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The Best TV Episodes of 2019

2019’s episodes brought us a lot of love, a lot of endings, and a whole lot of vampires.
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By  · Published on December 23rd, 2019

15. “The Jelly Lakes” – Tuca and Bertie

Tuca And Bertie The Jelly Lakes

It’s a tragedy that Tuca and Bertie only had one season at Netflix — especially since, by its end, it was truly hitting its stride and opening up emotionally. And no episode is more open and emotional than “The Jelly Lakes.” In it, Bertie — who is often plagued by anxiety — finds herself at a place she hasn’t been since she was a child, and with good reason. Unable to articulate the source of her discomfort, her twin desperations to flee and to stay cool are at war with each other in a show of unease that is frighteningly real and suffocating. When she finally shares her story with Tuca, the animation shifts to a simple, almost childlike but still beautiful quality that is a stark contrast to the show’s usually frenetic style. It’s a profoundly vulnerable episode, but one with a happy ending, that expresses acceptance of and triumph over the past with a beautiful, celebratory, and unapologetically female ending. It’s lovely.


14. “Change Your Mind” – Steven Universe

Change Your Mind Steven Universe

Though it can technically be counted as four episodes, this 44 minute special and season five finale brought something last January that fans really didn’t see coming: closure. What was marketed as simply a special episode became unmistakable, as it wound to a close, as a series finale. Granted, in the eleven months since then Steven Universe has produced a movie and started a sixth season, so in retrospect, the alarm bells sounded too soon. But even with more material, the episode still stands as a functional finale and the end of an era, with the end of Steven’s childhood and the ultimate acceptance of who he is by his long lost family, the Diamonds. Whatever comes next and however long the show sticks around, this episode will forever stand as what it felt like at the time: an exquisitely tearful, albeit surprising, happy ending.


13. “The Trial” – We Do in the Shadows

What We Do In The Shadows The Trial

What We Do in the Shadows is an excellent addition to the surprisingly expansive universe based around the film of the same name. But the finest episode is the one that shows just how expansive that universe is. When our poor vampires are put on trial for killing the Baron, we get a privileged look into the Grand Vampiric Council in all its glory. Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, and Jonathan Brugh are all present, and it doesn’t matter if they’re repping New Zealand’s vampires with a little more clout than you’d expect, because it’s just so good to see them again. More important are all the rest of the council members — every actor with a notable vampire role the show could get its hands on. (Evan Rachel Wood, Danny Trejo, Paul Reubens, Tilda Swinton, Wesley Snipes via Skype). The actors are, apparently, playing themselves. They just also happen to be vampires. Call it method acting. Even Kristen Schaal is there. (With no famous vampire roles under her belt, I choose to believe that she’s simply reprising her role as Mel, who moved on to bigger and better things after the Flight of the Conchords were deported back to New Zealand in 2009). The whole episode is a lovely extended riff on the vampire genre, with an especially great series of name drops of famous vampire actors who couldn’t be bothered to participate in the episo…the council. It’s a fantastic in-joke of an episode, and alarmingly funny.


12. “That Halloween Night” – Undone

Undone That Halloween Night

The creation of BoJack Horseman’s Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg, and starring Bob Odenkirk and Rosa Salazar, Undone seemed fated from the beginning to be a work of genius. And guess what? It was. A compact and tightly crafted miniseries set at only eight 22-minute episodes, the show managed to pack in an incredible amount of mystery, wonder, and empathy into its short runtime. As in any show where it’s not entirely clear what’s real and what’s not, the best episode is the one in which everything is (supposedly) made clear. Alma finds out, once and for all, what happened the night her father died. And we gear up to find out whether everything that’s been happening has been real or all in her head… until we don’t. But the ambiguity of the final scene is welcome, a thousand times better than any payoff that would come from a clear answer. And the look on Alma’s face in the final seconds of the series are enough to keep that question, and all the hope that comes with it, alive.


11. “Hard Times” – Good Omens

Good Omens Tennant and Sheen

Good Omens is a great adaptation of the 30 year old novel of the same name. But it’s generally agreed upon that what makes it more than great is the chemistry between its two leads, David Tennant and Michael Sheen as Crowley the demon and Aziraphale the angel. The two absolutely light up the screen whenever they share it, and all of a sudden the apocalypse doesn’t seem like that big a deal when you can instead watch them bicker and support each other as seamlessly as any couple who’ve been together for 6,000 years ought to. And there’s no episode that better showcases this relationship than “Hard Times,” which starts with a whopping 29-minute cold open (exactly half of the 58-minute episode) chronicling their sporadic meetings and growing affection over the millennia. Traveling through lush costume changes and growing increasingly disillusioned with how both Good and Evil are running things (how could you not with front row seats at Christ’s crucifixion or the Reign of Terror) the episode is a warm, slightly bittersweet look at how much the two have shared and how much is at stake with the world’s impending annihilation. In a series that occasionally gets bogged down in extraneous characters and glibness (though both those things certainly have their place in Good Omens and shouldn’t be sniffed at), this is the episode that throws it all aside and just focuses on the human connection of two of its decidedly not human stars.


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Liz Baessler is a frequent contributor and infrequent columnist at Film School Rejects. She has an MA in English and a lot of time on her hands. (She/Her)