Top 25 Episodes of 2017

If you are like me and getting tired of the redundancy of the Emmys, you might want to come up with your own version of a television award show. Well, I have already done that, but I thought that I could do even more. There are a ton of great episodes in television that aired just last year. I’m going to post what I think are the 25 best of them from last year. Sorry for doing a post like this so late into the year. The only real rule that I have is that only one show gets to occupy a spot on this list. There cannot be more than one episode of the same show. I did a top 25 instead of 10 because I wanted to include a whole lot more than I would otherwise. Enjoy the list.

#25 Poetic Justice (NCIS: New Orleans): It was kind of bad all of the things that Agent Pride did going into this episode, but I still feel that this was a worthy end to the season and pretty good episode overall. We finally got a recurring villain put away after three seasons and stopped his somewhat comic book style plot from happening.

#24 HalloVeen (Brooklyn Nine-Nine): You may think that people doing the old Halloween plot over and over again would get boring, but it actually had a good way of bringing everything together and this episode launched a great story arc for future episodes. There were so many players in the Halloween heist that you wouldn’t know if such a problem as to all the character’s egos would get in the way of it or not, but it had a good end with a proposal even if there was no real winner.

#23 The Long Distance Dissonance (The Big Bang Theory): Leave it to a long running show to bring back a character from the second season and have her play such an important role in the show’s plots going forward. With Amy gone away for the summer, it seemed like another woman might try to edge into Sheldon’s life. She then did the kiss from coast to coast that left the proposal happening at the end of the episode. All of this shows good writing since we knew about the ring that Sheldon had for a while now and they still gave us a shocking moment with its reveal at the end.

#22 Net Worth (Law and Order: SVU): With all of the issues of rich people thinking that they could just away with whatever crimes they do, it was nice to see a good take on it with a creepy older person and his younger son thinking that they could just get away with whatever crimes ultimately getting caught and charged with all the wrongs they did.

#21 Five Minutes (Modern Family): Sometimes a simple concept can be turned into a good episode. You might not need the usual format if you want to find something different and it can often work better than what is typically done. Thus, the show took select family members and showed a simple, brief part of their lives to us. Like the opening title card said, a lot can happen in five minutes. It takes great writers to come up with ways to do this and they did a good job with it.

#20 Eclipse Over America (Nova): You have to hand it to the production team to air an episode about the eclipse America just had the same day it happened. They had so much good information about the eclipse that just happened and other eclipses in general. It was very informative and wonderful to see, especially if one hadn’t seen the eclipse.

#19 The Song in Your Heart (Once Upon a Time): I’m often kind of a sucker for musical episodes at times. Thus, I picked this episode for the top 25 as I felt that it was a good episode of the show and had lots of good points to the plot for it. The songs worked with the story and we saw a lot of stories going towards the end of what worked for what the writers had planned.

#18 Twofer (NCIS): The second episode of the season, it may have seemed like a simple case going into it, but there were many layers to the subplots as well. First, Gibbs and McGee were still dealing with the aftermath of being kidnapped. Gibbs had the seemingly unusual happy reaction to no longer being in such a terrible situation while McGee was still reeling from what all had happened. The recurring story was what made this a good episode and it didn’t distract from the case at hand.

#17 And Finally: Black Bolt (Inhumans): It might be unusual to put an episode from one of last year’s most hated shows, but this isn’t your top 25 now, is it? I thought that the series finale of the show did things right that so many other shows get wrong. Everything was wrapped up and resolved. The main villain was killed off and the inhumans faced a new future on earth. It was a good way of ending the show and could be the start of a plot for a season 2 that I think everyone knew wasn’t happening at that point in time. But not every last episode is like that.

#16 Lian Yu (Arrow): The fifth season finale ended the flashback storyline and also brought an end to one of the villains that I loved to hate most. Adrian Chase brought team arrow to the island that Oliver was kept at for such a long time. We saw Adrian’s team fight off as his problems came to a head. The ending was literally explosive and left us wanting more.

#15 The Tables Have Turned (Survivor: Game Changers): Admittedly, the twist where two tribes would go to tribal council, vote as a group, and only one person would get voted out was manufactured to cause a lot of conflict. But boy it did. The tribal council was wondrous to watch with people trying to help their own causes and trying to control the other tribe’s votes. I love the tribal and the episode as a whole. This was such a great episode.

#14 eXposed (The Gifted): The pilot of this show started strong and continued that way until the very end. It had a great cliché dodge when you thought that it might be about yet another group of kids in school trying to fit in under extraordinary circumstances this time. Instead, they were now on the run and ended up working with other mutants.

#13 Fugitive (Grimm): Picking up where the last season left off, we saw so many plots moving forward quite smoothly from where we last were. The season premiere continued in many great ways with such a good episode that I’m not even sure I can summarize it all that well. My recap isn’t doing it justice. I think there was so much good about it that I can’t even write well about it.

#12 Duet (The Flash): Like I said before, I’m usually a sucker for musical episodes. This show saw a nice crossover with characters of Supergirl on The Flash dealing with various issues in love lives and bringing a lot of stories forward in a way they couldn’t have otherwise. Wally overcame what happened in the speed force while both Barry and Kara moved forward in their relationships that they wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. It turned out that the villain of the week that brought these people together wasn’t even a villain but someone who just wanted to help them.

#11 Live. Live. Live. (How to Get Away with Murder): I wasn’t sure if I would like this show a lot when I ended up watching it, but it turned out to be a good choice especially when watching this episode. I can always be amazed by how much a writer can put into a single night’s events. There was a lot going on and the cliffhanger that ended the year’s episode was quite intense in many different ways. Seeing what happened was the culmination of a lot of flashforwards and foreshadowing. It all came together quite well in many ways. This was a great midseason finale.

#10 Flashlight (MacGyver): Featuring two characters from Hawaii Five-0, this was also a good episode in many other ways, seeing the team from MacGyver doing a case in Hawaii was nice, even if it didn’t tie in to an episode of Hawaii Five-0 right after it. I really liked what all they did with the episode and how they could tie it in with characters from elsewhere in the franchise it is now part of.

#9 Inauguration (The Good Fight): One might not think too highly of a sequel series going into it about a character that got the short end of the staff in later seasons. But the first episode proved that you could start fresh with new stories about a beloved character and put what you need to about other people in the new show as well. It was a great way to start the series and I hope to get the first season sometime to see what all happens next.

#8 The End in the End (Bones): Going into the last episode of a show, you better not screw it up like many others have in the past. The show started with them trying to recover after the attack on their work place. They ended up getting the last recurring villain and everything seemed wrapped up well in the end. I only wished last year had more notable good ending for some shows.

#7 Ring of Fire (Grey’s Anatomy): Following from the cliffhanger of the last episode where a character had accidently caused an explosion at the hospital, you saw an episode that you knew would be better than the usual one. They upped their game as they continued to show what had happened last time and wrap up various details that they could before the next season starts.

#6 Looking for Mr. Goodbrain, Part 2 (iZombie): Sometimes all you need to do is take a gamble and do something that will change your show forever. This show made the zombie problem widespread and shared so that it would be public knowledge throughout the world of this show. I can often be a sucker for a great cliffhanger (provided it is resolved at some point) and this episode was no exception to this great type of rule. They changed the show and it became that much better for it.

#5 Post Las Vegas shooting episode (20/20): Full discloser: I don’t know what the actual episode of the show was so I’m making one up. I’m often surprised by how quickly they can do a show about an event that just happened. We got to learn a lot about what happened to some people and more about the whole senseless shooting in general. Unlike the sequel episode, it did not focus too much into an angle of what to do about it or many theories about what to do afterwards.

#4 Pilot (Time after Time): I actually forgot if I had this as best pilot in my silver globe awards or not. So switch this and number 2 in case I did. While we never saw much of this show, I am and will remain such a huge fan of this show and a strong start is the reason why. It had such a great beginning as they would say in Princess Bride that it sold me as a fan forever and I will always be upset at its cancellation. They had everything they needed in here with what the show would be about and what the plot would be going forward. I just wish that tons more people watched it.

#3 Crisis on Earth-x Part 4 (Legends of Tomorrow): If I had to pick just one part of this spectacular whole crossover, I’d pick this ending. It was nice to see everything come to a head and the final showdown of the heroes of earth 1 versus the villains of earth-x. There were so many things happening and it all worked out very well in terms of plot. We don’t see many plots working together as well this easily. All of the shows had to move forward after all that happened to the various characters. There were two weddings and a funeral and there was an awesome end to the crossover.

#2 Burnt Food (The Good Doctor): The pilot episode of this show is all that people need to see in order to know if they should watch this show. We got to see the main character and all of the other people that make this show great. It wasn’t just about Shaun. We see all of the characters and we see what makes Shaun such a great person despite seemingly having a disadvantage in life. I just hope that this isn’t a limited run series all the time. And give Freddie Highmore an Emmy and a Golden Globe. He does deserve this and should get the great acting recognition he deserves.

#1 Michael’s Gambit (The Good Place): If you have not been spoiled to The Empire Strikes Back and you saw the movie for the first time, then you would have seen something similar to the first season of this show. You were interested from the beginning and were shocked by the end. Suddenly, everything made sense in a way that it didn’t before and couldn’t have otherwise. Can you imagine if it didn’t have this twist and it was just about a world where things were wrong all the time despite that fact that it should be right? So much greatness about this show wouldn’t exist if this twist didn’t happen. It was one of the greatest plot twists ever and makes me glad that I stuck with the show.

And there you have it. I hope that you enjoyed my first ever top 25. There is hopefully more for me to choose from this year and you’ll see the post on it next year (hopefully). I tried to stick with some of what I picked for the silver globe awards that I had done before. Enjoy my alternative to the Emmys which I hoped that you enjoyed as much as I enjoyed all of these episodes.