Top 5 Best Episodes of 2013: Episode #2...

Elementary 1.12 – “M.”

I’m a huge fan of Elementary and could probably write essays on multiple episodes’ sheer amazingness. From Lucy Liu’s pitch perfect portrayal of Joan Watson and Jonny Lee Miller’s eerily canonically accurate Sherlock Holmes to the awesome diversity of the cast and sets and Sherlock and Joan’s partnership of mutual respect, Elementary has become the best version of the Sherlock Holmes canon in years and one of the best dramas on network television right now.

But it was “M.” that demonstrated the dark side to Elementary and opened up Joan and Sherlock’s universe beyond the brownstone.

Top 5 Best Episodes of 2013: Episode #3...

Bob’s Burgers 4.08 – “Christmas in the Car”

Bob’s Burgers has slowly but surely been usurping Adventure Time as my favorite animated show currently on television. While I still have several episodes to catch up on from previous seasons, the current season has featured consistently strong episodes.

Compared to other shows’ holiday-themed episodes, both the Thanksgiving episode and the recent “Christmas in the Car” were two of the strongest and funniest ones I’ve seen this season.

Top 5 Best Episodes of 2013: Episode #4...

Sleepy Hollow 1.01 – “Pilot”

I started hearing rumblings about Sleepy Hollow in August and I literally decided to tune in to the premiere when I saw a taxi promoting drive past me one day. I liked the look of the two stars.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I tuned in to the premiere with my sister but by the end of the pilot, during which we had laughed, screamed and went aww, we were both hooked.

Sleepy Hollow has had stronger episodes this season than the pilot but it was this episode that caused this potentially gimmicky show to completely captivate me.

Top 5 Best Episodes of 2013: Episode #5...

The end of the year is coming and that means it’s time to take stock of 2013; by which, I mean take stock of all the television I’ve watched in 2013.

To be honest, I’ve always been a very picky television watcher but this year, I found myself expanding my TV horizons. With all the new television I’ve watched, I wanted to narrow down the year with my list of the top five best episodes of 2013.

Beware, obviously, of spoilers.

Please share with me your favorite episodes of 2013 and let’s start with number 5…

Sherlock Holmes Syndrome

I’m sick of Sherlock Holmes.

Let me clarify.

I fell in love with this character several years ago when I began reading the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle canon. Do you ever have those moments when you discover a character or a book and you think: this was created for me? I had that with Sherlock Holmes.

I loved him even with all his flaws, sexism, and drug addiction. I loved the world he inhabited, I loved Watson, and I was madly in love with Irene Adler. Even the stories where Conan Doyle was clearly phoning it in, I enjoyed. And for a while, I loved the fact that pop culture had rediscovered this character and seemed to create new renditions of him every year.

I am now sick of what I call Sherlock Holmes Syndrome. I am sick of eccentric, often neurotic, always brilliant white men who see things that we mere mortals cannot see. I’m sick of the mass media’s apparent belief that mental issues, depression, anxiety, psychopathy and neurodevelopmental disorders are magic. I’m also sick of the blanket use of autism, often incorrectly, as a signifier for Otherness and as a vague superpower.