I’ll start, and I think it will be a very unpopular selection.
**Marionette **from Fringe was the best episode of TV I saw this year.
I know, not a well known or huge episode. It’s about a guy who has been trying to re-animate a dead girl and it contains a scene where they guy uses his girl’s dead body as a large marionette doll to make it dance.
Weird and wonderful episode of TV and the best episode of Fringe ever.
My backup pick would be:
Swan Song from Supernatural. Would have been a great series finale if they had not been renewed and this episode worked emotionally and wrapped up 5 years of storyline.
Ten favorite episodes, in no particular order:
“Vincent and the Doctor,” from Doctor Who
“The Late Philip J. Fry,” from Futurama
“Founder’s Day,” from Eureka
“Dream Hoarders,” from Raising Hope
“Modern Warfare,” from Community
“Peter,” from Fringe
“The End,” from Lost
“Devil You Know,” from Burn Notice
“If…,” from Desperate Housewives
“Christopher Chance,” from Human Target
Lost “The End”
Doctor Who “Vincent and the Doctor”
Both of these made me cry. Thinking about the museum scene from Vincent and the Doctor is almost a Jurassic Bark level automatic cry reflex. I was fine for the Lost finale, even after it was apparent Jack was going to die…until Vincent came out of the bamboo…
Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “Mac’s Big Break” (Dee, Dennis, & Frank do a podcast, Mac & Charlie train for a hockey contest)
Modern Family, “Halloween”, “Truth Be Told” (Jay kills Manny’s turtle) Wanted to pick the Luke birthday episode, but that was in 2009, nuts.
Community, “Basic Rocket Science” (Abed: You need to get up to delicious. Troy: That makes sense; Pierce: You guys are walking in slo-mo?)
Better Off Ted, “The Impertence Of Communicationizing” (Office memo instructs employees to use offensive or insulting language at the office.)
Futurama, the aforementioned “The Late Philip J. Fry”. Didn’t make me cry, but a lovely bit of funny sentiment.
Ricky Gervais Show: whichever episode had the first installment of Karl’s Diary.
Community - Contemporary American Poultry (Goodfellas parody)
Community - Modern Warfare (an awesome action movie parody)
Doctor Who - A Christmas Carol (loved it–another really clever time-travel story)
Psych - Dual Spires (Twin Peaks tribute)
Breaking Bad - Half Measures (see below)
Breaking Bad - Full Measure (an awesome season, these last two episodes really dialed the tension up to 11)
Glee - The Substitute (Gwyneth Paltrow was terrific!)
The Walking Dead - Days Gone By (a great start to a show in a genre I’m really glad to see as an ongoing series)
Fringe - Entrada (the climax of the Olivia/Fauxlivia world-swap)
Stargate: Universe - Human (great character study of Dr. Rush, played by Robert Carlyle)
Thefutoncritic.com usually does a great top 100 episodes of the year list every year, but I see no mention of it on their site (and I’m almost sure it’s the chronological year, not the season)
The Late Phillip J Fry from the new season of Futurama gets my pick. In an otherwise disappointing season, this episode had everything I loved about Futurama - time travel, scientifically-accurate animations of the wonders of the universe (particularly how the earth’s moon was formed), and an engaging story — possibly the only time I felt extreme nervousness and fear while watching a cartoon (and some of that Fry/Leela mushy stuff too, for those of you who care about that).
Just for the record, I hated the final Lost episode, but the epilogue episode that was direct-to-DVD almost made up for it…
**
Oslo**, The Shield ended like 3 years ago!
As a big Lost fan, I’d have to say that the episodes “Lighthouse” and “Happily Ever After” were better than “The End.” I thought the character moments in those were very well done.
The season finale of Breaking Bad - Full Measures. Best episode of the year. In a notable departure from other suspense thrillers on TV, it was actually suspenseful. I had no clue how it would end until the final second of the show. I don’t remember the last time that happened for a TV show.
Mad Men - The Suitcase. The payoff after three years of story building.
Burn Notice - Last Stand. Nice moment between Fi and Micheal.
Community - Modern Warfare. Just a boatload of awesome.
Rubicon - The Outsider. When the team has to decide whether or not to assassination a suspected terrorist on very little information.
Breaking Bad - Full Measures. The last 10 minutes or so might be the most intense in tv history.
Community - Modern Warfare. In the Top 3 of best half hours of comedy ever. Maybe even the best.
Breaking Bad - One minute. One of the best action sequences in TV history.
Breaking Bad - Half Measures. So much good. Breaking Bad really knows how to end episodes…
Community - Consolidated American Poultry. I don’t even like the movies they’re parodying but it’s funny enough anyway.
Breaking Bad - Sunset. This is my private domecile… bitch!
Dexter - Hop A Freighter. Season 6 of Dexter was pretty weak with lots of plot holes, but this was probably the best of them, keeping me from not noticing the holes at least until I reflected after the episode.
Community - Physical Education - the final pool scene cracks me up. Also Abed’s Don Draper turned me gay.
Top Gear Series 15 Ep 4 - the one with the camper trip.
Walking Dead - Days Gone Bye. Good intro to the series.
I was looking up episode guides on tv.com to confirm episode names, and it still miffs me that community has ratings in the 6 range. 6.7 for Modern Warfare? Really? I’m fairly convinced there’s some sort of campaign out there to downrate Community. Maybe fans of a show Community has made fun of. I picture women in their 40s who love Glee going through and rating every Community episode as 1 or 0.
And I realize Breaking Bad and Community make up almost all my list. Well, that’s just accurate. They’re streets ahead of anything else on TV right now.
For me, any Squidbillies or Aqua Teen Hunger Force eps.
What is this “Lost” show some of you speak of? Oh, wait, now I remember. I went to that hypnotist to forget everything that ever happened on TVs biggest dick tease from idiots. Don’t remember much but I do remember comparing the ending to “Boxing Helena”.
One Tree Hill “Darkness on the Edge of Town”
This show has lost a lot of its spark since two of the principle characters were written out a season and a half ago, but this episode was perfect. From seeing eight-year-old Chuck standing in the middle of the road bleeding and pointing to a wrecked car, to Jamie explaining to his just-arrived-at-the-accident-scene parents that “Aunt Brooke is dead” it was just great. It made me cry and TV usually doesn’t.
Haven “As You Were”
A fun episode for anyone who likes whodunnits and/or characters being stranded in creepy hotels.
True Blood “I Smell a Rat”
I really liked this episode. Not because of the stupid Sam flashbacks, but because the kiss hints that Alan Ball might actually keep things close to the book in regards to Sookie and Eric during the next season…
