10 Best TV Episodes Of 2019
It might have had a disappointing season, but Game of Thrones still had some amazing episodes.
It's been a strange year for television. 2019 saw the decade off in an extremely unconventional way, as critical darlings and crowd-pleasers returned from extended hiatuses to air their final seasons, and the age of original content from streaming giants like Netflix and Disney Plus was well and truly cemented with the launch of ambitious new series and the cancellation of first-wave big hitters that were just no longer cutting it.
All of those seismic shifts in the industry didn't result in the decade's best year, but 2019 did prove that the new golden era of TV we're living through isn't ending any time soon. In fact, the likes of Game of Thrones acted as a statement that the distinction between the spectacle of TV and what you can find in $300 million big-screen blockbusters is only going to become more blurred in the next decade, while breakout shows like Fleabag were further proof that the most inventive storytelling is happening on the small screen.
It's been a hell of a year, but which episodes beat out the rest to be 2019's number one?
10. Episode 5 - Mindhunter
A lot like Better Call Saul, Netflix's Mindhunter has never been concerned with being the loudest show, and after an extended break off air it returned for a second season with the same calculated precision that made the first so enjoyable.
It was a toss up between the finale of the latest set of episodes and the fifth instalment, but the latter just won out because of one standout sequence. Coming slap bang in the middle of a tumultuous year-long story, with Bill's foster son suffering through the trauma of seeing other kids murder a child, the FBI's serial killer unit is offered time with the interview subject they've been dreaming of getting: Charles Manson.
It couldn't come at a worse time though, and the character drama spills out during the course of an incredibly volatile back and forth, perfectly captured by director Andrew Dominik.
The sequence is why Mindhunter is so special compared to other shows like it, mining more tension, drama and intrigue from a single conversation than some get out of an extended gunfight.