20 Best TV Episodes Of 2018

3. Free Churro - BoJack Horseman

There are a few very special episodes of BoJack Horseman: the likes of Fish Out Of Water, After The Party, Stop The Presses, and Time's Arrow. Episodes that don't simply play around with format, but entirely defy what an episode of animated TV - or just television in general - can be. Season 5's Free Churro now proudly sits among them.

It is, technically, a concept episode, and yet on the surface the premise couldn't be simpler: BoJack delivers a eulogy for his mother, Beatrice, at her funeral.

What follows is perhaps the first and only instance of a tour-de-force performance in an animated sitcom; Will Arnett does more here with a vocal performance than most actors could with their whole bodies, props, costumes, CGI, and anything else you could throw at the screen. For 25-minutes we hear him talk through the pain, the anger, the disappointment, and ultimately the loss of his mother. It's an incredible feat, with only a few changes in camera angles, to keep us so fixated on his words for almost half-an-hour, but Arnett - and the script from Raphael Bob-Waksberg - make it seem effortless.

Of course, it's not effortless. There's some serious craft here, from the visual gags that have become so commonplace we take them for granted, to the jokes and wordplay interwoven seamlessly into BoJack's anguish. The episode is most notable for its jaw-dropping punchline, but the reason it's so good is that, by that stage, it's f**king earned it.

I see you, BoJack. ICU.