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EW picks the 20 best TV scenes of the past year

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D

Dalek

Member
EW picks the 20 best TV scenes of the past year (2014-2015)


I've only posted the first ten here-11-20 are at the link. Obviously-some major spoilers for these shows listed-but I'm curious what others would rank. I'll chime in with some personal ones in a bit.

emmy-scenes.jpg
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At EW, everyone feels very passionately about TV – and we’re also terribly opinionated. So when we asked the staff to submit their own contenders for the best TV scenes of 2015, great debates ensued. Some tears were shed, maybe a little blood, and we wasted far too many precious work minutes rewatching clips in our offices and laughing (or crying).

Some amazing shows and scenes didn’t make the final list (we still love you, Silicon Valley!), but we think we reached 20 of the most award-worthy scenes of 2015. Check our choices and the clips out below, and let us know if you think we hit the mark—or if we missed something you absolutely loved. For obvious reasons, spoilers ahead!

(And if you want to read further interviews with the show’s stars and creators of the shows below, pick up the new issue of EW, on stands now.)
Click to expand...

1. The Jinx (HBO)
Ep. 6, “What the Hell Did I Do?”
Scene:
Robert Durst accidentally confesses to murder.
When accused murderer Robert Durst walked into the men’s room, unaware that his mic was hot, and inadvertently delivered the most mind-blowing confession in TV history, mumbling to himself: “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course,” it was hard to tell what was more enthralling: Durst’s monologue, or the debates it stirred up afterward. Did series director Andrew Jarecki have an ethical responsibility to make the confession public as soon as it happened? Whatever the answers, this was a next-level crime drama. — Melissa Maerz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLqyFgz86RA

2. How to Get Away With Murder (ABC)
Ep. 4, “Let’s Get to Scooping”
Scene:
Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) removes her wig.
When Davis’ steely lawyer Keating stared into a mirror, ready to confront her husband about his affair with a now-dead student, when she removes her makeup and with every painful stroke, wipes away her glossy shell and uncovers raw emotive layers of both a character and an actress. — Marc Snetiker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK8EN3L3Kq8

3. Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central)
Ep. 1, “Last F–kable Day”
Scene: “Last F–kable Day”
Even within a consistently A+ season, no sketch better encompasses the delicate balance between comedy and sharp social commentary on Inside Amy Schumer than “Last F–kable Day.” Schumer happens upon Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Patricia Arquette in a bucolic meadow as they’re celebrating Louis-Dreyfus’ LFD—the one where Hollywood decides you are no longer believably… you know. — Sara Vilkomerson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPpsI8mWKmg

4. Mad Men (AMC)
Ep. 12, “Lost Horizon”
Scene: Elisabeth Moss saunters into McCann Erickson.
The scene is just 23 seconds long, but it’s probably the most memorable of the final season.
Following a booze-fueled day with Roger (John Slattery) where she learns it’s not as important as she thinks to “make men feel at ease,” Peggy makes an instantly GIF-able entrance on her first day at McCann Erickson, turning heads as she sashays in with shades, a lit cigarette, and Bert Cooper’s erotic octopus painting under her arm. — Jeff Labrecque

5. Transparent (Amazon)
Ep. 6, “The Wilderness”
Scene: Maura’s speech to her son-in-law.
All season long, we saw the Pfeffermans’ adult children gossip about their transgender parent, Maura. Finally Maura gets to speak for herself. — Maerz

6. The Americans (FX)
Ep. 10, “Stingers”
Scene:
Elizabeth and Philip tell their daughter they are spies.
In the most intense family meeting ever, the long-suspicious Paige (Holly Taylor) finally confronts her parents, forcing them to reveal that they aren’t, well, Americans. — Ray Rahman

7. Sons of Anarchy (FX)
Ep. 12, “Red Rose”
Scene:
Jax kills Gemma.
She had it coming. If SOA creator Kurt Sutter was playing out his version of a modern-day Hamlet under the guise of a motorcycle drama, his 21st-century Gertrude, the treacherous Gemma Teller Morrow, was going to have to meet her maker. — Lynette Rice

8. Veep (HBO)
Ep. 5, “Convention”
Scene: Amy finally snaps.
Though nominated twice for portraying perpetually put-upon White House staffer Brookheimer, Anna Chlumsky has never taken home the gold. This should be her year, primarily because of the head-turning meltdown she has in the fifth episode. “You are the worst thing that has happened to this country since food in buckets,” she hisses. “And maybe slavery.” — Dan Snierson

9. Homeland (Showtime)
Ep. 8, “Halfway to a Donut”
Scene:
Carrie won’t allow Saul to kill himself.
Would you betray your best friend in order to save his life? That’s the gut-wrenching decision Carrie makes during this riveting mission-room sequence. Despite his pleading, she remotely guides Saul right back into the hands of his Taliban captors to be used as a political pawn rather than allow him to take his own life. — James Hibberd

10. Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO)
Season 1, 2014
Scene: All of his impassioned rants
TV shows generally try not to irk the Federal Communications Commission, but that’s part of what makes Last Week Tonight so exciting: Oliver doesn’t care. That certainly seemed to be the case when he spent 13 (13!) minutes passionately, intelligently, meticulously explaining why the issue of Net neutrality shouldn’t be boring to you. — Rahman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU
 
C

CarpeDeezNutz

Member
No1 for me will always be the will smith "why don't he love me man?" Say what you will about him but that was a powerful scene for me.
 
D

Dalek

Member
StriKeVillain said:
Nailed it with #1.
Click to expand...

I've never been more jarred by anything I've seen on TV. The entire episode leading up to it-and knowing what confrontation that they were going to have....and the final scene. We sat there just in awe when the credits rolled.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
I would have included the "chimp with a machine gun" scene from Better Call Saul over the one chosen though that was still a great one.
 
Y

You Know Nothing

Member
I definitely agree with the Better Call Saul scene that made it. Still gives me chills.

Glad to see The Americans on this list. But they missed the actual best scene which would be the final scene of the season finale.
 
M

MrPink93485

Member
Dalek said:
I've never been more jarred by anything I've seen on TV. The entire episode leading up to it-and knowing what confrontation that they were going to have....and the final scene. We sat there just in awe when the credits rolled.
Click to expand...

I already had it spoiled and when I saw it I was still in shock. Just seeing his reaction and the silence afterwards got me.
 
S

StriKeVillain

Banned
Dalek said:
I've never been more jarred by anything I've seen on TV. The entire episode leading up to it-and knowing what confrontation that they were going to have....and the final scene. We sat there just in awe when the credits rolled.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. It was true horror.
 
M

Mononoke

Banned
Corpekata said:
I would have included the "chimp with a machine gun" scene from Better Call Saul over the one chosen though that was still a great one.
Click to expand...

That scene was perfection, and was so brutal. Everything built up to that moment. Kind of crazy it wasn't here.
 
C

Chezzymann

Member
Only one animated show on the list, ah well. Guess that isn't really the 'focus'. At least its bobs burgers. Love that show
 
B

biosnake20

Member
Dalek said:
I've never been more jarred by anything I've seen on TV. The entire episode leading up to it-and knowing what confrontation that they were going to have....and the final scene. We sat there just in awe when the credits rolled.
Click to expand...

The credits music was perfect too.
 
D

Dalek

Member
border said:
I would like to know the rest of the list, but it's almost certainly going to have a bunch of spoilers.
Click to expand...

For what it's worth-these are the shows in the rest of the list, sans "moment" information:

Game of Thrones
Broad City
Empire
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Saturday Night Live
Orange is the New Black
Scandal
Parks and Recreation
Better Call Saul
Bob's Burgers
 
G

Guzim

Member
I would have definitely put the long take from the episode Charlie Work of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on this list.
 
D

Dalek

Member
I've never seen Scandal and I always kind of assumed it was kind of schlocky and tacky-but that clip looks like it might be a pretty decent show?
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Dalek said:
I've never seen Scandal and I always kind of assumed it was kind of schlocky and tacky-but that clip looks like it might be a pretty decent show?
Click to expand...

It really isn't. It's a show full of good looking people in great looking clothes yelling monologues at each other. I don't think there's a single line in the script that doesn't end in an exclamation mark. Every character on the show is a hyper-talented ultra genius and all we see them do is the stupidest possible thing they could do in the situation. Every episode is treated like a matter of life and death but nothing happens and when it does they immediately push the reset button. Every twisted is greeted by another twist, all of which adds up to nothing. The portrayal of politics is abysmal: the whole premise of the show is that the country's most powerful Democrat bends over backwards to ensure her Republican uguu~ romancu~ boyfriendo, apparently an arch-Conservative Republican, wins the presidential election because she believes in everything he stands for. Oh, and said Republican has core senior staff who are also mostly Democrats, because why not. The score consists of a few themes that they use to hammer you over the head with repeatedly: if you didn't know the main characters were in love from great dialogue like "I may not be able to control my erections around you, but that doesn't mean I want you. We are done", then you'll be able to tell when the love theme plays. If you are the kind of person who finds the love stories in Disney films to be too subtle, Scandal is the perfect show for you. If Scandal were a comedy, it wouldn't just have a laugh track, it'd have a flashing applause sign.

Does it have a junk food appeal? Sure. But it'd be hard to imagine a show that insults your intelligence more than Scandal does. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
 
M

Maengun1

Member
Oh man, I initially read the title as "best scenes of all time" somehow, and was so baffled scrolling through the list. Haha.
 
D

Dalek

Member
Stumpokapow said:
It really isn't. It's a show full of good looking people in great looking clothes yelling monologues at each other. I don't think there's a single line in the script that doesn't end in an exclamation mark. Every character on the show is a hyper-talented ultra genius and all we see them do is the stupidest possible thing they could do in the situation. Every episode is treated like a matter of life and death but nothing happens and when it does they immediately push the reset button. Every twisted is greeted by another twist, all of which adds up to nothing. The portrayal of politics is abysmal: the whole premise of the show is that the country's most powerful Democrat bends over backwards to ensure her Republican uguu~ romancu~ boyfriendo, apparently an arch-Conservative Republican, wins the presidential election because she believes in everything he stands for. Oh, and said Republican has core senior staff who are also mostly Democrats, because why not. The score consists of a few themes that they use to hammer you over the head with repeatedly: if you didn't know the main characters were in love from great dialogue like "I may not be able to control my erections around you, but that doesn't mean I want you. We are done", then you'll be able to tell when the love theme plays. If you are the kind of person who finds the love stories in Disney films to be too subtle, Scandal is the perfect show for you. If Scandal were a comedy, it wouldn't just have a laugh track, it'd have a flashing applause sign.

Does it have a junk food appeal? Sure. But it'd be hard to imagine a show that insults your intelligence more than Scandal does. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Click to expand...

Say no more!
 
M

marrec

Banned
My #1 (having seen most of those in the OP) is in Flash "Out of Time" when
Cisco confront Wells as the Reverse Flash and they have an excruciatingly long death-conversation.
Just fantastically acted on both their parts.
 
D

Dalek

Member
marrec said:
My #1 (having seen most of those in the OP) is in Flash "Out of Time" when
Cisco confront Wells as the Reverse Flash and they have an excruciatingly long death-conversation.
Just fantastically acted on both their parts.
Click to expand...

Oh God, you're right. I change my vote.
 
M

March of the Crabs

Member
This list is wrong because this scene from It's Always Sunny in Philidelpha is without a doubt, indisputably the best scene on TV in the past year and it's not on there:
https://youtu.be/LLf_C4oX-A0

Gotta agree with them on Mike's monologue from Better Call Saul though. Forgot how good that was.
 
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