The Top Ten: Television Episodes of 2010-2011 Season

I don't comment as often about television as I do film, but I do believe it's an essential part of the entertainment business.  It's typically overlooked, and not every brilliant show gets the chance to shine. Some are cut short before their prime, and some are just unappreciated in the wider spectrum. So, I decided to take a look back at the most outstanding individual episodes of the 2010-2011 television season. It's a particularly difficult job dissecting ten episodes out of hundreds of hours of entertainment. Some shows just didn't make the cut because they excel better in the long term story arc. How I Met Your Mother was one of the best shows on this season because of how it broke down expectations and delivered an emotionally powerful overarching story. That being said, no single episode encapsulates that.

SPECIAL DESIGNATION:

Best Dramatic Performance: Anna Torv in Fringe: Marionette

I was close to throwing this episode into my list until I realized that the greatest thing about this episode, and the thing that in fact carries it so brilliantly, is Anna Torv's performance. She has done a brilliant job across this entire year, but the performance that rocked my world so completely was not as Fauxlivia or Bellivia, but as the original Olivia. Two years ago, it felt like she was becoming less of a lead character and more of somebody in the background. She commands the screen with a devastating portrait of somebody whose life has been stolen at the time it should have been getting perfect. I doubt Torv will enter this episode in for Emmy consideration, but it's the one that I'd personally choose.

10. Glee: Funeral

FOX may have already picked up Glee for season 3, but that doesn't mean that I have to. That being said, it has managed occasionally deep pleasures, and this happened to be one of them. This episode brought together two things that the show has been sorely lacking in: realism and tragedy. Sue Sylvester has become mostly a cartoon caricature this season, so a revitalization of her emotional connections to humanity was well warranted. It dabble in the idea that there is no rationality behind events that happen, and that's fine. On top of that, I felt like my personal voice was given a character in Jesse St. James, as he criticizes most of the new directions members, as he should. That being said, he shows too much bias towards Rachel. The midsection of songs is the weakest part of the episode, and a part I ignore. However, I did ball my eyes out at the funeral song. That was beautiful, even if I hate the film it's based on.

Television Breakdown: The Dog Can Still Hunt

Fringe: Lysergic Acid Diethylamide

You know, maybe Fringe isn't the healthiest show for you to watch, seeing as you'll probably lose several hours of sleep thinking of the many potential outcomes. On the other hand, forget that small strain of thought and just bathe in the amazing and unexpected twists and turns this show takes from week to week! This episode took us into a whole new strange universe, Olivia's mind, and gave us a detailed yet subtle look at the character without ever really showing her until the end. Right from the first take, we knew that this was going to be a fast paced and unexpected adventure, with Olivia being put in danger within the first five minutes.

At this point, is it irrational to believe that William Bell might be scheming to put his own nefarious deeds ahead of others? It should be, but thankfully it isn't, as Peter and Broyles still keep an arms length from the famed scientist. Soon Walter and William decided to send themselves and Peter into Olivia's mind to guide her out. Along the way they come into contact with the more nefarious and dark constraints of Olivia's subconscious, mainly the memory of her stepfather. It also takes a strange detour into a cartoon version of all our characters, en route to Jacksonville to find Olivia in hiding.

Before we get into the deeper parts of this episode, may I first state that Peter is hilarious while tripping on LSD! It appears that Walter can handle his shit better than anyone else. His reaction to Broyles as he starts experiencing the effects of the hallucinogenics is priceless, amongst other fun moments. Astrid retorting to Walter's misspelling of her name by calling him "Wally" was such a sweet and hilarious little moment that only fans of the show will truly get. And what's better than Astrid's musings and Peter tripping? Broyles tripping, obviously. Not only did we get the impromptu critique of Walter's love for licorice, but that goofy wide eyed glare just made such a wonderful impact. In the end, it was all in service of the story, as Broyles confided in Astrid emotionally about seeing his own body dead in front of him. I'm glad to see that that plot string hasn't evaporated entirely.

Television Breakdown: Birth of a Nation

Fringe: Bloodline

The last time Fringe shamelessly played to their strengths and committed to an entirely mythology based storyline, aside from flashback episode Subject 13, was in Reciprocity. There is something so completely rewarding about this series when it's firing on all cylinders, and Bloodline was one of those episodes. It brought together so many important lingering plot strings in the show for something incredibly emotional and climactic. It kicked off very quickly, with Olivia and her mother discussing the possibility of her having the same disease that killed poor alternate Rachel and Ella during childbirth. It's one of those things you never thought would come back to bite our heroes in the vagina, but it did.

Not that she should be immediately worried about it, seeing as moments after she enters her apartment she is zapped unconscious by a team of unknown individuals. This launches us immediately into a fast-paced race against time to find Olivia before it's too late. Nothing is revealed about the group of sinister kidnappers, nor should anything be. That shroud of secrecy adds a layer of menace to all the scenes of Olivia in captivity. Well, the fact that Peter's baby boy is rapidly growing inside of her does have that covered already, so this episode was wicked freaky and intense. Brings back some touchy memories from season 1 episode The Same Old Story, doesn't it?

As insane as what's happening on the inside was, what ended up being the bread and butter of the episode was Charlie and Lincoln searching for their friend. While they're on the hunt, who do they unexpectedly run into than good old Henry Higgins, the cab driver that aided Olivia early on this season. I have to say, I was really worried for a moment that things were about to go entirely downhill for poor Henry, but thankfully it was just a followup that prompted Lincoln to pop the ultimate question to Walternate: Was our Olivia replaced with theirs? I guess it was only a matter of time before that happened, and it made for scene of intense relish between the two men. To think that alternate versions of themselves were conversing last week about "soul vampires".

Television Breakdown: Don't Trust Sam Weiss

Fringe: Concentrate and Ask Again

After 11 episodes of solid character development, emotional consequences, and fantastically emotional stories, we have the first half-hearted shortcoming of the third season. Every episode that we've received up to this point had a profound affect on me, but somehow that just didn't work out tonight. The premise seemed solid upon entrance, with a chemical compound being used to disintegrate a man's skeleton. That leads them to finding a former marine with a grudge against the men responsible for his unborn daughter's death. This leads to a collaborator planning their final act of revenge. Since the marine is shortly put into a coma, the team heads out to New Hampshire (YAY!) to find a cortexiphan drop out with the ability to read minds.

He may the best part of the episode, with the mentally crippling handicap he is saddled with. So what was so wrong about this episode? Partly the standalone nature of it, but also the fact that it didn't have an emotional tether to keep us invested. The bad guys didn't give us much of a reason to care about their side of it. We didn't really care about any of the victims, as they were rather stationary business types. It just didn't work. To be fair, there was a mythological edge to the episode, and I'm only half dissatisfied with it.

At this point, we're behind Olivia's heartbreak, and we really feel for her. The little scenes of sweet innocent Olivia talking to Nina and Peter about Fauxlivia are such bittersweet concoctions. Yet in the final act of this episode, we got something that really caught me by surprise. Remember all those copies of "The First People"? Well it turns out that they were all written by our old bowling instructor, Sam Weiss. I guarantee you, that was the most welcome surprise of the episode. The least welcome was what he explained. It appears that the outcome of Peter and the machine depends on which side he's most loyal to, and that's attached to which Olivia he chooses.

It brings the entire confrontation down to this love triangle, which both worked and didn't work for me. If they had added a tad more subtlety to it, I'd have thought it was a fantastic move. In many ways I think it's wonderful way of translating the cost of universal destruction, but the backbone of every Fringe episode is the screenplay, and it just didn't work tonight. It was too obvious and heavy-handed with its messages, relying far too much on the literal than the visual, and the director's execution was altogether weak. Whatever writers and directors worked on this episode should be fired. I'll come back to the show next week because of everything I love about it when it's done right. This episode wasn't, and if you saw tonight's episode as your first, I encourage you to give it another shot.

7.5 out of 10

Cougar Town: Cry to Me

Cougar Town is going away for a while, which always has a certain strain on my stream of consciousness. They had one last week to entertain and instruct, and what we received was good at the very least, and fun at the very most. It wasn't a bad episode, but it wasn't a great one. I was happy with what I received. Jules is being the panicky person she's always been, trying to get Grayson to cry. Ellie is procrastinating against Valentine's Day while Andy and Bobby go on a date. The best piece of the evening was Travis trying to take a "sexy" picture for Kirsten. The usual stuff, but I kind of wish they'd brought more before they take a ten week hiatus. This is going to be hard.

8.3 out of 10

Community: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons

This was the most entertaining show I watched this week, by a long shot. Community indulges in episodes of profound meaning, or else just fun half-hour shenanigans. This was the latter, and I have no quibbles about that. It was a simple tale of Jeff Winger trying to keep Fat Neal from killing himself by playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons. Enter Pierce, who all but ruins the game with his cruel ignorance. As usual, Abed stole the show for the greatest portion of it. His gnome conversations with Britta were hilarious, as well as the sex scene Annie described, but we never actually heard.

9 out of 10

The Small Glass Screen: The Week in Television Premieres

I do mostly indulge in films on this site, but I also enjoy television for the same reasons. Most commonly, expect me to do just one of these posts a week, but this week I'll be shuffling through a few premieres to see which I want to stick with, and which I'd rather discard. Below is my schedule of premieres for the next four days, in case you want to follow me along and offer your own thoughts.

Monday: How I Met Your Mother (Sixth Season; 8-8:30; CBS)
The Event (New Series; 9-10; NBC)

Tuesday: Glee (Second Season; 8-9; FOX)
Raising Hope (New Series; 9-9:30; FOX)
Running Wilde (New Series; 9:30-10; FOX)

Wednesday: Undercovers (New Series; NBC)
Modern Family (Second Season; 9-9:30; ABC)
Cougar Town (Second Season; 9:30-10; ABC)

Thursday: Community (Second Season; 8-8:30; NBC)
30 Rock (Fifth Season; 8:30-9; NBC)
Fringe (Third Season; 9-10; FOX)