20. black-ish - 'Hope' -
2.`16
This is one of the few episodes
from the original TV Guide list that I can't help but agree with. This series
always mixed its dealings with relevant issues with a big dose of humor, but in
this rare exception, it went into territory it rarely dove into. Dealing with
an issue that has sadly become too common - a black child gunned down by a
white man - the episode dealt with the stain of prejudice, and the futility
that the Johnson clan so frequent bury. In perhaps the most painful moment of
all, Dre recounts a moment that almost every African-American must have feared
- the possibility that Obama would have been assassinated. But even after
everything else, it ends on the tiniest ray of hope possible when Zoey, who
spent the entire episode pretending not to care, finally admitting feeling
futility, and the way the rest of the Johnson children tried to seize to this.
There should be more episodes like this starting discussions. We need them now
more than ever.
19. Parenthood - 'Because
You're My Sister'
This was one of the most
undervalued series in television history, a brilliant comedy-drama that touched
on dozens of issues, and never seemed heavy handed, that had sixteen lead roles
and never seemed like it was favoring one character more than another. Choosing
just one episode as better out of the 103 that finally aired is very difficult,
but if I was forced too, I would have to pick the fourth season finale. That
season dealt with one of the most gutwrenching storylines on a show that has
dozens of them - Kristina's season long battle with breast cancer. Fueled by
the brilliant work of Monica Potter and Peter Krause, watching Adam and
Kristina fight all season with this horrible crisis, and then finally get the
good new was one of the pure joys. The series also balanced it with another
heartbreakers, as Sarah (the incomparable Lauren Graham) having dealt with a
love triangle all season long, dropped the wonderful Mr. Cyr, in favor of Hank
- only to find that Hank had chosen to move back to Minnesota .
(It would only be a temporary problem, but I felt like my heart had been
stepped on.). The episode was moving, funny, angry, and ultimately joyous - all
the things that this series could do perfectly, often in the same ten minutes.
Stream it. Now.
18. Mr. Robot - eps3.4_runtime-error.r00
This is by far one of the darkest
and most relevant series on the air, featuring some of the most brilliant cold
openings since the days of Breaking Bad (which
we'll get to soon enough), and features some of the most daring plot twists
since Lost (ditto). There have been
many incredible episodes over the course of its three season run, but by far,
it's tour de force came just last year. Eliot finds himself trying to undo part
of his hack at ECorp. During the course of forty-five minutes, he finds that
his job is non-existent, that both Angela and his sister have betrayed them,
and then finds the building overrun by the Dark Army. All of this would be
stunning enough, but what makes the episode remarkable is that it seems to flow
in a single, unbroken shot, following Eliot and Angela as they run around the
building, trying to fix or break everything the other is trying to do. This was
something that I've only seen tried before a few times, but never on a scale
like this. With this episode, it more than demonstrated why its one of the
greatest series currently on the air. I can't wait to see what happens in
Season 4.
17. Homeland - 'The Weekend'
- 1.7
This Showtime series has been all
over the map. At times it has been one of the greatest accomplishments TV has
ever aired, at other times, so slapdash in its plotting that you wonder whether
writers learned anything from their mistakes from 24. What I think all viewers of the series can agree on is that the
first season has been by far the best of them, and while the season finale was
incredible, I think the highpoint came before that in this episode. Brody and
Carrie have run off to a cabin in the woods to have a sexual encounter. During
the course of this episode, Brody learns (inadvertently at first) that Carrie
works for the CIA , that she has been
surveilling him illegally, and that she
thinks he's working for Al-Qaeda. Up until this point, the series has measured
all of Brody's movements with ambiguity, so we still don't know anything for
certain. Claire Danes and Damian Lewis are magnificent throughout this, but
what makes this episode even better is the encounter going on as Saul drives an
American sleeper agent to prison, and gently tries to get information from her
on the entire trip. In the final ten minutes, he succeeds, and we begin to get
the scope of the plan. We learn that an American prisoner of war was turned, but it was the other man,
one that we have had reason to believe Brody murdered. If this had been the
final resolution - and Gordon and Gansa said it might have been - I still think
a lot of people would have been satisfied. As it is, it stands as the finest
hour of one of the best first seasons in TV history.
16. American Crime - Season
2, Episode 7
This was one of network television
greatest accomplishments this decade, a series that looked with real intensity,
at the true darkness that penetrates America 's
soul when it comes to some of the biggest flashpoints in all culture. One could
make an argument that first season of this anthology series, which dealt with
racism and hate crimes, was the best, but by far the best episode came in an
episode which dealt with the aftermath of a homosexual rape at an Indiana
prep school. After Taylor spent the
length of the season being attacked an ridiculed, he finally acted out on his
aggression by bringing a gun and killing one of his attackers. All of the leads
- from Felicity Huffman to Timothy Hutton on down were brilliant - but what
made this episode work was how intercut between survivors of the all too
frequent school shootings in this country, as they dealt with their real life
problems. Like this series so brilliantly - and rarely - it pushed no agenda,
it took no side. It just showed the horror and scale of the madness that has
penetrated our world in human terms. That a series this good was allowed to air
on network TV was a triumph. That ABC canceled it in favor of more Shonda
Rhimes just goes to show the world we live in.
No comments:
Post a Comment