I'm going to be doing a list of my favourite shows of the year in a little while, but before that, I thought I'd give a quick shoutout to the best individual episodes that aired in 2020. It's been such a strong year for TV, and there's been so many standout hours and half hours. This is going to be slightly more informal than some of my other posts: I'm just a guy, standing in front of whoever's reading this, asking you to enjoy this list of favourite episodes. I think it goes without saying that this is all my opinion, and that I haven't seen everything, so if I leave something out or you don't agree with one of my picks.... well now you know. With that out of the way, here are some of my honourable mentions:
Episode 5 (Devs)
Between You and Me (Dead to Me)
Middle Game (The Queen's Gambit)
Horrority House (Big Mouth)
The Thomas Thorne Affair (Ghosts)
Episode 3101 (Kidding)
The Stakeout (Inside No. 9)
Episode 7 (Sex Education)
Episode 10 (Normal People)
Warning: from here on out, there's spoilers about
10. On the Run (What We Do in the Shadows)
Confronted by a face from his past, Laszlo is forced to flee to Pennsylvania, where he assumes a new identity and takes over a bar. There, he's Jackie Daytona, a regular human bartender and a pillar of the local community. This episode is everything I love about What We Do in the Shadows. It's a simple gag taken as far as possible, getting sillier and sillier before ending on an ace final joke. Matt Berry's always been one of the consistently funny things on the show and he's at his best here, relishing every minute of Laszlso's cunning deception. I'm just in constant awe of how funny this show is. Especially in this season, the grasp on the characters is so strong, and putting them in situations like this is a testament to how well they work. Giving Berry an episode to himself to just stretch his tendrils and deliver some classic Laszlo antics was a great decision, and Jackie Daytona is one of the show's greatest creations. It was the funniest episode of the year for me, one that revealed a simple truth: with a toothpick and a pair of jeans, anyone can turn invisible
9. Zoey's Extraordinary Glitch (Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist)
Because it's working with such a solid high concept, it didn't take long for Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist to get into a (ahem) groove. Every episode up to this saw Zoey hear someone's thoughts, try to fix them, fail, and then figure out what was really going on before a heartwarming final musical number. It works really well, and the show quickly eased into a musical-scrape-of-the week formula that it was comfortable with. But screw comfortable, because the eighth episode reversed it entirely to showstopping, heartbreaking effect. With stress mounting and bad news imminent, Zoey's powers short out and leave her singing her own inner feelings out loud. For an episode that delves into some weighty topics, it's a surprisingly fun time, and most of that comes from Jane Levy's wonderful performance. Even though the episode signals the darkness to come, she revels in the huge, intricate musical numbers. It's a reminder that, although the concept is well established at this point, the board's not set just yet. Life is full of surprises, and TV is too
8. Are You From Pinner? (Killing Eve)
2020 was the year I stopped caring about Killing Eve. I'm not happy to admit that, because that first season was near perfect, and the second had its moments, too. But the third season's fifth episode was an unexpected gem, on-par with anything the season one gave us. Did we need to see Villanelle's family? Probably not, but by taking her out of the narrative for a bit, the show reminds us why she was such a great character to begin with. Its slow pace was crucial: it gave the show time to breath, and to enjoy its quirkier moments. Jodie Comer is great as ever, bringing disarming amounts of warmth to Villanelle that the show rarely gets to deliver outside of her relationship with Eve. Shoutout to her family too. They're all great characters, and by switching up the cast, the show finds something new in the plot, something that had been missing up to this point. Is it a shame that the show loses that mojo in the next episode? Yes. Is it disappointing that it was the only great installment this year? Also yes, but what an episode it was. Sometimes a change of pace is just what the uh, killer ordered
If Gangs of London's greatest strength is the scalp-scorching action sequences, then its fifth episode absolutely plays into that. I actually think it might be the best action film of the year, and the closest we've gotten to The Raid 3 this side of The Night Comes For Us. It's a tense, roaring bit of chaos from the start, as Welsh thug Darren desperately tries to survive an onslaught of Danish mercenaries. Like the best of Gareth Evans' work, the storytelling is economic and fits perfectly around the action sequences. Every scrap tells a story in this episode, and it serves as the turning point in the huge, intricate narrative that makes Gangs such an engrossing watch. Everything before it felt like a warm up, and everything that follows feels like its aftermath. What's most impressive about it is that it manages to create a breathless, immersive rollercoaster ride that doesn't even feature any of the show's main characters. And when the dust settles, the episode feels like a dark reminder that, to quote Westworld, these violent delights have violent ends
So much of Primal is about trauma. In a wordless story, the characters are left to communicate through their pain; they express it themselves but also recognise it in others, and it's in this common ground where the show delivers its greatest moments. At this point, we know that Spear and Fang have an unbreakable bond forged in loss. It's what keeps them going in a cruel, uncaring world where everything is out to kill them. But when confronted with a group of witches and left utterly defeated, hope comes from the most unexpected place. I love this episode for a few reasons, like how it conveys so much emotion just through its visuals. That's a Tartakovsky trademark going all the way back to Samurai Jack, but he's really honed it in Primal. Every episode is a stunning piece of animation but what makes this one work is that it expands the world of the story past Fang and Spear. A Cold Death is another episode that reminds the viewer that nothing is black and white and empathy can always be found, but what makes Coven so great is its perspective. Lula the witch sees herself in the two main characters in the same way they saw themselves in each other, and that's why she saves them. In a violent, uncaring world, all we've got is each other, and that's at the heart of Coven of the Damned, and what makes it stand out from the rest of Primal's incredible first season
One thing I love about Mike Flanagan is how the changes he makes in adapting a text always feels thematically true. From the start, there had always been something about Hannah Grose that felt kind of.... off. Cue the fifth episode, a heartbreaking, non-linear and almost self-contained ghost story that was surprising in all the best ways. It was an episode that served the show's ideas rather than the plot and was stronger for it. Here, a ghost is an expression of grief, an act of love and an articulation of terror, and the episode evokes all three simultaneously. It's an immensely moving hour of television that uses the medium's strengths to its advantage, playing a little more abstract to tease out some heavy existential poetry. It's properly scary, wildly intelligent and deeply sad: everything great about Flanagan condensed into a perfect hour of horror storytelling. It's truly wonderful, and the jewel in the crown of Bly Manor
How do you end a show that's already taken on Hell, time loops, infinite voids and the existential nightmare of being in Florida? If you had asked me how I thought the last episode of The Good Place would end, I'm not sure I would have known how to answer. It's a show that regularly reinvented its whole premise and kept things fresh every time. Instead of providing a definite, conclusive end to the story, The Good Place let every character go out on their own terms, giving each of them their own perfect ending. For Jason and Chidi, that was reaching fulfillment, while Tahani and Michael embarked on new adventures. As for Eleanor? She made her exit in a way that perfectly encapsulates what the show was about in the first place and finds peace by helping the people that matter most. It was a real victory lap for The Good Place, putting a bow on one of the century's greatest pieces of comedy. It was the end we wanted and the one we needed
I considered so many episodes of Lovecraft Country for this list (see also: Sundown, I Am, Meet Me in Daegu, Holy Ghost and Jig-a-Bobo), but eventually I settled on Strange Case, one of the most thought-provoking episodes of TV I've seen in ages. Basically, Ruby is given the ability to turn into a white woman at will. What follows is a sharp, fiendishly intelligent and wickedly entertaining commentary on privilege. Her power starts as a gift but ultimately becomes something more: a responsibility. She starts using it for good, righting wrongs in a way that the world prevented her from doing previously. If Lovecraft Country's horror was drawn from the hideous, sinful racism of America's past, then Strange Case (and most of the show in general) is about reclaiming it and using it to forge a better future. The episode also features some cracking body horror, surreal and gory and full of meaning. The show just knows how to translate its ideas visually in the most impactful way possible. In a year where America was more chaotic and divided than ever, Lovecraft Country sought to articulate every one of those fears, and in Strange Case, it hit its absolute peak
As Better Call Saul catches up with Breaking Bad, the line between Jimmy McGill and Saul Goodman is gradually disappearing. In the fourth season finale, Saul took over and became the dominant personality, and as season five went on, Jimmy died a little more with every episode: every time the world took a chunk out of Jimmy McGill, a piece of Saul grew back in its place. Bagman is the moment where the process speeds up. If the whole show is a battle between two personalities, then this is the chapter where Jimmy loses himself in a desert hell and walks out 100% Saul. It's a true epic that takes Jimmy out of his natural environment to be born anew. What gets it this high on the list, though, is how it marks a turning point in Jimmy's relationship with Mike. Their dynamic has consistently been one of the best parts of the show but with nothing to rely on except for each other, Vince Gilligan forces them into a situation that leaves them forever changed. Speaking of Gilligan, the episode feels like such a labour of love, and you can sense the blood sweat and tears that have gone into making it. It really paid off, not just as one of the best episodes of Better Call Saul, but as one of the highpoints of Gilligan's career
Bojack Horseman's penultimate episode was such a punch in the gut, not because it introduced something new, but because it used something that was in front of the audience the whole time to devastating effect. Every episode starts with that intro sequence: Bojack gliding through his life, the people around him flit in and out, he plummets into his pool and the episode begins. The View From Halfway Down uses that image, capturing the chaotic fantasies churning in Bojack's brain as he drowns. It's the darkest moment in the whole series, the absolute rock bottom that Bojack's threatened to reach since episode one. And yet, it's deeply, deeply beautiful. Surrounded by everyone he's lost along the way and confronted with performed reenactments of his past mistakes, Bojack finds himself immersed in the void, so deep that escape is impossible. It's sad, and funny and experimental: everything that makes the show great. Nice While it Lasted gets an honourable mention for evening things out again, but in the show's darkest hour, Raphael Bob-Waksberg and his team find something eerily magical. Watching it for the first time was an experience I'll never forget, the absolute creative peak of one of my favourite shows of all time. There can be no doubt about it- this was my favourite episode of 2020
