Shades of Caruso

The 2010-2011 Caruso Awards: The Best Episodes of the Year (10-1)

And now, the big top ten. Looking at this list again, I’m absolutely awed by the quality of these episodes. Every one of them is a mini-masterpiece of drama or comedy. This might be the best year of TV I’ve ever seen, thanks to the two best shows on TV (Breaking Bad and Community), some thrilling new additions to our watch-list (step forward Game of Thrones and The Good Wife), and a sadly departed classic going out on a high (::pours out a 40 for Friday Night Lights). Even a disappointing season of one of my favourite shows (Sons of Anarchy) finished on a rousing note. If you’re just checking this list out and you haven’t seen some of these shows, please don’t read my mini-review. I’ve tried to avoid spoiling, but nevertheless, I recommend every one of these shows, from the pilot to the current day. They are all exemplary, the best of modern TV, as deep as oceans and as fulfilling as a really nice chocolate ice cream dessert, except with no calories. Your life will be richer for watching them.

10. The Good Wife – Real Deal

CBS’ gratifyingly complex political thriller The Good Wife has plots as tangled as a Gordian knot, but this season highlight represents the plotting highpoint. The return of dastardly lawyer Louis Canning puts the lawyers of Lockhart-Gardner into a tailspin, as the manipulative representative of Big Pharma announces that he has had a change of heart and wishes to represent the victims of a toxic dumping scandal. As those victims were already being courted by Alicia and Will, a race begins to sign the most victims to each suit. Canning’s motives are called into question throughout the episode; has he seen the light, or is this a ruse to lower the pharmaceutical firm’s payout? As fascinating as that plot is, the imminent equity partner vote designed to oust shady partner Derrick Bond is where the greatest pleasures of this masterclass in drama lie. In what is possibly the cleverest twist of the TV year, Bond’s Macchiavellian nature is laid bare with a revelation out of the blue, forcing Diane and Will to step up their game in order to save their law firm. Add to this a delightful subplot about Eli Gold, whose cynicism is melted upon coming into contact with one of Peter Florrick’s most passionate supporters, and an appearance by Method Man (METHOD MAN!), and you have what is the most memorable and entertaining episode of a stellar second season.

9. Sons of Anarchy – NS

Was it worth it? The disappointing third season of FX’s biker drama took an unexciting trip to Ireland for most of its run, replacing the bluesy theme tune with a flute-heavy monstrosity, filled the cast with new and unappealing characters, turned the palette to bluey-grey, and squandered SoA’s traditional direct and effective plotting with unspoken illogicality (the reason for hiding Jax’s son Abel) and tedious padding (the seemingly endless debates about going to Vancouver; a nightmare for an audience that knew this would be a wild goose chase). Viewer sympathy drained away, and showrunner Kurt Sutter turned his anger on the fans who were complaining. But was it worth it? For giving us a season finale as balls-out thrilling as this one? Hell yes. All criticism faded from my mind as the tension ratcheted up to exhausting levels, before Jax enacted his plan to turn the tables on the Russian gunrunners, Jimmy O, and dastardly ATF psycho Agent Stahl. The nerve-wracking, lengthy sequence of double- and triple-crosses, expertly handled by Sutter in the director’s chair, made this fan delirious with joy. Sad to see one of the show’s best characters die, but what a perfect way to go, and what a treat for the loyal fans who stuck with it to the end. It’s arguably the show’s finest hour yet.

8. Friday Night Lights – Kingdom

As good as Friday Night Lights was, it could be hard to watch at times. It featured a cast of characters so beautifully realised that seeing them face heartache, rejection or catastrophe could be a wrenching experience. The final season of the masterful family drama didn’t stint on the pain, but much of it was confined to the second half of the season, building up tensions before the euphoric release of the dazzling final episode. Kingdom saw the East Dillon Lions facing the South Kingdom Rangers, the team that battered their morale the previous year. Many dramatic threads are introduced and then abandoned as the team romps to an easy victory, followed by numerous drunken and good-natured celebrations, with even the usually taciturn teachers and coaches letting their hair down. Even the ill-advised shenanigans of the kids don’t have terrible repercussions; this is an episode without melodramatics. A merry episode, then, and perhaps the most joyously entertaining one in all five seasons, with the extra bonus of finally giving the hither-to unbearable Julie plot-thread an unexpected edge. From here, the core characters experienced dark times, but this brief, glorious respite was the most memorable of the season, reminding the viewer of what it was they loved most about the soon-to-end show.

7. Justified – The Spoil

The episode before this (Save My Love) has superbly judged episode-long suspense as Raylan and Winona attempt to return stolen money to Harlan County lock-up, and the next episode (Brother’s Keeper) ends with a nerve-wracking sequence as Raylan’s efforts to protect Loretta end up with one of the Bennett clan dead at the bottom of a mine-shaft. Both are worthy contenders for this list. Nevertheless, sometimes the connective tissue just wins out through grouchy charm and low-key dramatics. After being rumbled by his boss Art, Raylan is given the job of protecting Black Pike Mining executive Carol Johnson as punishment; a situation made worse by a hangover that makes the usually charming Deputy US Marshall turn into a grouch with a hair-trigger. Consumed with his own problems, Raylan tries to stay out of trouble, but instead is dragged into an electrifying set-piece debate in front of the whole town, and is pushed and pulled by Carol, Boyd, Mags and her sons, not to mention his own father; his increasingly tetchy behaviour is a joy to watch, single-handedly justifying Timothy Olyphant’s Emmy nomination. There were more exciting episodes this season, but the wordplay employed by the town’s major players, and the sense of local history infecting every decision and emotion, are perhaps the best example of Justified‘s near-perfect writing.

6. Fringe – Subject 13

Fringe features so many mind-melting tricks and ideas that it’s easy to forget that at its core the show is about the pain of loss, and lies that eat away at the soul. The stunning third season finally found an emotional hook to hang its high-faluting sci-fi ideas on, and the result was an immensely satisfying experience of growing complexity. This episode, a sibling to season two’s superb Peter, is a flashback that further expands the show’s mythology and reveals the origin of Peter and Olivia’s relationship. We see two children suffering from the fateful decision of Walter to abduct Peter from Over There, two identical couples on the verge of collapse, and two Walter Bishops struggling to find a way to solve their problems, no matter what it means they will lose in the process. Every person in Walter’s life begins to suffer under the weight of his remorse, with only Olivia coming out ahead, but at a cost that the audience sees every week with every death and terrible occurrence that follows from her accidental trip to the other universe, and Walter’s decision to protect her at the cost of his son’s freedom. While not as flashy as last season’s stand-out White Tulip, the horrible sadness that frames every scene in this makes it very nearly as memorable. It’s high-concept sci-fi, but Fringe‘s great achievement is how it dramatises the misery caused by good intentions gone awry, and the dishonesty we accept so that we can live with awful choices.

5: Community – Cooperative Calligraphy

The best new show of last season returned with a very satisfying opener before falling into a what felt like a slump, with two highly anticipated themed episodes falling a little flat. After the triumph of season one’s Modern Warfare, these seemed like a problem; if the show was going to try to emulate the brilliance of that episode, would that decision yield returns that diminished even further? It can be argued that later episodes were better, and it’s testament to Community‘s brilliance that three other episodes (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Critical Film Studies and Paradigms of Human Memory) could have taken this place. But Cooperative Calligraphy was the one that reassured us that Community was still capable of being ambitious, funny, and emotionally honest in a way that no other show on TV can manage. The bottle gimmick is brilliantly used to expose the fractures within the study group, setting up the dramatic fireworks of the rest of the season, while proving that the creative team were not about to abandon perceptive and honest character comedy in order to rely on genre spoofs or post-modern smart-assery. In a season that contained numerous classics, this episode by the amazing writing/directing team of Megan Ganz and Joe Russo was possibly the most important. It’s a statement of intent; from here we know this show will play brilliant conceptual games with the audience, but the core of the show — this community of lost souls — will always be more important.

4: Treme – Do Watcha Wanna

Critical chatter about the second season of David Simon and Eric Overmyer’s TV show/educational civic project seemed to focus on how it might now live up to the mighty Wire by introducing darker elements. Crime returned to New Orleans and the lives of many of the protagonists were horribly changed as a result. Nevertheless, Treme didn’t really transform much. Yes, there was a police cover-up plot that ran through the season, and will likely continue into next year, but otherwise Treme remained the same obstinately slow-moving, anti-conflict meditation on art and culture that it always did. What mattered was how Simon and Overmyer continued to flesh out this corner of the world, and the characters that populated it. The result was a work of consistent beauty and power, but no episode summed up their ambition and intention more satisfyingly than the season finale, which brought reconciliation to LaDonna and Larry, strife to Toni and Terry, peace to Davis, hope to Antoine, happiness to Albert, and new opportunity to Sonny, Janette and Annie. With Friday Night Lights now sadly gone from our screens, it’s up to Treme to paint a picture of contemporary American life and community with the same empathy; this nigh-perfect explosion of sadness and joy proves the show is up to the task. Storm clouds may have gathered over New Orleans, but in this season, and especially here, the sun still shone through.

3: Game of Thrones – Baelor

For some of us who had read George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series, it was obvious from the way that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had paced the show that this episode was going to be the big one. Foreknowledge of the shocking events within did nothing to diminish its dramatic power, as honourable but foolish Ned Stark stumbles into a situation he could not have predicted. The final scene – so brilliantly realised in the books – was done justice by director Alan Taylor, and then some. With an epic sweep and a sense of enormous gravity, the oblivious viewer’s expectations are turned upside-down, causing the best kind of emotional pain and discombobulation. Those final moments are so well-handled the show deserves this position for that alone, but that would be forgetting the other episode highlights: the introduction of decadent Walder Frey; the completion of Robb Stark’s triumphant plan; the horrifying revenge of Mirri Maz Dur, and Jorah Mormont’s clumsy but valiant defence of the woman he loves; and Tyrion Lannister’s drunken preparations for war with companions Shae and Bronn. The team behind Game of Thrones had shown enormous confidence straight out of the gate – that can happen when adapting such remarkable source material. And yet, who truly expected something as powerful as this episode so early in the show’s run? It was their crowning glory.

2: Breaking Bad – Crawl Space

The gap between episodes two and one are wafer-thin, and have caused literally minutes of intense reflection. The effect Crawl Space had on the two-thirds of the SoC Massive who watch Breaking Bad was nothing short of a state of desperate horror, a clawing sense of misery and shock that haunted us for days. Everyone who has seen this episode knows what I’m talking about; the bravura final moments where every plot thread in the previous 10 episodes comes together, as if from nowhere, in a sequence of escalating disaster. The maneuvering by the writing team, putting every piece into the right place to trigger this moment, is the kind of long-form storytelling trick I adore, and the end of Crawl Space represents one of the best examples of this kind of intricate plotting. That’s before we get to the stunning direction by Scott Winant; who can forget the beautiful long shot of Walter arrogantly bartering for his life as clouds trail shadows over the desert, or the instantly iconic final shot. It’s also arguably Bryan Cranston’s finest hour. The entire cast is as great as ever (with credit due to guest star Christopher Cousins as the brilliantly realised, truly unsympathetic asshole Ted Beneke), but Cranston is on fire here. He has next year’s Dramatic Actor Emmy sewn up. The memory of Walt, in the midst of a nervous breakdown, lying in a metaphorical grave with Dave Porter’s oppressive soundtrack thudding in the background, will stay with the viewer forever.

1: Mad Men – The Suitcase

So why, when Breaking Bad‘s Crawl Space is as perfect an hour of TV as will ever be made, have I chosen Mad Men‘s The Suitcase for the top spot? Simply because while I am in awe of Crawl Space, much of its impact is due to very smart people working out ideas in a room over a long period of time. That sounds like faint praise; it’s not meant to. Crawl Space is an almost miraculous piece of writing and direction. We’re lucky to have experienced it. Nevertheless, when you go back through the season you can see groundwork being laid. In a million years I would never be able to come up with something as brilliant as that, but I can now almost see the cogs and gears in it, and thus trace that back to a drawing board. I marvel at it, but it can be broken down.

The Suitcase, on the other hand, completely mystifies me. It’s not perfect the way Crawl Space is, but that imperfection, that looseness, is what makes it the most remarkable episode of TV of the last year. I’m sure it’s possible to dissect this the same way I suspect Crawl Space can, but right now it baffles me, and I’m grateful for that chance to enjoy something while switching off that analytical part of my mind that has mutated over the last few years. The richness of its metaphors, the elegance of its dialogue, the effortless and logical resolution of so many arcs; The Suitcase is a masterclass in how to write for TV without showing the workings.

It’s as smooth and perfect as an egg; watching Matthew Weiner’s work here is pure joy. Director Jennifer Getzinger does credit to this remarkable script, drawing career-best performances from Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss as they battle and bond over the course of a night. The progression of their relationship, so often a source of mystery in the show, is here laid bare; they progress from antagonistic colleagues to trusted friends as Don succumbs to grief and reveals his vulnerability, while Peggy becomes stronger and more confident knowing that her work is valued. Their eventual understanding is profoundly moving, and pleasingly symmetrical.

As I said before, it’s “imperfect” in the way that it’s not something that looks like it was made by a genius with charts and graphs, even though it’s rich and complex enough to justify repeat viewings (Daisyhellcakes has watched it about nine times by now). It’s not a crystalline monolith of plotting, or a mechanical thing to be admire, but it’s just… dammit, it IS perfect. It’s just it’s a different kind of perfect.

More to come. Yes, I’m not done yet. I still feel an irresistible urge to talk about the best and worst new characters of the season, and pick my best and worst new shows of the year. The best new show is an absolute no-brainer, I’ll admit.

October 19, 2011 - Posted by admiralneck | Breaking Bad, Community, Friday Night Lights, Fringe, Game of Thrones, Justified, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, The Good Wife, Treme