CHEWERS' 150 GREATEST SINGLE EPISODES OF DRAMATIC TELEVISION...EVER

# 2 Breaking Bad S4E11 Crawl Space

 

This episode, for me, sums the whole of Breaking Bad so well.  And the ending is the perfect shot to encapsulate the whole damn program.

 

I don't want to get spoiler heavy in any way so I'll approach this from a technical view.  This is where everything that's been up in the air, pretty much from Season 2, comes down.  The dialogue is sharp, the desperation palpable as everything closes in on WW.  The acting, across the board, is sublime, and that final scene, and that final shot.

 

This is the episode of BB that has stayed with me the most, I passionately love whole sections of other episodes (BBQ at Don Elalio's, Jesse's various breakdowns, Gales italian singing), but this entire episode just owns me.

 

SPOILERS in this video:

 

3) Buffy The Vampire Slayer - The Body (Season 5)

 

 

"Mom?...Mom?...Mommy?"

 

The single most emotionally devastating hour of television ever aired. I've never seen anything else that deals with death so honestly. In the midst of a series about insane gods, vampires with souls and a super-powered teenager comes this haunting exploration of how it feels to lose a loved one, not by monster attack, but by natural means. It's completely unexpected, and it hits that much harder for it.

 

In his commentary track on the episode, Joss Whedon talks about how he wanted to convey the physicality of death. What always stands out to me, though, is the feeling of stillness, the claustrophobic emptiness when a part of your life is suddenly just gone. The choice to go without background music is brilliant because it puts you right there with the characters, nobody knowing the words to say, everyone just wondering "what now?" It's that feeling that I think is the episode's greatest achievement. I knew this was a great episode of TV the first time I watched it, but it took on new meaning after my grandfather died. I remember being in a house full of people, friends and family who had come when they heard, but nobody having any idea what to say. It's this sense, the sense that death feels so unnatural and unexpected ("was it sudden?" "No. And yes. It's always sudden") that this episode hits right on the head.

 

On top of this, it's a fantastic acting showcase for the whole cast, with special mention to Emma Caufield as Anya and especially Sarah Michelle Gellar. Gellar's acting on the show was often taken for granted, but she's incredible in the first 10 minutes of the episode. The way her voice breaks when she says "Mommy?" absolutely rends my heart every time, and ditto for her delivery of "We're not supposed to move the body!" I cannot watch that opening scene without getting goosebumps, it just completely gets under my skin.

 

The episode is an amazing achievement. It's emotionally stirring without every being maudlin or manipulative. It's just honest and raw and completely gut-wrenching. In my opinion, "The Body" is as good an episode of TV as has ever been made.

Edited by SomethingClever - 5/29/12 at 5:36pm

#4 Friday Night Lights, "Pilot" (2006)

 

 

The show's universe expanded and became richer as the series went on, but everything wonderful about FNL can be found in its pilot. The warmth and sincerity of the show's tone, intermingling with moments of heartbreak. It's all right there in the first episode, and as great as the show is, the rest of the series consisted of variations on the themes found in its first hour.

 

EDIT: As for the key moment of the episode, it's a moment that literally defines the program going forward, so I'm a bit hesitant to give it away, but I'll leave it in spoiler text:

 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Edited by Mangy - 5/29/12 at 1:31pm

#3: Buffy the Vampire Slayer S5E16 -  "The Body"

 

 

Possibly the harshest, uncompromising view of the immediate effects of a sudden death on, ostensibly, a family in any medium.  The vampire showing up at the end doesn't kill it in the least. It's simply gutwrenchingly effective, and true, and something that still stands alone in terms of what the medium's been able and/or willing do.

 

Tangental sidenote: Googling "Buffy The Body" apparently leads to copious pictures of a black model with the kind of ass that could consume Tokyo while yelling for Kaneda. Was NOT expecting that.

5.  The Prisoner (Season 1, Ep 17):  Fall Out (1968)

 

 

The absolute insane final episode of the brilliant British sci-fi series is mishmash of angry political allegory, swinging-60's iconography and batshit looniness.  Where else can you get a faceless jury spontaneously bursting out singing "Dry Bones" for no reason?  Or a gun battle to "All You Need Is Love."  Or the crucial answer to the entire series "Number One" question....which turns out to be both completely nonsensical and inevitable at the same time.  A great ending to a great series.

 

Also, if the Internet had existed the night this episode premiered, even the computers at NASA would have melted down.   

#7 Lost, "Through The Looking Glass" (Season 3 finale, 2007)

 

 

In hindsight, Lost never topped this, the Season 3 finale. Everything I loved about the show is in this episode: Enticing mystery, feature film production values, Michael Giacchino's unparalleled score, humor, action, heartbreak (OH THE HEARTBREAK) and a final twist so mindblowing and ballsy that there was no way they could improve upon it. And they didn't. The final season of this show fills me with disdain, but this is my pick for greatest season finale ever.

 

this was the episode where I had an inkling that BSG was going to be something very special.

#9 Dr Who. Rejigged S4E10 MIdnight.

 

Penned by the "he's not as good as Moffat" much maligned Russel T this is the first Dr Who since I was a child that actually scared me.  And deeply scared me at that.

 

And all set within the tiniest of sets.  The Doc goes off on a tour of a planet and bad shit happens on the bus.

Paranoia, tension, stark fear and the simple, deeply scary idea of repetition, repetition, repetition.

 

Great episode.

10. ER, "Love's Labor Lost", Season 1, Episode 19 (Mimi Leder), March 9, 1995

 

Dr. Mark Greene encounters the case of a pregnant woman suffering from complications that severely threaten her life as well as her unborn baby. Elsewhere, a teenager is accidentally poisoned by insecticides and Dr. Peter Benton has to deal with the aftermath of his mother's fall.

 

 

Before ER became ER and tried to replicate this magic with a long series of "Can't Miss" episodes, this particular hour of television destroyed a nation of 90's TV viewers.  I missed the first airing, but caught the first rerun, where some critics posited it as the finest hour of television in the history of the medium.  That is probably unmatched hyperbole, but this was 17 years, before the golden age of TV we are now in.  And this episode truly was very, very special. 

#11: Law and Order, Season 1, Episode 9 - Indifference

 

Nov. 27, 1990

 

I’m sure most people have seen the repeats of L&O which are shown around the clock on cable channels nowadays, but I’m not sure how many of us were watching L&O that first season 22 years ago.  It seems to be forgotten, however, that in its first few years it was a stellar drama, just a notch or two below The Wire.  George Dzundza and Chris Noth were the cops and Michael Moriarty and Richard Brooks were the ADAs.  Folks visiting New York in recent years probably can’t imagine how different it was back in 1990, during the height of the crack epidemic.  You would see these murder maps printed throughout the year in the New York Times, with a tiny black dot representing a murder, and by the end of the year the map would be one big smudge north of 125^th Street, with 2,245 murders in the city total. 

 

Law and Order was famous for using real-life events as the basis for its stories, and Indifference used one of the most tragic, the beating death of Lisa Saunders. Saunders was an 11 year-old girl who was illegally taken in by the lawyer her single mother had hired to find a suitable family to adopt her.   She was unofficially adopted by Joel Steinberg and Hedda Nussbaum, the former a crack-addicted lawyer with an air force background and the latter the author of some excellent childrens` books.  The guest actors in the episode, David Groh and Marcia Jean Kurtz, do a terrific job of depicting the horribly dysfunctional relationship between the couple, one who commits the monstrous crime of indifference to her adopted daughter`s suffering, and the other, simply a monster who kills his daughter after years of physical abuse.   

 

 

Folks who watched Law and Order in its final few years were treated to Linus Roache doing a bang-up job as the ADA, but probably far fewer remember Michael Moriarty as Ben Stone, who was hands-down the best of the lot.  Moriarty, a very talented but unstable actor, wore out his welcome on the show after several years and moved to Atlantic Canada to play jazz, but this was likely his best episode.  He always brought his ` A` game.  Even some of his wins were losses, and the actual losses, such as when he failed to get a conviction for a university student raped at a party, were devastating, especially in light of today`s trite legal shows.  As Lawrence Block once wrote about him, you can see what he`s thinking.

 

This is why happy sets are overrated – everyone hated each other those first few years.  Dzundza hated shooting in New York and wanted the show to move to Toronto.  Noth busted Dzundza`s chops about his weight.  Paul Sorvino was a prima donna.  Moriarty was certifiable.  Yet on the screen they were electric.    L&O ceased to be appointment viewing for me after the first five or six years, but I caught up with all episodes eventually.  While I loved Orbach and Farina`s detectives and Hennesey`s ADA, nothing matched those first few years.   Seasons 18, 19, and 20 brought back some of the magic, and I was sorry to see the show go, but happy it went out strong.  Bump-bump.

 

Those episodes of ER and Law & Order are seared into my brain. Well done.

 

12. Twin Peaks, Season 1 Episode 3, "Zen: Or, The Skill To Catch A Killer"

 

After the 2-hour pilot and 2nd episode, Twin Peaks appeared to be a uniquely strange soap opera / crime procedural, dark and unsettling with quality characterization that, while strange, was still somewhat familiar in a dramatic narrative sense. However, in Episode 3, American viewers were treated to the most surreal and amazing television event since that time Gabe Kaplan beat Robert Conrad in a footrace on Battle of the Network Stars:

 

 

WHAT????

 

From a sheer influence standpoint, there's no telling how many TV writers and producers were emboldened by these 5 minutes.

13: The West Wing, season two. "Two Cathedrals"

A brilliant episode from Thomas Schlamme, filmed with unprecedented access to the National Cathedral never again granted to any production, this emotional highlight from the show's second season is episode 44, coming exactly half way through Sorkin's run on the series he created. The moment where President Bartlet challenges the Christian god in his own language remains one of the finest pieces of screen acting ever committed to film.

14.  THE WIRE (season 1, episode 4): 'Old Cases'

 

Here's why (warning, NSFW)

waiting on comedy thread

Edited by Andy Bain - 5/29/12 at 5:25pm

Okay I was sleepwalking a little bit.  Sorry.  Crazy day.

Edited by Bailey - 5/29/12 at 4:41pm

18. Miami Vice Season 2, Episode 3: Out Where the Buses Don't Run (October 18, 1985)

 

An excellent inaugural season found difficulties in the form of a few meandering episodes and too many appearances by the insufferable Charlie Barnett as loud-mouthed informant Noogie, but the show nails its comfort zone in the second season, specifically in this third episode, where Crockett and Tubbs are saddled with the burden of Hank Weldon (Bruce McGill), a buffoonish former detective who gives the cops hell as they trail a long-missing drug lord. Weldon's comic misadventures are brilliantly juxtaposed as a front for something darker and more sinister. The episode climaxes with the show's best music moment ever, using Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" to perfection.

 

Friday Night Lights- "The Son" Season 4, Episode 5. I could echo the Friday Night Lights love with ten diff eisodes, and say that I've seen no show do better, more realistic scenes of grief than Matt Saracen's during this emotionally exhausting hour. The final walk home Coach and Saracen take will live with me forever
 

Zach Gilford is so good in this that you can view this episode as a standalone and still be moved to tears. Watching this episode after going through 3 seasons with Matt Saracen transforms the hour into a neverending gutpunch. I haven't seen Buffy (I KNOW), but I imagine it captures the same raw sadness of grief as "The Body."

 

EDIT: As for a key moment, no question it's Saracen's monologue at the Taylors' dinner table.

 

DOUBLE EDIT: Do we want to move the comedy eps to a new separate thread?

The Son, great choice.  Also nice work by Leland and Chandler here,  Buddy Garrity delivering nervous condolances to Matt, Coach simply giving a reassuring smile, Saracen taking it all like a trooper.  FNL all over.

 

The pilot, directed by Berg, is without hyperbole fantastic stuff. 
 

19. Freaks and Geeks, Episode 12: The Garage Door

 

So it straddles the line between comedy and drama (in the best way), but this hour packs quite the dramatic wallop.  I think it's most poignant that it happens with Neal, the kid to whom almost anything can be turned into a joke.  How many of us can relate to what he goes through?  No matter what struggles you go through at school (even if you're a geek), if your home life is solid as a kid, you're pretty solid.  But then if your parents' marriage breaks apart, it's all the worse for that security you thought you had.  In his real chance to break out of the wacky friend role (not that the character lacked depth before, but nothing like this), Samm Levine shines.  And it's a nice comparison with the sweet, budding courtship between Seth Rogen's Ken and his band nerd would-be girlfriend.  Rogen too shows a side he hadn't previously on the show.

20. Deadwood, Season 1 Episode 4, "Here Was A Man"

 

 

The entire episode serves as a subtle elegy to the myth of the American West, culminating in its metaphorical death in the final scene. I've seen this episode at least 10 times, and it still leaves me speechless.

Nevermind, Art already said it.

21. Mad Men S5E5: "Signal 30"

 

Yeah, I realize this episode is only a few weeks old (and "The Other Woman" may very well surpass it in my esteem depending on how everything plays out), but I found this episode to be one of the truly best deconstructions of a main character any series has every done.

 

Pete Campbell over the past couple of years has moved towards being, if not all together likable, at least seeming like he was on an upward path towards respectability. This episode destroyed all of that. From Don's sink heroics, to Handsome stealing his creepy crush, and Lane's final beat-down, Pete Campbell's sense of masculinity seems to be completely destroyed. How does he respond? By becoming an even more loathsome person. Yet, one cannot feel sorry for him. He has everything he has ever thought he wanted but he, like Don, is discovering it is never enough; that the American "dream" is inherently flawed. The fact that Lane, the foreigner who has attempted and failed to break into that culture, administers Pete's karmic beat down only adds to the effect. 

This season of Mad Men is the inspiration for my "greatest seasons ever" thread, in part because there have been so many classic episodes, stone-cold classics that are miles ahead of anything else. Other Woman, Signal 30, Far Away Places ... they really have been THAT good.

23. St. Elsewhere, Season 6, Episode 137: "The Last One," May 25, 1988

 

The episode that pulled 280 TV series into the wonderland of Tommy Westphall's head.

 

Hey, no fair. I had dibs :P

 

People who disapprove of the vampire at the end are just wrong. In an episode that's all about dealing with death, that's the touch that says "life is going to keep moving on, whether you want it to or not."

 

It's a tribute to Sherlock that it's had 6 episodes, and I could argue that 2 are even better than this one (I'm not sure "A Scandal in Belgravia" or "The Reichenbach Fall" are better, but they're certainly on the same level). So, so good that show.

25.  The Sopranos- College S-01 Ep-05

 

 

 

Plus, Adam!

26. 24 S-02 EP-15

 

Remember how I said that no season of 24 could count as the best of anything because of all its flaws?  Well that doesn't apply to individual episodes, and this is the best one they ever did.  The tension over the nuke is as palpable as in the best action movies, and the way the bomb is disposed of gives us the two of the best character moments in all 8 seasons of the show.  First, Jack's phonecall to Kim, which is so good even Elisha Cuthbert is tolerable (which is saying something.)   Sutherland just knocks it out of the park.  And then, when George Mason does his thing, it has to rank as one of the coolest send offs ever.

 

It was the show's loss, however... as Xander Berkeley was probably the best actor they had in those first four seasons.

27. The Wire Season 3, Episode 11: Middle Ground (December 12, 2004)

 

 

This scene alone defines this episode as the apex of not only the third season (the show's finest). The title represents not only the Hamsterdam debacle, but the moment where the series transitions into the degree of hopelessness in urban America that the last two seasons aptly defines, especially through the admirable Bunny Colvin's downfall.

28. Magnum p.i. Season 3 episode 2: Did You See the Sunrise?

This defined so much of what Magnum was all about; the intense relationship between Magnum, TC and Rick, the respect for veterans of Viet Nam, the show's ability to veer from excellent light character moments to some very heavy moments of violence and emotional upheaval, the excellent guest stars. Probably the first popular media to deal even-handedly and personally with Viet Nam veterans, as opposed to reducing them to some ham-fisted geo-political talking point or object lesson, this was the first episode of network tv I ever saw that matched cinema for sheer emotional impact. The final scene is defining for both the show and for Selleck, who has never been better.

30. The X-Files, season 4, episode 2: Home

Creepy, uncompromisingly sick and wearing it's genre awareness on it's sleeve, it's a miracle this ever aired on network television. 

31. Breaking Bad - S1E6 - Crazy Handful of Nothin'

 

 

There may be better episodes of BB. It's the rare show that has gotten better and better as its gone along. However, this episode is special. This is the episode where Breaking Bad went from "yeah, it's a really, really good show" to "You have to watch this, it's the best thing on TV". Everything that makes the show so brilliant is fully on display here, and its capped off by one of the greatest moments in a series filled with great moments.

 

First of all, this episode is a great showcase of how Breaking Bad is the most cinematic show on TV. There are some fantastic shots in here, and some really excellent visual storytelling. You start off the episode with a gorgeous shot of light streaming into the trailer through the bullet holes in the door, and later you get some really stunning time-lapse photography of Albuquerque. Beyond the beautiful cinematography though, the story of Walt's declining health is told visually, through close-ups on chemo drugs, discolored urine, and hair falling out. There really is no other show out there that comes close to matching BB's visual sensibilities, and this episode is a great example of that.

 

On the plot level, "Crazy Handful of Nothin'" is a microcosm of what Breaking Bad is all about. It's all about the box gradually closing in around Walt. His sickness is getting worse, he and Jesse can't sell enough meth, and Hank is zeroing in on his school as the source of the meth materials. However, as we see again and again throughout the series, when Walt gets pushed into a corner is when he gets dangerous. The episode concludes in an absolutely thrilling scene where a badass "Heisenberg" blows up the building of a drug dealer and walks out with a big bag of money. "This...is not meth" is a serious jump-out-of-your-seat moment of awesome, and the perfect capper to a great episode.

 

I've gotten this far and haven't even mentioned the greatness of Tuco, the crazy drug dealer who snorts his meth off a bowie knife. Neither have I mentioned how the show gets you to care about the school's janitor in only 2 short scenes, adding an extra level of significance when he's later an unintended victim of Walt's crimes. There's a ton of what makes Breaking Bad so good packed into this episode, and its the first truly great episode of a series which hasn't let up since.

32. Cracker (UK) season 1, episode 1: The Madwoman in the Attic

Great music, great visuals, some of the best writing ever on TV, and the blistering presence of Robbie Coltrane in his defining role. In one of the great introductions to a character ever, Fitz conducts an arrogant, grandstanding but perceptive college seminar, and then, to the soundtrack of 'Summertime' dresses down a woman over the racism of hiring African woman as nannies ("Three pounds and hour?"), then has his credit card refused when he tries to pay the bill. Abrasive, complicated, hypocritical, multiply addicted, Fitz is a mesmerizing creation. Avoid the American remake at all costs.

#33 FIREFLY - "Out Of Gas"

 

This episode didn't so much help define the series stylistically as it did characteristically. That is to say it's different in style and tone from other episodes but it goes further than any other episode in laying the basis for the relationships between the characters on the show, and if the show is defined by anything it's the relationships between the characters. All we know at the start it that Serenity is out of gas and Mel is the only one left aboard. And he's fucked up. As Mel battles to save himself and his beloved ship we see flashbacks to him meeting his beloved ship and the majority of his crew (Zoe being someone he'd known for some time).

 

The drama comes from it being literally a matter of life and death for Captain Tightpants but the core of what makes this episode special is that it let viewers in on just how this ragtag but very special group of people had ended up sharing space on Mel's beloved ship and in the hearts of billions of fans.

 

 

34. Battlestar Galactica (2004) Season 3, Episode 4: Exodus Part II

 

 

By this point in the series, our rag tag band of humans on the run had been through the proverbial ringer. The sudden flash-forward at the end of Season 2 found them finally settled on a desolate planet that they tried to make home. They grew complacent... and then the Cylons swooped in and started an occupation. Season 3 started with us waiting to see how our heroes would escape.

 

BSG was constantly bucking expectations, so much so that we never were exactly certain who would make it off New Caprica. The Cylon situation also presented an interesting [for me, at least] parallel to the [then] current socio-political climate of an enemy force occupying with the intent of doing "what's for the best". Of course, we sided with our heroes, but it was a great job by the writers to present a view of how things can look from the other side.

 

Anyway, the main reason I included this episode on this list is because it straight up kicked ASS. The skeleton fleet in orbit was vastly outnumbered and remaining human forces were trapped on the ground. The Adamas devised a risky rescue mission that still remains one of the coolest things I have ever seen in any action show/ movie. The Galactica jumps [teleports] into the planet's atmosphere-- free-falling while delivering air support for the ground forces-- only to jump back out at the last possible second.

 

 

This maneuver leaves the Galatica crippled and in the crosshairs of the Cylon fleet. All seems lost. The crew say their goodbyes. The camera pans out on the impending doom of the Galactica... when out of nowhere, the remaining Battlestar returns to save the day [after defying an earlier order to evacuate with the survivors]. Many heroic moments and large explosions later, our heroes manage to escape. The euphoric crew cheers and hails Admiral Adama for his rescue... when Colonel Tigh [after making a large personal sacrifice] steps off the rescue ship and with four words, brought reality crashing back in and slayed me. Up until that point, Tigh had been a character I never cared for that much. But by the end of Exodus Part II-- he became one of my favorite characters on the show, and would remain so throughout the rest of the series [yes, even after the Final Five reveal...]

In a series filled with great episodes, this one still stands tall as my personal favorite.

This was the very first episode of X-Files that I watched. What an introduction!

 

36. John From Cincinnati, Episode 6, "His Visit: Day Five"

 

I'm probably one of the few people that actively enjoyed this batshit insane show, but I'm a Milch acolyte (I'm still considering placing Luck's only season in the "Best Seasons Ever" thread). This crazy show hit its nutty zenith with this episode, culminating in one of the most fascinating monologues ever shown on television, somehow illuminating and obtuse at the same time:

 

37.  Star Trek, Season 1, Episode 8:  "Balance of Terror"

 

 

"I regret that we meet in this way.  You and I are of a kind.  In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

 

There are a dozen episodes of the original Trek that could fit here, but I think this one has so many of the Trek hallmarks.  And the impact of this kind of story -- two adversaries who know so little about each other realizing in the end that each side is worthy of admiration and even respect -- airing at the height of the Cold War can't be underestimated.  It's got Kirk at his sharpest, Kirkiest best, it's got Mark Lenard's first foray into the Trek universe, and it's got a gripping cat-and-mouse game that manages to be tense even though you know there's no way the Enterprise doesn't get out of it in one piece.  And what's really remarkable was that this was the eighth episode of the first season.  That's a first inning grand slam right there.