10 Greatest TV Episodes Of All-Time

3. "Final Grades" (4.13) - The Wire

Singling out the best episode of a show as intricately connectedas The Wire is like singling out your favourite chapter from a great novel: the show feels so akin to literature that it's genuinely hard to think of The Wire as a show you watch in "episodes." Instead, it feels like a giant, sprawling storyline without any notable breaks or pauses - a never-ending tableau. Still, if you had to make a choice, you can't go wrong with the season four finale episode, "Final Grades," which offered up 78 minutes of genuinelyflawless TV.

"Final Grades" might have been a great place for The Wire to have finished up - not because season five of the show was without merit, but because this episode marked the definitive point at which The Wire became one of the greatest television shows ever made. Depressing in all kinds of ways, "Final Grades"mainly served as a means of breaking your heart, as several stories culminated in highly emotional ways - especially those concerning Carcetti, Bodie and Michael. Beautiful and incredibly bold.