I was recently rewatching the IT Crowd, which is one of my favourite shows and after finishing Season 2 Episode 1, “The Work Outing” for the hundredth of time I realized this is probably my favourite sitcom episode of all time. I just can’t get bored of the jokes and the delivery. The writing is gold, and the story escalates from funny to absolutely insane hilarious. Makes me laugh every time. Half the dialogue I quote to this day.
There are many good episodes I love, and could put here as close seconds: probably most of the Futurama series, a dozen of episodes of The Office or some classics from the Friends, I could think of.
So I would like to hear what episodes of any TV show is your favourites and why? Doesn’t needs to be necessarily comedy, anything from television is fair game.
Think of it as a “what single item would you bring to a desert island with you” question, just with an episode of a TV show :)
Firefly, Out of Gas
Bo Jack - Free churro.
A Dark Quiet Death from Mythic Quest.
Nearly totally removed from the rest of the show, it’s about relationships, sacrifice, integrity, compromise. For a comedy show about video games, this episode hit hard and made me reflect on past relationships and really broke me down. A reminder to take responsibility of your actions when you feel like the blame is external.
Then there’s a very brief end scene that puts it in context with the regular cast.
This episode should have won an award.
Always Sunny, “The Gang Hits the Road”.
The entire episode is just them driving around Philly with the intention of going elsewhere, but the plan gets derailed in typical gang fashion when they wind up just switching seats over and over (both in and out of the U-Haul) until they end up back where they started, and with zero interest in continuing the original plan.
Honorable mention for my favorite moment in a TV show - Brienne of Tarth a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. What a shining, glorious moment of satisfaction for a hardworking and truly good character in a season of utter bullshit.
I will always feel that we were robbed of so many satisfying conclusions because of the show rushing to wrap everything up. Not everything had to be tied in a perfect bow, but what we got certainly did not scratch that perfectly placed itch.
It’s an absolute travesty that they threw away nearly every character’s arc in the final season and robbed them of their big moments, purely to subvert expectations. These arcs were predictable because that’s where their stories were fucking heading. But noOoOoo…
Jaime is probably the show’s finest example of an eight-season arc thrown directly into the trash at the last moment. What was even the point?
I understand they wanted some characters to be disappointments, it could have been cool to have Jaime get super close to a satisfying arc and, at the last second fail. But the last few scenes with him completely backpedalling his entire motivation make no sense.
GOT had so much going for it. And yet, in a post like this asking about favorite episodes, no one is even mentioning it’s earlier fantastic episodes - the final season ruined all previous good work.
I don’t think this has been mentioned yet and might not be seen but…
The finale of Six Feet Under. It’s my favorite show, and the finale is the only episode of a show (other than maybe Futurama) that made me cry. I can’t even explain why, and there’s so many other episodes of SixFUnder that are incredible, but I’ve never in my life seen a show end that strong, and it’s my favorite show.
Monorail monorail monorail
I really enjoyed the episode Forks from The Bear, particularly after the traumatic gut punch that was Fishes. Hit close to home and didn’t expect a Taylor Swift song to break me, much less in a GOOD way.
Star Trek TNG S6E21 Where Riker gets put through psychological hell in magnificent fashion. It spells out clearly everything that’s terrifying about psychedelics, and mental hospitals commandeering your life with discrediting tactics.
Also I love the wrestling episode of King of the Hill because Bobby and Connie subvert expectations of warring adults in grand fashion!
The circle of life episode of Adventure time is such a blast! Very trippy.
Samurai Jack - The Scotsman
One of the best episodes of one of the best animated series of all time.
The Late Philip J Fry in Futurama. It’s a really sweet but sad episode, and I loved how they explored all the different eras. Episodes which involve Farnsworth’s wacky inventions are always my faves!
This is a tough one. My go-to is usually that episode of the IT Crowd. Second on my mind is Breaking Bad’s Ozymandias, but someone already said that.
So, I have to pick two to tie for first.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia S3E1 - “The Gang Finds a Dumpster Baby”
There’s a lot of perfectly written IASIP episodes, but this is probably my favorite. Every little detail is perfect, and I think it’s better than the pilot at showing the characters’ personalities. We have Mac and Dee trying to take care of a baby together, Charlie and Frank becoming homeless because they can’t stop collecting garbage, and Dennis seeking revenge on a hippie because he got called out.
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This episode really has some of the best Dennis moments. I think about Mac and Dee trying to tan the baby a lot, but the funniest part of this episode to me is when Dennis is trying to act more environmentally conscious than everyone else, so when the hippie long-windedly calls him a poser, Dennis just runs over to the gang and tries to use that insult on them. It shows their dynamic perfectly.
The Office S6E9 - “Murder”
This is a much-needed break in the middle of a tense overarching plot about DM’s finances. It’s not the best Office episode, but it’s probably the best Michael episode. There are episodes like “Scott’s Tots” that are iconic because he learns a lesson the hard way. But this episode is one of the few where we see Michael take action. The entire office is miserable so what do we do? Play a game and do funny voices. It’s a Michael activity through and through, but he uses it to help the office take their minds off a bad situation. It’s also one of the only times during the comanagement arc that Jim and Michael really synergize. Really funny, super sweet, and some of the best lines in the series.
I think about these jokes almost daily:
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Dwight: Voodoo Mama Juju, explain your dalliance with the Dark Arts.
Angela: It’s not my fault, I was exposed to Harry Potter.
Dwight: I know you did it!
Dwight: I know she didn’t do it. It’s never the person you most suspect. It’s also never the person you least suspect, since anyone with half a brain would suspect them the most. Therefore, I know the killer to be Phyllis, AKA Beatrix Bourbon, the person I most medium suspect.
Tap for spoiler
Oscar: [tries to speak in a high-pitched southern accent] This plantation, we’re running low on greenbacks. We’re having problems paying the people who give us the seeds and the dirt. We can’t pay… [in regular voice] – Michael, I can’t – Basically it could mean a lot of things, but it is unprecedented, so its cause for concern.
For some reason, my mind went to first episodes/pilots. Of these, I’d say that Suits and The OC are up there with some of the best.
As for the actual best episode, I’d go for My Lunch, the Scrubs episode where there’s a rabies outbreak amongst organ transplant patients. Alongside this, probably Tracy does Conan from 30 Rock, and the musical episode of IT Crowd.
That rabies one is good. Also the one with Brendan Fraser is a classic.
Yes, Scrubs is so good. I honestly believe My Lunch and My Screw Up are the two best written episodes of any TV show.
Brooklyn 99 - “The Pontiac Bandit” & all subsequent Pontiac eps.
Family Guy - “Mr. Saturday Knight”
The Tales of Ba Sing Se from S2E15 of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
It is an incredibly poignant, albeit beautiful tableau about the loss of a child in a filler episode of a Y-7 Nickelodeon show. On top of that, the voice actor whose character is at the center of this incredibly painful story was dying of esophageal cancer during the recording and the episode ends with his in memoriam.
