Culture Blues

Listmania: The Best TV Episodes of 2010

As pop culture aficionados, your friends at Culture Blues are not immune to the end-of-year lists currently overwhelming the internet. Welcome to Listmania, where Culture Blues ranks their favorite shit in a bunch of different categories. These are our favorite single episodes of television that aired in 2010.

The premise alone is nearly enough to sell me on 94 Meetings. April has inadvertently scheduled 93 meetings for Ron Swanson in one day (there's a surprise last meeting to make it 94), creating a “blood-soaked, nightmarish hellscape.” Ron and April have a great boss-assistant relationship founded entirely on the desire to avoid all work, and this storyline gets a lot of mileage out of removing them from their comfort zones. Watching Ron, Andy and April take meetings is great comedy, even if the meetings themselves sort of get glossed over in favor of Leslie’s funny but ordinary off-site story. The interactions between Ron and April in the aftermath of their hellacious day are what really put 94 Meetings over the top for me. Two dispassionate characters showing each other just a slight amount of playful affection is the perfect melancholy note to end the episode on. (Jeremiah)

Maybe it was a case of low expectations, or really no expectations, but the Raising Hope pilot stunned me. As the lead-in to the much more hyped and extremely disappointing Running Wilde, I had no idea what to expect from Raising Hope when I sat down to watch it. This made its hilarious first act twist, a murderous baby-mama getting the electric chair with former one night stand and unprepared single parent Jimmy (played by the lovable Lucas Neff) looking on, that much more, forgive the easy pun, shocking. The pilot also introduced us to the comedic stylings of Garret Dillahunt, previously best known for killing whores on Deadwood, who steals every scene as Jimmy's dim-witted lawn-mowing father. Unheralded and still struggling in the ratings, Fox should invest some of that freed up Running Wilde advertising budget into building Raising Hope's audience. (Jeff)

Everything Is Broken is the True Blood episode where viewers found out the truth about Sookie (admittedly, much to my annoyance), saw the true end of Franklin (also much to my annoyance), and witnessed the best scene in True Blood history. As the episode ends, we are shown an anchorman delivering a story about how American opinions on the Vampire Rights Amendment were split. Before he can finish his sentence, Russell Edgington (The Vampire King Of Mississippi) appears behind him and shoves his hand through the anchorman’s chest, killing him, and utters “Does that help you decide, America?” Edgington then goes on an awesome monologue about how humans and vampires are not equals, while holding a section of spine in his bloody hand, then tossing it aside and licking his fingers. It was my favorite TV moment this year. (Giovanny)

The catering team at the center of Party Down spend a lot of time wishing they were the ones hosting swanky events. The second season premiere is the only time the shoe is on the other foot. Fallout from last season is handled so deftly and seamlessly it's hardly worth mentioning. Instead, watching Marilyn Manson-esque rock star Jackal Onassis work the night away as Dennis, a bartender, provides a refreshing change of pace for a very funny show that can sometimes feel like its bag of tricks is a little too finite. Dennis never forgets that he's above the job and doesn't have to worry about the consequences of his actions, but he also revels in the opportunity to experience someone else's life. Party Down isn’t cheesy enough to turn this into an uplifting experience for its regulars. Rather, the fact that someone would treat their miserable lives like an amusement park ride is just another in a long line of humiliations. (Jeremiah)

The Lone Star pilot is what television could be like if approached with a network budget and a cable mindset. It’s a glossy, gorgeous looking pilot, with the expensive licensed soundtrack of a film. It introduces us to Bob Allen, a conman trying to fleece a major oil company whilst trying to reconcile his feelings for his wife (the mark), his mistress, and his demanding grifter father. It adeptly handles complicated characters and slowly begins unfurling a delicate plot. One episode later, Lone Star was canceled. The show never should have gone to network – it’d still be thriving if it was made just a little cheaper and given the room to develop and lower ratings expectations of a prestige cable network. Still, it afforded us a glimpse into what network television could be like if smart drama was allowed to thrive there. (Jeff)

The Walking Dead was never going to live up to its colossal amount of fanboy hype. Granted, it kicked ass in the ratings but, when viewed as a whole, I tend to look at the first season as a disappointment. It’s rushed, the characters don’t get time to develop, and some of the plotlines seem downright silly. Days Gone By, however, is a demonstration of just how good The Walking Dead could be, if given time to breathe. Allowed to focus mostly on Rick, along with stellar guest star Lennie James (his would-be sniper scene is amazing), this first episode of The Walking Dead generates more suspense and drama than the rest of the season put together. Let’s hope Frank Darabont and his army of writers can recreate Days Gone By next season. (Jeff)

Following a gorgeous if somewhat hollow pilot, Boardwalk Empire stumbled through the first half of its freshman season. Unevenly plotted, often bordering on dull, I wouldn’t have blamed viewers for jumping off the bandwagon. For those that stuck with it, Home is the episode of Boardwalk that signaled a turning point, and sent us careening into the season’s excellent second half. Home features the introduction of the masked Richard Harrow, as intriguing a side character as existed on television this year (one we’ll see more of next season as he’s been smartly promoted to the main cast). It also boasts the rewarding revenge-kill in Jimmy Darmody’s eradication of a rival Chicago gang. And, perhaps most importantly, Steve Buscemi’s Nucky Thompson finally does something unrepentantly badass when he burns down his childhood home.  (Jeff)

Hatless begins with Raylan on vacation and, given that he’s the angriest man in Kentucky, it’s no surprise that he’s soon found himself brawling in a back alley with two loudmouth rednecks. We’re used to seeing Raylan squeezing off headshots, but here he’s beaten into submission by two drunks and loses his prized Stetson as a result. This weakness isn’t something we expect from Raylan. It shows that the rage that fuels him, noble as its origins might sometimes be, can also be his undoing. With Raylan unmanned, it’s an unfortunate time for him to run up against the sociopathic Wynn Duffy, perhaps the most entertaining and frightening of Justified’s many unstable villains. When all’s said and done, Raylan returns to the bar for his hat. The bartender asks if it wouldn’t be easier to just buy a new one. “Probably,” answers Raylan, “but I ain’t looking for easy.” That’s one badass hour of television! (Jeff)

Ah, the bottle episode. Community might have popularized the term this year, but no one made better use of the format than Breaking Bad. The premise is simple: on the verge of a complete mental breakdown, Walter locks himself and Jesse in their high tech meth lab, determined to kill the fly that might contaminate their latest cook, and is also a convenient surrogate for Walter’s ample psychoses. Anchored by two compelling performances from the show’s justifiably decorated leads and directed by the young master Rian Johnson, Fly is an hour of slow-burning drama that builds to a nail-biting conclusion; Jesse precariously perched atop a pile of furniture, about to snuff out the abhorrent fly while below, Walter, less than lucid, is dangerously close to spilling secrets that could have deadly repercussions. Fly is Breaking Bad at its taut, character-driven best. (Jeff)

Ab Aeterno gave Lost fans Richard Alpert’s back story, which was something they'd been clamoring for ever since he showed up on the island with his guy-liner. In this episode, we were taken to 1876, to find Alpert desperately trying to save his dying wife. After an unfortunate, and futile, trip to the home of a doctor, followed by his arrest, Richard ends up shackled aboard a slave ship, the Black Rock, headed to the New World. What follows is a series of events that really showcase Nestor Carbonell’s acting ability as his ship wrecks on the island, and he is drawn into Lost’s usual madness (visit from the dead wife’s ghost, smoke monster horrors, etc.), all while trapped in a boat full of corpses. Eventually, we learn Richard’s role in the Jacob v. The Man In Black fiasco, and are left quite satisfied. For this episode, anyway. (Giovanny)

I honestly believe that in the next few months, or whenever FX deigns to release it on DVD, more and more people will begin discovering the brilliance that is Terriers. Even though these woefully unhip latecomers are part of the reason that Terriers has been canceled, I still don’t want to spoil the show for them, which is what makes discussing Quid Pro Quo in detail so difficult. This episode is the perfect table-setter for a season finale. Our leads, Hank and Britt, have done damage to every relationship around them, including their own. Meanwhile, the season-long mystery they’ve been running down is coming to a violent head. The episode ends with a shocking twist that even hardened Terriers fans, prepared by a season’s worth of clever plot turns, will be flattened by. (Jeff)

Compared to some of his other endgame shenanigans in the weeks leading up to his exit from The Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien’s last episode is downright tame. Fans burning Jay Leno effigies outside of 30 Rock might have been disappointed in the lack of vitriol on display, but that’s never been what O’Brien is about. Instead, Conan addressed his fans with a monologue both raw and upbeat, telling them not to be cynical. It was a beautiful speech, one that opens a window into O’Brien the likes of which we rarely get from our celebrities. O’Brien had every right to be bitter and an available soapbox to express his frustration, and instead took the high road. The show closing Will Ferrell led rendition of Freebird is a wonderful thing and, if you keep your eyes on Conan, you can see him genuinely having a blast, even as NBC turns the lights out on him. (Jeff)

The true excellence of Modern Warfare is that Jeff and Britta have sex. Or, more specifically, that Jeff and Britta have sex and fans who have been dreading that very occurrence aren’t bothered by it. In an episode jam-packed with allusions to action movies, the culmination of almost a full season’s worth of carefully moderated sexual tension ends up being just the same. The hero and the damsel-in-distress lustily falling into each other’s arms, quickly followed by a double cross. It feels more real and earned than in any action movie I can recall, and still the relationship doesn’t last, just like they don’t last after the credits roll on action movies. After all, relationships based on intense experiences never work. Community’s ability to defuse such a major moment is really just the icing on the cake. The rest of the episode, from the attention to detail in covering every set with paint splatters, to the adherence to the dwindling party trope, to the willingness to play things straight and trust the audience to see humor in the absurd. Modern Warfare is the perfect example of what made Community such an outstanding show throughout its freshman season. (Jeremiah)

In many ways the first season of Louie is a meditation on aging, becoming irrelevant, and dying. In Bully, Louie’s existential fears become personified by a snarling teenage thug who threatens and humiliates Louie while he’s on a date. It’s a brutal, often hard-to-watch episode of television. As an audience, we want Louie to stand up to his bully, but we dread what might result. We watch him stalk the teenager home, simultaneously hoping that there will be some comeuppance for that asshole kid and that Louie won’t do anything to compound his humiliation. The episode ends with a depressing exchange between Louie and the bully’s father that hits all the right emotional buttons and leaves us, somehow, feeling sorry for everyone involved. In a brilliant season of television that broke new ground for intelligent comedy, Bully is Louis CK at the peak of his abilities. (Jeff)

The first two season finale episodes of Breaking Bad left me slightly disappointed. They weren't bad, but for a show as good as Breaking Bad is, I didn't feel completely satisfied by them. That all changed with Full Measure. Breaking Bad is the only show to get two spots on this list with good reason; Season 3 was excellent. In the finale, the volume gets turned way up on the moral questions that have been at the heart of the show for its whole run. The family drama is pushed to the sidelines for one episode, and the suspense and tension are through the roof (the family stuff is a very important part of the show and is usually handled expertly, but it’s rarely the most interesting thing going on). Amidst all this, creator Vince Gilligan (who wrote and directed this episode like a total boss) still finds time for levity and fan service. We get the return of Walt’s porkpie hat, a healthy dose of Saul Goodman, and we finally see Mike the Cleaner unleash his combat skills. Most importantly, we get a thrilling ending worthy of such a great season. Walt’s frantic call to Jesse may have actually elicited a fist pump from me. Watching Walter stand nose to nose with Mike, and transform from a whimpering coward desperate to save himself into a ruthless and calculating man is about as good as TV gets. The tragedy that follows the phone call, and ends the season, left me in stunned silence, until a grin spread across my face and I started to chuckle, in love with the places Breaking Bad is willing to go, and their utter refusal to ever stand still. (Jeremiah)

Tagged as: ab aeterno, best episodes 2010, best TV 2010, breaking bad fly, breaking bad full measure, community modern warfare, conan's last show, jackal onassis, lone star, party down, raylan's hat, richard harrow, terriers, true blood spine rip, walking dead