Venture Bros.: 20 Years to Midnight. By far my favorite episode out of the entire Venture Bros. catalogue, and it's only because of this guy: Every time he says something I lose it. I think I say "somebody left a baby" at least once a week. Also, it has Dr. Venture's best exclamations: "HOLY DAMNIT CHRISTMAS!" and "LADY SMITH BLACK MAMBAZO." Always good.
So I watched the entire first season of the Canadian version of Skins on MTV. I don't know why. These sorts of shows are a guilty pleasure for me. I know they're fake, but my desire to vicariously live a high-school life that I never got to experience outweighs how bad the shows are. The entire season was OK. The kids they've got acting in it are moderately likable. Some of them are fuckin' weird looking; whoever is playing Tony doesn't have the parts of his face in the right places. It's like a real-life instance of the uncanny valley. Anyway I just watched the season finale. The plot is kind of nonsensical; Tony's sister (who I don't recall seeing anywhere earlier in the series but there's a lot of forgettable characters) is a mute by choice. She goes off and pretends to be kidnapped to try to help get her brother out of a funk or something. This is a big excuse for the entire crew to convene at some kind of underground rave club that allows underage kids and plays 8-bit chiptunes all night. In the background the band is playing this. I think chiptunes are kind of retarded myself, but I have to say when it hits about 1:00 it gets fairly awesome. They find out the sister was faking it, and for whatever reason "Stanley," the shy kid, decides that he is going to be a huge badass for the first time in his life and jumps on stage. He then does this, and is joined by one girl who is all horny and wants to fuck him. His dream-girl (Tony's ex-girlfriend) in the audience also gets moist for him and three minutes later he has his pick. None of this really made sense in the context of the show, the plot, or the characters, but the whole thing put together was actually kind of awesome. Strong finish there, MTV.
Speaking of Frylock, the best episode of Aqua Team has to be Dusty Gozongas . With the best exchange ever on the show: Carl: Your friggin Dusty Gozongas! I seen your billboard on the interstate you dance down at The Wild Wild Chest?! Meatwad: I think you're thinking of girl down at Fun Bag Junction thats Busty Bazookas. Shake: I think you're thinking of Nipple Hut. Carl: You're thinking CrotchTown. Meatwad and Shake; CrotchTown? Carl: Yeah it's near BoobBerg, but Boobberg? Ehh kind of weak.
A real standout episode of the West Wing, I found, was the season 3 opener. It wasn't part of the series, and was basically a reaction to the 9/11 terrorist attacks that happened only three weeks earlier. I found it to be an incredibly riveting episode, and went a long way to help explain what had just happened. <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_and_Ishmael" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_and_Ishmael</a> That was some of the most responsible television I've ever seen.
When I first read this thread, I immediately thought of West Wing. Two Cathedrals is a fan favorite, and the use of Brothers In Arms is just absolutely perfect. But I would say "The Crackpots and These Women" is the stand out that got me hooked on the series. This is the first big block of cheese episode. So much stuff happens in this episode. It opens with the pickup basketball game in front of the White House when Bartlett brings in the ringer. The dialog on the court between Bartlett and Toby is great (You didn't think I would recognize Steffi Graf when she's serving a tennis ball at me?). Zoey is introduced to Charlie and Mrs. Landingham's background is disclosed. Also a lot going on with Josh in this episode. He gets the NSC card, ponders it all day and ends up giving it back and talks to the psychologist about his sisters death and her love of Ave Maria. Bartlett makes chili for the staff and gives them a moving speech/toast at the end. There is a lot of good humor mixed in during the staff meetings. Definitely a great performance from Bradley Whitford. When he is listening to Ave Maria in his office and CJ walks in and starts talking, and he stops her to listen to the song: Josh: "This is a beautiful piece of music, do you know this?" CJ: "I'm Catholic" Josh: "Hang on, just listen (turns the volume up). That right there. It's miraculous. Schubert was crazy, you know. Think you have to be crazy to create something powerful?" A very moving scene in a very stand out episode.
Another How I Met Your Mother episode that really stood out for me was The Playbook. After Barney and Robin break up, Barney goes back to doing what he does best - picking up women using a series of different methods, all with varying levels of difficulty. The final play, "The Scuba Diver" was hilarious. I thought the first episode of season five of 24 was exceptional. It'd take a real effort for one episode of this series to stand out, considering it's based on "wow" moments and shock twists, but the was easily my favourite start to a season. Two main characters, including the President, were assasinated, while another two were badly injured. And by the end of the episode we realised that Jack was actually being framed for all of it, despite all of these characters being close friends. Great stuff.