Top Fifty TV Shows of 2013: #30 - 11

Alright, so things got a little hairy in the lower echelons of the #50-31 rankings last week. At points I actually felt more like I was writing a "worst of" list than a "best of." But you've reached the light at the end of the tunnel: While I may not consider the twenty shows below to have been among the ten best this year and I have my gripes about each, I can say with confidence that I like every single one of them. Let's get it started in here:

30. The Borgias (Showtime)

Best 2013 Episode: Season 3 Episode 10 - "The Prince" | New to List

Mix one part watered-down Game of Thrones with two-to-three parts The Tudors and you'll end up with Showtime's antihero Pope drama The Borgias, a show never exceptional but almost always pretty good. If you're looking for sex and violence and religion and scheming and sumptuous cinematography and set design and even a couple big battle sequences, it comes recommended, though with the caveat that it got canceled at the end of season 3 with no real, conclusive ending. The show has some problems, including the fact that it never convinced me our ruling-class heroes were the underdogs in any conflict it put them in, but I still wish I could see the fourth season that's never going to happen.

29. Awkward (MTV)

Best 2013 Episode: Season 3 Episode 20 - "Who I Want to Be" | Down 3 from 2012

Lauren Iungerich's droll, witty, energetic high school sitcom Awkward is unfortunately going to be entering its fourth season in 2014 absent one key ingredient: Lauren Iungerich. I'm unclear whether she quit or was pushed out, but one way or another Awkward is going to be missing its voice next year, which makes me fear we're in for a Community season 4 / Gilmore Girls season 7 scenario. But Lauren at least went out strong. Awkward season 3 remains far too obsessed with love triangles (my biggest problem with the show last year too), but takes its protagonist Jenna Hamilton through a dynamic emotional journey and wrapped up its season/year with one of the strongest, most moving episodes of the series.

28. The Office (NBC)

Best 2013 Episode: Season 9 Episode 23 - "Finale" | Up 8 from 2012

Like The Walking Dead and The Newsroom, The Office is this high on my list (and up from last year!) on the strength of exactly one episode: Its series finale. I don't think I'm being out-there or controversial when I say this show suffered massively from the loss of Steve Carell, but it remains an eternal fact of my own TV history that The Office was, for about a year or so, more or less my favorite show on television. Those emotional bonds can be fractured but are hard to shake entirely, and as such the emotion of "Finale" was felt deeply. Even Carell's return, while nice, ends up being largely incidental to the impact of the show's quiet and heartfelt final moments. There were literally dozens of Office episodes I found pretty damn bad by the end of its run, but it'll always be a show I remember fondly.

27. New Girl (Fox)

Best 2013 Episode: Season 3 Episode 8 - "Menus" | Down 4 from 2012

Weird fact: I consider New Girl's 2013 run to be superior to its 2012, yet somehow it's lower on my list this year. What's that about? Ranking pedantry aside, what I wrote last year still applies; New Girl was then and remains now "currently the best 'roommates in an apartment in the city' Friends-styled sitcom on the air." Hell, by an even bigger margin now that Happy Endings is dead. This year the show leaned heavily on the Ross/Rachel will-they-won't-they dynamic of Jess and Nick (and, as the above image indicates, answered it: they will), which isn't generally something I watch TV shows for or care about but in this case was mostly charming. Damon Wayans Jr. rejoining season 3 in a semi-regular capacity as Coach – last seen in the pilot! – has also been a boon to the show.

26. Homeland (Showtime)
Best 2013 Episode: Season 3 Episode 12 - "The Star" | Down 13 from 2012

A couple years ago, I reviewed the pilot of Homeland, calling it "the thinking man's 24." Roughly a year after that, I said that the show had lost what made it smart and different and essentially become "24 2." Now I'll offer a second amendment: Homeland is the pretentious man's 24; a twisty terrorism thriller that's mostly about cliffhangers and finding out who's gonna die next, only wearing a "moral examination of the war on terror" suit that, if you look closely, is cheap and ratty and barely holds together. Also, this season's Dana/Leo subplot is one of the shittiest things I saw on TV all year. All that said, the season finale "The Star" is a very good episode of television, one which thankfully has the balls to follow the show's story through to its only logical conclusion. If not for that episode Homeland would probably be ten ranks lower on this list.

Best TV Episodes, June 2013

10. Defiance, Season 1 Episode 11 – "The Bride Wore Black"

I'm gonna level with you guys: Despite scratching a certain nostalgic '90s-style cheesy sci-fi itch, Defiance isn't really all that great a show. But the thing about summer is that the ol' TV schedule thins out in a fucking hurry, so suddenly shows like this that wouldn't have made the cut in January through May suddenly find themselves on my "Best TV Episodes" lists while far superior shows like New Girl and Scandal, thanks to their in-season airing schedule, languish unranked. It ain't fair, but it's life. So here's a decent episode of Defiance about the human and alien frontier town of Defiance coming together for a human/alien interspecies wedding. Hooray!

9. Mad Men, Season 6 Episode 11 – "Favors"

As I've discussed before on this blog, on Twitter, on forums and in person with people who know me, I am, to the best of my ability to tell, literally the only person on the planet earth who watches and likes Mad Men but who has never at any point considered it to be one of my favorite shows. And, you know, that's fine. Everyone got their own opinions and shit. This episode probably wouldn't have made my top ten cut any other month this year either, but it was good. Sally discovered some harsh truths about Don, and the jolt it gave her character arc was genuinely engaging stuff.

8. Orphan Black, Season 1 Episode 10 – "Endless Forms Most Beautiful"

Though Orphan Black's finale isn't the season's best episode – that would be episode six, "Variations Under Domestication," which detailed the craziest, clone-iest suburban house party ever – I am glad to find room for this little genre gem, one of the best out-of-nowhere surprises of 2013. Sure, its fans can go a little overboard, but that's just what genre TV fans do. Berating them for it is like berating a dog for barking. The show's debut season ended strongly, bringing simmering Sarah/Helena tensions to a head and of course continuing Tatiana Maslany's unbroken streak of greatness.

7. The Fosters, Season 1 Episode 3 – "Hostile Acts"

Outside of the aberration that is Parenthood over on NBC, ABC Family is (fittingly, given their name) pretty much the only network on television working to keep the classic non-genre, non-life-or-death-stakes family drama alive. First there was Switched at Birth, and it was good. Now there's The Fosters, and I'd say it's pretty damn good too. Granted, part of why I like it is because it presents a Republican's feverish nightmare vision of contemporary American life – lesbian moms with an interracial family, holy shit! – but it's also written with emotional clarity and authenticity that I wish more shows would strive for. (I realize there's little discussion of this specific episode here, but that's because I doubt anyone reading this has seen this show yet. You should, though!)

6. Game of Thrones, Season 3 Episode 10 – "Mhysa"

Game of Thrones' third season finale had about fifty storylines, as is par for the course with the saga of Westeros, but my favorites would probably be (spoilers, as if everyone doesn't already watch this show) Samwell and Bran meeting up, which has the fun feel of a crossover event, Arya and the Hound getting rough with some Frey men, and one scorcher of a King's Council scene as Tyrion learns about the bloody events of the previous episode. One of the best Tyrion/Tywin scenes of the series, which is saying something.

5. Mad Men, Season 6 Episode 13 – "In Care Of"

This was the best episode of Mad Men's sixth season (and the first episode on this June list that has a shot at making my top fifty TV episodes of the year) mostly because of Don Draper's journey, which is definitely something unusual for me to say as Don's relatively static inner life across six years of television is the main reason I can't really call Mad Men a show I love. But the end of this episode did a surprising and moving job of remedying that, and successfully sets the stage for a very different and very interesting final season next year.

4. Hannibal, Season 1 Episode 12 – "Relevés"

As is the case with many a half-"mythology," half-episodic show, Hannibal dropped the cases of the week and focused in on the big picture as it entered the home stretch, in this case bringing the twisted and oddly emotionally affecting three-way relationship between Will, Hannibal and Abigail Hobbs to the fore. And I daresay they did a surprising and effective job moving towards closure on it, further securing Hannibal's almost inevitable legacy as the greatest new show of 2013.

3. Hannibal, Season 1 Episode 13 – "Savoureux"

Great season finale. I don't want to say much for fear of spoilers, but I have a whole podcast on the subject available to make love to your ears. The one thing I'll say is that I really loved the episode's use of "Vide Cor Meum" from Ridley Scott's Hannibal movie, a use vastly more memorable and effective than in the film it was originally composed for. Hell, creating that song and lending it to Hannibal the show might be Hannibal the film's greatest contribution to popular culture.

2. Hannibal, Season 1 Episode 11 – "Rôti"

One last hurrah for the more episodic side of Hannibal before the myth arc took over in the season's penultimate and finale episodes, "Rôti" is the sequel to the series' sixth episode, "Entrée," bringing Eddie Izzard's Dr. Gideon back into the fold. Gideon may not create corpse totems or cello men or mushroom people, but his unhinged lunatic style has its own charm, and between Columbian neckties and living vivisection and organ harvesting, I doubt "Rôti" left anyone wanting in the gruesome violence department. Will's mental problems deepened and all that good character development stuff, but first and foremost I'd say this episode kicked ass.

1. Game of Thrones, Season 3 Episode 9 – "The Rains of Castamere"

Ok, I've been patiently holding this in for three years, so here goes: RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING RED WEDDING. THANK YOU.

Man, that felt good to get off my chest. As everyone else on the internet has already discussed and dissected this episode's final ten minutes a million times over, I have nothing else to add to the conversation beyond a good old fashioned holy fucking shit!