Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Five Episodes of TV That Are Better Than Anything

1) The Wire - "Middle Ground": The 2nd-to-last episode of season 3 of The Wire is pretty much the culmination of three seasons' worth of plots. There's an uneasy alliance, dear friends betray each other, a main character dies, and this is probably the best episode of the best show on television, so there you are.

2) Neon Genesis Evangelion - "Air": This is sort of cheating, since I'm counting the 25th episode from The End of Evangelion, rather than the interesting yet wholly unsatisfying original version. As NERV takes on that last opponents they ever expected to face, Asuka wakes from her catatonia and jumps right into one of the most beautifully-animated action sequences ever filmed. Seriously, it's just incredible. It fills my heart with song.

3) Mystery Science Theater 3000 - "Godzilla vs. Megalon": My favorite episode of the series when I was 12 or so. Three words for you: Orville Popcorn sketch.

4) The Simpsons - "Homer Goes to College": Is there any line from this that isn't a classic? "Hey buddy, did you get a load of the NERD?"

5) Angel - "Not Fade Away": The whole cast dies fighting the good fight. Please ignore any follow-up comic books that might tell you otherwise.

1 Comments:

Blogger Jeff said...

How could they possibly have lived? (I'm halfway curious to read the comics because they must provide some sort of explanation.) Even if they beat the huge army of demons sent after them, what would stop Wolfram and Hart from sending more and more demons until the job was done?

I think the key to the whole deal is that they keep fighting, despite knowing that they can never truly win. When your main antagonist is basically the concept of evil itself (but in a cool, unseen way and not in a labored, obvious way like in Buffy season 7) there's no way you're really going to truly win that one. They do the most good they can by taking out the Black Thorn, even though they know it'll end in their deaths, but they do it anyway because that's their job. (That and they're all seeking some sort of redemption and to atone for past sins. It's why Lorne gets to live.)

4:30 PM  

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