6. Homeland (Showtime)
Of any show to make this list, none slingshot up and down the rankings with as much week to week velocity as Homeland, Showtime’s Emmy award-winning espionage drama. Approaching its second season with an attitude of, “you ain’t seen nothing yet,” the writers upped the tempo on Carrie and Brody’s paranoid tango of changing allegiances, and for about half of it, the propulsive plotting made the show seem unstoppable. In the last few weeks though, the shock-a-minute engine felt like it was being increasingly driven by stupid character choices, and loose logic, causing the show’s quality to jump from great, to okay, to terrible, and back again, sometimes within the same episode.
Fans were worried Homeland’s tight and grounded narrative chops had suddenly disappeared, when in reality, the show had always been ridiculous; it was just less obvious last year. Even with a finale that retroactively excused some confusing plot decisions, the difference between what some viewers thought the show was about, and what the creators were making, was hard to reconcile. All the same, Homeland has but one equal in wringing out gut-churning tension, and still has three of the best performances on television.
- Best Episodes: “New Car Smell,” “Q&A”
5. Louie (FX)
FX’s Louie made Louis C.K. something of a hero among both comedians and creatives, because his complete control over its production let him make a show unlike any other, one where the recognition that comes with joke-telling can take precedence over just trying to get a laugh. Freed from continuity, or a hard-set format, trying to predict where the (often autobiographical) adventures in Louie were heading next quickly became an exercise in futility. With the third season, Louie experimented with an idea even more challenging than the difficulty of single life, or the ouroboric frustration of habitual self-loathing: what if being out in the world really isn’t that scary?
Sure, C.K. remained a magnet for embarrassment, but more than any other year, the silver linings of each little disaster were apparent to both the audience, and Louie. If the beautiful last shot of the epic, three-part Late Show saga showed us anything about C. K.’s evolving outlook, it’s that failure may sometimes be inevitable, but the nobility in trying anyways can never be taken away from you. Besides, there’s nothing stopping you from having a few laughs along the way.
- Best Episodes: “Miami,” “Late Show: Part 3”
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