance of the year, and Izzard and Colette's Psycho-alter came to a head in this episode. By any measurement a great show these days, regardless of you're Diablo Cody feelings.

10) Subway Wars, How I Met Your Mother

Now this season of How I Met Your Mother has taken a lot of stick, and while it did have a pretty awful finale, there were many single one-off episodes that worked this year. My favorite of which was this, an episode that reminded me of younger days of the show. It was pretty high-concept, who could get to a restaurant first, but it was a fun, baggage free hour that I enjoyed immensely.

9) Sins Of The Past, Terriers

This Tim Minear scripted episode, which for my money was the best of this show's criminally short run, did some great filling in the blanks and showed why this show worked so well, the terrific performances by Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James.

8) The Outsider, Rubicon

Of the many cable shows that have aired this year, you get the impression that Rubicon is going to be the quickest forgotten. Every other show has its fans, yet I've still never met another living sole who watched this show. Again, perhaps because it started badly and became awesome later. Anyways this episode probably remained my favorite, mostly for an awesome scene where Michael Cristofer explains the reasons intelligence agencies have to exist via complimenting someone's tie.

7) Boardwalk Empire, Paris Green

Perhaps because Boardwalk didn't follow any kind of episodic structure, people really did hate on this show, in spite of the incredible stuff that was in it week to week. It had the best cast in television history, and in particular Michael Shannon, whose performance absolutely deserves an Emmy, and in this episode which saw him melt down of sorts. Well holy shit. Any problems I have with its structure don't take away from what it was capable of doing.

6) God, Louie

Louie, airing all the way back to last summer, is probably going to get no awards recognition of any kind. In spite of being the most innovative and fearless comedy series television has seen in quite some time. To the point where its comfortable having an episode that isn't a comedy at all. God, instead is a pretty horrific example of what enforced religious guilt does to young children. And its pretty harrowing. It also contains a pretty legendary cameo from Tom Noonan, who gives a performance so good its ridiculous.

5) Critical Film Studies, Community

Community gets the term experimental shouted at it a lot, but this episode really earned its name. Essentially an episode about a conversation, as is its influence My Dinner With Andre, it is hypnotic and engaging and strangely dramatic in a way Community has rarely achieved. The performances by Joel McHale and Danny Pudi are fantastic and it remains one of the most singular episodes of a sitcom I have ever seen, or ever will see.

4) Placebo Effect, Archer

Because seriously, What is Cancer? This episode was an insane high point for Archer, a fringe show before this season, now a pretty unanimous critical success. Even if nobody watches it. Well they fucking should, because this was the funniest episode of anything in the entire TV season bar none. Ridiculously good.

3) Andy and April's Fancy Party, Parks And Recreation

On the whole I think Community and Archer are stronger, more interesting shows then Parks and Rec, but there's no doubting the brilliance of this episode. It may not have been as straight out funny as Placebo Effect, but it had a weird poignancy that you can't really explain, except its about watching people you love make a mistake and knowing you have to let them do it. Pretty incredible episode to be honest.

2) Brother's Keeper, Justified

This season of Justified was just a ridiculous upgrade in quality from the first season, to the point that outside of Mad Men I think I'd call Justified the best drama on TV. Its been that good. Much of the season's drama has revolved around Margo Martindale and her family of miscreants, and her performance has just been so good its not even funny. This episode was probably the season high point, because it both featured Martindale's best scene and a dark southern gothic story that had far too much emotional impact then this show has any right to have, and featuring fantastic performances by Kaitlyn Dever and Brad William Henke. Its just fucking great TV.

1) The Suitcase, Mad Men

But it couldn't be anything else but this, a masterpiece of the form and quite possibly is the best episode of TV ever made by anyone. Even if you don't like Mad Men, and while I think its mostly an mamzing show I do have my problems with it, there's no way you can argue anything against the majesty of this episode, which focuses on the creative relationship of Don and Peggy over one night. And it's spellbinding. Just watch the damn thing.

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10) Happy Endings

As is often reported from every TV website and outlet known to man, there have been many sitcoms about six friends hanging out this year. It seemed to be everyone's agenda to find the new Friends, and most of them were pretty bad, some were sort of OK and others were sort of awful. But I think this one was the best, a nice little underdog of a show that began airing in a death-slot about a month ago, yet somehow found an audience anyway and got renewed in spite of all odds. This makes me happy because while its hardly a ground-breaking show, it's winning and consistently funny, which is all it needs to be. Yes, I know it has got Elisha Cuthbert in it, but it manages to be a good show anyway. So there.

9) The Walking Dead

I don't care what anyone says about this, The first season of The Walking Dead was very shaggy indeed, containing at least two downright awful episodes and almost its entire cast is made out of wooden performances and two-dimensional characters. The only actors who gave good performance were either guest stars (Lennie James and Noah Emmerich) or glorified extras (Andrew Rothenberg's performance as Jim was much subtler and intelligent then any of the leads, and the episode where he played the biggest part, 'Wildfire' was the shows best) Yet there was enough here to convince me of a much stronger season two, the seeds are there and all way need is one maybe two engaging characters to make this really work as the great show it wants to be. In the meantime, all you can call it is OK to good.

8) Raising Hope

Another sitcom that caught me a bit by surprise, mostly because Raising Hope is working off a terrible premise, but as the year went on it became apparent that there were many talented people in this cast with great acclimation for being funny, and that Garrett Dillahunt is a secret comic genius. Putting the usually intense, frightening Dillahunt in a wacky sitcom by the creator of My Name is Earl was certainly risk, but its one that paid off, with him giving one of the most consistently hilarious performances of the year. Similarly Shannon Woodward and Martha Plimpton lend great support and slightly vanilla lead Lucas Neff grew into his role as the season progressed. Its a consistently funny and unique feeling show, that's even occasionally clever.

7) The Killing

I think this would have been higher a couple of weeks ago, but as the first season of The Killing has progressed I've soured on it somewhat, with its slightly bare bones and cliched approach to both characterization and plot development, but it still has enough about it that works, mostly the fantastic lead performance from Mirelle Enos, a terrificly layered and subtle one that is probably high in the running for best on television right now. Joel Kinnaman lends some interesting moments to is partner character, but elsewhere things are kind of progressing on a surface layer, with very little dimension or depth. Billy Campbell's politician character is probably the worst example of this, just an endlessly and boringly stoic one note.

6) Lights Out

I actually wasn't all that excited for this, mostly because it looked like Rocky the TV show, regardless of whether it was on FX or not. Being the story of a once disgraced boxer getting one last shot against his rival and all, but it was a fantastically executed show in the end, featuring many great performances from its regular cast and beyond, with the likes of Eamonn Walker and David Morse, and a great central performance by Holt McCallany, who most will recognize as the 'his name was Robert Paulsen' guy in Fight Club. He shows some unexpected range and gravitas in his work here. Cancelled though, which sucks.

5) Game Of Thrones

The timing of this list is a little unfair to Game Of Thrones, what with only being four episodes in and all, but what can you do. As it stands its a promising show with a lot of things that are working and a few that are not, If its not the most spectacularly looking show in the history of TV then I'm not watching some great TV, and a number of its cast are giving some great performances, particularly Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey who recovers from her somewhat flat performance as Sarah Connor with some intelligently villainous bounce, and Sean Bean makes for a great anchor. Some characters work less well, such as Harry Lloyd's ridiculously evil blonde prince and the many interchangeable lessers in the cast, but its a promising show to be sure, and I expect to eat my distrustful words by the end of this season.

4) Rubicon

This under-seen and under-appreciated conspiracy thriller was in many ways 24 for smart people, but that's certainly reductive. In the end it was uncompromisable is in its intelligence and pace, and I imagine that's why it turned a lot of people tuned out, almost understandably. At first it seems fair to be a little bored by it, but once you cotton on to its wave-length it quickly became pretty awesome, if admittedly slow moving. There's a chance you'll watch this and find it incredibly boring, and there's a chance you'll watch it and find a tremendously engaging show. For me it was the latter. For most people it must have been the former because it too is cancelled.

3) Terriers

The final member of the trio of great, cancelled shows. While I do think that many critics and occupants of the internet liked this show more then I did, I still saw a great, entertaining show with some fantastic lead performances from Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James. There were a few things that were cable show rote, like the whole ex-wife and new husband thing which I always frickin' hate because everyone always does it in the same exact, allegory for petty revenge type way. But for the most part, a pretty stellar piece of television making.

2) Boardwalk Empire

Here's the thing, by all accounts Boardwalk Empire is the best at a number of things. It's cast is nothing short of phenomenal, it looks amazing, there are individual scenes and moments that just blow your mind to hell. But. And its a big but, its sort of a badly executed TV show simply because it pays no mind to the episodic structure of TV. I love serialized television, but a great TV show does both tell a great serialized story and create distinct episodic TV, and for all the spectacular production values of Boardwalk, because an episode doesn't have its own story it can be frustrating to watch. Its a shame, because if it had paid this more mind, this would have been amongst the best television ever, just for the performance of Michael Shannon alone.

1) Louie

If second place looks like it cost about 5o million an episode, first place looks like each episode is put together on spare change, and yet its still a uniquely excellent experience. Starting of feeling like its just going to be Curb Your Enthusiasm with Louie C.K, which would have been fine, but instead became one of the most experimental, interesting comedies in living memory. Not afraid to be serious or profound. Its just awesome, for lack of a better word, and I can imagine the second season only being better.

The Year In TV: The Ten Best Episodes Of Television Of The 09/10 Season

Or is your empty gun a metaphor for your jaded persona.

The TV season generally follows the school year, essentially, so now seems like a good a time as any to do some kind of small screen wrap-up. I should say I watch next to no British television, despite being British, so if there's any omission in that regard I apologize. But most of it is kind of shite anyway so I'll not be worrying about it. Generally it was a stronger year for comedy then drama, although there were some fucking awesome moments, so much so that I couldn't make room for a single episode of Modern Family, as much as I like that show. Anyways, my ten favorite episodes of TV from this season would go something like this.

10) LA X, Lost

As I will no doubt go into further detail with my Lost finale post, I wasn't crazy about Lost's final season. But it had is moments. The terrific Sundown for one, But the powerful, intriguing season premiere was probably the best of the year, introducing unique concepts that we had no idea would end so anti-climatically and a terrific introduction of the year's villain, played by the great Terry O Quinn. Probably the last out and out great episode of lost.

9) Getting Closer, Dollhouse

Dollhouse first season widely disappointed pretty much everyone who saw it, strong ending or no. So much so that most of its audience ended up giving the terrific second season a miss. Full of ideas, surprises and entertainment, it was as smart as sci-fi TV can be. And yes Eliza Dushku still kind of sucked, but its amazing how little you care about that when you're watching episodes as awe-inspiring as this. They didn't just do that to River Tam.

8) Steve Guttenberg's Birthday, Party Down

If you measure quality to viewing figures, then Party Down may be the most disproportionately awesome show ever to be watched by no-one. Delightfully cynical, dark and hilarious, its a show truly like no other. This episode in particular did perfectly what the show always does so wonderfully, a kind of cruel, point and laugh comedy in a way that cares about the characters. The script-reading scene was legendary.

7) The Table Read, Curb Your Enthusiasm

The seventh year of Curb was far from its best. But this episode was fucking awesome. The Seinfeld reunion arc kind of went away mid-season, but came back with some force toward the end, with this episode both a terrific episode of Curb, yet a treat for fans of Seinfeld, and a glimpse into what went into making that landmark so good. Plus Larry David plays himself better then Jerry Seinfeld ever did. Just saying.

6) Gilead, Sons Of Anarchy

Another victim of the shaky first season curse, SOA was a slightly overwrought show that perhaps thought itself a little better then it was. But holy fuck was this season good. Catching up to its opinion of itself and then some, the show morphed into the most exhilarating pitch black morality tale on TV, with the exception of Breaking Bad. And this ferocious outing was perhaps the most awesome a very awesome season got.

5) The Stakeout, Parks And Recreation

While the American office flounders in its old age, Greg Daniels' other show, which uses the same mockumentary style, found its feet gloriously and while it wasn't quite my favorite show this year, it was consistently hilarious and in this particular episode utilized the genius of Nick Offerman's character for the most deadpan hernia joke of all time. He's Ron Fucking Swanson.

4) Skytanic, Archer

Archer isn't the most insightful comedy on TV, or the most organized, or the cleverest, but based on sheer laughs per minute this is some serious value for money. This particular episode, which features Archer and the team infiltrate a blimp targeted by a terrorist threat is just fucking gold. Yay for metaphors.

3) Do You Know What It Means, Treme

The Treme Pilot was just so elegant, dignified and wonderful in all the right places. The epitome of TV with class, anchored by several great performances perhaps most notably from Wendell Pierce and John Goodman, the show is simultaneously a love letter to New Orleans and a frank confrontation of its problems. The show is yet to surpass its first episode, but boy what a first episode.

2) Modern Warfare, Community

I don't think I'm alone on this. Community is occasionally inconsistent, particularly at its beginning, but its one of the most unique and funny sitcoms I've ever seen and if anything has a shot at dethroning Arrested Development, its this. And if you watch this episode, a riff on Battle Royale, with its perfect cocktail of intelligent reference comedy and intelligent character comedy, you'll see why this is probably the most enjoyable show on TV right now. Or if you just want to see Ken Jeong from The Hangover make like Chow Yun Fat, well. Come with me if you don't want paint on your clothes.

1) One Minute, Breaking Bad

But it was always going to be this, because OMFG.