Best television episodes

Top Nine Episodes of Television, because I have nothing else to blog about...

9) Friends - The One with the Embryos
While Phoebe is off to have her brother's baby, the rest of the cast come together in the spirit of competition. What makes it great are the interactions between the cast. Friends has always had a large number of guest characters that are used for both their humor and as catalysts to the plot. This episode shines because of its focus on the core cast and some extremely well written jokes.

8) CSI - Blood Drops
The first great case I remember from CSI, a quadruple homicide is the main focus for the CSI team. I am not a fan of the spin offs and the original series has been wearing thin on my patience over time, but this episode was the one in which all the people gelled and the story was woven in beautifully.

7) Homicide: Life on the Streets - Three Men and Adena
The case that started in the very first episode would end up being the one detectives Moby Dick. As two characters attempt to wring the truth out of a street vendor about the murder of a young girl, their vigilant battle is finally lost. The drama comes together so swiftly and heartbreakingly, I'll never see another interrogation as brilliant.

6) Star Trek: The Next Generation - Best of Both Worlds
I believe I already discussed my reasons for enjoying this in my post about Star Trek: The Next Generation. Repition would only make geeky swooning lamer.

5) Angel - Waiting in the Wings
While they are several other great Angel episodes, this one takes the cake for encapsulating the series: an odd mystical plot (ghost ballerinas), humor (jokes about vampire dancers), poignant moments (a dancer explains the horror of being forced to repeat the same dance over and over), and relationships (Wesleay's dispair over Gunn and Fred's budding romance).

4) Battlestar Galactica - The Miniseries
The miniseries both setup the rest of the great show and set a high bar for quality for what would follow. Acting, direction, writing: all top notch.

3) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Visitor
Heartbreaking at its best, Sisko would never be the same after. Like a the best of plays, this episode rises above standard Star trek and joins the realms of great drama with Shakespeare, Spielberg, and Hemingway.

2) The West Wing - Two Cathedrals
An unexpected find, The West Wing has quickly risen to being one of my favorite shows ever. If only I had watched it before posting my Top Nine shows. Two Cathedrals takes the use of flashbacks, now overdone in the Lost era, and builds to the most powerful climax of a season ever. Martin Sheen's should have won the Best Actor Emmy, dammit!

1) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Way of the Warrior
While The Visitor completely removed itself from Star Trek and moved on to greatness, this season opener took everything I loved about DS9 and made it all work. From big character scenes to small character scenes, little pieces of action to humongous battle sequences, political machinations to the small manuverings of a crew out on the edge of space; The Way of the Warrior has it all.