40. Scrubs - 'My Life In Four
Cameras' - 4.17
The most criminally undervalued
comedy series in the 21st century, it was the most consistent performer on the
air until its final season. Set in a hospital, it may be the closest thing my
generation will ever get to MASH. And yet, paradoxically, the most perfect
episode it ever did was among its most atypical. Having to diagnose a TV
producer with cancer leads the series hero JD (Zach Braff) to have a fantasy
where the second half of the series plays like a 'typical' comedy from the
Must-See Lineup. Ironically, even going to cliches the series is still much
funnier than 90 percent of the shows on the air. The jokes are solid, and the
laughtrack seems to fit. Which make the final moments - when reality sets back
in, and all the problems our characters were dealing with earlier ending
painfully - such a kick in the teeth. When JD goes back home, his voiceover
says: "After days like this, you just want watch one of your favorite
shows." That more people didn't rank Scrubs
among them is a tragedy.
39. Big Love - 'Come, Ye
Saints' - 3.6
This polygamous set drama was that
rarest of things - an underrated and underwatched HBO series. Without question,
the highpoint for the series came as the Henrickson reached their personal low
point - the breakup of the marriage to the fourth wife in the clan. The journey
to bury a family time capsule in the shrine of Joseph Smith comes as a personal
disaster, as all the skeletons that have been buried for two seasons come to
the surface. The late Bill Paxton gives
one of his greatest performances as his faith is truly tested, but the episode
climaxes with arguably the most painful moment - when Sarah, the soul of the
family, who has been dealing with her own conflicts, suffers a miscarriage mere
hours after a total breakdown. Amanda Seyfried demonstrated why she was the
breakout star of this series. I wish I could say things got better from there
for the Henricksons. Maybe they did.
38. The X-Files - Mulder
and Scully Meet The Were-Monster - 10.3
Darin Morgan was a true
visionary. When he wrote the handful of
scripts that he would produce for X-Files
(and Millennium), he foresaw the
use of irony and self-parody that so many series in the new golden age have
adapted. When the series completed its original run, 'Clyde Bruckman's Final
Repose', frequently made the lists of greatest episodes ever written. Now, in
the series revival, he more than demonstrated that he hadn't lost his touch
more than twenty years later. As a cynical Mulder finds that he is losing his
taste for the paranormal, he finds himself drawn back into the world of the
supernatural by the arrival of a monster. All the satire and in-jokes Morgan
was famous for come into play, but a new twist was involved. Mulder comes face
to face with - and has a long conversation with - the monster of the week, a
were-lizard who was bitten hy a human. It's funny, painful, and has a memorable
dig at the cell phones we all use. This episode single-handedly justified the X-Files return.
37. Better Things - 'The Eulogy'
- 2.6
I'm slowly being won over by this
low-rated, well put together showcase for the phenomenal hyphenate Pamela Adlon
(Louis C/K. associations aside). There were a lot of good episodes, but by far
the most impressive involved Sam dealing with being unappreciated by her own
family, and insisting (mainly to gall her teenage daughter) that her friends
and family give her an eulogy while she's still alive. Both achingly painful
and hysterically funny, there were some genuine tears and real fun delivered in
this outing. When the show comes up for Emmys, this is the one I think they
should submit.
36. Arrow - 'The Scientist' - 2.8
The first and by far the most
outstanding series in what can only be considered 'the Berlanti-verse.' , this
episode would be significant for taking what was still at the time a risky,
dark series involving a fringe character from the DC-Universe, and turning it
into the foundation for what is now the backbone of the CW. Never did the
writers shift tones more effectively with the introduction of CSI
Barry Allen, the forensic scientist who had managed to deduce that Oliver Queen
was the Arrow. Introducing some real
humor into a series that is as dark as many basic cable series, the episode
also set up the foundation for Allen's ultimate transformation (in the next
episode) into the Flash. Berlanti is always at his best when he is willing to
shift from world to world, and he rarely did so with more surety than he did
here.
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