5. Six
Feet Under - 'Everyone's Waiting' - 5.12
Admittedly this
series, while often brilliant, could
also be incredibly erratic. But its hard to deny that the last episode is one
of the greatest series finales ever. From the opening moment, where the series
begins with a birth, unlike every other one, we get are final glimpses at the
Fisher family. They finally seem to be resolving the conflicts that have
plagued them throughout the series, as well as the ones that arose with Nate's
death just a few episodes earlier. Then, there are the moving goodbyes between
Claire and the rest of the Fisher clan, as she prepares to leave for New
York . And then, she turns on the car radio, and we
enter one of the great ten minutes sequences in TV history. Set to Sia's 'I'm
Falling', we see the lives of the Fishers play out in montage - Keith and David
finally getting married, Ruth adjusting to her new life, Brenda raising her
family. And then, we start seeing them die. Simultaneously, its emotionally
devastating seeing all the characters we've come to love die, and yet strangely
fitting - this was a series about death, after all. And after everything that's
happened to the Fisher clan, there's something satisfying about most of them
finally getting what was taken from so many - a long, satisfying life. This is
one of the most unforgettable moments TV has ever done, and I think it will be
the most powerful for decades to come.
4. Lost
- 'The Constant' - 4.5
Regardless of how
much it got bogged down in the final season, one can't deny that this was one
of the great television experiences of all time. So choosing an episode that
best represents it is always going to be difficult. Do we go with 'Walkabout',
the episode that cemented in many just how remarkable a ride we were in for?
'The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham', where John Locke's journey came to an
end? Or 'Ab Aeterno', the episode which was almost good enough at answering
every question we had about the island? All great choices, but really, the one
that still resonates, that makes your head and your heart ache is 'The
Constant'. Desmond finds himself unstuck in time as he leaves the island, and
keeps shifting from 1996 London to
the present, unable to remember anything from the latter. Eventually, he finds
that the only way to fix himself in time is find something that exists in both
time periods - and that's his soulmate, Penny. Not an easy task, considering he
just broke her heart in 1996. Everything comes down to him getting the phone
number for her London flat, and her
never changing. The last few minutes of the episodes are the most effective the
series ever did, as Desmond finally manages to make contact with the woman he
loves, and then spent the next couple of minutes, reaffirming their devotion to
each other, and that they will find each other. Lost was at its best when it tried to throw a mythos aside, and
deal with matters of the heart, and in that sense the Desmond-Penny story
worked perfectly because it ended up being one of the few moments of pure joy
in a series proliferated with heartbreak. The only thing that made this episode
better was that by the end of the season Des and Penny would finally be
reunited, and that this episode put it all together.
3. The
Americans - 'START' - 6.10
Even in the age
of Peak TV, there are still very few series that managed to stick the landing.
Far too many of the series I've listed here would have extraordinary runs, and
then fall short when it came to wrapping things up. I spent most of the final
season of this extraordinary Cold War drama, worrying that the writers would
fall short. Instead, they did everything right. With Philip and Elizabeth
Jennings cover finally burned, they realize that they have to get out of the
country. A series of horrible decision lay ahead, and the writers manage to get
every note - the decision to leave their son, Henry, the one person in the
series who is completely innocent behind, so he can have a normal life, the
heartbreaking goodbye call that they try to make to him, desperately trying to
sound normal, the sequence on a train ride to Canada, where their disguises
pass muster one last time, and as the train pulls out, they see that their
daughter Paige has decided to leave them behind. But the sequence that will assure this series
a place in TV history comes in the one-act play where Stan Beaman, the FBI
agent who has been their next door neighbor, and who only now has realized just
what his neighbors do - confronts them all with a gun. Everything about their
relationship comes out, including an exchange that is absolutely heartbreaking:
Stan: "You were my best friend." Philip: "You were mine,
too." I'm still not sure what was the most incredible thing about that
sequence, the fact that Stan, after the horror of the confrontation, decides to
let the Jennings ' go, or the fact
that Philip voices his suspicion that Stan's second wife might very well be
another KGB sleeper. The episode never
resolved that issue, and maybe that's just as well. This series was undervalued
its entire run by the Emmys. They have one last chance to make it right. Don't
screw it up.
2. The
Wire - 'Middle Ground' - 3.12
Yes, I know this
was on TV Guide's list earlier this year, but it wasn't in their last list, and technically, I know that
it was in mine. That said, its very hard to consider any single episode of The Wire as one of the great episodes of
TV, considering how 'all the pieces' had to fit together for the series to
work. But I do remember the reason that I chose this one: it seemed to
encapsulate everything David Simon and the rest of his writers did perfectly.
Stringer Bell , who has spent all of
Season 3 trying for legitimacy, finds that he has been played and that he never
will fit in the world he's in. Desperate to try and change things, he goes to
Bunny Colvin, and betrays his brother in arms Avon Barksdale, not knowing that Avon
has done the same by selling him out to Omar. One of the perfect moments in the
series comes in the moment where they celebrate everything they've achieved,
each knowing that they've betrayed the other. "To us, mother---",
Stringer memorably says. Meanwhile, the task force, after months of trying to
get around insurmountable obstacles, finally finds a way to get Avon
on tape. They don't know that mere
hours after they do Stringer will meet his end, as boldly as any character in
this series will, even when confronted with the inevitable. Idris Elba has done
some magnificent work on television, but nothing can compare with his final
act: its small wonder that so many people were up in arms when Stringer died.
As was always the case, the penultimate episode was always the great one for
each season. And in many ways, The Wire would
never do a greater moment than this one.
1. Breaking
Bad - Ozymandias - 6.6
It really seems
pointless that after all this hard work that I reach the same conclusion that
TV Guide does: that this episode of Breaking
Bad is the finest hour TV has produced so far this century. But anyone who
watched the series - which is one of the greatest creations in the medium -
would find it hard to argue with that decision. There are the final moments of
Hank, who even in his dying minutes, refuses to negotiate. There's the way that
Walter tells Jesse about how he let his girlfriend die, and never told him.
There's the way that Flynn reacts to learning about what his parents have been
doing for the past year by telling Skyler that "if its true, you're just
as bad as him" There's the moment Walter yells at Skyler, trying to paint
her as innocent, and yet not holding back on twisting the knife. But we all
know what makes this episode the greatest ever. Its when Walter comes to the
house, trying to get them to run away, Skyler realizing what horrible might
have happened, goes for a kitchen knife and stabs her husband. There's a
struggle, and seems certain that Skyler will end up another casualty, and then
Walter Jr. attacks his father. "WHAT ARE
YOU DOING?! WE'RE A FAMILY?" Walter screams. And then, in ten of the
longest seconds in TV history, "We're a family." That's what Breaking Bad spent 59 episodes building
up to: Walter realizing that all of the self-justifications he has made for
becoming a meth kingpin have now been dowsed in acid. Then, he grabs his baby
daughter, and runs. I'd like to say its Bryan Cranston's finest hour, but that
could be said for almost any episode he's in. It was Anna Gunn's finest hour, and I really hope that second Emmy
made up for all the abuse she took on message boards for six seasons. Don't get
me wrong, the last couple of episodes were in their own way, just as incredible
(Breaking Bad is the Gold standard
for how a series should end) but this was a monument that will stand longer
than the title reference did.
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