With 2025 wrapping up, it’s wild to realize that we’re more than halfway through the 2020s already. And while this decade has been challenging and bonkers in all kinds of ways, it also provided some incredible television. So… at least there’s that, right?
With the best 100 TV shows ever now updated for the new year, I thought it would be fun to revisit this decade to date with an eye toward incredible individual episodes of television.
Industry – “White Mischief”
This is the single most harrowing and riveting thing I’ve ever seen related to gambling addiction. What’s even more noteworthy about this is that the episode focuses tightly on Rishi (Sagar Radia), who had mostly been a minor character up until that point.
Tiger King – “Not Your Average Joe”
Wherein a nation reeling from the first wave of COVID was introduced to the gentleman known as Joe Exotic.
The Last of Us – “Long, Long Time”
One of the best love stories ever told on television, inserted as a side story showstopper early in the first season of this prestige zombie apocalypse show.
Atlanta – “New Jazz”
Atlanta consistently refused to play by any of the normal rules for what we expect out of TV shows while also often placing its characters in bizarre and uncomfortable situations. “New Jazz” is what happens when Paper Boi and Darius eat space cakes in Amsterdam, and then things go off the rails from there.
Fargo – “Bisquik”
The anthology show’s fifth season ends on a completely surprising and even heartwarming note, and it’s exquisite and perfect.
Adolescence – “Episode 3”
One of the best acting showcases you’ll ever see, all the more remarkable and devastating for it as it essentially involves two people in a room, one a 14-year-old (Owen Cooper) with no previous acting experience.
Dave – “Hypospadias”
Dave is the rare example of a TV show that keeps getting better over time. That being said, the equal parts over-the-top and hilarious “Hypospadias” showed early on flashes of comedic genius that locked in a bunch of my friends and I for the duration of Lil Dicky, GaTa, and crew’s adventures.
Vanderpump Rules – “#Scandoval”
Where reality television and the real world intermesh into something greater and weirder and more telling about the state of our celebrity and social media obsessed society.
Andor – “Narkina 5”
The “prison escape” episode is truly one of the more extraordinary hours of television you will ever witness: taut, harrowing, meticulous.
Black Mirror – “Plaything”
Late-era Black Mirror seasons have become increasingly uneven, but Season 7 produced two all-timers: the moving “Common People” and the delightfully nasty and wonderful “Plaything,” which has connective tissue to the experimental interactive “Bandersnatch.”
Succession – “What It Takes”
There are countless classic Succession episodes, but this one – a pitch black satire of how politics “really works” – is both wildly entertaining and frighteningly prescient.
Better Call Saul – “Saul Gone”
A culmination in many ways of not just one but two of the greatest television series of all time.
Check out the recently updated best 100 TV shows ever.
The White Lotus – “Arrivederci”
Season 2 of Mike White’s brilliant dark satire culminates in some bangs and a splash on the Sicilian coast.
Tokyo Vice – “The Test”
The series premiere drops us into a fascinating world of journalism, cops, and the yakuza in Tokyo circa the turn of the millennium, and we’re off to the races from there.
Barry – “710N”
An otherwise great episode of Barry also features one of the most insane and thrilling action sequences you’ll ever witness.