Best Episodes of the Season | Jmunney's Blog

Best Episode of the Season: The Middle Season 4

June 11, 2013

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Season Analysis: The Middle is the best family sitcom on the air right now, and it has probably set its sights on being one of the best of all time.

“The Friend”
I feel like I (and others) have so often mentioned how interesting the awkwardness of adult male friendship can be that it seems redundant to keep praising shows that present this situation. But Neil Flynn actually does manage to bring something different to the table, by portraying Mike Heck as someone who honestly could not care any less about his lack of friends. Unfortunately for him, he is married to Frankie Heck, who cares way too much about this sort of thing. Fortunately for the viewer, the new neighbor that Frankie sets Mike up on a man date with is played by David Koechner. Koechner is known for playing for off-putting weirdos, but here he is actually allowed to play someone who could comfortably live in suburbia, but he is like all his previous characters in that he follows one rule in life: “I’ll have a beer with anyone.”
The Axl-Cassidy (and Brick) subplot showed that (now dearly departed) relationship getting on well. It deftly played with expectations, with Cassidy and Brick’s shared love of the Planet Nowhere series seemingly suggesting that Brick might develop a crush on his older brother’s girlfriend. But instead, it turns into an opportunity for Brick to teach Axl about culture and make the latter more appealing to his lady.

Best Episode of the Season: Family Guy Season 11

June 11, 2013

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Season Analysis: Season 11 was the loudest Family Guy season yet!

“Yug Ylamif”
I still enjoy Family Guy enough to watch it regularly, but I no longer love it the way I loved it during its early years. Its joke-telling is simply not as consistently sharp anymore. Too often, the gags are just crass for the sake of being crass, without any real rhythm to them. Since the joke-telling cannot be relied on, a modern FG episode needs a solid hook to its plot to work out. A backwards episode isn’t the most unique hook ever, but it is strong enough compared to most other episodes, and it plays on the established FG continuity of Stewie’s time machine, and there is tension because of an endpoint (the reversal of Stewie’s birth) that needs to be avoided. Revisiting the show’s past allows for meta commentary (Meg is voiced by Lacey Chabert for a line) and seems to allow the show to revert to a time when the characters were simply better: case in point – Peter pouts like an older sibling (“I want to be the baby!”) when newborn Stewie arrives home from the hospital. But the main reason “Yug Ylimaf” succeeds – and the most common Family Guy episodes succeed nowadays – is that it focuses on the Stewie-Brian pairing, the most fruitful character combination perhaps in the show’s whole run and certainly the best of the show’s current iteration. Interestingly enough, the best gag has nothing to do with the concept itself and doesn’t rely upon the Stewie-Brian interplay – it’s one of those moments of Stewie muttering something mundane in his sleep (“Mmm, yes, I’d like to return this printer.”)

Honorable Mentions: Further proof that Stewie-Brian is the show’s best character combo: the surprisingly poignant “Brian’s Play,” and “Roads to Vegas,” my favorite of all the Hope/Crosby homage episodes.

Best Episode of the Season: The Simpsons Season 24

June 10, 2013

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Season Analysis: Watching modern-day Simpsons renders quite the existential toll: it does not look like it will ever die, even though it seems like it has already lived its entire life.

“The Day the Earth Stood Cool”
Classic Simpsons is known for its spot-on cultural homages and parodies. Modern Simpsons still takes aim in the same direction, but it is rarely memorable anymore, so it is especially gratifying nowadays to have an episode like “The Day the Earth Stood Cool,” which is essentially an animated episode of Portlandia. Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein voice a couple of Portlanders who pave the way for a Portland-to-Springfield migration, thus turning the Simpsons’ hometown into a hipster paradise (that is to say, Portlandia). Considering that there is already an entire show built around the concept of hipster paradise, one might think this episode would suffer from lack of originality. But there may not be any original concepts left for The Simpsons anyway, so they might as well borrow another show for an entire episode. As a loyal A.V. Club reader, I must point out the gag with the print version of The Onion, in which Marge mistakes it for a real newspaper and then mistakes the A.V.’s harsh reviews of The Wizard of Oz and The Graduate for fake reviews. This gag paints The A.V. Club as harsher/more alternative than it actually is, but it still hilariously gets the point across.

Best Episode of the Season: The Cleveland Show Season 4

June 10, 2013

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Season Analysis: The Cleveland Show was starting to lean too hard on the fourth wall breaking by Season 4. It wasn’t that it was unfunny so much as it was pointless. Other than that, the show remained an essentially agreeable half hour.

“The Fist and the Furious”
It is the nature of every episode of basically mediocre shows like The Cleveland Show to not stick out one way or the other. To break out requires a new or uncommon element, such as a guest voice appearance by the indispensable Bryan Cranston. Cranston voices Dr. Fist, whose name sounds creepy if you are inclined to think of it that way, but it is amusing that the show never really calls attention to that element. The One Who Knocks brings the right mix of badass gravitas and vulnerability to the role of a man trying to escape his past during which he got mixed up with the mob. It turns out that he is in Witness Protection, and it also turns out that his original name was Green-Jarvis Ben-Ellis, only because that sounds funny, not because it has anything to do with the football player. This episode also works as a cartoonishly heartwarming tale of the deeds of friendship, in which Cleveland shoots Dr. Fist to prevent the mob from killing him and then successfully performs surgery on him by doing it Operation-style.

Best Episode of the Season: Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 Season 2

June 9, 2013

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Season Analysis: There were several episodes of Don’t Trust the B… produced for Season 1 that did not air until Season 2. Those were from a time when the show had not yet found its footing, but the Season 2 proper episodes were good enough to put the show in the running as one of the top 3 sitcoms on television.

“Love and Monsters…”
Nothing else besides Don’t Trust the B… in Apartment 23 could so succinctly pull off a subversion of the typical romantic comedy, and the reason why is because it just does not care. That is to say, not that the show does not care, but that its characters, in general, care very little, about anything, especially Chloe, the titular B—-. Chloe has an annual game/long con of picking out a loser at JVDB’s Halloween parties to ruin his life, but her current target, Benjamin, has turned the tables on her by making her life like a romantic comedy, the epitome of all that she is against. Chloe’s lack of caring is illustrated by June telling Chloe over the phone that Benjamin has indeed pulled it off and put Chloe in a situation in which she realizes what she wants has been in front of her all along, and June is in fact able to convince Chloe of this, and then Chloe abruptly hangs up on June. The antics of most characters on this show are enjoyable but off-putting if you take them personally. Luckily, June – the one who most bears the brunt of these antics – has thick skin, and she continues to be willing to stick with Chloe, making their friendship one of the most unique and surprisingly successful friendships on TV.

Honorable Mention: “Dating Games…”
It is revealed to June that Mark has feelings for her, something the audience has known for a while, and it is always enjoyable when a character has a big one dropped on her like that; Don’t Trust the B—- makes it particularly so by having it happen within the context of JVDB testing out his new dating show idea on his friends.

Best Episode of the Season: The Office Season 9

June 9, 2013

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Season Analysis: I had thought the return of creator Greg Daniels might right the totally wayward ship of Season 8, but there proved to be precious little from Season 9 that I actually cared about.

“Finale”
Despite having just said I didn’t care for Season 9, the finale was a solid piece of television. If you haven’t seen any of the show since Steve Carell left, I would recommend skipping everything after his last show and jumping straight to the finale. Perhaps the best way to think of the series ender, in a way that is consistent with ignoring nearly two full seasons, is as a reunion special. Much of the charm comes from getting an update on past guest characters and former regulars like Kelly, Ryan, and of course Michael. Interestingly enough, half of the plot of the episode itself revolves around a reunion special. Taking a behind-the-scenes look at the documentary crew mostly proved problematic in Season 9, but framing the finale as a reunion of the cast of the office documentary for the DVD bonus features was actually an ingenious idea. It allowed for the show to examine its place in the history of the television landscape without being heavy-handed about its message.

Best Episode of the Season: The Big Bang Theory Season 6

June 6, 2013

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Season Analysis: The Big Bang Theory actually had some major developments with some of its main characters, thus defying all expectations.

“The Closet Reconfiguration”
If there is one thing The Big Bang Theory is known for getting right, it is not the emotional beats. I have never once watched an episode of TBBT and thought, “That was beautiful” … until “The Closet Reconfiguration.” Sitcoms tend to be more about emotional resonance than laugh-out-loud moments as they get older. Surprise is the most important element of humor, and there is an inverse relationship between a sitcom’s age and its ability to surprise. But sitcoms can still be worth watching in their golden years, and perhaps the most common reason for that is the relationship between viewers and the characters. Up until this season, TBBT seemed either incapable or uninterested in capitalizing on that connection. The gang is always so petty and snippy with each other that it is a wonder that they have all remained friends for six seasons. But the stories that Howard’s friends told him that all could have potentially been the contents of the letter from his father proved their friendship. Even Sheldon’s version that was obviously the plot of The Goonies managed to show how much he cares. This is what The Big Bang Theory is supposed to be doing: taking a legitimately nerdy idea and giving it a real world application.

Best Episode of the Season: Arrow Season 1

June 5, 2013

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Season Analysis: The soap opera elements are kind of silly, but it’s The CW, so whatever, because the rest of this show is pure, old-fashioned entertainment.

“Sacrifice”
Arrow went for it in every way in its first finale, and it did not require any twists that came from out of nowhere. This was all that the entire season had been building towards: Malcolm Merlyn actually goes through with his plan to destroy the Glades, Oliver goes into hero mode, some characters actually die and some others nearly do, Moira’s culpability is revealed … to everybody, Detective Lance is suspended, Roy does something that makes us think he’s not a total idiot, and most important, there is finally justification presented for why Oliver and Laurel might actually work together. I mean, he still has a hell of a lot more chemistry with Felicity, but all this talk about how Laurel knows him better than anyone else is no longer complete bullshit.

Best Episode of the Season: The Mindy Project Season 1

June 5, 2013

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Season Analysis: The Mindy Project has defied all conventional wisdom regarding how long a show can remain Promising But Still Trying To Figure Itself Out.

“The One That Got Away”
It feels a bit counterproductive to pick “The One That Got Away” as the best Mindy episode so far, because it was a mostly self-contained story and thus does not offer much guidance for future episodes. What this show really needs is a blueprint for Season 2. But the story of Mindy rekindling the fire with an old childhood flame (played by Seth Rogen) was the most enjoyable half-hour of Season 1. Some people are turned off by Seth Rogen; I don’t think they’re giving him a fair shake, but I can understand where they are coming from. But in this appearance, he toned down his persona to something that ought to have been palatable to a general audience. Also, he is in the Army, which is odd, but it somehow works in the context of the episode. I guess the moral of this episode is, Mindy really needs her love interest to be played by someone on the same comedy level as herself.

Best Episode of the Season: New Girl Season 2

June 5, 2013

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Season Analysis: Season 2 of New Girl toned down the quirkiness (which was never really that big a part of the show anyway) to become this pleasant, low-key show that anyone can enjoy.

“Cooler”
I had been a little wary about the Jess/Nick will they/won’t they leading to the two actually getting together, not because I thought they didn’t have enough chemistry, but because will they/won’t they’s have been done so many times on TV already, such that I did not know if New Girl could possibly have anything new to say about it. But when Nick Miller passionately kissed Jess Day (and then did a whole lot more post-“Cooler”), those concerns faded away. Those concerns may not have been answered, exactly, but they did not have to be. The kiss was a chillingly soundless scene, with Nick’s “I meant something like that” punctuating the silence. Maybe a few years later, we will have settled on the meaning of Jess/Nick (Jick? Ness?) in the Will They?/Won’t They? Pantheon, but for now we can just go gaga over how romantic the kiss was and how beautifully it was staged.

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