Counting Down the Season's Best Episodes with #25-23! Plus 'JAG' Gets 'Close to Home' and 'The Office' Hits the Web

Pass the Remote's

Best Episodes of '05-'06

We're up to week 3 on the countdown and we're cracking the top 25 episodes of Pass the Remote's Best Episodes of the '05-'06 TV Season Countdown. Along with introducing the next three on the list, this week also marks the 1st appearance of the brand new official banner for the countdown, courtesy of Mr. TVFan. For those who are new to the countdown, here's a refresher on the rules I employed for selecting the 31 episodes that make up this list. All of the shows and their episodes are from NETWORK television only, meaning that I did not take any cable series into consideration (since I only watch a few and felt that it would be unfair). All episodes aired between September 2005 and June 2006. Each episode that made the final list moved me in some way; either by making me laugh out loud, cry my eyes out or just left me with that "wow" feeling that stays with you for a few days. So basically, it's completely subjective! This is a summer-long countdown, so I will reveal a few episodes each week all summer until we reach the #1 episode of the past season. Be sure to tune in each Wednesday to see the next set of episodes to make the list. Today, we're going to look at #25-23.


25: "White Lie Christmas" - My Name is Earl
Nobody does Christmas funnier than Earl and his gang. While trying to cross all the bad things that he has done off of his list, Earl came across #74: "Always ruined Joy's Christmas." Since it's the holiday season, he decides to make it up to her by trying to win her a car through a local radio station contest. In order to win the car, he has to keep his hand on it the longest. This means standing around without taking bathroom breaks, food breaks, naps, etc. So, Earl enlists the help of his brother Randy, and the two begin holding on to the brand new car. As time passes, more and more participants drop out until it's only Earl, Randy and Catalina, whom the boys think is trying to win the car for Joy as well. Turns out, Catalina wants the car for herself and it comes down to her and Randy. Meanwhile, Earl finds out that Joy's parents are in town and that she is keeping her marriage to Darnell from them. So, Earl agrees to pose as Joy's husband who just returned from Iraq in order to not ruin another one of Joy's Christmases. Hilarity ensues when we learn that Joy's mother is keeping a secret as well, and everything comes out into the open. Oh, and remember the car? Well, Earl got it and planned to give it to Joy. He tied a nice bow on top and left it outside her trailer, but her mother gambled with it and lost it (I told you they were all keeping secrets). This was a hilarious episode that served as my introduction to the show, and I haven't stopped watching since. Written by Timothy Stack and directed by Marc Buckland.


24: "Knowing Her" - Medium
It's no secret that I love my TV boyfriend Det. Lee Scanlon, but even taking the fact that this was a Scanlon-centric episode out of the picture, this episode was still a stand out of the season. Allison begins having visions that show a connection between Scanlon and three murdered girls. It seems crazy, but as faithful Medium viewers know, Allison's dreams are best interpreted metaphorically rather than literally. It turns out that Scanlon's connection is to the drug cartel that the D.A.'s office believes is responsible for the murders, and not the three victims. He was involved with a woman who is a member of the cartel's family, and now that woman wants his help to clear her family's name in these most recent murders. The shocking twist in the episode is that her family isn't involved in the murders, but a high-ranking police official is behind the whole thing because he wanted to cause a war between two cartels, thinking that they would just kill each other. Scanlon discovers the truth too late as the same police official shoots and kills Scanlon's former girlfriend right in front of him as she's begging for his help. The episode showed us a different side to a detective that we know very little about, and it left me shaken. Written by Glenn Gordon Caron and directed by David Paymer.


23: "A Day in the Life" - Without a Trace
Tweaking with a successful formula can be dangerous, but in the case of Trace, it turned out to be one of the season's best episodes. Laurie Metcalf and Matt Craven guest star as parents of a missing teenage boy, Shawn Hopkins. Sounds like a standard episode, right? Wrong! Instead of giving the viewers the usual FBI point of view, we got the view from the parents. This meant that we were only privy to the same information that they were, and we were able to go through the feelings with them. We felt right along with them that the FBI wasn't doing enough to find their son. We were also shocked right along with them when the agents told them that they suspected that their missing son was involved in gambling and a drug dealer. And then there was the sigh of relieve when we found out along with the Hopkins that Shawn was just trying to help a friend who was raped. It was interesting to see the agents whispering without allowing us to hear what they were saying, even though it left us feeling on the outs along with the parents. The episode gave us a different perspective and it allowed us to go inside the frantic experience of having a child go missing. Written by Hank Steinberg and directed by Jeannot Szwarc. Photo courtesy CBS.


So, there's a closer look at #25-23. What did you think about them? Do you agree? Disagree? Drop me a comment with your thoughts. If you missed #31-26 or just want to revisit them, click HERE.

PROGRAMMING NOTE... PTR's Best Episodes of the Season Countdown will return in two weeks with three more amazing episodes. Sorry to be a network and preempt your fave shows, but next week is my special Emmy ballot coverage leading up to the BIG official Emmy nominations announcement next Thursday! So, be sure to tune in next week for the Emmy nominations coverage, and come back in two weeks for the next set of episodes!


QUICK CUTS

*Actor David James Elliot is joining the cast of CBS' Close to Home this fall. TVGuide.com is reporting (via The Hollywood Reporter) that the former JAG star will play a D.A. who works with the newly widowed Annabeth Chase (Jennifer Finnigan). Elliot is expected to be a series regular when Close to Home begins its second season this fall on CBS.

*NBC.com will launch the first of its series of webisodes for its popular comedy The Office on July 13th. The weekly webisodes will serve as stand-alone episodes of the series and will feature the accounting staff of the Dunder Mifflin paper company. They will be serialized as the staff works to solve the mystery of who stole $3,000 from the Scranton office. Each webisode will run 2-3 minutes long, and a new one will premiere every Thursday beginning July 13th only at nbc.com.

*And finally, cable's AMC is celebrating record ratings for its original miniseries Broken Trail. The western, starring Robert Duvall, brought in close to 10 million viewers (9.8 million) during its Sunday night debut, topping all other programs on television that night including the major networks. It was also good enough for the movie to claim the title as 2006's most watched cable program so far (even besting TNT's 2nd season premiere of The Closer a few weeks ago, which drew more than 8 million viewers), and it became the 2nd most watched cable movie on any network since 1995. Part two of the miniseries drew in 9.7 million viewers on Monday night, and came in second overall for the evening behind CBS' CSI: Miami rerun (10.5 million). The strong showing bodes well for AMC, which is in the process of developing more original programming like Broken Trail. You can catch an encore presentation of the hit miniseries next Thursday, July 6th on AMC.

To get more of today's biggest TV news and headlines, visit the TV News section at PassTheRemote.Net.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for another Flashback Edition featuring one of the most critically acclaimed episodes of Cold Case ever! Plus, all the latest television news!


To get more television coverage, including the network's new fall schedules and a complete archive of the best of Pass the Remote with a photo gallery featuring pictures from the set of Veronica Mars, click on over to PassTheRemote.net.