Since I've hit my goals for my Top Ten movie lists for the years before I began my blog, I thought I'd take a break and focus on television for a bit. Specifically, I want to dig back in time a little ways and put together Top Ten episode lists for past seasons of TV. I only started writing the TV lists for this blog for the 2018-2019 season. Since I've watched runs of several older shows lately and filled in some gaps in my pop culture knowledge, I figured it was time to put everything in context.
Some caveats before we get started. Television is a much more difficult medium than film. There's so much of it that there's no way to be remotely comprehensive. What shows up on these lists will reflect my own viewing preferences. I tend to like prestige shows and genre shows, but I have some massive blind spots, especially with comedies. I don't think I've watched any of the popular ones in ages. My memory is also very fallible and I will leave things out. The further back in time I go, the more the lists will reflect my access to various platforms, which wasn't always great.
Entries below are limited to one episode per show, and are in no particular order. And minor spoilers ahead.
The Good Place, "Dance Dance Resolution" - I really got onboard with "The Good Place" in its second season when they showed that they were willing to give us major twists and plot developments week after week that other sitcoms would have stretched out over years. I was worried that the first season finale "reboot" meant we were going to be rehashing a lot of the story. I didn't expect the show to use that as a jumping off point to blow up the entire "Good Place" premise three episodes later. And Ted Danson losing his cool is so much fun to watch.
Killing Eve, "God I'm Tired" - Eve and Villanelle finally meet face to face after a season of playing cat and mouse, and it was worth the wait. All the teasing and insinuations finally pay off with confirmation that these two are in a relationship that goes far beyond cops and robbers, and it's terribly bittersweet in retrospect, knowing what I know about how future seasons of the show play out. However, the first season is "Killing Eve" at its peak, an irresistible spy fantasy that pushes every boundary that it can, and gives its leading ladies a chance to be fantastic.
Mindhunter, "Episode 2" - There are several serial killers portrayed in "Mindhunter," but the standout performance is Cameron Britton as Ed Kemper, the Co-ed Killer. The incredibly articulate, intelligent, and deeply troubled Kemper is the first major "sequence killer" that the protagonists interview, and he sets the tone for every subsequent encounter. It's in this episode that "Mindhunter" fully establishes that it's going to be about the psychology of these criminals rather than their crimes. And it's no wonder that Kemper became the show's most memorable character.
Westworld, "Kiksuya" - A standout episode of an up-and-down-season of "Westworld" gives the spotlight over to a background character, one Akechta of the Ghost Nation, played by guest star Zahn McClarnon. We see the history of the park from his point of view as he grapples with emerging sentience from a completely different perspective than we've seen so far with the other hosts. The dream-like tone and fantastic score help to distinguish Akecheta as existing in a completely separate, but parallel existence to everyone else we've seen in "Westworld" so far.
The Crown, "Paterfamilias" - The very different experiences of a young Prince Philip and a young Prince Charles at Gordonstoun, intercut together and contrasted against one another, make for one of the most memorable early episodes of "The Crown." Fatherhood, masculinity, and the horrors of UK boarding schools are all explored here through the Philip and Charles relationship. It's an emotionally turbulent episode, to say the least, and not an easy watch, but endlessly compelling. This may be the best performance I've ever seen from Matt Smith.
Atlanta, "Teddy Perkins" - I haven't had the best luck with "Atlanta," but Teddy Perkins is undeniable. There is so much commentary packed in about exploited child stars, the demands of the music industry, and screwed up fame-seeking families, with a title character who is a nightmarishly warped version of Michael Jackson crossed with Baby Jane. Or you could just watch it as a mini-horror movie with Lakeith Stanfield's Darius stuck in a creepy house with a homicidal maniac. And did we ever figure out who was playing Teddy Perkins at the Emmys?
Halt and Catch Fire, "Goodwill" - I knew ahead of time about how a certain storyline would end as the show wrapped up its last year, but I wasn't ready for this episode, where our main cast deals with the aftermath - packing things up and trying to move ahead while they grieve and bond. All of these characters have behaved badly at some point or another over the course of four seasons, and it's so cathartic to watch them be there for each other, and reaffirm their connections in a healthy way. Boz showing up at the end is just perfect.
Black Mirror, "USS Callister" - As a long time "Star Trek" fan, I love the homages to multiple eras of the franchise, the villain being a tyrannical fanboy, and the subversion of the family-friendly space age idealism. However, this is really a "Twilight Zone" style existential nightmare, as written by Charlie Brooker at his most sick and twisted, which I love. You also have a fantastic cast, including Jesse Plemons, Cristin Milioti, and Michaela Coel. A sequel is expected soon with the next batch of "Black Mirror" episodes, and I'm so ready for it.
The Americans, "START" - We were all anticipating the confrontation with Stan, and were summarily sideswiped by the train scene and the best use of a U2 song in a piece of media ever. The show had us rooting for the Russians, even as the bodies piled up, only to reveal at the end that the price of doing their job and getting out alive was everything they'd fought for. The poignant ending questions if Philip and Elizabeth even still have each other after years of navigating their complicated marriage. It hits so much harder than any violent death ever could.
Twin Peaks: The Return, "Part 8" - I'll be honest. I don't really understand why everyone lost their minds over this particular episode of "The Return." It certainly looks and sounds amazing, and the apocalyptic vibes are off the charts. However, it feels less like "Twin Peaks" than its own separate piece of David Lynch surrealism. I prefer to think of it that way, as this fairy tale about the birth of evil, with the atomic bomb as America's original sin. I don't know what it's all about, and the summaries read like gibberish, but I'm so very glad Lynch got to make this.
Honorable Mention: The Terror
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