036. David Bowie (Extras)

"Pathetic little fat man. No-one's bloody laughing. The clown that no-one laughs at, they all just wish he'd die"

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 21st September 2006

EPISODE NUMBER: Season 2, Episode 2

WRITTEN BY: Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant

Extras season 2 was a drastic improvement on a show that was already good. I firmly believe it is Gervais' best work. The concept of a no-name extra scrambling for fame has taken a new development, as Andy does become a star, yet finds it isn't what he expected. Many laughs are delivered as hi day goes from bad to worse. Cleaned out by a tramp, blowing his chance of a date, to being the laughing stock of a whole club.

This episode also fully utilizes the Barry/Darren dynamic, often the unsung heroes of the show. Seeing them squabbling over Darren's payment for Barry's roofing is a great scene, as is their cringe-inducing attempt at picking up girls. There are plenty of other great scenes too, and Maggie has one of her best moments as she tries to salvage a botched autograph attempt.

David Bowie is the guest of the week, and whilst he doesn't really play with his persona as other guests have done, he provides plenty of laughs with his song, serving as the cruelly hilarious finale. It's mean-spirited, but that often makes the jokes funnier. Andy being mistaken for a frog in the same episode is another example of Gervais being able to laugh at himself. It can be argued Andy brought the incident on himself, which is why I love the end scene so much when he goes to spend time with the fans that he had previously mocked and been condescending to. I guess sometimes he actually does learn a lesson.

035. Jaynestown (Firefly)

"Our love for him now ain't hard to explain. The hero of Canton, the man they call Jayne"

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 18th October 2002
EPISODE NUMBER: Season 1, Episode 7
WRITTEN BY: Ben Edlund

There's a lot of great characters in Firefly, but this episode was Jayne's chance to shine, as we arrive on a planet where he's hailed as a hero, after accidentally dropping a bag of money onto the houses of the "mudders".  But obviously not everyone is happy to see Jayne back, and Boss Higgins plots to take him down. Jayne proved he was up to the task of having an episode center on him and was brilliant throughout.

The scene where the minstrel sings the song about Jayne is some brilliant comedy. Simon's reaction is the funniest, wondering if he is "going mad", seeing his nemesis being heralded with praise. And if you want more laughs, check out Book's hair.

The concept of the episode was great, because Jayne is the character least deserving of hero status. He's selfish, arrogant and completely lacking in morals and class. And he knows it. The guilt he feels when his secret is exposed feels genuine, and gave it a sombre climax.

It also leads to a great ending, where Mal explains that the people needed something to believe in, whether it was true or not. He then caps the episode off with a great quote: "every guy who got a statue made of him was one kind of sonuvabitch of another".

034. Spoiler Alert (How I Met Your Mother)

"Brother, you're driving the "I wanna have sex with her" truck, and it has a huge blind spot"

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 12th November 2007
EPISODE NUMBER: Season 3, Episode 8
WRITTEN BY: Stephen Lloyd

How I Met Your Mother has some great observations about life, or specifically, friendship dynamics. Spoiler Alert presents the idea of love blinding you to people's flaws. When Ted wonders what's wrong with his girlfriend, the gang are reluctant to tell him out of fear they'll end up shattering his illusion. It's funny, and it's also very true.

After his illusion is shattered, Ted's perspective on the dinner scene is revisited to show the reality. How I Met Your Mother isn't afraid to play around with reality, so this was the perfect way to present it. The recurring "glass breaking" sound effect almost becomes a joke in itself.

There's a small subplot involving Marshall waiting to find out if he's passed his Bar Exam and being unable to retrieve his password. Barney enacts a long con, purely for the purpose of tricking Marshall into watching a dumb video. Classic mischievous Barney. There's also a hilarious monologue from Barney where he brags about his lovemaking prowess for no reason in particular, and some good running jokes like Marshall's love of sugar.

There's more to the illusion shattering idea though. Towards the end of the episode, the main cast all start to have their flaws pointed out, which is interesting. Watching everyone's reaction to revelations about their friends is very funny, but the heart of the episode is how they learn to love eachother despite their flaws. Because nobody's perfect.

033. A Cock And Balls Story (Oz)

"Oz didn't make you a bitch. You were born one"

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 12th July 2000
EPISODE NUMBER: Season 4, Episode 1
WRITTEN BY: Tom Fontana

I can't believe it took me this long to put an episode of Oz on the list. It's one of my favorite shows of all time. This episode might seem like a strange choice to use first, but any episode that gets rid of a character as annoying as Kenny, and as satisfyingly as it did, deserves our gratitude.

French inmate Guillame Tarrant has an eventful character arc for a one-shot character. The impact he has on the series lasts much longer than his screentime. He's a quiet psycho with the potential to go postal, and after receiving a rough reception at the hands of the homeboys, it all finally explodes into violence when he gets his hands on Adebisi's gun. The last few minutes are totally exhilarating and the perfect pay-off to the building tension when he finally cracks.

The gun of course was planted by Adebisi as part of a pre-meditated plan to start a race riot. Adebisi's rise to power is one of the best storylines of the season, and this ruthless but brilliant scheme really set the tone. He was such a star that his increased presence on the show was definitely welcome, but I'll talk more about that when I review You Bet Your Life.

Also introduced this episode was undercover drug cop Desmond Mobay. Lance Reddick is one of the standout guest stars of the show. His gradual descent into drugs and murder was tragic, and it's heartbreaking to see how well-intentioned he started off.

But this episode proves more than most that Leo Glynn's warning had merit - it's tough to survive Oz.

032. Mister Wu (Deadwood)

"You can't cut the throat of every cocksucker whose character it would improve"

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 23rd May 2004
EPISODE NUMBER: Season 1, Episode 10
WRITTEN BY: Bryan McDonald

Deadwood has a large assortment of characters, but this episode's titular character Mister Wu is definitely one of the most memorable. This episode centres on a dispute between Wu and two white thieves who stole his dope. It's interesting to see the show deal with racially-motivated crime, as in those times people were a lot more casual about racism. Fair warning - the word "Chink" is thrown around a lot, even from the people that are on Wu's side.

First off, I love the character of Mister Wu. His interactions with Al are very funny - the failure to communicate "Who" instead of "Wu" is some great wordplay, and I love that the only English word Wu truly understands is "cocksucker". In a show that, whilst generally very witty, is not normally praised for its laugh out loud humour, this whole first scene manages to be hilarious.

In the end, Swearengen gets what he wants - as usual - following a really great scene involving the two thieves in a bathtub drawing straws to see which one of them lives and dies, and then Al drowning the unlucky one. Swearenegen at his ruthless best!

The episode also introduces Silas Adams, who quickly becomes an enemy then friend of Swearengen. The relationship between the two is one of the best in the series, and it's obvious right from the start how well they work together.

031. Grilled (Breaking Bad)

"We tried to poison you. We tried to poison you because you're an insane, degenerate piece of filth and you deserve to die"

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 15th March 2008
EPISODE NUMBER: Season 2, Episode 2
WRITTEN BY: George Mastras

One of the major problems of Breaking Bad's first season getting cut short is that it ends before it really goes anywhere. One of the benefits is that it allowed for the second season to get started right out of the gate. Grilled, which would have been a fitting season finale, is exciting and eventful all the way through.

There's lot of tension in the air as Walt and Jesse attempt to kill Tuco without him suspecting - unsuccessfully, of course. The show's trademark dark humour is out in full force as the pair have several near-misses in trying to get Tuco to take the poisonous ricin, one thwarted by Jesse's big mouth and the other by a comical food switch. There's also a lot of fun in the scramble to try and stop wheelchair-bound Tio managing to communicate what he knows via his bell.

The climax explodes into action, with Tuco almost killing Jesse, Walt saving him, and then Hank and Tuco having an intense shootout. Tuco was a fine mini-villain and this is his best episode, but his early death allows to make room for more credible bad guys, and close the door on Walt and Jesse's first major brush with danger.

030. Late Editions (The Wire)

"Let them know Marlo step to any motherfucker - Omar, Barksdale, whoever. My name is my name!"

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 2nd March 2008
EPISODE NUMBER: Season 5, Episode 9
WRITTEN BY: David Simon & George Pelecanos

The final season of The Wire was undoubtedly the most exciting season of the show, and it really didn't take very long to get going at all. In the show's penultimate episode, all the storylines start coming to a head: the police start making moves on Marlo's empire, McNulty's fake serial killer lies start getting unravelled, and so do Journalist Scott Templeton's.

The episode starts off with a bang, as Marlo's crew are tailed to their latest shipment and raided by the Police. There's a great Marlo moment where he is in jail and realizes Omar has been slandering him, and loses his cool for basically the first time. Omar may be dead, but the damage he's done lives on.

Snoop's death scene is among the best in the show, as Michael outsmarts her and manages to take her out before she does the same to him. It's Michael that really makes this episode, although it was nice to see his old buddy Namond and Bunny Colvin reappear briefly one last time.

The final scene between Dukie and Michael, where they reminisce about simpler times, is the part that really brings a tear to my eye. It's amazing to think of how far they've come. And as Michael drives off, we're hoping beyond hope that he can stay safe.