The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time?
Rolling Stone made a list of the Top 100 TV show episodes. (Rolling Stone)
Ok. Let’s humor them.
I’ll give shout-outs to episodes I agree are good (and that I’ve seen).
Given the sheer volume of television… making a list like this that covers all time is…a choice.
Black Mirror, “San Junipero” (Season 3, Episode 4)
King of the Hill, “Bobby Goes Nuts” (Season 6, Episode 1)
Bob’s Burgers, “Tina-rannosaurus Wrecks” (Season 3, Episode 7)
I’m not including Sponge Bob… I have zero interest in watching this show as an adult.
I’m not including South Park, even though I think it’s funny… because it’s mostly just dumb and lowest common denominator jokes.
I haven’t made it to Season 6 of Girls so I can’t weigh in. All I can say is watching Girls in my 30s was a whole different experience from watching it in my 20s. Do not recommend in 20s. Recommended for 30s.
I don’t recall making it to Season 4 of Orange is the New Black.
I haven’t watched Six Feet Under in forever… so, no idea which episodes are worth it. This goes for a few older shows. It was a well done show though in the early years of HBO making what we now call “prestige” television.
I don’t remember specific Columbo episodes all that well, but the show actually holds up more than you might expect. (Kind of like Cheers which is more feminist than I would have expected)
I’ve still never watched the American version of The Office … maybe because I’m a bit of a snob. UK humor is often better. Disagree? Well… Consider checking out: Black Books, That Mitchell and Webb Look, Spaced, Look Around You.
Weirdly they included an episode of LOST that came after Season 3.
Glad to see Freaks and Geeks on the list. I’d just watch the whole series (which is short like many good series’). It’s not really a standalone episode type of show.
Big X-Files fan. Hard to pick favorites.
The West Wing, “Two Cathedrals” (Season 2, Episode 22) – yes and you should watch all 8 Seasons.
Arrested Development. You gotta just watch the first two seasons. It’s a show that builds on itself… so the jokes don’t land if you’re just watching a random episode out of context.
They picked a very odd Bojack Horseman episode. Great show though.
Homicide: Life on the Street is an amazing series. David Simon before The Wire. Both are “must-see”. Everyone agrees The Wire is well done.
A little weird that they picked an episode of M*A*S*H after the first two seasons with the OG Trapper.
Twin Peaks is an excellent show and nowadays everyone seems to know this. I only watched the first episode of Stranger Things because it just seemed extremely evident that algorithms were used to determine the “best” elements of shows such as Twin Peaks to make for a show that “people would like”… casting a wide net and checking boxes… typical attempts to capture as much viewership as possible. Stranger Things quickly caught on (no surprise… it was obvious it would since it checked all the right boxes) and I saw flash tattoo art at every table of a tattoo expo about two months after the show aired. No way there aren’t a decent number of people out there kinda regretting some impulsive ST tats during the early hype. Ditto GOT.
The Twilight Zone holds up.
“The Contest” seems like a fairly obvious choice for a top Seinfeld episode.
The Simpsons is great. I know, hot take! (Kidding.)
I do not recommend Breaking Bad. A hot take, I’m aware.