50 Best TV Episodes of 2011: Community, Justified, Friday Night Lights & More

BuddyTV:

The best individual episodes of television that aired in 2011.

#50 "Finale," Smallville

A fitting end to the superhero drama's 10-year run, Clark Kent finally became Superman, putting on the cape and tights and flying up, up and away one last time.

#49 "Holidays of Future Passed," The Simpsons

Even after 23 seasons, The Simpsons can still find creative new ways to be funny, like this Christmas episode that jumped several years into the future. Bart is a dead-beat dad, Lisa doesn't get along with her daughter, and Maggie gave birth. The various glimpses of how all the other characters have changed during the time jump was a cavalcade of comedy moments.

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Comments

[raker]

07:52 PM on 12/20/2011

30 Rock is still one of the best shows on TV. It doesn't get enough respect.

[Alex I]

01:34 PM on 12/20/2011

I would have gone Tea-Party on someone if Doctor Who hadn't been on that list. I'm glad it made the top 10 after all of the shows on there that I'd never heard of.

[whowhatwhywherewhen]

12:27 PM on 12/20/2011

The amount of crap listed here BEFORE the Smallville Finale is a SIN.

[Ramadan Affan]

10:10 AM on 12/20/2011

every episode of breaking bad should be on there

[Indiegirl99]

02:26 PM on 12/20/2011

Agreed!

[clearthinker16]

10:00 AM on 12/20/2011

I saw 15 or so, and every one I saw was good, so I cannot comment on the others, or shows I do not watch

[LilithV]

09:42 AM on 12/20/2011

I raised an eyebrow at a few of these, esp. when there was no mention of Boardwalk Empire and the "musical" episode came up. But all credibility was lost when they misspelled one of the characters names. It's Ned STARK not Ned Star.

[bigshotprof]

09:32 AM on 12/20/2011

I'm surprised. I have actually seen 19 of these episodes. It would have been better to stretch it out a little though. It's doubtful that Chuck (of which I am a fan) produced three of the best 50 episodes all season. I can think of some from Fringe, right off the top of my head, that should be there.

[OGSal]

01:45 AM on 12/20/2011

I'm not sure who formed this list... really.
No "Parenthood" - such a good family show & produced by Ron Howard & Brian Grazer.
And, I love Grey's - but 'seriously' - the musical show!!

[cookmeyer1970]

10:10 PM on 12/19/2011

This list was a joke... we get it, the author LOVES community, but as previously mentioned, not one Boardwalk Empire episode was listed, and it had several stellar ones. The finale was amazing and Jimmy's backstory was one of the crazier TV moments of all time. Glad Louie got a bit of love as well as Modern Family, but even then, hands down the best episode of that series was when Mitchell tried to pick up Leslie Mann by pretending he was straight.

[bigshotprof]

09:33 AM on 12/20/2011

I didn't look that carefully nor with much expertise, but it seems like these were shows from non-premium cable. Were there any from Showtime or HBO on the list?

[cookmeyer1970]

12:49 PM on 12/20/2011

yeah, it was mostly network shows. although they did have HBO's Game of Thrones and Curb your Enthusiasm (both episodes I agreed with).

[GeoNorth]

09:37 PM on 12/19/2011

I was surprised by how little I knew of any of these shows. What I do watch is Top Gear, some punditry, especially on FSTV and Current, NASCAR races, Larry's Country Diner & the Marty Stuart Show on RFDTV, and Sabado Gigante. I have no idea what they are saying but the babes are spectacular. Oh, and Brooke Alvarez on the Onion. Jon Stewart at the end of the day. Oh, and this year, we discovered the remake of Reggie Perrin. But the series in this piece? It just doesn't interest me anymore.

[granamica]

10:40 PM on 12/20/2011

Maybe because your list seems to imply you don't like stories, you like commentary or reality (not to be confused with scripted "reality tv"). Except for Reggie Perrin, which I am a huge fan of the original The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin. What station is the remake on?

[GeoNorth]

10:42 AM on 12/21/2011

You might be close on the story thing. I really do like stories, but like my music, I want something new with a few surprises. I am a huge fan of Greg Garcia. "My Name is Earl" was a gem. Salvation without benefit of dogma nor clergy. And his new one, Raising Hope is also quite good. He is saying that even morons, if they try hard enough, can figure things out. And though morons they be, they are also human beings. Nice.

Reggie Perrin. Ah, yes, Leonard Rossiter's Reggie was beautiful and I will always treasure that one. In the new one, David Nobbs is still listed as a writer, but there are many changes. Reggie and Nicola are childless by choice. Reggie works for a company that sells grooming products. Martin Clunes is Reggie and Fay Ripley is Nicola, his wife. The first season opener was quite a shocker in the new one. I won't say and I'll let you discover. Overall, despite the big differences, the new one is a charmer. You'll need to find it on a public TV station. In Northern NE, we get it on Lakes Region TV.

BTW, I tell people that I like to watch reality TV. I call it the news. And most so-called reality TV is just a Skinner Box with a camera. Schadenfreude Theatre.

[stape45]

07:51 PM on 12/19/2011

It should have included the episode of "The New Girl" where Jess couldn't utter the word "peeenis".

[Spock]

07:47 PM on 12/19/2011

I'm totally into the Walking Dead. The episode Pretty Much Dead Already was fantastic.

[PurpleClematis]

07:16 PM on 12/19/2011

This article was a complete waste of time. Grey's Anatomy, seriously? I really wish I would have bypassed it completely. The only thing I got out of it was to ruin the next season of Boardwalk Empire for me (due to a previous commenter giving away the huge surprise ending of the season out of nowhere).

[NHBill]

07:27 PM on 12/19/2011

Tom Brady spanked Tim Tebow.
Ooops.
I hope you weren't saving the game on tivo!

[PurpleClematis]

07:39 PM on 12/19/2011

Again, you completely miss the point. This has nothing to do with sports, but yeah, if I had recorded a game to watch later, I would steer clear of the sports page (and Sportscenter). In this case, I had no reason to steer clear of some random article about TV shows that said NOTHING AT ALL about Boardwalk Empire. Why would I think anyone in the comments would be laying out the surprise ending with no warning? Am I supposed to avoid any article about TV in general just in case? I simply was making a suggestion that in the future, maybe they want to think twice about revealing such a huge detail when the article isn't even about that subject.

[MikeDu]

06:53 PM on 12/19/2011

The fifty best episodes, apparently chosen at random. More than a couple of those can go up on the '50 worst episodes' list too. The musical 'Greys Anatomy' episode was downright cringeworthy, and exercise in how *not* to produce a musical episode.

[Lisse Kono]

06:37 PM on 12/19/2011

if you include the death of Ned Starr... you HAVE to include the death of Jimmy in Boardwalk Empire!!!!!!!! noone saw that one coming at the hand of Nucky!!!!

[PurpleClematis]

07:09 PM on 12/19/2011

Wow, thanks a lot for ruining this for me (we were eagerly awaiting watching season 2 when it came out on dvd). In the future, PLEASE think twice about posting such huge spoilers in a comments section like this (or at least have the decency to post a "spoiler" tag). If it were an article actually pertaining to Boardwalk Empire, it would be different. People that have not seen the latest season can choose to steer clear of the comments section, knowing that major plot points are likely being discussed. But this article mentioned NOTHING about Boardwalk Empire, so people are given no warning that you are blurting out such a huge plot point.

[NHBill]

07:23 PM on 12/19/2011

Yeah well the girl was a dude, he's really a ghost and Verbal is the bad guy!
The show aired.
If you don't want to know the score because you DVR'ed the game why watch Sportscenter?

[Veronica]

10:03 PM on 12/19/2011

Wow, you wait almost a year until the DVDs come out to watch a show and STILL expect not to see spoilers? Really?? Good luck with all that.

[bigshotprof]

09:35 AM on 12/20/2011

Oh and Norman Bates is his own mother!