Before the World Ends (You Know, if the Mayans were Right): The Best TV Show Episodes of The Year

How I Met Your Mother pulls off a Christmas surprise | Credit: CBS

If you have watched WWE, the sight of the babyface¹ wrestler getting badly outdueled by his opponent must be a normal experience for you. His opponent grapples and throws him into the canvass. He gets clotheslined ruthlessly. The ‘face’ suddenly looks pitiful as the audience starts to root for him to have some life. His opponent does a brutal submission move and the face starts to lose some strength. The referee carries his hand up to check if he still can survive the match. His hand falls. Once. Twice. At the last check, the wrestler’s hand is about to drop but he summons all his will to keep it up. He closes his fist and stand up as the fans cheer for him. He is alive! Good Lord, he is alive! The crowd goes nuts. The babyface wrestler punches his grappling opponent to break free. You know how the rest goes, the babyface carries on with his momentum to win the match in underdog fashion.

That was the feeling I had on ‘How I Met Your Mother’s Season 8 Episode 11/12. Just like wrestling, this scripted show has become lazy and predictable for a lot of times this year. But because I already followed it through the years, I find myself watching it episode per episode. Hoping for some life. Back in its heyday, I could easily recall notable (or even minute) details of the previous episodes. Right now, the last memorable episode I could remember is Marshall’s father’s death (or maybe Robin’s narration episode last Christmas). Heck, I could not even remember who Ted’s last girlfriend was before he reunited with Victoria. But on this Christmas episode, HIMYM definitely threw a brilliant haymaker. I know this might sound strange in the present time but I think that episode is one of the year’s bests.



The year is about to end so I want to commemorate the best TV series episodes by writing about them. I had limited TV viewing experiences this year, thanks to my US assignment (the irony of ironies as it was tougher to follow TV shows if you have to watch them at a certain time of the week. You are banned from downloading pirated stuff as well). Here they are in random order (I put How I Met Your Mother at the last so you can read through without getting spoiled):

Mad Men Season 5 Episode 11: The Other Woman

Credit: AMC

“At last. Something beautiful you can truly own.”

This show may have slightly gone down by a bit this year but it remains to be the best in television. This episode showcased how they could revolve around the idea of feminism. This is what strikes me the most for ‘Mad Men:’ the show could focus on an abstract theme with bits and parts of the characters’ actions – even contrasting ones, but most of it would revolve around that idea as the plot progresses. That is beautiful storytelling. If ‘Breaking Bad’ thrives on plot twists and surprises, ‘Friday Night Lights’ tugs on your heartstrings, ‘Mad Men’ is about fantastic storytelling. This episode focused on the contrasting ways of Peggy Olson and Joan Holloway to go up the corporate ladder. The empowered Peggy grew tired of Don’s insensitivity and signed a job offer from their rival firm. It elicited one of the most dramatic sequences this year with Peggy leaving SCDP while Don desperately (while appearing not to be) asked her to stay. On Joan’s storyline, she always lived on the ‘I’m an old fashioned woman but I don’t want to grow old doing the same routine’ perspective. She tries to change this but she did it at the expense of how her peers respected her. The episode featured the fantastic Jaguar pitch sequence that may be the best TV sequence of the year.

Best Sequence: Jaguar Pitch (even if the resignation sequence is a very close one). I chose artistic over heart-wrenching because the former is more difficult to pull off. There are more cry-worthy scenes in TV shows while you rarely see artistic ones.

Homeland Season 2 Episode 5: Q&A

Credit: Showtime

“You broke my heart, you know. Was that easy for you? Was that fun? Because of you, I questioned my own sanity. I had myself committed to a mental institution. I lost my job, too. I lost my place in the world. I lost everything.”

This goes here simply because it featured the most intense 15 minutes of television this year. Claire Danes and Damian Lewis pulled off the Suitcase² Award for Best One-on-One Dramatic Sequence of the Year. You can feel the inner struggle that Brody had as Carrie tries to convince him that siding with America is the right thing. The way Carrie tried to play with emotions made it more sterling. I may have some issues on ‘Homeland’ being the best show of the year (which Grammy voters thought), but I have zero qualms on Claire Danes taking the acting plum. I also like the way on how the show made you want to root for Brody in this episode. The Dana-Finn date incident was shockingly good as well as it tapped the humanity of Dana. It was an underrated storyline of the season that helped you realize how greyish the characters are (i.e., Vice President, Dana, Finn, Brody).

Best Sequence: Is this even a question?

Breaking Bad Season 5 Episode 5: Dead Freight

Credit: AMC

I know that there is something shaky on this episode like, how the hell where they able to plan that in such a short time? That was pretty much the thing that is setting back ‘Breaking Bad’ this year. But for what it’s worth, this episode featured a breath-taking hour of television on how they were able to steal the chemical from the train. You know the moments when you want the TV characters to stop being greedy and stop what they are doing so that they can successfully get their mission?³ This is one of those moments. With the wild emotions brought by the urgency you want the characters to have, the episode brings you to a wilder emotional swing as Todd shoots the innocent kid. Having ‘Friday Night Lights’ references, I ended up laughing hysterically at that scene. I know it is not the appropriate response but because it was good ol’ Landry Clarke murdering someone again – bloody hell – I couldn’t stop laughing at the dark humor it brought. But on a normal person perspective, that scene evoked a bigger negative reaction to the characters. You know they were already bad, but killing a kid is on another level. It also invoked Jesse’s soft spot for the children.

Best Sequence: The Kid Killing Scene

Mad Men Season 5 Episode 12: Commissions and Fees

Credit: AMC

“I think something is terribly wrong in Mr. Pryce’s office. I can’t get the door open.”

This penultimate episode made us wanting for more. It was a heart-breaking hour of television as we watch Lane attempt to commit suicide. And boy, does ‘Mad Men’ excel in dark humor. When Lane tried to kill himself in the Jaguar vehicle, it was hilarious that it could not start. Even in suicides, you could not trust Jaguar! Sally’s date storyline was also a good one as it enabled her to return to her much-hated mother⁴. January Jones is not a sterling actress by any means but her bitch face of success when Sally returns to her was awesome (either way, she thrives on that). But the best scene of them all? The time when they saw Lane hanging. It was a brutal, heart-wrenching scene. It is always sad to see characters die in TV shows because they have been part of our regular viewing. But to see them commit suicide, that is another thing. The hysteria of Christina Hendricks (Joan Holloway) and Vincent Kartheiser (Pete Campbell) was superbly acted. But Jon Hamm’s (Don Draper)? That was the best. Especially given the fact that this is the second guy he indirectly killed. And if you are a baseball fan, isn’t it a bit of dark humor that Lane hanged himself near a New York Mets pennant? (For those who don’t know, the Mets are the beleaguered brothers of the highly successful New York Yankees)

Best Scene: The Hanging Lane Scene. It is cut into two parts but both are equally impressive.

How I Met Your Mother Season 8 Episode 11/12: The Final Page

Credit: CBS

“Well… a word in defense in making an ass of yourself is underrated. Eight years ago I made an ass of myself chasing after you and I made an ass of myself chasing after you a bunch of times since then. I have no regrets…”

Brilliant episode. It is not the year’s best but HIMYM knows how to save some of its best punches for the big games. The preliminary episode was decent at worst. It featured a good social realization (the pit) which is actually one of the strong suits of the show. I also liked the idea of the jinx. A desperate Barney is always funny.

Episode 12 has got to be on the pantheon of great HIMYM episodes. It had Season 1-esque elements in it. It had the hopeful romantic storyline and this time, it is not even Ted Mosby on its centrepiece. It is Robin Scherbatsky, who after all these years has learned how to mature into a committed lover. She goes on and fights for her love and makes an ass of herself by chasing after Barney. Another highlight of this episode is Ted’s underrated speech to convince Robin to go and make an ass of herself. I have to admit I got moved by it and I wanted to throw a pillow at my television after watching it. This was because it is genuinely true.⁵ Or maybe, it was the romantic side of me telling me that we always make an ass of ourselves when we fall in love, but we never regret doing it because you know, as Jaime Lannister (of “Game of Thrones”) said, “the things we do for love.” These romantic hopeful TV shows make people like me stupid when it comes to such things and you know what, we do not regret a single part of it. True story. This is like Ted in Season 1 saying “make the mistake.” This brought out the romantic Ted we all rooted for in the first seasons.

Aside from which, “The Robin” play was actually brilliant. Yes, it was manipulative but you have to admit, don’t we all have a strategy in winning a girl’s heart? I think the fact that Barney mentioned that it was his last play (and the fact that he burned the Playbook) showed that he is committed to this. The extra kick on this has to be the last step (Hope she says yes). No matter how manipulative “The Robin” was, it still ends up on the idea of hope. Barney still risks the unknown because he is hoping that Robin also feels the same way for him. And that makes it the exception to the rest of his plays. Thank you, HIMYM writers for giving us a wonderful Christmas present.

Best Sequence: Toss-up between the Ted Speech and “The Robin.” I’ll take the underrated scene because it felt more genuine.

Not sure if this is my last writeup before Christmas, so I am wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

<sup>1. - wrestling term for the good guys↩
2. - “Suitcase” is the best episode of “Mad Men” Season 4 (and probably of all-time) where the episode just focused on Don Draper and Peggy Olson. It is tough to carry an episode with just two characters in dialogue for the whole time but they did it in amazing fashion. ↩
3. - it was the “Stop it! Get it out of there! What you have is already enough. Run and take what you have. What? You’re still going for it? Ack! You’re gonna get caught” feeling↩
4. - Sally had her first menstruation. She panicked. She was supposed to be hating Betty because let’s be honest, she is a bitch. But, Sally’s intuition led her to cry for help from her biological mother. ↩
5. - Sapul ka, Gago! ↩</sup>