The 24 Best Television Episodes of 2017
The Atlantic’s editors and writers pick their favorite 2017 moments from The Handmaid’s Tale, Master of None, The Leftovers, Better Things, and more. (Just to be clear, spoilers abound.)
American Vandal, “Premature Theories”
Just as Serial’s listeners at some point started to send in their own theories about Sarah Koenig’s investigation into a Baltimore cold case, the fictional viewers of the American Vandal mockumentary, five episodes in, joined in the hunt to figure out who drew dicks on the cars parked at a California high school. Self-aware hijinks ensued: Teachers faced consequences for their on-camera blabbing, neighbors got so annoyed by the scuttlebutt that they started destroying crucial evidence, and two nerdy student journalists became campus celebrities. But the best gag reinvigorated the tired trope of the teenage rager. When cruddy Snapchat videos of the party at “Nana’s house” was spliced with solemn Steadicam, it made for a hilarious high/low mashup that mocked the true-crime genre’s conventions—and the seriousness with which kids take their gossip.
Better Things, “Eulogy”
Nothing captures Better Things’ glorious weirdness more efficiently than this episode, featuring a storyline in which Sam (Pamela Adlon) demanded that her unappreciative kids pretend that she was dead and eulogize her, hoping to finally spur some acknowledgment of her gifts not only as a mother, but also as an actress. After her daughters mocked the request, Sam stormed out to a local bar, where she received a message telling her to come home. There, her daughters and best friends had prepared the mock funeral she’d always wanted—a loving, ghoulish, emotional tribute to a mother whose parenting skills are entirely unorthodox but surprisingly inspirational. Coming after an episode that paid tribute to how much work acting can be, it was an acknowledgement that women can have careers, and that those careers can be infuriating, exhausting, and incredibly fulfilling, all at the same time.
Big Little Lies, “You Get What You Need”
I was not terribly excited about when HBO first began advertising it (largely via moody images of Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Shailene Woodley running, in both athleisure and slo-mo, on a gray-hued beach). The show’s premise—soap opera! rich people! ocean!—seemed tone-deaf and, on top of that, generally uninteresting, this despite the muuuuurder that the ads promisedwould make its way to Monterey. Episode by episode, though, , , hooked me: as a sensitive and nuanced exploration of domestic violence; as an analysis of privilege; as . And simply sealed the)—and “You Get What You Need” is, in the end, a celebration of sisterhood that reads, in the current moment, as urgent, prescient, and necessary.
