Top 10 TV Series Finales (Drama)

Greetings, reader!

Last week marked the 10-year anniversary of crime drama Dexter's infamously opinion-splitting series finale. While I actually liked the show's polarizing ending quite a bit, it still doesn't make it onto today's list, because there are many shows out there that tied the final knot even better. My four-week dive into the best beginnings and endings in television culminates here, with the list of the greatest-ever series finales from drama TV.

Here are my honorable mentions: All Good Things... (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Felina (Breaking Bad), Hello, Elliot (Mr. Robot), Rest In Peace (The Walking Dead), Saul Gone (Better Call Saul).

10. Prisoners of War (Homeland)

"Greetings from Moscow, Professor"

Homeland was never destined to have a conventional series finale: the series never did neat character archs or thematic morals-of-the-story in such a way that a typical 'send-offs, emotions, poetic bows on things' finale would make any sense. The show's final hour feels very fitting for this particular series, though; the tensions surrounding the final season's major storyline remain high until the last moments, and the conclusion feels sudden yet quite perfect.

After a series of moral dilemmas, backroom deals and betrayals has been executed in order to prevent a full-scale war from starting, a void is left as Saul Berenson's (Mandy Patinkin) longtime Russian asset has been compromised and protagonist Carrie Matheson (Claire Danes) has broken enough laws and crossed enough lines for the greater good that there is no coming back. These two problems solve themselves, however, as the 'two years later' epilogue reveals in a beautifully subtle manner that Carrie has become Saul's new Russian asset. For such a dark and cynical series, this is the closest they could get to a 'happy ending' - it's not exactly sunshine and rainbows, but it feels comforting to know that Carrie is still out there in the show's reality, doing the important work.

9. What Kind of Day Has It Been (The Newsroom)

"Charlie Skinner was crazy. He identified with Don Quixote - an old man with dementia who thought he could save the world from an epidemic on incivility simply by acting like a knight. His religion was decency. He spent a lifetime fighting its enemies. I wish he could be here to learn the name of his successor like I just did - our new boss, the new president of ACN is MacKenzie McHale"

If these were ranked based on whether or not they made me cry, and how much if yes, then the finale of Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom would be much higher still. Taking place in the aftermath of Charlie Skinner's (Sam Waterston) tragic death at the end of the penultimate episode, this episode wraps the show up surrounding his funeral, while making it crystal clear via speeches and flashbacks just how integral Charlie's character was to the show's story, its themes, and everything the characters stood for. The goofy, idealistic old man, on a crazy but righteous mission to civilize, absolutely was the show - that's why killing him off was so shocking, and why the final episode being more or less a tribute to him felt as appropriate as it felt touching.

The scene where Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) jams That's How I Got to Memphis, a song that had special meaning to his deceased friend as revealed in a previous flashback, with Charlie's grandchildren, is one of the most moving and heartwarming scenes out there. Before and after that special moment, storylines and character archs are subtly wrapped up, with the funeral setting making the finale feel less "race against time, high stakes till the end" than most drama finales, and more "sweet, nuanced epilogue". Every character gets a good ending, with the absolute cherry on top being MacKenzie McHale, the only Newsroom character even better than Charlie in my view, poetically becoming the new head of ACN news, with her protegé Jim Harper (John Gallagher Jr.) getting her old job as EP, and Will McAvoy staying on as the anchor America needs but doesn't deserve.

8. The Iron Throne (Game of Thrones)

"It doesn't matter what I do"

"It matters more than anything"

Last week, I defended the over-hated How I Met Your Mother finale, and promised an even hotter take for this week. Well, here it is. Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed the final season and final episode of Game of Thrones - my full thoughts on the subject would warrant a master's thesis worth of information, but here it is in a nutshell. I'll start with a defense against the arguments most often used to criticize the show's ending, and then move on to why I regard it so highly.

First of all, we must adress the fact that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were handed an impossible situation: they got the order to start writing the series in the early 2010's, when the A Song of Ice and Fire book series was still underway. Five books out of seven had been released, and author George R. R. Martin okayed for the TV series to launch in 2011, promising that the rest of the books will be finished in time. Well, as of right now, books VI and VII still haven't been finished, so a little over halfway through the series, D&D pretty much had to start improvising, as there was no more source material to adapt from. Fans seem to generally lay the blame 100% on the writers, as if they f**king decided for Martin to not finish the books. I think they were given an impossible situation, and as someone who genuinely enjoyed the final seasons, I think they did an incredible job with it.

The biggest complaint I keep hearing about the final season is that people didn't agree with the direction of the plot - it really grinds my gears that despite the massive-scale visuals, cinematic set design, groundbreaking production values, immensely talented cast, enthralling score and about a thousand other positives, people really have the inexplicably petty opinion that the final season was "total shit" and "1/10" for the reason that they didn't agree with some of the story choices. I for one did like the story, but even if you don't, I'd say that it's massively disrespectful towards everything the series did right to have such a level of hate for season 8 simply because things happened in the story that you wouldn't have liked to happen. Especially when that is what Game of Thrones has always done.

The show, just like the books it was based on, was always one for shocking, expectation-defying plot twists. Throughout the series, people liked it - they liked not knowing what comes next, they liked the shock of Ned Stark (Sean Bean) being beheaded in the first season and King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) being poisoned at his wedding. In my view, the final season did what the series has always done, but the mentality of the fans had changed. It was a long, two-year wait between seasons 7 and 8, and during that time, the internet was filled to the brim with theories and speculation on how Game of Thrones will end, with everyone having their own clear vision on how things would go down. Suddenly, the fans expect things to go a certain way. People were expecting a neat ending where Jon Snow (Kit Harington) kills the Night King (Vladimir Furdik) and becomes King, not realizing that such a poetic and predictable outcome would go against everything the franchise stands for. So, when the final season did what the series has always done and subverted expectations, fans were all upset that things didn't go the way they had read/written on online forums.

For a concrete example, let's compare two plot twists: the infamous Red Wedding from season 3, and Daenerys' (Emilia Clarke) 'turn to evil' in season 8. Both twists land the similar narrative combination of being shocking yet making sense. The Red Wedding was built subtly enough that you didn't see it coming and thus it shocked everyone, but there was enough background build-up that it made total sense and didn't feel out of the blue. Similarly, the Daenerys twist happens in such a dramatic manner that it certainly feels shocking, yet it's not one bit out of the blue, as previous seasons had laid the groundwork by gradually hinting more and more that she might've inherited the cruelty of her father, the Mad King. At least in my view, the twist makes perfect sense in hindsight as it fits the trajectory of the character. There is little difference between these twists from a storytelling perspective, yet fans adore the first and detest the second. This is because in season 3, the future was still ahead and viewers wanted to be shocked, enjoying the feeling of not knowing what comes next. In season 8, everyone had their own opinion on how the show 'should' end, and therefore an admittedly shocking but honestly well-built plot twist caused a whole bunch of bratty whining.

Watching the series like I did, living every moment and appreciating every shock instead of fantasizing about a perfect ending in my head, the final season as a whole was a very positive viewing experience, and the series finale in particular - while I do on some level hear why people didn't like the Arya (Maisie Williams) / Night King twist or the Daenerys twist earlier in the season, it feels very hard to understand why someone would hate the finale, other than the attitude problem of deciding to hate it before it even aired because the preceding episodes weren't to your liking. Before you get defensive about this point, honestly ask yourself: having formed an opinion of what season 8 was up until then, did you give the final episode a chance? Because I'd argue that when viewed with an open mind, the finale feels so very Game of Thrones, and the character endings make sense to a profound degree.

Bran (Isaac Wright) as King? Yes, definitely yes. Both the Bran scenes of the show and the Bran chapters of the books always felt different from everything else, giving a sense that this character is going to have an extremely important role to play in the endgame, that there is something magical and epic in his character arch. Couple that with the wisdom he gained after merging with the Three-Eyed Raven, and you have a fair and deserving successor to the Iron Throne.

Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) as Hand of the King? Perfection. When you look at his screentime in the series and the amount of his POV chapters in the books, it is clear that Tyrion was one of the most important characters from the beginning, and one of the most heroic ones - Game of Thrones doesn't do traditional hero narratives, but the often flawed Tyrion always came out on top morally (if only barely at times), being a character you can root for. Yet he was no great fighter, and his words were always his weapons. So it feels extremely fitting that he is the genius who talks Jon into doing what he has to do, then talks the council into selecting Bran as King, thus securing the future of the Seven Kingdoms with his wit.

There are many more that I could adress if I hadn't already rambled on for long enough, from Sansa's (Sophie Turner) karma to Arya's adventurous epicness, but the one I'd really like to single out is Jon Snow. His ending is complex, poetic and bittersweet to the degree that I am absolutely baffled that anyone would have a problem with it. The most morally upstanding and conventionally heroic of all the main characters, he ends up facing his toughest and most gripping moral dilemma, which creates much of the tension for the final episode: in order to save the realm, he must kill the woman he loves. Harington plays his role wonderfully, with the insane difficulty of this choice translating into his facial expressions and delivery of lines. Finally, when he does it, he is seen as both hero and villain: half of Westeros wants him crowned King as the rightful heir of House Targaryen, and half wants him executed because he killed their Queen. He can't be either, and so he sets out to live the rest of his life in exile, as a ranger of the Night's Watch. The very place he started his journey, and where he always felt most himself. It is sad to see him succumb to this 'punishment', yet heartwarming to know that on a deeper level he's right at home - a truly powerful and bittersweet ending for his character and for the whole series.

For anyone who still thinks that the final season is crap, please do submit your analytical 10-paragraph arguments to my e-mail veikkohoffman@live.com, and we can have a proper debate.

7. Tomorrow (The West Wing)

"Make me proud, Mr. President"

"I'll do my best, Mr. President"

Similarly to The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin's even greater masterpiece also saved the biggest emotional stakes and heartbreak of its final season for the episodes nearing the end, especially the Election Day two-parter that might just be the biggest emotional rollercoaster in television. Many of the biggest storylines have been resolved by the time we reach the finale, which poetically follows the transition of power as Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) is finally relieved of the Presidency, and Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) is inaugurated. This promise of a better future sets the legacy of the Bartlet administration and all the work the main characters did across the show's seven seasons in stone, and sends a hellishly strong message to real-life America about how we should be conducting our politics.

But it's not quite as chill as the Newsroom finale - many storylines remain unresolved until the last minutes, chief among them the question of whether or not Bartlet pardons his former employee, loudest critic and better angel Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) for his ethically gray actions that many considered treason (I, a pacifist, saw them as nothing short of heroic). The balance between symbolic and nice we-know-what's-going-to-happen bookends and dramatic-till-the-end storylines makes the episode soothing yet compelling. Throw in a fairytale end for Josh (Brad Whitford) and Donna (Janel Moloney), a touching mentor-and-apprentice moment between Bartlet and Charlie Young (Dulé Hill) and a beautiful callback to Leo (John Spencer), a giant we lost both in the show and in real life, and you've got the perfect note to end one of the greatest-ever TV shows on.

6. What Is Your Name? (Twin Peaks)

"What year is this?"

Many people didn't like the last-ever Twin Peaks episode, and I don't blame them. A series doing a semi-conventional climax (at least by the show's standards) and then doing one more episode as a major curveball into everything isn't something you see every day. But for me, this was the perfect way to wrap the story up (or, more accurately, leave it beautifully unwrapped). My feelings about the episode are echoed perfectly by the titles of two IMDB reviews I've read about it: "David Lynch ignores a simple conclusion and produces a work of art", and "Lynched again - a masterpiece".

The words 'Lynched again' feel especially resonant - this episode is to the rest of Twin Peaks what Twin Peaks was to television. When the series first aired, it subverted every expectation on what TV can be, and produced something shockingly different and outstanding. So, instead of making a finale that is weird like the rest of Twin Peaks, Lynch pulled yet another rabbit out of the hat and produced something that was shockingly different and outstanding even relative to what we had come to expect from Twin Peaks.

5. Made In America (The Sopranos)

"Isn't that what you said one time? Try to remember the times that were good?"

When compared to the other shows in the tier of 'TV dramas with the utmost critical acclaim and prestige writing', such as Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, The Sopranos stands out as less plot-oriented and dramatic than its counterparts. It never was the show that makes you cry, makes you invested across multi-episode storylines, or leaves you guessing with huge cliffhangers. Just like its pilot episode was less "let's get this story started" and more "let's jump into this world as if we're midway through the story", its finale is also less "let's wrap up every storyline with a poetic bow" and more "one more Sopranos episode, feeling like an ordinary episode in many ways, but with the perfect ending scene".

And for this particular series, that was the way to go. Especially because that final scene is one of the greatest moments in television history.

The soundtrack choice of Journey's Don't Stop Believin', the dialogue between the family, the underlying tension, the interpretational and out-of-left-field nature of how it all ends - it's all perfection. The reference to The Godfather is probably the most profound intertextual reference I've seen in television - instead of feeling merely clever and fun like many pop culture references, it feels deep and powerful when it hits you - I also appreciate the implication that if you haven't seen The Godfather, you don't deserve to fully understand the ending of the world-famous mafia series. One for the ages, this ending.

4. What You Leave Behind (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

"This may be the last time we're all together. But no matter what the future holds, no matter how far we travel, a part of us - a very important part- will always remain here, on Deep Space Nine"

Deep Space Nine is my favorite of the EIGHT Star Trek shows that have been made, and one of the main reasons is its plot-oriented style and long-term storytelling - in a complete opposite to what I just said about The Sopranos, this show is all about getting invested in the characters while following dramatic and emotionally charged long-term storylines. And there were many of these narrative threads, so many that from a storyteller's perspective, such a grand tale is very challenging to bring to an appropriate close. But the bastards sure pulled it off.

After 173 episodes across 7 seasons, we're treated to a 92-minute powerhouse of emotion that wraps up every characted journey and long-term storyline with majesty. The Dominion War, the ambiguous Prophets narrative, Odo's (Rene Auberjonois) gripping struggle of where he belongs, the fate of Cardassia and its people, the political turmoil on Bajor, Gul Dukat's (Marc Alaimo) situation and the Pah-Wraiths - every imaginable thread is brought to a poetic close.

There were many moments that had me in tears, from the goodbye between Odo and Kira (Nana Visitor) after the former makes his decision, to the montage of friendship moments between best bros Bashir (Alexander Siddig) and O'Brien (Colm Meaney). I also greatly appreciate protagonist Sisko's (Avery Brooks) ending - in perhaps fiction's greatest instance of putting profound symbolic value on an object, his precious baseball had a deep meaning in the ending of season 5, an even deeper purpose in the ending of season 6, and a truly larger-than-life meaning in how the whole series wraps up.

3. The End (Lost)

"She said we were leaving"

"Not leaving, no. Moving on"

One of the most evenly opinion-splitting episodes in television history, the series finale of Lost's six-season run divided fans into those who consider it a masterpiece and those who consider it a total dud. Somewhat unsurprisingly, I belong to the 'love it' end of this particular 'love it or hate it' spectrum.

First of all, the whole "Oh, they were all dead the whole time" interpretation is total BS. It's people with a 'be judgemental, not curious' attitude, not understanding or even wanting to understand the ending, hyping up a dumb false interpretation on the internet in order to come together under making fun of a work of art. No, they were not all dead the whole time. The specific implications of the ending are up for debate, but it's definitely not that.

But more than that, it's just a great and moving final act. Tensions are mounted leading up to the final clash between good and evil on the island, while sideplots are resolved in various emotional moments. There's a special place in my heart for the final scene, and the way it mirrors the very first scene of the series in a poetic manner. The pilot opens with a close-up of Jack (Matthew Fox) opening his eye, after which we following him getting up from his lying stance in the island's jungle, as he gets his bearings while Vincent the dog runs by. Six seasons later, we end with a dying Jack roaming into the same jungle, as Vincent the dog runs by, until he lies down (this all happens to the backdrop of a beautifully bittersweet Michael Giacchino score), and the final shot is a close-up of him closing his eye. A spectacular close.

2. Day 8: 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. (24)

"When you first came to CTU, I never thought it was going to be you, that was going to cover back all those years. And I know that everything you did today was to try and protect me. I know that. Thank you"

The 24 finale is a masterclass in two elements - keeping the tensions sky-high till the very last minutes, and sending the main character off with a massive emotional charge. The final season, in its endgame, follows a high-stakes storyline of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) going rogue and against his government in order to secure proof that will stop a geopolitically world-altering phony peace deal in the name of actual, long-term peace. The final four or five episodes are one of television's finest endgames, with the tension gradually building more and more towards the end, and this is still going on when there are about three minutes left in the final episode's runtime.

After eight 24-episode seasons of getting invested in the story and characters, it feels truly heart-pumping in nature to be guessing and worried about such a large-scale plot up to the very last minutes. When everything is resolved, it doesn't feel rushed despite the powerful resolution taking place in the final minutes. The finale doesn't waste any extra time getting sentimental, but in those last minutes, it efficiently tugs at your heartstrings with Sutherland's emotional delivery of lines and Sean Callery's insanely fitting score. Seriously, the greatest part of this series-best episode might just be how Callery's composition for the final scene mixes elements of the main theme and motifs from memorable moments in past seasons, so that it feels like the whole season flashing before the viewer's eyes.

1. Return 0 (Person of Interest)

"Mr. Reese - John? This wasn't supposed to be the way"

"Sure it is. This is what I do, remember? When you came to me, you gave me a job. A purpose. At first, well...I'd been trying to save the world for so long...saving one life at a time seemed a bit anticlimactic. Then I realized...sometimes one life - if it's the right life - is enough"

The final episode of Jonathan Nolan's criminally underrated Person of Interest tops off a final season that I consider to be the best individual season of television ever made. It all culminates in a profound final hour, where character archs are wrapped up and deep-lying truths about human nature are looked at through a properly mind-bending setting. Acts of love, sacrifice and redemption take place to the backdrop of an appropriately gut-wrenching soundtrack, from CUTS's psychedelically emotional Bunsen Burner to Philip Glass's delicate and swan-song-y Metamorphosis One.

The character journeys of the two main characters, Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson) and Mr. Reese (Jim Caviezel), come to a close that ties into their beginnings in the very first episode. Reese has found his purpose, and his ending is truly bittersweet - after all the trauma he had endured, he could never truly be happy, but given his savior complex, the best possible ending he could get was sacrifing his life in order to save his friends and a greater good. His genuine smile as he stands on the rooftop will break every viewer's heart, yet leave them feeling oddly fulfilled. The flashbacks, shown in a sporadic and cryptic manner throughout the episode, tie into his gripping past, making his ending all the more bittersweet.

And then there's Finch - his backstory with past love interest Grace (Carrie Preston) was always written in such a dark, heartbreaking and cynical manner, that it never felt one bit likely and realistic that they could reunite and have a happy ending. In the show's dramatic context, it just felt like wishful thinking, no matter how hard the viewer feels that Finch would deserve it. So, when the events of the finale do make it possible and we see Finch reuniting with the love of his life, the payoff feels larger than life. This ending is beyond perfect.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for my ranking of the films in the Conjuring universe, including the newly released The Nun II.

Top 10 Series Finales (Comedy)

Greetings, reader!

After diving into the greatest beginnings in comedy and drama television in the past weeks, I'm now turning to take a look at the greatest endings. The infamously opinion-splitting series finale of Dexter (2006-2013) turns 10 years old this week, and while that series is more drama than comedy, I'll start off by ranking the greatest series finales from comedy television, before unveiling my top 10 drama series finales next week. From the world of TV comedy, these are the very greatest final episodes.

Oh, and I can't stress this enough - SPOILER ALERT!! I will be discussing the heaviest of spoilers, as in the very ways in which these long-winded stories end, so be wary to skip any instalments where you haven't seen the series in question but might want to watch it one day.

Here are my honorable mentions: Christmas Special (The Office (U.K. Version)), Engram Pattersky (New Girl), Finale (Modern Family), The Final Curtain (Miranda), The Vicar in White (The Vicar of Dibley).

10. Hogcock!/Last Lunch (30 Rock, Season 7 Episode 12)

"Goodbye forever, you soup line at a gay homeless shelter"

The weird thing about 30 Rock's endgame, which is partially why this finale is only at #10 and not higher, is that the best individual storyline wrap-up actually happens in the previous episode - the penultimate episode A Goon's Deed in a Weary World ends with Kenneth the Page (Jack McBrayer) being made President of NBC. And that right there feels more 'series finale' and poetic than anything in the actual series finale, and is the best individual moment from the final season.

Still, the subsequent final episode is a fun wrap-up for the other threads - Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) and Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) get their sweet endings, and it's a blast to actually see Kenneth running the company. And the final scene is just the delightfully weird, out-of-left-field note that the series needed to end on.

9. That 70's Finale (That 70's Show, Season 8 Episode 22)

"You know what else is hot? My foot, when it's in your ass"

"Look at that. He got one more in him"

I never was the biggest That 70's Show fan - it's one of those sitcoms that were fun to watch for an episode or two when it was on, but it never felt worth it to systematically watch it from start to finish like you would with an excellent series. But I reckon I had seen well over half of the show's episodes, when I came upon the series finale for the first time, and I've re-watched it a couple of times since then. It's just really, really good, and frankly much better than a series like this would deserve.

There's so much greatness going on - the parents finally finding out what the kids were really doing in the basement all those years, the sentimental last trip to the water tower, and the episode's symbolic setting of December 31st 1979 - the very final moments of the 1970's. And as a cherry on top, fan favorites such as Eric (Topher Grace), whose departure had made the final season into a generally negatively received mess, made their glorious return. The reunion scene between Eric and Donna is especially touching, as their romance always was one of the show's sweetest elements.

Also, I'm aware of the recent and not-so-recent controversies surrounding the show's cast - it should go without saying, but would feel weird not to point out when discussing the series, that Danny Masterson is a monster and his prison sentence was well-deserved (actual consequences, something woefully rare in celebrity sexual assault cases).

8. Last Forever (How I Met Your Mother, Season 9 Episodes 23-24)

"You are the love of my life. Everything I have, and everything I am, is yours...forever"

I know, Lord, I know - I'm gonna get crucified for this. I'm well aware of how generally hated the HIMYM finale is, and I must've spent an accumulated amount of several hours in total arguing about with various friends. Yes, I truly like the ending of How I Met Your Mother. It's not perfect, I'll give you that, but it's SO. MUCH. BETTER. than people generally consider it to be. In my humble opinion.

First of all, I want to address the biggest problem that fans had with the ending. Yes, it is an unusual writing choice to kill Tracy (Cristin Milioti) off and end the series with Old Ted (Josh Radnor) getting back together with Robin (Cobie Smulders). But in my opinion, this was the best possible route - the writers wrote themselves into a bit of a corner with the show's very premise. Ted meets Robin and falls for her in the very first episode, making them into the show's big will-they-won't-they, and as annoying as their relationship could be at its worst, they definitely had genuine affection for one another and many good moments. But Robin wasn't the love of Ted's life - the Mother from 'How I Met Your Mother', Tracy McConnell, was. So writing an ending that would please all fans was flat-out impossible.

What they went with honestly makes sense. Tracy's death is incredibly sad, but not in a 'bad writing' way - it gives further emotional context to why Ted is telling the story to the kids, and episodes like season 8's The Time Travellers become a million times better and more emotional when re-watched later, knowing the context that Ted is telling the story after her passing. Ted found the love of his life, and spent many good years with her - and it is only a sweet epilogue that years later he and Robin would find each other again, both single and with many good years left in them, deciding to give it a go.

The one big imperfection that I will admit to the finale having has to do with the whole final season in general. If it was going to end with Barney and Robin getting divorced (which makes sense - let's face it, they never were the healthiest couple either) and with Ted eventually re-kindling his love for Robin, it's weird that the final season put so much focus into A) Barney and Robin's wedding, and B) the storyline of Ted finally getting over Robin. That makes some of the finale's events seem a bit twisted, although it's not as bad as people make it out to be considering that those events take place several years afterwards, so that the characters have changed with time even if the changes feel sudden to the viewer. But, yeah, that's the main reason why this mostly great finale is only at #8 and not higher.

Finally, I'd like to end with this - even if you don't like that particular narrative choice or other individual parts from the finale, as you're very entitled to do (I've heard many good arguments for why people were disappointed), please don't give me with the bullshit that the series finale is 1/10 and total garbage. That I'm not buying. Whatever you think of Barney and Robin's divorce or Tracy's death or Ted's return to Robin, you can't possibly claim that the finale does nothing right. There's so much to love in this two-parter: the script jumping between the post-wedding moments leading up to Ted and Tracy's first meeting and the flash-forwards showing us great moments from the years ahead, like Marshall becoming Judge Fudge. The incredibly sweet way in which Barney's character is written out (no woman could quite change his player ways, but becoming a father to a daughter was the one thing that could - tell me that that's not poetic as hell). Ted getting mad as his children's criticism and saying "I kept this story SHORT and TO THE POINT", which might just be the best joke in the entire series.

And most of all, the second-last scene. The true climax, to which the final scene is but an epilogue. Ted meeting Tracy. Doing nine seasons of build-up just to two people meeting each other for the first time is quite an impossible mission for writers, as it could so easily become an anticlimax - yet they pulled it off. Whatever you think of the rest of the episode, you have to admit that the show's titular scene, how the narrator met the mother of his children, truly lives up to the hype. It's love at first sight, it's flirtatious and magical and high on chemistry, it ties in several events from previous seasons, you've got the symbolism of the yellow umbrella - it's the show's most important moment. That alone earns the imperfect but over-hated HIMYM finale a spot on this list. I have spoken.

7. One Last Ride (Parks & Recreation, Season 7 Episode 12)

"You ready, babe?"

Parks & Recreation, the "The West Wing meets The Office" series envisioned by Michael Schur, ends with a conceptual number: in present day, the Pawnee Parks Department gathers for their last case together, while we keep cutting to glimpses of the future, seeing what each member of the gang ends up getting up to.

The job in the present-day storyline is having a broken playground swing fixed, which just feels so fitting for the show's small-scale, 'love letter to local politics' feel. Meanwhile, the future sequences don't hold anything back and are anything but small-scale, with some beautiful payoffs to the shows character archs. I can't decide whether my favorite character ending is Leslie (Amy Poehler) and Ben's (Adam Scott) climb up the political ladder until it is subtly and ambiguously implied that one of them has become President of the United States, or Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) being made superintendent of Pawnee National Park, essentially getting to roam the outdoors for a living for the rest of his days.

6. Whenever You're Ready (The Good Place, Season 4 Episode 13)

"Okay, homies, you're sad. I can tell 'cause you have the same looks on your faces that my teachers did whenever I raised my hand in class"

The Good Place, the afterlife-themed comedy also envisioned by the great Michael Schur, always was as zany and feel-good as it was metaphysical and thought-provoking. Appropriately enough, the final episode leaves you with a warm heart and a smile and your face, both through its humor and happy endings to character archs, and through the fact that it actually finds some answers.

This always was the show's goal, as Schur has stated that he envisioned the series after doing some heavy philosophical reading, and created The Good Place in order to work through some of life's (and death's) toughest questions, possibly finding some answers along the way, via fiction and comedy. This vision is fully realized in the final season, as a new and more ethical afterlife system is put into motion and an appropriate solution is found for the "eternal happiness" dilemma. Following our main characters living out eternal paradise, until they feel fulfilled and are ready to cross over, is a perfect and bittersweet conclusion.

5. The Final Episode (Episodes, Season 5 Episode 7)

"This is the show we should've done all along!"

The ending to the severely underrated Episodes may not be an emotional powerhouse like the Parks & Recreation or The Good Place finales - what it is, however, is one of the cleverest ways a TV series has ever finished its run. The conclusion is arrived at in the final minutes, and it is a thing to behold - witty, meta, poetic and just the best possible ending for this particular series.

As fans will remember, the series is about two British showrunners who are recruited to move to Hollywood and write an American remake of their acclaimed series, yet with ratings-oriented producers interfering with everything, the classy and nuanced comedy series turns into a superficial and unoriginal cliché. The series follows the people making this fictional series. So, in the final minutes of the series finale, the main characters come up with a pitch for a new series they want to make, inspired by their own experiences: a series about two British showrunners who are recruited to move to Hollywood and write an American remake of their acclaimed series, yet with ratings-oriented producers interfering with everything, the classy and nuanced comedy series turns into a superficial and unoriginal cliché.

Genius. Pure genius.

4. The Last One (F.R.I.E.N.D.S., Season 10 Episode 17)

"Oh my God, did she get off the plane, DID SHE GET OFF THE PLANE?!"

"...I got off the plane"

I've seen the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. finale a million times, and let's face it, you've seen the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. finale a million times. I don't have to remind you why it rocks. But in case I do, here's a few refreshments for your memory: Something wrong with the left phalange. The wrong airport and the cab of death. The symbolic death of the foosball table in order to save the new chick and duck. The birth of the twins. The whole "I got off the plane" moment of rom-com perfection. And, of course, the show's final line - the very best Chandler (Matthew Perry) joke of them all, saved for last, so that viewers will let out a laugh amidst the tears. One for the ages, this one.

3. The Last Day (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Season 8 Episodes 9-10)

"Over the years you've sometimes referred to me as something of a father figure"

"Did I? I didn't realize that"

"I want you to know, if I had had a son, and he turned out like you - I would be very proud of him"

Oh man. There's a lot to love in the two-parter that brought Brooklyn Nine-Nine - yet another series produced by Michael Schur - to a close. But the biggest factor in its high ranking is the interaction quoted above, as Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) expresses to Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) how proud he is of him, and Samberg's performance in the scene never fails to bring me to tears. It is such a powerful note to end the show on.

In addition to that emotionally charged powerhouse moment, the episode brings a lot of fun with its heist setting. The heist tradition is one of the most beloved traditions in the series, so having the final season's traditional heist episode be the very last episode is both moving and hellishly fun. A sweet and fitting closing chapter if I ever saw one.

2. Finale (The Office (U.S. Version), Season 9 Episode 23)

"MICHAEL - I can't believe you came"

"...That's what she said"

The entire endgame of The Office is bittersweet gold - seasons 8 and 9 in general were a step down, but the final season started getting steadily better towards the end, and the final set of six episodes / three two-parters is filled to the brim with emotional payoffs and legendary moments. This all comes to a head in the series finale, where the release of the fictional documentary about Dunder Mifflin is celebrated amidst the nuptials of Dwight (Rainn Wilson) and Angela (Angela Kinsey).

While the finale is full of legendary moments, one that especially stands out is Michael Scott's (Steve Carell) return at the end of part 1 - the whole moment is built with perfection. I also love Pam's (Jenna Fischer) closing words at the end of part 2, really summing up through a sentimental meta lens why the series worked so well. There's beauty in the ordinary things, alright.

1. Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television (Community, Season 6 Episode 13)

"It's TV. It's comfort. It's a friend you've known so well, and for so long, you just let it be with you. And it needs to be okay for it to have a bad day, or phone in a day. And it needs to be okay for it to get on a boat with Levar Burton and never come back...because eventually, it all will"

My all-time favorite sitcom ends on just the right note, producing a proper sense of closure while still leaving room for the eventual movie. In this sentimental, silly and appropriately meta closing chapter, we follow each of the main character envisioning their ideal 'Season 7', imagining how the next year of their lives should go. These segments range from hilarious to profound, feeling like a combination of saying goodbye and going on.

Of the many great moments in this series finale, one that I have to single out is the goodbye between Jeff (Joel McHale) and Abed (Danny Pudi) - after driving Abed to the airport, Jeff embraces him, and after the hug is over, he hugs him once more, this time with more intensity. This feels so powerful in the show's context - Jeff and Abed were the show's best-written characters, and their character archs rubbed off on each other in a deep-lying manner.

Throughout the show's six-season run, Jeff helped anchor Abed just enough into the 'real world' to learn the skills required to become a filmmaker, while making sure that the weird and magical dude stays himself, while Abed's presence as the group's wholesome moral compass was perhaps the biggest factor in Jeff's gradual redemption arch from selfish asshole to caring friend. Jeff's hug speaks volumes on how much he values Abed's presence in his life, and how the stories of these two characters were a massive part of the show's DNA. All in all, Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television is a goofy, insanely creative concept episode that manages to make you cry and smile amidst the imaginative storytelling, therefore feeling like the best possible ending for a series like Community.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for the conclusion of the pilots&finales saga, as I wrap it up with a ranking of my top 10 favorite series finales from drama television. And I can promise that there will be one entry as controversial, or perhaps even more so, as this week's HIMYM take. Stay tuned!

Top 10 TV Pilots (Drama)

Greetings, reader!

My four-week dive into TV's finest beginnings and endings continues - last week I took a look at the greatest pilot episodes in comedy television, so today it's the turn of drama TV. From intriguing introductions to addictive kick-offs, these are the best first episodes.

Here are my honorable mentions: Dexter (Dexter), Pilot (Breaking Bad), Pilot (Designated Survivor), Pilot (Homeland), Pilot (Prison Break).

10. Days Gone Bye (The Walking Dead)

"Hey you. Dumbass. Yeah, you in the tank. Cozy in there?"

Oh man, that first scene is rough. Not only that, but it's a pitch-perfect introduction to a zombie apocalypse. Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) wakes up from a hospital bed, having been comatose when it all went down, and thus awakens into a thoroughly changed world. And how changed it is - the script based on Robert Kirkman's graphic novels, coupled with Frank Darabont's high-scale directing, make for one of the most real-feeling post-apocalyptic settings in fiction. A zombie apocalypse, as an idea, can never be 'realistic', but the question of "how would our society change if that DID happen?" is answered in the most realistic way imaginable.

So, yeah - it's a changed world, and this episode purposefully explores very little of it, only giving bits and pieces of the walking dead and the implication of their rise, thus leaving the viewer wanting more and wanting it fast. An expert way to begin such a series, and one that sure went down in TV history.

9. Emissary (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

"You can't cheat every customer who walks through the door anymore, Quark. You are a community leader now"

"Very well, very well...perhaps we could discuss these new rules over a drink"

I'm a huge Star Trek fan - and having watched the pilot episodes to all 8 TV shows in the franchise, I can say that most of them aren't that great. The Original Series didn't air its intended pilot episode first but went with a last-minute 'safe choice' (read: more boring choice), The Next Generation had its growing pains, Enterprise felt cheesy as hell and so on. But the one that was love at first sight was my favorite Trek series of them all - Deep Space Nine.

This is the one Trek show that seemed to know its identity from the start, instead of growing into what kind of show it wants to be through trial and error. From the very first episode, they make it clear how this will be a different kind of Trek series: being set on a space station instead of a moving spaceship is just the tip of the iceberg, as we're also introduced to the central geopolitical conflict that takes fictional alien races and alliances to a level of complexity usually reserved for real-world situations (think Syria in the 2010's), and to the show's trademark combo of being darker than the previous Trek shows on some level, yet also the coziest of them all - between the location of Quark's bar and the warm soundtrack playing as characters navigate the station, Deep Space Nine feels like home from the very start.

8. Pilot (Person of Interest)

"Knowledge is not my problem. Doing something with that knowledge is where you come in. You can call me Mr. Finch"

The pilot to Jonathan Nolan's deeply underrated sci-fi crime drama scores a lot of points in my book just for the fact that it introduces one of TV's cooler premises - a supercomputer that was built post-9/11 to detect acts of terror has been shelved because of difficult distinctions between 'relevant' crimes and ordinary crime, but the man who built it has had a crisis of conscience knowing that he has access to this machine that predicts acts of violent crime before they happen, so he recruits a partner in order to begin an operation of stopping crimes before they take place.

But more than that, it's the emotional and gripping manner in which this premise comes to be. Former CIA hitman John Reese (Jim Caviezel) is depressed and downright suicidal, feeling like his life has no purpose anymore, when he's contacted by the enigmatic but heart-of-gold genius Harold Finch (Michael Emerson), who offers him an opportunity to do some good with the skillset he used to use for evil. This gives him a new purpose, and it's all very touching.

7. 12:00 a.m. - 1:00 a.m. (24)

"My name is Jack Bauer, and this is the longest day of my life"

There is a clear correlation between A) how interesting a television show's premise is, and B) how highly their pilot episode ranks on this list. The two aren't quite the same, but the pilots of shows with particularly fascinating concepts tend to naturally be a bit better in general. A great premise is easier to introduce in a compelling manner than an average premise. And this is the biggest factor behind the success of the opening episode in the infamous series about counter-terrorist agents taking place in real time.

From the very beginning, the question of "can this premise possibly work and be as cool as it sounds?" is answered with a resounding "yes". Sean Callery's instrumental soundtrack in the first minutes is pure dramatic gold, as we're gradually introduced to our major characters in a riveting midnight setting, and the plot starts to build and thicken. There are thrilling moments of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) badassery to the backdrop of an assassination threat in the midst of a Presidential primary, but most of all, the pilot works because it proves right off the bat how intense and addictive the real-time premise is.

6. Pilot (The West Wing)

"It's a nice morning, Mr. McGarry"

"We'll take care of that in a hurry, won't we?"

Oh man - no one introduces characters like Aaron Sorkin. After a low-key 'normal' opening scene to set the tone before the Sorkin magic kicks off, the original main ensemble (with the exception of President Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen), who we'll get to later) is met, one by one, in a hellishly entertaining and informative montage. All of them receive the same piece of news while in the middle of a situation or interaction that tells you everything you need to know about that character, culminating in Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) leaving the room of his one-night-stand with his legendary POTUS line just as Snuffy Walden's majestic Walking the West Wing score drops into motion.

From thereon out, it's clever ping-pong dialogue, fascinating walking-and-talking sequences, and brilliant idealism as we get to know the immediately lovable White House staff of the Bartlet administration. This culminates in Bartlet himself making one of the most iconic entrances in fiction, with his first lines and the rest of the scene cementing his character to be as towering in presence and believable as President as he is likably humane and 'feels-too-good-to-be-true' in his fist-pumping nature.

5. eps1.0_hellofriend.mov (Mr. Robot)

"See, I usually do this kind of thing from my computer, but now I wanted to do it AFK, in person. Trying to work on my social anxiety. But there's always the threat of you fleeing after I call you out - you call your assisted men to take the servers down, wipe all the data. So, I made sure to include the current time and location in my anonymous tip"

"Wait, hold on! I'll give you the money! How much do you want, I'll pay you!"

"That's the part you were wrong about, Ron. I don't give a shit about money"

Yeah, the very first scene of the Mr. Robot pilot had me hooked like (almost) no other. Rami Malek's sledgehammer performance proves to be worthy of Emmys and Golden Globes in just that one scene, as he plays the role of Elliot Alderson with a unique mixture of cold distance and vulnerable heart, making the protagonist feel like someone who you can't reach yet you deeply care for. The central themes and core values of the series are also clear from just that one scene, as some razor-sharp dialogue clears up the worldview of the protagonist and the larger points about society that the series strives to make through him.

After that banger of an opening scene, the rest of the episode is quite a treat as well - the artistic cinematography, interpretational storytelling and Elliot's inner monologue narration make the viewing experience feel like a psychedelic fever dream of sorts. And, of course, there's a bizarre cliffhanger.

4. We Just Decided To (The Newsroom)

"First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore"

If I were ranking the greatest opening scenes from television, instead of the whole pilot episodes, the #1 spot would be a battle between Mr. Robot and The Newsroom - and this Aaron Sorkin series just might gain the edge and come out on top. In this earth-shattering opening scene, we follow a panel where prominent journalists are asked about the United States' status as the greatest country in the world - only for star anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) to go off on a tirade encapsulated in the sentiment "it's not (but it could be)". This monologue is brilliantly acted, although the true star of the show is the brutally honest set of words written by Mr. Sorkin.

The rest of the episode continues in a Sorkin-esque fashion, as we find out what we need to know about the main characters in a rapid progression through a bunch of clever and entertaining moments. The show's tradition of mixing fiction with reality also makes itself known, as the fictional newsroom we follow suddenly finds itself covering a very real breaking news story from 2010. Oh, and the episode's final moment, tying simultaneously into the show's two best characters archs, its best love story and Sorkin's grand idealism behind the series, is nothing short of profound.

3. Winter Is Coming (Game of Thrones)

"The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword"

The opening act of HBO's massive-scale, high-budget blockbuster fantasy series is, well, massive in scale and high in budget. Game of Thrones is considered one of the key factors in the argument that TV has risen to the same level of art as cinema during the last decade or so, and the case seems solid from the get-go: this isn't you soap-opera, mindless-entertainment, no-risks-taken ratings-oriented safety TV. This is high art, bold storytelling where anything can happen, with intricate characters played by masters of the trade.

The pilot episode remains very loyal to George R. R. Martin's books in both plot and atmosphere, and contains killer dialogue and memorable moments through and through. The biggest thing for me however, the thing that really sold me on knowing from the start that this will be one of my all-time favorite shows, is the sheer intrigue - we're introduced to various settings, lore elements and plotlines in a truly fascinating manner. It has you hooked and invested from the very beginning, as the ball starts to roll and one can't take their eyes off it.

2. Northwest Passage (Twin Peaks)

"Diane, I'm holding in my hands a small box of chocolate bunnies"

Once upon a time, filmmaker David Lynch decided to team up with Mark Frost and venture into the world of television. One 90-minute pilot episode later, they had the world's attention, with everyone tuning in each week to find out more about who killed Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), and what the hell is going on in the strange town on Twin Peaks, Washington.

A pilot is, at best, a promise of what kind of series this will be. Sometimes the promise is overstated (Designated Survivor begins with its best episode, and it's all downhill from there), while sometimes it is understated (Star Trek: The Next Generation had some serious growing pains to get over). But once every blue moon, a series manages to kick off with the perfect promise, an episode that tells you everything you need to know about what sort of series it will be - and Twin Peaks sure does that.

Sure, the arthouse surrealism would get even weirder deeper down the rabbit hole, but the psychedelia is strongly present from the start, warning mainstream viewers that this will be no ordinary murder mystery. Sure, the emotional payoffs would only grow larger later on, but there is a strong emotional core from the very moment Leland Palmer (Ray Wise) receives the phone call about his daughter's death to the backdrop of the late Angelo Badalamenti's heart-wrenching score. Sure, the moments of humor would grow even more bizarre and Kyle MacLachlan's Dale Cooper is only to be revealed more and more wholesome, but there's enough peculiar humor and lovable Dale Cooper content to make it clear from the start where the show's moments of laughter and heart would originate from. The Twin Peaks pilot is a test for the famously opinion-dividing series: if you don't like it, chances are you won't like the rest of the series, but if it is to your liking, I reckon that the rest of the series will feel the same but even better.

1. Pilot (Lost)

"Guys...where are we?"

A close-up of Jack Shepherd (Matthew Fox) opening his eye. He gets up from where he was lying down, looks around his jungle-like surroundings, trying to figure out what's going on. He walks into a certain direction, escalating into a run as he hears screaming, until finally he arrives. The beach. On an island. Machinery and fire. Injured people, dying people, all hell breaking loose. This, the immediate aftermath of the Oceanic Flight 815 plane crash, is how we're introduced to the setting of Lost.

After all these years, this cinematically magnificent pilot from 2004 is still the best in the business. No series has started with such an eye-opening bang. Not only does J. J. Abrams' blockbuster directing make the plane crash feel chaotic, panicky and real, but the show's memorable and fleshed-out characters are introduced with great fascination, and the rabbit hole of the show's many mysteries is opened just enough that you just have to take a deeper peek so see what it's all about. Of course, the biggest mystery of them all, "what exactly is the deal with this island", is established as a wonderfully cryptic theme immortalized in Charlie's (Dominic Monaghan) closing words, quoted above.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as I continue my four-week look into television's finest beginnings and endings, with a ranking of the greatest series finales in comedy TV.

Top 10 TV Pilot Episodes (Comedy)

Greetings, reader!

I always strive to make each week's post relevant in some way - and this week's post is topical, if you really stretch your imagination. You see, the 10-year anniversary of Dexter's (2006-2013) series finale is in a few weeks, so I figured I'd do a post on the top 10 TV series finales of all time that week. And, since I didn't have better ideas for the weeks leading up to it, I decided to make a four-week thing out of it: first I rank the top 10 pilot episodes from both comedy TV and drama TV, and then the top 10 series finales from both categories. Starting off this four-part look into the greatest beginnings and endings in TV, here are the greatest comedy pilot episodes of all time!

Here are my honorable mentions: Pilot (30 Rock, Season 1 Episode 1), Pilot (The Office, Season 1 Episode 1), Policin' (That Damn Michael Che, Season 1 Episode 1), Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire (The Simpsons, Season 1 Episode 1), The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate (F.R.I.E.N.D.S., Season 1 Episode 1).

10. Between the Toes (Ramy, Season 1 Episode 1)

"He's not really my cousin. He's just like, you know..."

"Oh, like an Arab cousin?"

"Yes!"

"Yeah, just like, anyone that your dad's ever met"

I started to watch Ramy, the Golden Globe -winning yet severely under-the-radar sitcom about a Muslim family in New Jersey, because Trevor Noah talked about it in a fascinating way on The Daily Show. And, from the first episode, I knew I had stumbled onto something good - the personalities of the main characters and the show's signature humor and themes are immediately established, in a fashion that leaves you begging for more. Nothing much happens, but the episode fulfils its job as a pilot with well-flowing introductions to the show's milieu.

9. Pilot (Ted Lasso, Season 1 Episode 1)

"How do you take your tea?"

"Well, usually I take it right back to the counter because someone has made a horrible mistake. But, when in Rome, right?"

From one extreme to the other - while Ramy's pilot is low on storytelling and features a lot of general vibing, the American-British football series Ted Lasso starts with a plot-heavy bang. It's a lot of information to wrap your head around: wealthy Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) has inherited the football club owned by her ex-husband through a messy divorce, yet she doesn't care about football and wants to hurt the man who hurt her by destroying the club ("the one thing he truly loved"), and her plan is to fire the team's coach and replace him with a clueless American.

Only the American in question happens to be Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis), a human golden retriever and one of the most uplifting, heart-melting and all-around lovable people in all fiction. The greatness of this character and of Sudeikis' multiple-Emmy-winning performance are evident from the very first episode, as the rapid storytelling and blink-and-you'll-miss-it introductions to supporting characters are balanced out by moments of authentic, heartfelt humor. The culture shock between the U.S. and the U.K. is also an endless gold mine of comedy, and the pilot plays with it well.

8. Pilot (Rick and Morty, Season 1 Episode 1)

"Because the world is full of idiots that don't understand what's important. And they'll tear us apart, Morty. But if you stick with me, I'm gonna accomplish great things, Morty. And you're gonna be a part of 'em. And together we're gonna run around, Morty, we're gonna do all kinds of wonderful things, Morty. Just you and me, Morty. The outside world is our enemy, Morty. We're the only friends we've got, Morty. It's just Rick and Morty. Rrrrick and Morty and their adventures, Morty. Rick and Morty, forever and forever, a hundred years Rick and Morty"

The first episode of the animated sitcom I've often described as "Back to the Future meets Community meets South Park meets Doctor Who" is just the sort of chaotic mess that you'd expect. We meet the strange old scientist and the boy he goes on adventures with (hence the Back to the Future), we get a major dose of pop culture references and meta comedy (hence the Community), the humor is crude and outrageous (hence the South Park), and the sci-fi is surprisingly fascinating with some decent and adventurous worldbuilding (hence the Doctor Who).

Also, it's one of the funniest gags in the entire series when Rick tells Morty to shoot an alien guard, Morty hesitates, Rick tells him "It's okay, they're just robots", Morty shoots him, the alien cries in pain and longs for his family, Morty looks at Rick with a "what the hell" expression and Rick says "It's a figure of speech, it means they're bureucrats, I don't respect them!". Top tier dark humor.

7. The Gang Gets Racist (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Season 1 Episode 1)

"Coffee, Hitler? I'll be sure to put lots of cream in that for you"

"No, I'm not Adolf Hitler"

Oh, speaking of dark humor!

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, still running strong after a record-breaking 16 seasons, is living proof that the "YOU CAN'T JOKE ABOUT ANYTHING ANYMORE" crowd 100% needs to shut the f**k up. You can very much joke about anything, even dark and edgy topics, when you do it with good taste, to the right crowd, and not at anyone's expense. The thing you're thinking of, the thing you shouldn't do anymore, is called BULLYING.

Because, let's face it - if the rules about joking had really changed, this series would've been cancelled (in both senses of the word) a long time ago. Just watch this pilot episode to get the picture - the issue of racism is danced around and jabbed at, on multiple levels of satire and irony, in a way that ends up being totally okay and damn hilarious as well. The series would go on to do similar episodes tackling abortion, gun violence, cancer and molestation - and that's just the first season. Not for everyone, this series, but it sure had this fan of dark comedy hooked from the start.

6. Episode One (Episodes, Season 1 Episode 1)

"But why do it? Our lives are here, our friends are here..."

"Who would you miss?"

"...We need better friends"

The first Episode of the deeply underrated Episodes is structured in a nice fashion, beginning with a flash-forward that will eventually tie in to the season 1 finale, and ending with a final line that truly hits the nail on the coffin regarding the show's premise. Everything in between is set-up for the show's series-within-a-series plot, as we follow successful British showrunners Sean (Stephen Mangan) and Beverly (Tamsin Greig) getting recruited to move to Hollywood and make an American version of their show. Cleverly built cringe, hilarious cultural differences and razor-sharp satire ensue from the start.

5. Pilot (The Good Place, Season 1 Episode 1)

"I wasn't freaking Gandhi, but I was okay. I was a medium person. I should get to spend eternity in a medium place! Like Cincinnati"

It makes sense that a unique, groundbreaking and thoroughly different sitcom like The Good Place would have a unique, groundbreaking a thoroughly different pilot episode. Michael Schur (known for his work on The Office, Parks and Recreation AND Brooklyn Nine-Nine) set out to make a series focusing on the afterlife, in order to ask and possibly answer some hard-hitting philosophical questions via the lens of comedy television. And so, the first episode begins with Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) sitting in a waiting room, soon finding out that she has just died moments earlier, and is now in the afterlife.

From the very first moments, The Good Place hits different - Bell (as well as co-stars Ted Danson and William Jackson Harper) is hysterical, and the overall feel is cute and cozy despite the underlying deep ponderings and ethical dilemmas. The pilot (and first bunch of episodes in general) also has some of TV's best re-watch value, as it gets funnier and more clever when knowing the context of later plot twists, that were clearly planned from the beginning.

4. Pilot (Modern Family, Season 1 Episode 1)

"I'm Cool Dad, that's my thang. I'm hip, I surf the web, I text. LOL: Laugh Out Loud. OMG: Oh My God. WTF: Why The Face"

The first episode of Modern Family is a delight. We follow three archetypes of modern families, in seemingly separate storylines, with only the final sequence revealing that they're all connected in a fashion that gives the 11-person main cast infinite ammo for comedic hijinks in the seasons to come. Before that grand reveal, we're treated to some memorable sequences, such as Haley's (Sarah Hyland) boyfriend Dylan (Reid Ewing) making an awkward first impression with the Dunphy family, and Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) giving a fiery speech on gay rights on an airplane, only to realize that the situation leading to it was a misunderstanding.

And, yeah - the Circle of Life scene at the end is one for the ages. The comedic timing of "He was a bit of a drama queen" / "No, stop it - you come into my house, you insult me and my boyfriend who, by the way, isn't that dramatic" / *The lights are dimmed as The Circle of Life starts to blast from the speakers as Cam makes his grand entrance with Lily* is just brilliant.

3. Pilot (How I Met Your Mother, Season 1 Episode 1)

"Let's go, we can still make last call! What do you say, Lil? Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum? ...Coz you're a pirate?"

How I Met Your Mother is one of my ultimate comfort shows, and while there's a lot to love across the show's nine seasons, there will always be something next-level special about the first 6-8 episodes of season one. I can't quite place what the difference is - something in the directing style and overall atmosphere makes these episodes stand with a vibe of their own, and re-watching them for the millionth time will never cease to remind me of how magically addictive it felt to start the series for the first time.

A hilariously young, goofy and innocent Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) gets engaged to an equally young and goofy Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), while Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) is introduced in a very Barney fashion and Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) is given her romantic entrance. The main character of it all is the lovable schmuck Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), and the premise is framed as him at an older age telling this story to his children. The pilot episode is filled with warm and nostalgic vibes and memorable (even legen-waitforit-dary) moments, and returning to it always feels like home.

2. Pilot (Community, Season 1 Episode 1)

"And Abed? Abed's a shaman. You ask him to pass the salt, he gives you a bowl of soup. Because you know what, soup is better. Abed is better"

Ah. how it all began. Even if the pilot episode of my all-time favorite sitcom may have slight imperfections and growing pains, it still makes it all the way to second place. I must've watched this episode around 15 times in my life, I can certainly quote every scene, and I've just never gotten tired of it. Right from the beginning, Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) is a total asshole in order for his eventual redemption arch to work, and right from the beginning, Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) is the greatest fictional human being ever created and a magical dude / moral compass for everyone around him. All of the other main characters get solid introductions as well, but these are the most important ones, as their effect on each other would go on to color the entire series in a meaningful way.

Sharp, clever and bouncy dialogue ensues as the infamous Study Group is created, naturally under false pretenses and with major drama involved. The lines range from utterly hilarious ("I thought you had a Bachelor's from Columbia" / "Yeah, and now I have to get one from America"), through weirdly profound ("Funny thing about being smart is that you can get through most of life without ever having to do any work"), all the way to deeply emotional (The first of many "Winger speeches" to save the day). The poetic turning-of-the-tables in Jeff saying "I see your value now" to Abed near the beginning and Abed replying with "That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me!", only for the characters to repeat the same dialogue but with roles reversed and the context changed at the end of the episode, is quite beautiful.

Also, Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) screwing up his opening day speech has got to be one of the funniest opening scenes to a television series that I've come across.

1. Space Pilot 3000 (Futurama, Season 1 Episode 1)

"Can I ask a question?"

"As long as it's not about my eye"

"Uhh..."

"Is it about the eye?"

"Sort of"

"Just ask the question"

"What's with the eye?"

Yes, you read correctly - the oft-forgotten and overlooked series, often referred to as "The Matt Groening series that isn't The Simpsons" or "the animated sci-fi sitcom that isn't Rick and Morty" has the greatest pilot episode in comedy television. If you ask me, at least.

It's just such a captivating beginning. The humor is top notch, from the hilariously Star Trek -spoofing opening seconds all the way to the last scenes, but the premise and plot really pull their weight as well. We follow protagonist Philip J. Fry (Billy West), a delivery guy who gets cryogenically frozen by accident and wakes up a century later. While navigating this futuristic world, he finds himself a job with interstellar delivery company Planet Express, and the supporting characters are introduced in a manner that leaves you begging to learn more about each one. It's an opening episode equal parts hysterical and fascinating, and for a comedy series, you can't start with more of a bang than this.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as I continue this four-week extravaganza with my list of the top 10 pilots from drama TV.