Best of 2016 — Top TV Episodes


As I continue my look at the best of 2016, I will offer my 10 favorite TV episodes of 2016.

Top 10 Episodes:
10. 2.08, "Kimmy Goes to a Hotel," Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
About: This was my favorite episode of season two, which captured the fun and wacky elements of this series. Plus, the Joshua Jackson cameo was priceless. This is vintage Kimmy.

9. 2.08, "Follow the Money," Bosch
About: "Bosch" is a series that is about a slow burn, not action. But the series proved that it can do action set pieces well, too, as it did with this episode. This was the big climax of a fantastic season.

8. 1.06, "The Monster," Stranger Things
About: This is a series that I thought got better as it went along. But I loved what the series did in its sixth episode, which answered some questions, developed characters and interactions in new ways, and had me totally consumed.

7. 6.16 "Last Day on Earth," The Walking Dead
About: I've been on record as really not liking the first half of the seventh season of "The Walking Dead." But I thought the back half of season six was great, and the finale was near perfect. The impending sense of dread that built throughout the hour was a perfectly tantalizing place to leave the audience.

6. 1.06 "Marcia Marcia Marcia," The People vs. OJ Simpson
About: This was a great series that had a number of episodes that could have made this list. But perhaps the most compelling part was the depiction of Marcia Clark, and the performance of Sarah Paulson. This Marcia-centric episode was the series' best.

5. 6.05, "The Door," Game of Thrones
About: Just about every episode in the sixth season of "Game of Thrones" could have made this list. The first to make it is "The Door," an incredibly powerful hour that concluded with the scene people couldn't stop talking about. RIP Hodor.

4. 4.07, "Travel Agents," The Americans
About: The fourth season was incredibly gripping, but you might say it peaked in the middle with this episode that saw the resolution of the long-con with Martha (Alison Wright), and it comes to fruition in an incredibly powerful way.

3. 8.04, "Fall," Gilmore Girls
About: The "Gilmore Girls" revival wasn't as great as some hoped. Many of the episodes were uneven. But "Fall," the fourth and final episode of the season, was a near masterpiece. I was in tears, I laughed and I was left on the edge of my seat by those four final words.

2. 6.10, "Winds of Winter," Game of Thrones
About: Most of the time the finale in a "Game of Thrones" season is a chance to catch your breath and take it easy. Not so in the sixth season. The moody elements and rapidly evolving story was incredible. It was a finale that packed a punch, and saw a number of characters end their run. It was fantastic.

1. 6.09, "Battle of the Bastards," Game of Thrones
About: We know by now that the power in the season comes in episode nine. The final ninth episode of a season was no exception. The battle we've long waited for, between Jon Snow and Ramsey Bolton, came to be, and it was everything we could have hoped. The epic scale was so incredible, at times it was hard to believe it was a TV series.

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