A Selection of My Favorite Television Episodes of 2023

As the year starts winding down and I start fine-tuning my list of the best series of the year, I thought it would be prudent to list off some of the better episodes of television of the year. This is, by no means, an all-inclusive list. There were countless episodes of TV that made me laugh, cry, and wish I was was watching something else. Some of these series didn’t even make my year-end list.

Feel free to jump into the discussion and I look forward to seeing you next month with my annual recommendation of what you should go back and binge.

These episode discussions are riddled with spoilers. Quite frankly you shouldn’t read any of the ones where you haven’t watched the series. This is your only warning.

Succession – “Connor’s Wedding” (Season 4, Episode 3)

There’s a scene in “Connor’s Wedding” where Jeremy Strong’s character Kendall Roy lectures his brother Roman (Kieran Culkin) and his sister Siobhan (Sarah Snook) about their reaction to their father’s death. “what we do today, will always be what we did the day our father died,” he explains.

What was deeply hidden in that lecture was essentially the series self-reflecting on how it handled the exit of its most polarizing character, Logan Roy (Brian Cox).

Creator Jesse Armstrong had to know that “Connor’s Wedding” would be the series’ defining moment it would always be judged upon. And much like the series’ iconic main title theme music, it imbeds itself into your brain never to be forgotten.

How the big twist in Connor’s Wedding came to fruition was expert bait and switch. By the time Succession got to Season 4, Episode 3 we had already seen two weddings in the series. We expected them to look a certain way. We expected the characters to behave a certain way. We were distracted. The tip-off that something is going awry was completely missed by all of it. As Shiv sends a call from her estranged husband Tom (Matthew Macfayden) we all silently mumbled a course, “ugh fuck that guy,” to ourselves…but the second call directly after it…

That’s when Armstrong taps you on the shoulder to let you know that Connor’s Wedding isn’t going to look like Shiv’s wedding…or Caroline Collingwood’s wedding from Season 3.

Logan’s death seems to come out of no where. One minute it’s the siblings scheming their move against their father and the very next second they’re thrusted into the reality that it’s all coming to an end. That was Succession’s entire final season in a nutshell.

As it was for the entire series, the strength of “Connor’s Wedding,” was largely due to its impeccable cast. Bouncing back and forth from trying to empathize with Roman’s inability to come to terms with his father’s death while weirdly aligning with the idea Kendall had to be the adult in the room was something that has repeatedly stuck with me.

If there was anything I thought the episode missed the mark on it was the almost cartoonish commitment the characters had to being in the moment. I thought the only thing that was lacking was at least one of them saying, “I mean..fuck that guy. I’m glad he’s dead.” Because, let’s face it, they all had the absolute right to say that. And in retrospect I don’t believe that none of them would have felt it…let alone said it.

Reservation Dogs – “Elora’s Dad” (Season 3, Episode 9)

Reservation Dogs was leaps-and-bounds ahead of the curve when it came to altruistic character study. It essentially used its final season to round-out the grounded stories of all of its characters in a manner that was realistic and ultimately satisfying.

None was more true than introducing the audience to Elora’s father, Rick Miller, portrayed by one of Hollywood’s greatest actors, Ethan Hawke.

In a masterful guest appearance, Hawke gave life to an entire backstory of where Elora came from and what life was like before she was born. He complemented the strife of the other characters’ loss of Elora’s mother while developing hope that what we know of Elora and Rick was simply the beginning of what will be a happy family with a happy ending.

Though the other characters took a backseat to Elora in “Elora’s Dad,” it’s impossible not to identify it as a pivotal mark in where she ends up with the other characters.

The Bear – “Fishes” (Season 2, Episode 6)

The matured second season of The Bear hit its height of maturity in a flashback episode surrounding the last Berzatto family Christmas before the untimely death of its patriarchal larger-than-life figure, Michael…the brother of series lead Carmy.

An incredible deep dive into the backstory of the complex characters of a series predicated on stress and emotion, “Fishes,” was less an origin story of people as it was an origin story of the anxiety that drives their lives.

The Last of Us – “Long, Long Time” (Season 1, Episode 3)

If we’re ranking things here (and we’re not), it’s hard not to identify “Long, Long Time” as the best episode of television of the entire year.

Essentially a one-off story about two men who fall in love in a world that has abandoned the emotion, I remember finishing it thinking, “That was one of the best episodes of television ever made.”

The episode lived and breathed as an example of the series entire underlying theme that the you don’t need to save the whole world to save your own world.

Performances from Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman were simply an exercise in perfection.

Jury Duty – “The Verdict” (Season 1, Episode 8)

One of the buzziest series of the year was Amazon Freevee’s mockudrama / reality series / prankathon “Jury Duty.” Every single person in a fictional trial from its parties, to the attorneys, to the judge to the case itself was fake…except for one juror…a guy named Ronald. I had my skepticism as to whether the series was what it claimed it to be, but none the less, it would be difficult to find a show that stuck the landing harder than the reveal episode of a show where you spent the previous four hours trying to figure out how they were going to keep this poor shcmuck from figuring everything out.

The Verdict, the series finale, was a look behind the curtain…and it was utterly delightful. It’s an episode of television that was impossible to walk away feeling wonderful about the world and the people in it. Good, old fashioned, smiley TV

Ted Lasso – “So Long, Farewell” (Season 3, Episode 12)

Speaking of old fashioned, smiley TV, Ted Lasso! Boy it drop an absolute turd of a final season. Regardless, the series finale was tremendous. With all of the bow-outs this year, Ted Lasso’s series finale (if it actually is that. Over/under on a spin off series has to be set at like, 2 years, right?) was my favorite of the entire year.

The hour-long send off for one of the most relevant good-natured shows in a post-pandemic world was everything you wanted it to be. You laughed, you cried, you wanted more Ted. Despite its plot well drying up and overstaying its welcome by about a full year, it left in a most memorable fashion.

I’m a Virgo – “You a Big Muthafucka” (Season 1, Episode 1)

Boots Riley’s insane comedy about the absurd world of a thirteen foot tall teenager living in hiding by his parents was one of the weirdest and most intriguing series of the year. The pilot episode focused on Jharrel Jerome’s lead character Cootie’s unexpected introduction to the real world despite his inability to navigate it.

The episode itself works perfectly as a pilot because it’s perfectly captivating based on its weirdness and how endearing it is.

Thanks for reading. Be sure to check back in early December for my full list of the Best Television Series of 2023