The 100 Best TV Episodes This Century

10 episodes The Ringer got just right, 10 shows they picked the wrong one from, and 10 more they missed entirely…

What are the best 100 TV episodes this century?

It’s an innocent enough question posed by The Ringer, but it’s had the internet buzzing during an otherwise slow news and sports week. They limited it to just episodes aired this century and only one episode per show, but it was still impossible to narrow the list to 100 great choices. And honestly, they did a pretty great job. It was an excellent list overall with a lot of terrific choices. I’ve personally seen 49 of the 100 episodes, and I liked five of the episodes they chose so much that I wrote about them. But other choices were puzzling, and some iconic shows were left out altogether.

So it’s time to put everyone’s favorite pop culture website through the ringer. What did The Ringer get right on their list? Which shows did they pick the wrong episode from? And which shows did they miss entirely?

We’ve got 10 from each category. Here’s the original piece as a reference…

10 Episodes They Got Exactly Right

Lost “The Constant”

Yes. As incredible as the Lost pilot was, “The Constant” was perfect. I can’t say anything better than what Juliet Litman has already said so brilliantly.

Mad Men “The Suitcase”

We always longed for more scenes with Don and Peggy, but their rarity is what made them so special. THAT’S WHAT THE MONEY IS FOR!! Iconic.

Better Call Saul “Chicanery”

The Ringer ranked this one at #46, and it feels like a case of reverse recency bias. Better Call Saul is shaping up to be an all-timer and “Chicanery” was Saul at its very best with Michael McKean going full Emmy in his on-trial meltdown. This one should age like fine wine, and you could’ve made a case for it in the top 10. Saul is back Monday, and after a pretty dull TV summer, it’s about time.

Black-ish “Hope”

Black-ish is the rare sitcom whose finest moments come not from comedy but poignancy. Kenya Barris writes and produces Black-ish beautifully and brings an important voice to an increasingly less white medium. It’s a voice that matters a lot in 2018, and “Hope” was a powerful conversation about police brutality toward African-Americans. It’s a conversation we’re still having.

Community “Remedial Chaos Theory”

With respect to “Modern Warfare” and the other paintball classics, “The Pen” bottle episode, and the annual Halloween affairs, “Remedial Chaos Theory” and Abed’s alternate timelines correctly reign supreme. Even if we really are living in the darkest timeline.

How I Met Your Mother “Slap Bet”

Sitcom television perfection. The slap bet is the best running gag in HIMYM, and we get the introduction of Robin Sparkles on top of it.

Silicon Valley “Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency”

The title alone brings a smile to your face.

Survivor season 1 finale

People got #madonline about the inclusion of some reality TV moments, but Sue Hawk’s rats and snakes speech that ultimately swayed the jury to vote Richard Hatch as the first sole Survivor was the most iconic moment in reality TV and launched the entire genre. Without Sue, Survivor was just a popularity contest won by the pretty white girl Kelly. Her speech and subsequent vote rewarded strategy over likability, and it was responsible for all the mountains of reality TV that followed. For better and for worse.

Master of None “Thanksgiving”

It feels a little early to include episodes from a show just two seasons in, but good on The Ringer for throwing Master of None into the mix anyway. Season Two was a portrait of modern romance and one of the best complete seasons in recent television.

The little moments that define a show

It’s tough to pick a stand-out episode from a show like 24 or The Walking Dead built entirely around advancing the plot, but it was those early twists that got us — the Nina reveal in season one of 24 and the SOPHIA!! moment for TWD. Chapelle’s Show was a bunch of standalone moments, but Rick James was the best one. And I don’t even like Doctor Who, but “Blink” is still an all-timer. Sometimes when shows vary so much from one episode to the next, it’s that one iconic moment that really stands out.

10 Shows They Got the Wrong Episode On

Parks and Recreation One Last Ride → Flu Season

“One Last Ride” was the worst choice on the entire list. Seriously, who watched all of Parks and Recreation and came away thinking the series finale was the show’s apex? They tried something new with the flash forward into the future, and it was… interesting? There were moments. But how possibly stack up with some of the all-time comedic moments Parks produced? “Leslie and Ron” was the far better final-season episode, and “Lil Sebastian” is precious and endearing. Heck, there are at least three better “Ron and Tammy” episodes alone. Why does The Ringer hate Parks and Rec? They ranked this episode at #41, then put it at #9 on their finales list behind such luminaries as The Hills somehow. “Flu Season” was Parks at its apex, and television has never done body humor better. Stop. POOPING.

The Americans The Colonel → START

The Americans is such a slow burn that the season finales were always going to weigh in as the best episodes. Each season was a long slow arc that led to a gripping conclusion. But with that same logic, isn’t it obvious that the series finale was the show at its very best? It’s only been a few months, but the parking garage scene and the train scene still have my head spinning. “START” was the perfect end to a show that will probably look better and better with time, and I will never listen to U2 the same way again.

Atlanta B.A.N. → Teddy Perkins

This one shocked me. Atlanta has a lot of terrific episodes and, personally, “B.A.N.” would’ve been closer to the bottom of the list than the top. It’s not at all representative of the show as a whole. “Teddy Perkins” was the most haunting 41 minutes of television in 2018 thus far, brilliantly acted by Lakeith Stanfield and Donald wait-that-was-HIM?! Glover. It ignited conversations about child prodigies, music, African-American culture, Get Out, and more, and it’s one of those episodes that still has me thinking four months later.

Breaking Bad Ozymandias at #10 → Ozymandias at #1

Settle down, we’re not questioning the choice of “Ozymandias.” It was a brilliant if not obvious choice, even as wonderful as the finale “Felina” was, and even against the brilliantly punned “Face Off” and the weird-but-I’m-into-it bottle episode “Fly.” Shows like Breaking Bad are why The Ringer limited the list to one episode per show. But how did “Ozymandias” fall all the way to #10 on the episode list behind things like Survivor, The O.C., and True Detective? It was the best single unit from one of the greatest television shows in history. They probably should’ve just skipped the 0 and put it at #1.

South Park Good Times with Weapons → Scott Tenorman Must Die

I don’t even like South Park that much, but this was one of the weirdest choices on the entire list. Do people even remember “Good Times?” There were so many other more obvious choices. “Scott Tenorman” is pretty widely accepted as the top SP episode but they could also have gone with “Make Love, Not Warcraft,” “Trapped in the Closet,” “Fishsticks,” or my personal favorite “Christian Rock Hard.”

The Office Dinner Party → The Injury

How do you pick, really? “Dinner Party” was fantastic in all of the best and worst Office cringe-worthy ways. “Diversity Day” was an early hit. “Casino Night” is a classic. “The Dundies” were Pam’s breakout moment, or “Niagara” if you’re sentimental. “Christmas Party” is my personal favorite (YAAAAAANKEE SWAP). Anything but “Scott’s Tots,” really. But Michael accidentally grilling his foot and getting rescued by a concussed Dwight just provides so many perfect moments and interactions.

Arrested Development Top Banana → Pier Pressure

I can’t get too mad about his one since “Top Banana” is a wonderful episode and we’ve all used the line “There’s always money in the banana stand” a time or two. The truth is that the first handful of Arrested episodes are all classic because they set up all the recurring jokes the show comes back to time and again after. But nothing beats the one-armed J. Walter Weatherman and his many lessons in “Pier Pressure.” And that’s why you always leave a note…

Black Mirror Be Right Back → San Junipero

A strange choice. Black Mirror really hit mainstream after the first few seasons, and “San Junipero” was a pretty obvious choice here since it won all the awards. I’d also prefer “White Bear” or “Fifteen Million Merits.”

Friends The 90s → The One with the Unagi

The Ringer left Friends off the list entirely since it feels like a 90s show, but the back half of the show aired in the 2000s, and it’s such an iconic show that it needed to be on a list of 100. We can’t go with the classic “The One with the Jellyfish” (WE WERE ON A BREAK!) or the apartment-dividing game show “The One with the Embryos,” but there are still some other classics. You know exactly what unagi is and your mind sees Ross’s fingers, so it’s gotta be on there. We would also have accepted the one with all the cheesecakes, where Paul’s the man (Bruce Willis), or the finale. Speaking of which…

Their Rankings of Pilots and Finales

You can peruse the article for them yourself (Ctl+F “pilots”) but these top tens were awful. Chris Ryan’s pilot list included some classics but somehow left off Homeland, Arrested Development, and maybe the most iconic pilot of all time in Lost. How does the Lost pilot not make the top 10? Alison Herman’s finale list was better at the top but missed three classic finales from Friends, Breaking Bad, and The Shield. A lot of people would rank the Lost pilot and Shield finale as their best ever, so leaving both off the top 10 is very weird.

10 Great Episodes from Shows They Missed Entirely

Scrubs “My Screw Up”

There was no more egregious omission from The Ringer’s list. Scrubs was a comedy, but it always circled back to those gut-wrenching moments that tug at your heart strings. And nothing was more crushing than the reveal at the end of “My Screw Up.” Scrubs had so many great pairings — J.D. and Turk, Turk and Carla, J.D. and Janitor — but nothing matched the moments when J.D. finally got a moment with the mentor he tried so endlessly to live up to, Dr. Cox. And this was the ultimate J.D.-Cox moment.

The Shield “Family Meeting”

Somehow The Ringer left The Shield off the entire top 100. The show had its ups and downs, but there may not be a more perfect ending than “Family Meeting,” a finale so good it made the other 87 episodes all worth the journey.

Halt & Catch Fire “Who Needs a Guy”

The Ringer actually wrote a bunch about Halt & Catch Fire, so it was surprising to see the Gordon’s devastating final-season death overlooked. It wasn’t exactly shocking for a character who’d long been struggling with a brain disease, but that didn’t make the many moments any less gut-wrenching. Everything after this was mostly just resolution, but this was one of those episodes where you just sit in stunned silence for a half an hour after the credits roll.

The Newsroom “We Just Decided To”

It just feels wrong to have only one Aaron Sorkin episode in a list of the top 100. Say what you want about The Newsroom, and it definitely got idealistic and preachy at times, but the pilot was the perfect set-up, Sorkin at his finest.

Chuck “Chuck versus the Colonel”

Maybe Chuck is just a personal favorite, but it was one of my more surprising omissions from the list. There were a lot of great episodes, in part because it always felt like Chuck might get cancelled, so every mid-season and season finale had to act as a series finale, just in case. Chuck versus The Ring or Santa Claus would also have been worthy choices.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, the John Carpenter episode

“Hi Dad. Um… I don’t really need your help. I just wanted to let you know that I’m gonna win the million dollars.” Millionaire was a phenomenon, and John Carpenter was the first winner. What a television moment.

Big Brother season 14, the funeral episode

Yes, more reality TV, the “funeral” of Big Brother great Dan Gheesling. What an incredible moment by one of the game’s best players. The looks on the contestants’ faces tell you everything you need to know about just how real this emotional moment was. An iconic moment and an all-time strategic move that could not have been any more brilliant if it were scripted.

American Crime “Episode Seven”

No, not the O.J. show. This is just American Crime, and season two’s boringly-named “Episode Seven” was the most riveting hour of television in the past few years, but in the worst way possible. Directed by the great John Ridley, the bullied Connor Jessup can’t take it anymore and brings his gun to school for a now all-too-familiar feeling. It’s hard to watch but important, and done so brilliantly. And that moment with mama Lili Taylor when she realizes what happened — that moment changes everything.

Pitch “Pilot”

It feels long and forgotten now, but the Pitch pilot was one of the best I have ever seen, and I was certain a new star show had been born. Kylie Bunbury was a genuine star, the general populace cared about Major League Baseball, and FOX really had something. I’ll never understand what went wrong.

The League “Mr. McGibblets”

Fight me.

That’s it! What did I get wrong or miss? And what other episodes did The Ringer miss on their list?

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