For more of our Best of 2018 coverage, gohere.
Year-end lists are all about celebration, and even though the deluge of television is pretty overwhelming, it’s actually been a joy to look back at some of the funniest, most heartbreaking, and all-around memorable moments of the TV year.
There will be a lot of crossover with thebest TV shows of the year, of course (as well as thebest performances), but when it comes to specific episodes, there are some series from those lists that are excellent, and yet their episodes are so tightly intertwined with the overall narrative that they aren’t representedhere. For others that are highly episodic, likeAtlantaorLegends of Tomorrow, I limited myself to just one episode per series. That was extremely hard, but worth it to not write blurbs for every single episode ofBlue Planet II(everyepisode ofBlue Planet IIis the best episode). And why 26? Because I have 26 episodes I want to talk about.
And as must always be said when it comes to year-end lists – withalmost 500 scripted serieson air, no list is definitive — these are just a few great selections from a year that was stocked with great small-screens stories. Share some of yours in the comments!
Spoiler note: I’ve kept things as general as possible, but if you are in doubt just skip on to the next!
“Teddy Perkins” - Atlanta
Writer:Donald Glover
Director:Hiro Murai
What more can really be said about this exceptionally crafted episode? “Teddy Perkins” isAtlantaand Donald Glover at their absolute best, weirdest, most horrifying and most profound. I could name almost any other episode ofAtlanta’shouse of horrors-themedsecond season as one of the best of the year, and they would all deserve it. Yet “Teddy Perkins” stands a cut above for its boldness, racial commentary, and frightening devotion to the creation of a character that haunts and delights everyone who watches. It’s outstanding.
“Nice Face” - Killing Eve
Writer:Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Director:Harry Bradbeer
From the start,Killing Evepresented itself as something special. From Villanelle (Jodie Comer) overturning a cup of ice cream on a trusting little girl to Eve (Sandra Oh) screaming herself and her husband awake because her arm fell asleep, “Nice Face” introduces us to its quirky cast of characters in revealing ways. Villanelle is a glamorous psychopath, and Eve is a hilariously strange MI-5 agent who both immediately admires Villanelle’s assassin work and is the only person to know the killer has to be a woman. Creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge infuses this series with her trademark wit, which is beautifully portrayed by both Oh and Comer, who put in career-best performances. As a premiere in a crowded TV lineup, “Nice Face” needed to not only introduce us to its characters and story, it needed to seduce us to keep watching. It did so easily, and with panache.
“Mort Crim” - Detroiters
Writer:Christopher Powell & Chip Hall
Director:Dale Stern
There was no series on this list that I struggled with more to pick just one episode from thanDetroiters. The Comedy Central gem makes every single episode count, and there were a few line readings in “Trevor” that still make me laugh out loud (“Hark Motors” was another close contender). But the best representation of this wonderfully crafted (and woefully now cancelled) series was Season 2’s “Mort Crim,” which starred the Detroit broadcasting legend himself (on whomAnchormanwas somewhat based). Though Crim made several other cameos in the series, like his “Chump of the Week” segment, here he took the reins to wonderfully comedic effect.
Knowing who Crim is (or even that he is in fact a real person!) heightened the humor, but one ofDetroiters’ greatest accomplishments was never making anyone feel like they weren’t in on the joke. You didn’t have to be a Detroit native to get the humor, and yet, if you were (or live in a similar kind of post-industrial city looking to rebrand itself), it added even more exceptional layers to the jokes. But when it comes to specifics, seeing Mort Crim challenge ISIS while taping a couch commercial was one of the top TV moments of the year: “ISIS, let’s settle this thing once and for all. You choose your best man, you send him here to Garner-Weich, to fight me, Mort Crim. Winner take all. You win: America’s yours. I win, you give good old-fashioned democracy a try. What have you got to lose? There’s a grand prize of $25,000, courtesy of my good friends at Garner Weich!”
Writer:Marc Guggenheim & Phil Klemmer
Director:Dermott Downs
Since its return from midseason, and up until the day before the finale, I had “Here I Go Again” as my pick forLegends of Tomorrow’s entry into this best episode list. It was a great episode, not only as part ofLegends’ meta humor to do atime loop episode, but also in how emotional the story got at the end (and it was really a tour de force performance by Tala Ashe). But, “The Good, the Bad, and the Cuddly” cannot be denied. There’s a giant Beebo, folks, and some of the best one-liners in the show’s history. It brought together everything from the show’s crazy season into areally satisfying conclusion, and was full of both action and solid character moments. Like “Here I Go Again,” it was a great example of a superhero show that does it all, keeping things light even while the stakes are high. There was magic, mystery, mayhem, and Mallus. The only thing that could have been better was a dramatic performance of Mick Rory’s novel.
“Start” - The Americans
Writer:Joel Fields & Joe Weisberg
Director:Chris Long
Series finales are dreadfully tricky things. FX’sThe Americanshad the luxury of knowing the end was coming far earlier than many shows, and thus prepared a finale that was exactly on its own terms. And wow, was it. “Start” was not only a fantastic episode ofThe Americans, it was a really wonderful series finale in general. It worked to satisfy the story it had been telling for six seasons, which by extension satisfied fans even if it wasn’t what we expected, predicted, or may have even hoped for. But now, I couldn’t imagine it happening any other way. The entire final episode was more anxiety-inducing than any other the series has ever produced, which is truly a feat unto itself.The Americansis one of the best TV shows of all time, and “Start” solidified that legacy.
“The Good Twin” - GLOW
Writers:Nick Jones & Rachel Shukert
Director:Meera Menon
The eighth episode ofGLOW’s second season has been somewhat divisive, but I for once unabashedly loved it. “The Good Twin” is a meta episode-within-an-episode, where we get to actually watch a half-hour of the GLOW TV show. It’s gloriously retro, poorly produced (purposefully, of course), and not just hilarious but incredibly endearing. It was a true surprise in an already great season, one that was full of nothing but pure joy. Bless.
“Episode 1” - Howards End
Writer:Kenneth Lonergan
Director:Hettie Macdonald
Though things get increasingly dramatic an complicated as it goes on (as things so often do), Starz’s limited seriesHowards Endstarts things off in a rather jaunty fashion. Beautifully costumed and decorated while operating at a swirling pace, it’s easy to get caught up in the series’ charms, especially those of Hayley Atwell, who stars as the de factor matriarch for her younger brother and sister after losing their parents. The series takes place at the turn of the 20th century, a moment of great change for English society, and there ismuchto be said abouteverything. The characters chatter away about it all in a wickedly smart sand snappy script by Kenneth Lonergan, adapting it from E. M. Forster’s novel. And while the whole miniseries (running an economic four episodes) is worthwhile, its opening act is particularly charming.
“Trademarq” - Corporate
Writer: Heather Anne Campbell
Director:Pat Bishop
Of all ofCorporate’s satirical storylines in its first acerbic season about hellish office culture, none felt as (horribly) true to life as “Trademarq,” which (as I wrote aboutearlier this year) “is an extended riff on a Banksy-like artist who Matt (Matt Ingebretson) and Jake (Jake Weisman) admire, and who is hired by the very corporation he initially roasted in his art (the fictional Hampton DeVille). His job is to make logos that will sell mugs and t-shirts to the protestors he supposedly inspired, as their picketing essentially turns into Cochella. It is devastatingly cynical, but also completely transparent in its acknowledgement that our heroes are usually false idols, and the beat of global consumerism moves on with or without you.”It’s diabolical, and not out of the realm of possibility in terms of really happening. Granted, it’s not the episode that sees Hampton DeVille CEO (Lance Reddick) saying, “Great news! There’s going to beseveralwars,” but it spills many a cold and hard truth about corporate greed and our complacency with it.
“Mac Finds His Pride” - It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Writer:Rob McElhenney & Charlie Day
Director:Todd Biermann
It’s Always Sunnyhas always found ways to be somehow creatively reliable over the course of its 13 seasons, and for most of the finale, “Mac Finds His Pride,” that remained true. The episode revolved around Mac being unsure how to define himself as a gay man, which led to some predictable hijinks as Frank took him on a tour of various outrageous examples, and Mac wanting to come out to his tough-as-nails convict father. But where everything changed – andIt’s Always Sunnyshattered all expectations for what it could be – was at the very end, when Mac performed aninterpretive dance sequenceto express what it felt like for him to be gay and wrestling with coming out.
And my Lord, it was beautiful. There was no gag here, not joke waiting to be told. Rob McElhenney worked exceptionally hard to make this everything it needed to be, pairing up with professional ballerina Kylie Shea and dancing to Sigur Rós’s “Varúð.” It was completely unexpected and astonishing, all the way through until the end, when Frank (of all people) delivered this beautifully devastating line that echoed back to an earlier moment in the episode:“Oh my God. I get it. I get it.”
“Kiksuya” - Westworld
Writer:Carly Wray & Dan Dietz
Director:Uta Briesewitz
In what has been an uneven second season of HBO’sWestworld, a few highly episodic hours have stood out, including “The Riddle of the Sphinx” — which introduced us to the idea of the park creating hosts for human consciousnesses to live in forever — and the fantastic “Kiksuya,” which answered all of our questions about Ghost Nation. Narrated by Zahn McClarnon, who plays Akecheta, we are transported back through Westworld’s past, seeing it from a new perspective, and learning about Akecheta’s quest for The Door along the way. It’s a fantastically moving story, one that manages to inject real humanity (ironic, yes) into a show that more often deals with slaughter. Gorgeously filmed by Uta Briesewitz, the episode is a quest for self, for truth, and for love, and is expertly and compellingly crafted.
