Over on Entertainment Weekly, they’ve ranked the 50 best scenes of the year — one scene per show. And I’ll admit: They did a pretty bang-up job. There are some really good scenes among that list. Community is represented by the scene with Walton Goggins where Chevy Chase’s character says goodbye to everyone through his will; Colbert’s eulogy of his mother is at 41; Parks and Rec’s “Tear Down This Wall” scene is at 38; Mason Verger’s face-feeding frenzy on Hannibal is at 36 (I’d probably have put that in the top 15, at least); Emma Stone’s lip-sync battle on Fallon is perfect at 33; Justified, at 27, is represented by the scene where Danny Crowe tests the 21-Foot Rule on Raylan; the park scene between Jax and Tara is at 23 for Sons of Anarchy; The Walking Dead lands at number 20 with the scene where (SPOILERS) Carol has to shoot Lizzie; that first scene between Gus and Malvo is perfect for Fargo at 18; and at 17 is Don and Peggy’s dance on Mad Men (YES!).
You can scan the entire list over on EW, but here’s the top 10:
10. Jon Stewart shredding apart Governor Chris Christie on The Daily Show
9. The “Smarch” scene on Veep
8. The scene where Margaret (Allison Janney) is interviewed by Masters and Johnson on Masters of Sex
7. The Fat Lady speech on Louie
6. Crazy Eyes’ lament on Orange is the New Black
5. Sherlock’s best man speech on Sherlock
4. Rust Cohle’s “Time is a Flat Circle” speech on True Detective
3. Josh Charles’ desk sweeping scene on The Good Wife
2. Tyrion’s trial speech on Game of Thrones
1. A scene from Breaking Bad’s “Ozymandias” episode
And here’s the thing: It’s not a bad list. There were things I’d personally change. I’d move a lot of stuff around, probably select some different scenes (I wasn’t a huge fan of the Doctor Who representative, but I love that they included The Returned on their list.) I’d have also included Rectify in my top ten, and I thought that was a huge, egregious oversight.
But whatever, right? It’s a list. They’re meant to be argued over. There’s things they missed, some things they did well. Maybe no one on staff saw Rectify. Bygones.
But here’s the thing: When you’re putting together the best scenes of the last year, how do you miss the greatest scene of the year, no, of A GENERATION? I mean, I’ve seen oversights before, but this is CRIMINAL NEGLECT. Breaking Bad wasn’t the only show to end its run in the last year, and no, I’m not talking about How I Met Your Mother (which strangely has no representative, though I couldn’t think of a scene from the final season that might belong). I’m talking about a show that ran for eight seasons, and in the penultimate episode of its entire run, featured the funniest, laugh-out-loudiest scene OF THIS CENTURY. Maybe even OF ALL TIME.
Of course, you all know what I’m talking about, because I know when all of you saw that EW was ranking the 50 best scenes, that your VERY FIRST THOUGHT was the scene I’m talking about.
We don’t even need video. It’s magic is encompassed in one single GIF that has been seared in our minds for the last 10 months.
Harrison. Falling. On. The. Treadmill.
It will be Dexter’s legacy. NEVER FORGET.
And shame on EW for missing it.
Source: EW
