Past countdowns: 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011
Mom has continued to be a very underrated sitcom (even if Kristen Johnson's presence has annoyed me this season). The season premiere dealt with Christy's attempted return to college and it was interesting to see how this difficult leap for Christy can relate to being sober as Mom has continued to explore new journeys. There was also a great comedic scene with Christy and Bonnie trying to retrieve her purse from Christy's work and setting off alarms.
Leave it to 9-1-1 to produce a completely bonkers Christmas episode. From a man thrown from his roof by a giant inflatable snowman to another man being tossed into a package at a shipping facility to a heartwarming return of a soldier in time for his daughter's Christmas concert (but not before a major accident of course). There were also some great moments in the unlikely Bobby/Athena romance and an impending problem for Maddie with her abusive ex-husband back. Leave it to 9-1-1 to have my favorite holiday episode of the year.
The Kids Are Alright has been a pleasant surprise this fall for me after a so-so pilot episode. It found its groove as early as the second episode with a very funny episode that featured Timmy plagiarizing his mother's poem to win a contest. And then of course it was found out that his mother also plagiarized the poem which led to a funny stand-off of who would blink first. Mary McCormack is a hoot in this episode, the next in the great line of ABC family comedy mothers including Beverly Goldberg and Jessica Huang.
One of my favorite shows of the year due to my guilty pleasure love for magic was the short-lived ABC drama Deception. I am disappointed it wasn't able to find a bigger audience but I enjoyed its one season run. The best episode was "Escapology" which featured an elaborate escape from a museum. If there's one form of magic I like the best, it's escaping from somewhere like an art museum so I was happy to see Deception tackle that magic trope and tackle it well so early in its run.
The most anticipated episode of the ear was easily the post-Super Bowl airing of This is Us dealing with Jack's death and it didn't disappoint. In typical This is Us fashion, it was not quite what we thought it was going in but perhaps that made it even more tragic. It was anchored by the criminally underrated Mandy Moore, who is so deserving of Emmy nominations for her work on this show. And in the final seconds, it launched us to a brand new era when we met future Tess and Randall. It's impressive for an episode with this much hype to not disappoint.
I have had an off and on relationship with Chicago PD, but this fall has been very strong for the veteran drama. The best episode of the fall was "Fathers and Sons," which had a very intriguing and suspenseful storyline featuring Ruzek and his father. Just like the Chicago Fire to come on this list, this episode did a great job with pacing and building suspense. The reveal of Ruzek's father in the club was a great moment and it just built in intensity from there. It was emblematic of what is certainly the most consistent season for PD yet.
The Goldbergs isn't as funny as it used to be and it feels a little bit like the same thing every week at this point. But it hit its high point with its first episode of 2018, a zany episode that featured the Goldbergs going out to dinner and the many problems that ensue. As you can imagine, Beverly Goldberg is not going to be easy on any waitstaff at a restaurant as there are order changes, food complaints, and everything else you can imagine. This reminded me of one of those classic episodes of Friends where they just plopped the cast down together and let hilarity ensue. There were less distractions from other plotlines and characters, it was just a great family episode.
One of the more tense episodes of Chicago Fire, a series that peddles in tense situations quite often. This one felt a little different because it wasn't just about a fire somewhere or some corrupt situation in Chicago politics. This was basically a "stakeout" episode as the FBI camped out at Firehouse 51 to try to capture a violent fugitive with family living across the street. Chicago Fire is not a show where I am usually on the edge of my seat but I was with this one, especially as Casey and Severide were making their way through the apartment building. It had a good sense of plotting and urgency that didn't feel forced.
Black-ish has never shied away from difficult topics. An episode about the "n-word" ranked #1 on my countdown a few years ago. However, it can also struggle with occasionally veering too close to a "very special episode." Luckily, it struck the right balance this spring with an episode where Dre and Bow found out that both their oldest children are sexually active. Dre's drastically difference responses to that news from his daughter as opposed to his son was funny but also a social commentary on gender dynamics and Black-ish explored that dynamic with a great level of finesse.
This summer, I decided on a whim to give the Netflix show Everything Sucks! a chance and to my surprise, I discovered a modern day Freaks and Geeks: a nostalgic show layered with cynicism and tragically cancelled after just one season. The best episode from its 10 episode season dealt with a trip to California to shoot scenes for the movie at the center of the series. It was a sad episode on many levels as the episode started with such hope and ended with such heartbreak, but it was also a great coming-of-age episode for a great coming-of-age series.
Many were curious to see how the premiere episode of The Conners would deal with the death of the character Rosanne Conner. Of course the real life Roseanne did her best to spoil it beforehand, but it was a pleasant surprise that The Conners has actually turned out to be a better show than the Roseanne revival (though it's not as good as the original Roseanne's heyday). The best part of the pilot episode was a dramatic and layered performance from John Goodman, who previously seemed to be phoning it in a bit in the revival. The death of the central character gave the rest of the cast a chance to pick up the slack and they did it with flying colors.
God Friended Me is my favorite new drama of the year. I know it's a little bit emotionally manipulative but I think it is grounded in good intentions and anchored by some very strong performances. It reminds me of a gentler version of Person of Interest as a puzzle has to be pieced together every week. The second episode, centered on a sweet story about a mother and her non-verbal son, made me realize what this show is going to look like on a weekly basis and I liked what I saw. Knock it all you want for being a feel-good version of a "case of the week show," we need uplifting shows like this on TV.
I continue to maintain that Superstore is the spiritual successor to The Office with its unique blend of mostly downtrodden blue collar workers making up its ensemble. For a couple years, they rarely strayed from Cloud 9 but the Golden Globes Party episode was one of the first chances to see these characters outside of work, something The Office moved towards eventually to. This is a hilariously madcap episode with great moments from Glenn, Dina, Amy and many more. The fact that it took place mostly at Amy's house helped give these characters more depth simply through the change of scenery.
The final episode of Law & Order: SVU for Raul Esparza's Rafael Barba was a great episode of the long running drama. It was also an episode that dealt with a hot button issue in a more creative way than many SVU episodes: the concept of quality of life. That was very personal for Barba with flashbacks to the end of his father's life. Esparza gave an Emmy quality performance (although shows like SVU never get nominated anymore) and his presence is very missed on the show. The episode also had the bonus of the return of Sam Waterston as Jack McCoy.
I know it wasn't always great TV, but I just loved Timeless. I had an interesting history with the show as it didn't keep my interest in season one, but I started it again when it got saved for a second season and I became hooked. So I was sad to see it get cancelled a second time then delighted to hear it got a final movie. The trip to 1950 North Korea at Christmas time was a pretty interesting final trip and then the show had what I felt was a satisfying resolution even though I wanted more. A very haunting rendition of "Time After Time" playing over the final montage made me just so sad this show couldn't find a way for its passionate online following to translate to actual viewers.
9-1-1 was so insane, especially in season one and I loved its commitment to just the craziest cases they could possibly dream up. My favorite was the Valentine's Day episode which was probably the weirdest of them all. There was a Broken Heart Syndrome in a plane and Buck choking in a restaurant. But the craziest story was the main one about a psychotic woman who murdered her boyfriends and then attempted to do the same to Athena. The episode evoked memories of the movie Misery and was genuinely pretty terrifying.
New Girl had quite an interesting run. There were times where I thought it was the best show on TV and times where it infuriated me with its incompetence. It came through in the end though with a final episode that captured the best of the show. That was thanks in large part to its best character - more on that in a minute. Before the final scene, we got to see the gang play True American one last time in their apartment as there was a flash forward to their kids playing the same game (alcohol free of course) in the future. But the final twist involving the delightfully weird Winston made the finale more than sentimental, it made it quirky and funny and that was always what New Girl did best. For a show that I was kind of over before it was over, the finale made me surprisingly nostalgic.
I already talked about the strengths of the post-Super Bowl episode of This is Us, but the best one of the year for me was the next one, "The Car." The episode chronicles the journey of the family car: from the eager and excited Pearson family buying it with their young kids to Rebecca soldiering on without Jack in the days following his death. There's also a beautiful storyline of Jack and Rebecca talking about mortality as Rebecca awaits an MRI result. But what makes this episode is the final scene when Rebecca faces her fears and takes the car and her children over a bridge that scared her before and we know the family will eventually be okay.
Sterling K. Brown stepped over from This is Us to guest star on Brooklyn Nine-Nine in an episode that made me so glad that NBC uncancelled this show a month later. I think Brooklyn has not always met its mark but it can be capable of sheer brilliance as it was here. This was such an engrossing episode thanks to its complete focus on the main storyline. There was very little going on in the episode besides the main plot featuring Andy Samberg's Peralta, Andre Braugher's Holt, and guest star Brown. And as great as Brown was, even he was a little expendable as this episode played to the strengths of its two leads in a way I would venture to say it never has before with such clarity.
In a year with several series finales, the best for sure was the end of the Hecks and their story living in The Middle. The long running ABC sitcom never wavered in quality for nine years and that's incredibly impressive considering what happens to many sitcoms at a certain age. The finale was a delight for fans of the series as it not only featured many callbacks to the run, but was also a showcase of everything great about the show. It featured the core family love with layers of dysfunction around it. Everything about the finale struck the exact right tone down to the plane flying over The Middle in the final shot. Although I was intrigued by it, there's a part of me that's glad the Sue Heck spinoff isn't happening so the last of the Hecks we will ever see was this beautiful goodbye. It's a well deserved #1 episode of 2018.
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