Best single episode in TV history

More for consideration:

The Wonder Years - "Just Between Me and You and Kirk and Paul and Carla and Becky and John and Susan and Winnie and Eddie and Mary and Cindy and Greg." Becky Slater slugs Kevin when he says he wants to be friends.

Community - "Mixology Certification." Not neccessarily the funniest episode, but very funny with outstanding character development for Troy.


Always Sunny - "The Nightman Cometh"

 

DO NOT RESTART THE SMILE THING. YOU ARE WRONG.

 

My favorite Sunny episode is easily "Charlie Goes America All Over Everybody's Ass."

 

Great choice. I love Becky Slater. Every episode with her is a treat. Crystal McKellar would have been a terrible fit as Winnie Cooper, but she might be a better actress than Danica.

 

You could name 90 percent of the series and i wouldn't argue.

 

Hey, take it up with the dictionary, all's I'm saying.

 

The only person who wants to read this is Versatile, and even there I have some hesitation, but here is my list.


Spoilers below...

There are a lot of reasons why I think the people who bag on Season 2 of The Wire are clueless, and this is the main reason. It fits in the context of the the serialized drama because it ties up two huge plot lines from the first season (the Gant murder; D'Angelo's fate) and it manages to be everything you could ever ask for in a drama: Funny, sad, suspenseful, surprising, powerful, unpredictable. This is the episode when David Simon truly made you understand that in The Wire, the characters served the story, not the other way around. It starts off with Omar testifying against Byrd in one of the most memorable scenes the show ever did. "Day at a time, I suppose." Then you have Nick and Sergi meeting with Prop Joe over the dept Ziggy owes Cheese, and Prop Joe sympathizing with the stupidity of family. "I got motherfucking nephews fucking all my shit up, and it ain't like I can pop a cap in em and not hear about it come Thanksgiving," and "If it wasn't for Sergi here, the two of you would be "cadaverous motherfuckers." You have D'Angelo leading a prison book club discussion about The Great Gasby where he's helping us understand that you can't change your fate, that you can pretend to be someone else, but in the end, you're the same person you always were. (And Richard Price is moderating!) Then you have D'Angelo's amazing scene with his mom with prison glass between them. "You brought me into this world, but I got to live in it." You have Bunk and McNulty getting drunk by the train tracks and Bunk is so hung over the next morning, he has to puke in a trashcan while he's in a meeting with Daniels where Lester and Beadie are explaining how cans disappear in the computer system. You have Frank and Ziggy walking by the docs (after Frank catches Ziggy lighting $100 bill on fire in the bar), talking about what it meant to grow up in a union family, the blessings and the burdens of that fate. D'Angelo telling Avon to fuck off (without saying a word) when he passes him in the hallway of the prison. Jimmy humping his ex-wife one last time. Then at the end you have Stringer's hit on D'Angelo, made to look like a suicide. I was so used to watching "normal" TV, I refused to believe D'Angelo was dead until the next episode when Bodie was buying flowers for his funeral. I just didn't believe they'd off one of their best characters (and really the co-lead from Season 1) like that. The episode is remarkable for so many reasons, but the main theme is really about our different perceptions of family. McNulty is trying to get his family back (both his police family and his real family) while D'Angelo is trying to escape his own people, while Frank and Ziggy and Nick are all trying to sort out what it means to be family, and where your loyalties lie, with your blood, your union, or your wallet. You have Omar pointing out to Maurice Levy that one man carries a briefcase, another a shotgun, but there is no moral difference between them. You have systems that are corrupt and inflexible, and reformers who are quashed, one by one, for trying to change or walk away from them.

This episode, for me, was encapsulates everything The Wire wanted to be.
2. The Son, Season 4, Friday Night Lights: I still think this is the most moving hour of TV that's ever appeared on a network. The scene where Matt shows up at the Taylors' house and tries to eat dinner, but freaks out because he has a weird thing about carrots touching his chicken, is such a moving, realistic manifestation of grief. The fact that Zach Gifford didn't win an Emmy for this performance (not even a finalist!) is just laughable.

3. Whitecaps, Season 4, The Sopranos: It's really hard not to make this No. 1. Really, the fourth season of The Sopranos kind of sucks. It meanders, repeats some themes, it's boring (at least compared to the rest of the series) but my god, the Season 4 finale makes it all worth it. Has there ever been a scene as intense as the one where Tony and Carmella call one another on their bullshit in the pool house? "Who knew all this time you wanted Tracy and Hepburn?" Gandolfini is so menacing when he moves. He's such a great physical actor, the way he looms over Edie Falco. But she's brilliant too in her defiance. I think it says a lot about the acting that, in a show where people were frequently dying, an episode where the Sopranos tried to kill their marriage remains one of the most powerful in the whole show. I still feel like, when I watch that scene, like I'm holding my breath.

Also, at the end of this episode, you get Tony blasting Dean Martin from his boat at the guy who won't give back his money and let him out of the escrow, which is hilarious.

4. The Other Woman, Season 5, Mad Men: I think "The Suitcase" is really great, but the more I think about it, the more I think this episode is so expertly crafted, it has to be on my list. I could spent an hour explaining all the layers in it, and how fascinating it is that Don's speech to the Jaguar executives works on so many levels because it's about his own desires, I'll just post a link to the Matt Zoller Seitz review from Vulture, which I think covers it better than I ever could. http://www.vulture.com/2012/05/mad-men-joan-jaguar-recap.html

5. Discos and Dragons, Freaks and Geeks: One of the best series finales ever written.

Honorable mention: Late Editions (The Wire), Final Grades (The Wire), Long Term Parking (Sopranos), In the Shadow of Two Gunmen (West Wing), New York, New York (FNL), Kennedy and Heidi (Sopranos), Through the Looking Glass (LOST), The Constant, (LOST), Come Ye Saints (Big Love), Leave it to Beaver (Veronica Mars), Ebb Tide (The Wire), Irregular Around the Margins (The Sopranos), Unidentified Black Males (The Sopranos), It's Different For Girls (Friday Night Lights), State (Friday Night Lights).

Best stand-alone episodes of drama: (Besides Love's Labor Lost, ER)

1. Hush, Season 4, Buffy The Vampire Slayer: This works for the non-serialized version, I think, because it doesn't have any connection to the overall mythology of the show. It fits in with the Monster of the Week motif. I love The Body and The Zeppo (the most underrated Buffy episode, IMO), and one thing they all have in common is they don't really move the season or series arc forward. They just tell a great story in 45 mins. It reminds me that a little something has been lost with the push toward serialization for great dramas. When every television season was 22 episodes, you'd get episodes like this where the showrunner would decide he wanted to do something fun, something different, just to experiment as a writer/director. It's hard to do without pissing off the audience now, as Lindeloff and Cuse learned with Exposé, the Nikki and Paolo episode in Season 3. I actually think Exposé is a fun episode, but it hit at a time when fans were starting to get really pissed and wanted ANSWERS! so it really rubbed people the wrong way. I don't think anyone understood it was just an attempt to tell a Twilight Zone mystery within the LOST universe.

But back to Hush. The scene that makes it a testament to Whedon's talents as a writer is the scene in the classroom, where Giles is trying to explain on the overhead projector to the gang what's going on, and who the Gentlemen are. It manages to convey a little piece of everyone's personality without a spec of dialog. Willow is eager to answer Giles question "What do they want?" and points to her heart. Xander pantomime's "Boobs?" Buffy just wants to stab them to death, but everyone is confused she's saying the Scooby gang needs to jack them off. Giles draws a stick figure picture of Buffy saying she's going to go out patrolling tonight, and Buffy is offended that Giles made her look fat in the drawing. Obviously, too, the main theme is about what it really means to communicate, which is what makes the ending work really well, when Buffy and Reilly have nothing to say to one another.

2. College, Season 2, The Sopranos: This and Sopranos Home Movies are my two favorite stand-alone episodes in the series. Employee of the Month is probably a stand alone episode too, but as time has gone by, these two have surpassed it. It's fascinating to think about how different the series might have been had Fox not passed on it when Chase offered it to them, but you know there is no way Tony would have been the thug we all grew to love and hate at the same time. HBO really didn't want Chase to have Tony kill the rat, but he insisted. It's a testament to Chase's creative vision, and ultimately HBO's trust, that played out the way it did, and ultimately set the stage for what would be a much darker series. It might be a little too on the nose that Tony notices the Hawthorne quote and Bowdoin, but it still serves as the main theme for much of the show. "No man... can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which one may be true."

3. Out of Gas, Firefly: Just another personal favorite that expertly weaves together backstory and the episodes plot. That's why I think it works as a stand-alone episode, because you get to know the whole crew of the Serenity just by watching this one episode, and understand what a badass Mal is/was.

4. Pilot (Part 1 & Part 2) LOST: A few of you may remember how much I loathed the LOST finale. I still feel the same way, if not more so, but I still admire the bold sweeping promise of the Pilot, which remains a powerful moment in the history of television. For years, I couldn't even hate Jack's character (despite mounting evidence) because of how much I liked the opener. I'm not much of a "shipper" but I've always liked the scene where Jack asks Kate to help sew up his shoulder. I feel like they have great chemistry in that moment. And the scene that closes Part 1, where the pilot is yanked out of the plane by the Smoke Monster is a true "Holy. Shit." moment. (Who knew, years later, the Smoke Monster would turn out to be so bloody stupid?) "Through the Looking Glass" is also a pretty amazing episode of television, and "The Constant" is very good (especially the ending between Desmond and Penny) but I still love the Pilot most of all, when all the disappointment to come was smaller than a spec on the horizon.

5. Winter is Coming, Season 1, Game of Thrones: I think it's fair to say that, other than Blackwater, we were all a little disappointed in the second season of Game of Thrones. But that's only because the first season is so fucking good, and the very first episode of the series sets it up so well, cramming a lot of information into one hour, but still making it a showcase for so much goodness. Obviously Baelor is probably the best GOT episode, but as a stand alone, where you don't have to know anything coming in, this is a great opener. Also, I'm not sure how much it matters, but the opening credits to GOT are the best opening credits of any show since The Sopranos.

Comedy, serialized:

1. Pier Pressure, Season 1, Arrested Development: To me, this is the quintessential AD episode. It's the one that elevated it for me into the pantheon. I think I probably laughed harder at the end of Mr. F, when Molezilla and AstroBoy fight for the Japanese investors, but to me, Pier Pressure is such a perfect bowtie of comedy. "And that's why you don't teach lessons!" Structurally, it probably borrows from The Marine Biologist a little in that multiple plot lines are interwoven by a reveal at the end, but damn it, it makes me laugh every time. The scene where Michael comes back out to tell GOB that George Michael was lying to him about trying to buy marijuana, and GOB doesn't say anything at first (because it turns out he's trying to hold in a puff of smoke) is so goddamn funny. Especially when GOB says "Hmm. It's cold out here."

2. Office Olympics, Season 2, The Office (U.S.): There are other episodes of The Office that are funnier (Diversity Day, Booze Cruise, Casino Night, Benihana Christmas, Niagra) but to me this, captures the quintessential "voice" of The Office. You get through the mundane misery of office life by coming up with goofy games, and that's how you bond with your co-workers. All the while, you develop a little crush on the girl in the office, but nothing really comes of it. It's just a typical day in the life of an American worker, perfectly capturing the whimsy and melancholy of office life. There are hijinks, but they're not unrealistic. I love Pam's talking head about how Jim is really talented -- when he's actually engaged in something.

3. My Life In Four Cameras, Season 4, Scrubs: I believe this is one of the most clever things a sitcom has ever done. Obviously it's extremely meta, but in a lot of ways, it's an homage to the sitcoms of the pre-irony era. I love how it ticks off every sitcom trope (The women are all wearing push-up bras, there is a talent show as potential way to raise money to keep Kenny from getting fired, everyone cheers when the Janitor rolls in like he's Kramer or Norm). And then at the end, it throws such a good curve ball. Scrubs could be uneven and grating, particularly if you didn't like Zach Braff, but sometimes it was as good as anything. When the show originally aired, the coda was of J.D. watching television while Colin Hay sang the Cheers theme, explaining how TV is always there to comfort us at the end of a miserable day, and that's why it's important. They couldn't feature that version of Hay singing, but occasionally it pops up on YouTube.

4. The One With the Embreyos, Season 2, Friends: As I've said many times, it's cool to hate on Friends, but this episode is a really great example of tight comedy writing. The AV Club's breakdown of why it's good was a great read. http://www.avclub.com/articles/why-friends-fake-game-show-epitomized-ensemble-com,84632/
This episode features my favorite throwaway moment too, after Chandler and Joey win and they're switching apartments, they ride their dog statue into the apartment like conquering heroes, with Chandler spreading his arms out in a Bono/Jesus pose.


5. Theo's Holiday, The Cosby Show: In general, I think TV is much better now than it used to be. But I love this episode, where the Huxtables stage the Real World Apartments for Theo to teach him a lesson about the real world. There is an innocence to The Cosby Show that I miss on TV. Every joke didn't have to be a put down, or something to do with sex. This is just a whimsical story about family, and it's one of the reasons I fell in love with TV.

6. Steve Guttenberg's Birthday" Season 2, Party Down: It's a real shame more people didn't watch Party Down, because it was such a wonderful comedy when it was clicking. It's actually really close for me between this episode and "Celebrate Rick Sargulesh," which is usually everyone's favorite. But I just think this one has a slight edge, at least for me. It's just so fucking funny when the act out Roman's script at the end. I love Guttenberg playing a likeable douche. I just love everything about it. Lizzy Caplan is such an underrated hottie, by the way. It's a shame she hasn't found the right show for her.

7. The Marine Biologist, Seinfeld: I read somewhere that Larry David considers this the quintessential Seinfeld episode, because all the plot points come together in the final scene. I can still remember sitting in my parents basement, watching this when it originally aired, and laughing so hard I cried when George reached into his pocket to pull out the golf ball. I wish Seinfeld had aged better for me. I probably judge it too harshly, but it just doesn't make me laugh on repeat viewings the way some shows do. Everyone always remembers the line "The sea was angry that day, my friends. Like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli" and it's truly a great line. One of my favorite lines in any sitcom ever, just because it's so perfect, yet so random. But my favorite moment in the whole show is when George and his date are walking along the beach, they see the beached whale, and someone in the crowd (clearly Larry David's voice) yells: "Is anyone here a marine biologist?" Kills me every time.

8. Slap Bet, How I Met Your Mother: Enough has already been said about this. It's just a great episode of comedy, where the A story and the B story perfectly compliment one another. I know the show gets a lot of shit for not being as great in its later years, and we've debated that charge on the running HIMYM thread, but you know what later-season, post-SlapBet episode I love? "Three Days of Snow." That would make my Top 3 HIMYM episodes, I think. It's hilarious, but also sappy and sentimental in the way this show is allowed to be with Marshall and Lily.

9. The Fight, Parks and Recreation: Everything about this episode makes it amazing. Snake Juice. Burt Macklin, FBI. Rapping Jean Ralphio. Dancing Ron Swanson. I know a lot of people love Practice Date, but I think The Fight is this show's finest half hour.

10. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Community: The brilliance of this episode is that it's essentially a bottle episode, save for Pierce going to the boiler room and getting a copy of D&D. It all takes place in the study room, with the characters describing what they're doing in the game. It's so damn funny, I'm laughing just thinking about Marrrrrrrrr and Hector the Well-Endowed. I think the scene where Annie (playing Hector) seduces and makes love to the Elfin princess (played by Abed) might be one of the funniest things any sitcom as ever done, period. Not hyperbole. That scene alone nudges this ahead of Modern Warfare for me, even though I love that episode too.

Honorable mention: Pick a Con, Any Con (Cheers), Modern Warfare (Community), Contemporary American Poultry (Community), Telethon (Parks and Recreation), The Contest (Seinfeld), The Nightman Cometh (It's Always Sunny in Philadephia), Lil Sebastian (Parks and Rec), Niagra (The Office), Booze Cruise (The Office), Brett Gives Up The Dream (Flight of the Concords), Krazee Eyez Killa and Club Soda And Salt (Curb Your Enthusiasm).

 

IMHO, your old man was right.

 

The balancing act ER did in the first half of its run between visceral punches to the gut and nuanced drama was a wonder to behold. Later on, it became, "Let's see how many ways Jerry can dive to avoid being killed by a bomb/car crashing through/someone having a gun in the ER lobby," or, "let's see how many people we can mangle with helicopters," to the detriment of character development, and it got kind of sloppy, like "let's see how many times we can pass Maura Tierney back and forth between doctors."

 

DD, it is hard to argue with much of anything in your list. Now that you got me thinking about Flight of the Conchords, how about "Drive By" and "The Tough Brets?"

 

Both of those are great. They definitely deserve consideration. The Tough Brets contains probably my biggest laugh of the series, when Jermaine opens the cabinet and gets slapped by the tiny old Asian guy in Brett's gang. Some of it depends on whether you like the music or the straight comedy, I suppose.

 

DD, that was one hell of a post.