January Meme: Top Ten Great TV Episodes of 2018
Which isn't the same as a list of personal favourite episodes - slightly different category - , and of course limited to media I actually watched, so if your own pick for "great episode of 2018" isn't in it, it might be simply for this reason. Also, there's no particular order of quality among the episodes themselves.
The other days
Star Trek: Discovery: Despite Yourself: this kicked off the second half of Discovery's first season and had the daunting task of reintroducing the Mirrorverse to Star Trek in a way that on the one hand kept the parts beloved by fandom (opportunity for the regular cast to play evil selves, sexy costumes, aura of menace) while not falling into what the last DS9 Mirrorverse episodes had become, i.e. a camp costume party without any emotional stakes on either the audience's or the characters' parts. The episode managed this was aplomp, and then some. Despite Yourself and the following episodes were the first Mirrorverse tales since Kira originally met the Intendant in Crossover which actually used the concept to explore something about our regular characters that's meant to be disturbing to them, both on a Doylist and Watsonian level. It took the fascist universe concept seriously while still delivering on the "regular actors enjoying themselves" front (standout in this episode: Tilly!). It didn't waste time by making the characters wonder endlessly where they were when the audience knew this already while still providing in-universe explanation as to why they realised this so quickly. The costumes - for the first time in ST history created by a female, not a male costume maker - managed to be sexy while still being believable and functional for a military dictatorship. It was both connnected to the season's themes - who are we, who could we become, who do we choose to be? - and a good episode in itself. The one downside was the spoilery event that's still one of the downsides of the first season in general, but even so: I do regard this as one of the greats of 2018.
Better Call Saul: Winner: The season 4 finale, which in the way it delivers on one of the show's central premises both awes and kicks you in the gut. Character development that's been building up through four seasons comes to a key point, the opening flashback is both a brilliant preparation for the final scene and a layered look at a central relationship, and in a season where the balance between the Jimmy and the Mike storylines was often uneven, here they both come with a satisfying narrative weight and conclusion. 'Twas brilliant, both as a season finale and an episode by itself.
The Last Kingdom: Episode 6 (of the third season): in which the season takes a breath midst intrigues and fight scenes, puts its various other subplots on hold and simply focuses, for an hour, on two central characters working their way through grief for a third in a way that also examines their relationship, who they were, are and will be to each other. And I realise that one of my favourite tropes - two former friends still deeply emotionally connected but for good and solid reasons (i.e. because of their own convictions and choices, not because a villain misled them or anything like that) opposed to each other in the present - actually is used here (as opposed to the book material) in Brida and Uthred. I'm pretty fond of the show in general, but I wouldn't call it brilliant otherwise. This episode, however, is.
A Very English Scandal: Episode 3: The entire three parter, written by Russell T. Davies and directed by Stephen Frears, is great, but this last episode has to pull off the daunting task of delivering something at least a part of the audience already knows the ending of (i.e. the Jeremy Thorpe trial), and where historically, no one wins (the party in whose favour the case is decided never gets their old life back). There's also the tricky way the miniseries balances humor with very dark stuff. And we have a big ensemble, added to which is a new character of importance, Thorpe's lawyer. All those balls are kept in the air beautifully. Frears' last few movies went into a sedate direction, but this miniseries has the combination of wit and genuine anger expressed via satire from his 80s stuff. RTD, whose script manages that, also has his flaws as a scriptwriter in general, but here he displays only his skills and virtues: everyone (other than the judge, and since said judge doesn't do anything the historical original didn't do or say, infamously, this is hardly Rusty being mean) is depicted three dimensionally, the pace feels fast despite offering plenty of quiet character moments, the dialogue is razor sharp (though one outstanding scene, between Thorpe and his second wife, actually depends on silence on his part for the effect it has). Hugh Grant and Ben Wishaw are fantastisc in the central roles. It short: great episode, great conclusion to a great miniseries.
Legion: I have mixed feelings about the second season overall, but in its middle, it delivered a trio of truly great episodes between I can't decide. 2.04. is Syd's big character examination and showcase, providing David and the audience with her backstory in a very inventive - and, as always with this show, visually stylish - way. 2.06., otoh, is the big acting showcase for our leading man, as we see various versions of David through the timelines, both actual ones, might have beens and could still be's, and foreshadows/plants some of the finale's emotional motivations. (It also examines David's relationship with his sister Amy through all timelines, which is important because of what the previous episode revealed and because the audience hadn't seen Amy since the last season.) But I think I'm going with 2.05, which is more of an ensemble piece (prominent roles for Lenny, Clark, Ptonemy and David on the one hand, Oliver and Faroukh on the other), working its way up to the big, horrifying reveal at the end via three interrogation set pieces while the parallel flashbacks finally provide the audience with some (needed) information as to how Oliver feels about his "relationship" with the Shadow King and their actions.
The Americans: START (season and series finale): show finales are even trickier than season finales to do well: they have to wrap up central relationships not just of the season but of the show, have to do justice to the general themes of the series and its tone (not to be underestimated, that last -something like, say, the famous Blake's 7 finale feels just right for B7, but if it had happened in, say, Farscape, I'd have hated it, despite Farscape having plenty of darkness). START managed all of this - imo, as always -, and, as an added bonus, made a somewhat overplayed song like Within You, Without You feel fresh and perfect for the scene in question. And to the end, it trusted its actors with silences as much as with dialogue, leaving this viewer a fan happy with a rich, layered story well ended.
GLOW: Mother of all Matches: this female-centric wrestling dramedy won my not-a-wrestling-fan heart and kept it, not least by the way it manages complicated characters in its half an hour format, provides them with development and lets them take turns re: audience sympathy. She who is a jerk at one point can be a heroine at another, and vice versa. Also, minor characters from last season can get the spot light this season (and again, the reverse.) The season why this particular episode stood out for me more than, say, the later Nothing Shattered (where our two main characters have it out in a blistering scene) is that Mother of all Matches skillfully intertwines the stories of two very different characters, Tammé (this is her big episode, not just of the season but the show so far) and Debbie (on an emotional downward spiral) in a way that works and reflects on each other. There are some incredibly funny scenes (Debbie selling all her furniture to spite her husband) that still work as a metaphor for what's going on with Debbie inside, and some incredible painful ones (Tammés face when her son witnesses her character's humiliation in the ring is one of the outstanding acting moments of the entire show, and still makes me want to cry) which also make a comment about the society they're taking place in. And while it's doing all of that, the episode also includes a great show case for Ruth's quick improvisational storytelling skills at the end. In conclusion, it's a great one.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Midnight at the Concord: the mid-s2 turning point, a showcase of Midge's comedy talent, charm and egocentricity (Susie's acid comment as to Midge's rush to NY is well earned) at the same time while also providing us with some genuinely touching moments (one of them, suprisingly, between Joel and his mother - Joel's parents as opposed to Midge's more often than not come across as broadly written stereotypes, but the tenderness of the "you look nice in your coat, Ma" scene is anything but). The episode in itself includes its own mini rom com (Midge and Benjamin going from non-speaking to romantic couple within it, and yet it feels completely belieavable), and the return of a favourite, Lenny Bruce (whom the show uses just rightly, never too often, so each of his appearances are a highlight), but the true emotional climax it works towards is Midge's gig at the end which turns into an outing scene managing to be funny and painful at the same time. Incredibly well donen, Amy Sherman-Palladino.
The Haunting of Hill House: Two Storms: The first five episodes of this tv version were each focused on a different Crain sibling, both in flashbacks and present day action, introducing not just the characters and their relationships from different angles but the two time lines. The question from the pilot - "what exactly happened in the night the Crain family left Hill House, and why?" - has been gaining fragments of an answer. It won't be answered in this episode, either, and yet this is where all the emotional complexity build up in the previous episodes both in the flashback timeline and in the present day time line gets its first big pay off, as all the main characters are in the same room again and forced to interact with each other and all their pent up issues. It's an elegant Aristotelian nightmare (the three unities are kept in both timelines, but how!) of a drama, and in terms of writing, acting and visualisation to me the highlight of the season.
Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab: I was wavering between this one and "Rosa", both well done self contained historicals with minimum sci fi content but good character moments for our regulars. Demons of the Punjab wins out for moving me that tiny bit more in how it deals with how differently the memory of the dead can be used, offers both radicalisation (Manesh) and killers actually changing (the aliens), which in a year where you had the WWI anniversary on the one hand and current day vicious nationalism winning in so many places in the world on the other felt like a very timely tale indeed. The guest stars are excellent and the cinematography is gorgeous.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1320974.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
The other days
Star Trek: Discovery: Despite Yourself: this kicked off the second half of Discovery's first season and had the daunting task of reintroducing the Mirrorverse to Star Trek in a way that on the one hand kept the parts beloved by fandom (opportunity for the regular cast to play evil selves, sexy costumes, aura of menace) while not falling into what the last DS9 Mirrorverse episodes had become, i.e. a camp costume party without any emotional stakes on either the audience's or the characters' parts. The episode managed this was aplomp, and then some. Despite Yourself and the following episodes were the first Mirrorverse tales since Kira originally met the Intendant in Crossover which actually used the concept to explore something about our regular characters that's meant to be disturbing to them, both on a Doylist and Watsonian level. It took the fascist universe concept seriously while still delivering on the "regular actors enjoying themselves" front (standout in this episode: Tilly!). It didn't waste time by making the characters wonder endlessly where they were when the audience knew this already while still providing in-universe explanation as to why they realised this so quickly. The costumes - for the first time in ST history created by a female, not a male costume maker - managed to be sexy while still being believable and functional for a military dictatorship. It was both connnected to the season's themes - who are we, who could we become, who do we choose to be? - and a good episode in itself. The one downside was the spoilery event that's still one of the downsides of the first season in general, but even so: I do regard this as one of the greats of 2018.
Better Call Saul: Winner: The season 4 finale, which in the way it delivers on one of the show's central premises both awes and kicks you in the gut. Character development that's been building up through four seasons comes to a key point, the opening flashback is both a brilliant preparation for the final scene and a layered look at a central relationship, and in a season where the balance between the Jimmy and the Mike storylines was often uneven, here they both come with a satisfying narrative weight and conclusion. 'Twas brilliant, both as a season finale and an episode by itself.
The Last Kingdom: Episode 6 (of the third season): in which the season takes a breath midst intrigues and fight scenes, puts its various other subplots on hold and simply focuses, for an hour, on two central characters working their way through grief for a third in a way that also examines their relationship, who they were, are and will be to each other. And I realise that one of my favourite tropes - two former friends still deeply emotionally connected but for good and solid reasons (i.e. because of their own convictions and choices, not because a villain misled them or anything like that) opposed to each other in the present - actually is used here (as opposed to the book material) in Brida and Uthred. I'm pretty fond of the show in general, but I wouldn't call it brilliant otherwise. This episode, however, is.
A Very English Scandal: Episode 3: The entire three parter, written by Russell T. Davies and directed by Stephen Frears, is great, but this last episode has to pull off the daunting task of delivering something at least a part of the audience already knows the ending of (i.e. the Jeremy Thorpe trial), and where historically, no one wins (the party in whose favour the case is decided never gets their old life back). There's also the tricky way the miniseries balances humor with very dark stuff. And we have a big ensemble, added to which is a new character of importance, Thorpe's lawyer. All those balls are kept in the air beautifully. Frears' last few movies went into a sedate direction, but this miniseries has the combination of wit and genuine anger expressed via satire from his 80s stuff. RTD, whose script manages that, also has his flaws as a scriptwriter in general, but here he displays only his skills and virtues: everyone (other than the judge, and since said judge doesn't do anything the historical original didn't do or say, infamously, this is hardly Rusty being mean) is depicted three dimensionally, the pace feels fast despite offering plenty of quiet character moments, the dialogue is razor sharp (though one outstanding scene, between Thorpe and his second wife, actually depends on silence on his part for the effect it has). Hugh Grant and Ben Wishaw are fantastisc in the central roles. It short: great episode, great conclusion to a great miniseries.
Legion: I have mixed feelings about the second season overall, but in its middle, it delivered a trio of truly great episodes between I can't decide. 2.04. is Syd's big character examination and showcase, providing David and the audience with her backstory in a very inventive - and, as always with this show, visually stylish - way. 2.06., otoh, is the big acting showcase for our leading man, as we see various versions of David through the timelines, both actual ones, might have beens and could still be's, and foreshadows/plants some of the finale's emotional motivations. (It also examines David's relationship with his sister Amy through all timelines, which is important because of what the previous episode revealed and because the audience hadn't seen Amy since the last season.) But I think I'm going with 2.05, which is more of an ensemble piece (prominent roles for Lenny, Clark, Ptonemy and David on the one hand, Oliver and Faroukh on the other), working its way up to the big, horrifying reveal at the end via three interrogation set pieces while the parallel flashbacks finally provide the audience with some (needed) information as to how Oliver feels about his "relationship" with the Shadow King and their actions.
The Americans: START (season and series finale): show finales are even trickier than season finales to do well: they have to wrap up central relationships not just of the season but of the show, have to do justice to the general themes of the series and its tone (not to be underestimated, that last -something like, say, the famous Blake's 7 finale feels just right for B7, but if it had happened in, say, Farscape, I'd have hated it, despite Farscape having plenty of darkness). START managed all of this - imo, as always -, and, as an added bonus, made a somewhat overplayed song like Within You, Without You feel fresh and perfect for the scene in question. And to the end, it trusted its actors with silences as much as with dialogue, leaving this viewer a fan happy with a rich, layered story well ended.
GLOW: Mother of all Matches: this female-centric wrestling dramedy won my not-a-wrestling-fan heart and kept it, not least by the way it manages complicated characters in its half an hour format, provides them with development and lets them take turns re: audience sympathy. She who is a jerk at one point can be a heroine at another, and vice versa. Also, minor characters from last season can get the spot light this season (and again, the reverse.) The season why this particular episode stood out for me more than, say, the later Nothing Shattered (where our two main characters have it out in a blistering scene) is that Mother of all Matches skillfully intertwines the stories of two very different characters, Tammé (this is her big episode, not just of the season but the show so far) and Debbie (on an emotional downward spiral) in a way that works and reflects on each other. There are some incredibly funny scenes (Debbie selling all her furniture to spite her husband) that still work as a metaphor for what's going on with Debbie inside, and some incredible painful ones (Tammés face when her son witnesses her character's humiliation in the ring is one of the outstanding acting moments of the entire show, and still makes me want to cry) which also make a comment about the society they're taking place in. And while it's doing all of that, the episode also includes a great show case for Ruth's quick improvisational storytelling skills at the end. In conclusion, it's a great one.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Midnight at the Concord: the mid-s2 turning point, a showcase of Midge's comedy talent, charm and egocentricity (Susie's acid comment as to Midge's rush to NY is well earned) at the same time while also providing us with some genuinely touching moments (one of them, suprisingly, between Joel and his mother - Joel's parents as opposed to Midge's more often than not come across as broadly written stereotypes, but the tenderness of the "you look nice in your coat, Ma" scene is anything but). The episode in itself includes its own mini rom com (Midge and Benjamin going from non-speaking to romantic couple within it, and yet it feels completely belieavable), and the return of a favourite, Lenny Bruce (whom the show uses just rightly, never too often, so each of his appearances are a highlight), but the true emotional climax it works towards is Midge's gig at the end which turns into an outing scene managing to be funny and painful at the same time. Incredibly well donen, Amy Sherman-Palladino.
The Haunting of Hill House: Two Storms: The first five episodes of this tv version were each focused on a different Crain sibling, both in flashbacks and present day action, introducing not just the characters and their relationships from different angles but the two time lines. The question from the pilot - "what exactly happened in the night the Crain family left Hill House, and why?" - has been gaining fragments of an answer. It won't be answered in this episode, either, and yet this is where all the emotional complexity build up in the previous episodes both in the flashback timeline and in the present day time line gets its first big pay off, as all the main characters are in the same room again and forced to interact with each other and all their pent up issues. It's an elegant Aristotelian nightmare (the three unities are kept in both timelines, but how!) of a drama, and in terms of writing, acting and visualisation to me the highlight of the season.
Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab: I was wavering between this one and "Rosa", both well done self contained historicals with minimum sci fi content but good character moments for our regulars. Demons of the Punjab wins out for moving me that tiny bit more in how it deals with how differently the memory of the dead can be used, offers both radicalisation (Manesh) and killers actually changing (the aliens), which in a year where you had the WWI anniversary on the one hand and current day vicious nationalism winning in so many places in the world on the other felt like a very timely tale indeed. The guest stars are excellent and the cinematography is gorgeous.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1320974.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.