CHEWERS' 150 GREATEST SINGLE EPISODES OF DRAMATIC TELEVISION...EVER - Page 5

Pretty sure "Walkabout" has been picked already.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynamotv 

75. Lost: "Walkabout" Season 1 Episode 4:

 

Aside from one of the best pilot episodes ever, this to me is one of the strongest episodes of season 1 and coincidently the first episode that I caught.   Several seasons in, after all the stuff John Locke does, this episode is strong enough for a lifetime pass for his character.

 

Memorable Moment?   The twist ending and a real opening up of the mysteries the island presents.....

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

"Don't tell me what I can't do!"

It has... Number 75.

I just know there's a Supernatural episode that should be on this list but I can't pick one.  

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Originally Posted by Ratty 

Pretty sure "Walkabout" has been picked already.

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Originally Posted by MrTyres 

It has... Number 75.

Ah nuts.

101) The Office "Casino Night"

We've been watching a season and a half of John Krasinski silently dying as he watches the only good thing in his life be so close yet way beyond reach and in this season 2 finale as boss Michael Scott sets up a casino night for the office staff, he just can't stand it anymore. He confesses his feelings. It's a really funny and terrific episode, but Krasinski's monologue makes it something really special and makes the show great. Both he and Jenna Fischer deserved Emmys for this episode.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

Yes, The Office is a fine dramatic series.

 

Come on, man, get on the trolley.

 

The next pick will be #101.

It's a dramedy and a perfectly fine pick.

Do "very special episodes" of the Fresh Prince count?

Killjoy!

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Originally Posted by Art Decade 

No.

I beg to differ

102) Fresh Prince of Bel Air "Papa's Got A Brand New Excuse" 

Coming at the end of a rather touching episode in which Will Smith absentee father comes back, then walks out again. I've submitted this scene, simply for how disarmingly heartbreaking Smith's "How come he don't want me man?" is.*

I will accept any shit you wish to give me but damn this makes me well up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynamotv 

I just know there's a Supernatural episode that should be on this list but I can't pick one.  

Submitted for your approval

103) Supernatural "On The Head of a Pin"

Because the show never got this dark again. 

104) Lost "Deus Ex Machina"

Michael Giacchino is a genius. That is all.

Talk about them! Why are they important to you? Why should I check them out?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike's Pants 

 

I beg to differ

 

102) Fresh Prince of Bel Air "Papa's Got A Brand New Excuse" 

 

Coming at the end of a rather touching episode in which Will Smith absentee father comes back, then walks out again. I've submitted this scene, simply for how disarmingly heartbreaking Smith's "How come he don't want me man?" is.*

 

I will accept any shit you wish to give me but damn this makes me well up.

Come on guys, seriously? Fresh Prince? The Office? By that thinking I could put an episode of The Wire up in the comedy thread for having that funny moment with the lie detector.

But... but all the best ones were taken!

I'm trying guys. I want to be like you; smart, gorgeous, witty. Maybe I'm not done cooking yet.

I'll be in the The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Thread if anyone needs me.

MURDER ONE: Chapter 1

" The season begins with a 15-year-old girl, named Jessica Costello. Her sister Julie was out of town on a modeling shoot. She was found naked, strangled, and therefore murdered in her bed. She was strangled. The attorneys are led by Theodore Hoffman (Daniel Benzali). He is the head of the firm Hoffman & Associates, which makes its home in Los Angeles, and has a wife, Annie (Patricia Clarkson). He has an exclusive private investigator, Davey Blalock (Kevin Tighe), working for him. His legal team is made up of assistant Lewis Heinsbergen (John Fleck), defense attorney Chris Docknovich (Michael Hayden), nail-biting defense attorney Arnold Spivak (J.C. MacKenzie), ambitious defense attorney, Justine Appleton (Mary McCormack), attorney Lisa Gillespie (Grace Phillips), and receptionist Lila Marquette (Vanessa Williams). Meanwhile, the police have narrowed the Goldilocks Murder down to a few suspects, including Richard Cross (Stanley Tucci). Cross is a wealthy businessman, who likes to cheat on his wife, Francesca (Donna Murphy), even though she knows it."

Counld't decide what episode was truly best, so plumped for the first one that got me hooked on the thing...brilliant story-telling, brilliant acting...just brilliant!

Kept me on the edge of my seat.

(106) Homicide: Life on the Street - "The Gas Man" - Season 3 - Episode 20

I've always admired TV shows that decide to do episodes told from the POV of guest characters. It opens up the show to a new perspective and makes things interesting.

Perfect example of this is "The Gas Man". Directed by Barry Levinson, we see Bruno Kirby's vengeful Victor Helms being released from prison. He was arrested six years ago by Andre Braugher's Frank Pembleton, and Kirby's character immediately starts plotting revenge against a largely unaware Pembleton. Kirby is equally creepy and pathetic here, and this stands as one of my favorite episodes of the series. Richard Edson is also great to watch as Helms'  friend who spends most of the time trying to steer him away from doing anything too dangerous. "Gas Man" also gets much love for introducing me to the brilliance of ELO's "Sweet Talking Woman".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham 

MURDER ONE: Chapter 1

 

 

" The season begins with a 15-year-old girl, named Jessica Costello. Her sister Julie was out of town on a modeling shoot. She was found naked, strangled, and therefore murdered in her bed. She was strangled. The attorneys are led by Theodore Hoffman (Daniel Benzali). He is the head of the firm Hoffman & Associates, which makes its home in Los Angeles, and has a wife, Annie (Patricia Clarkson). He has an exclusive private investigator, Davey Blalock (Kevin Tighe), working for him. His legal team is made up of assistant Lewis Heinsbergen (John Fleck), defense attorney Chris Docknovich (Michael Hayden), nail-biting defense attorney Arnold Spivak (J.C. MacKenzie), ambitious defense attorney, Justine Appleton (Mary McCormack), attorney Lisa Gillespie (Grace Phillips), and receptionist Lila Marquette (Vanessa Williams). Meanwhile, the police have narrowed the Goldilocks Murder down to a few suspects, including Richard Cross (Stanley Tucci). Cross is a wealthy businessman, who likes to cheat on his wife, Francesca (Donna Murphy), even though she knows it."

 

Counld't decide what episode was truly best, so plumped for the first one that got me hooked on the thing...brilliant story-telling, brilliant acting...just brilliant!

Kept me on the edge of my seat.

I was seriously thinking about putting this whole first season in the Great Seasons thread.  Great show, way ahead of its time.

107) The Sopranos pilot

It works perfectly as a short story that I'm jealous I didn't write. It introduces most of the most important characters and contrasts Tony's home life with his work. It works in a lot of the themes that would pop up in the show. The therapy scenes are great, and, of course, the ducks. Like I said, a great short story and if we hadn't gotten anymore I'd be sad but also satisfied.

"Somebody donated their kneecaps for those tickets!"

108.  Carnivale - "New Canaan, CA" S2E12

Most of the episodes on this list, even the series finales, would work fairly well viewed as standalone hours of TV even outside of their seasonal context.  Not so this one, but that is precisely why I put it here.  In the broad strokes, there are two models of dramatic TV.  There's the "classic" episodic model, where each episode is essentially a standalone short story featuring a familiar setting and cast of characters.  You can have great series in this mold (your L&Os, X-Files, ERs, Homicides), but it doesn't take full advantage of the primary advantage that the medium has over movies, which is the opportunity to tell sprawling stories over weeks and weeks, building a cumulative power that cannot be equalled in a 2 hour runtime.  Since the cable revolution, a more heavily serialized (or "novelistic" if you're feeling pretentious about it) dramatic model has gained prominence, exemplified by stuff like The Wire, Breaking Bad, and this bizarre, dark fantasy epic from HBO.  These shows don't have easily-differentiated episodes so much as individual chapters in a story, so they* are underrepresented on this list because they tend to run together and are more dependent on earlier episodes for their impact. 

But that impact, built up over a dozen plus hours, can be enormous, as in this series (nee season) finale.  Carnivale was a niche show for sure, as even if you were down for a dark, R-rated fantasy set in Great Depression in the first place, you also had to contend with a very slow, world-building first season that frequently toed the line between portentous and ponderous.  But things picked up considerable momentum in the second season, and it (comparatively) roared into the finale where two seasons worth of slow-burning storylines and premonitions spectacularly exploded.  The apocalyptic clash between the avatars of light and darkness paid off in immensely satisfying fashion. 

But what makes this payoff so special is that its not just about slowly developing plotlines, but complex mythology.  Related to, but distinct from, the increase of serialization has been the rise in series with mysterious supernatural elements that the creators slowly tease out to build intrigue and suspense.  Many of these shows imploded before they got the chance to provide the answers to their central mysteries, but two of the most prominent, Battlestar Galactica and Lost, both disappointed large swaths of their fandoms with how they resolved their mystical elements.  For the record, time has mellowed my issues with how BSG closed off its big mysteries, but only made Lost's finale appear even more facile, lazy, and flat out insulting to my eyes.  The reason I bring this up is because in the debates those finales sparked, many defenders of the endings expressed the view that such endings are always going to be a let down or were never going to completely make sense because its just impossible to maintain a coherent explanation for multiple seasons worth of bizarre occurrences. 

To which I say, bullshit, "New Canaan".  This episode proves that it is possible to have a coherent mythology in place from day one and slowly peel back the layers on it, eventually delivering answers that make sense of a series worth of strange elements without having it feel deflating.  Of course, it's easier to throw shit at the wall for multiple years and seeing what sticks.  But answers can actually be satisfying without sacrificing character work.

Key Moment:

*Breaking Bad aside, which is at the front of everyone's minds since it's still going and about to start up again

109. Treme - "What Is New Orleans?" S2E9

No one captures the essence and personality of an entire city like David Simon.  In Treme's wonderful second season, things got noticeably darker for just about everyone, but the series continued to deftly balance the very dark, very real plights of its characters with a sense of playfulness and optimism, as well as a genuine affection for New Orleans' music and culture.  In what might be my very favorite sequence from the entire series, a good-natured rivalry develops between Antoine (Bunk himself, Wendell Pierce) and real life jazz-guy Kermit Ruffins, as they perform competing gigs at separate venues.  Antoine, realizing his venue is dead, swoops into Kermit's gig, joins the band on stage for a song, and then, like the pied piper, leads the audience down the street to his own gig.

But of course, anyone who's seen The Wire knows that when the words 'teleplay by George Pelencanos' pop up in the opening credits, an emotional gutpunch is probably en route.  And sure enough, the episode's final scene between street musicians Annie and Harley left me absolutely devastated.  A tremendous hour of television.     

110. Dexter S4 Season Finale

I know we already had one episode from this season on here but the last couple of minutes to that season really just gut punched me. I remember watching it with my wife and she literally said Oh my God to the television while my jaw just hit the floor.