The 15 best TV episodes of 2023

. Yellowjackets delivered on its promise of cannibalism with season two’s aptly named “Edible Complex.” We all knew it was coming, but it was gorier and far more chilling than anticipated when the wilderness-trapped, hunger-driven kids descended on a crispy Jackie (Ella Purnell). The whole hour is a delicious build-up to the main event, especially as it tugs at Jackie and Shauna’s (Sophie Nélisse) friendship. [Saloni Gajjar]

There was some stiff competition as far as the best episode in the —Marcus’ trip to Copenhagen and the anxiety-riddled Christmas flashback “Fishes” are obvious contenders—but, as our countdown of the makes clear, my heart was really with Richie this round. And the Richie episode—“Forks,” which —hit me the hardest, showing our Chicago-accented screw-up get his heart broken and then learn the subtle art of actually giving a fuck, understanding that all the of those little details—properly cleaned utensils or, say, Pequod’s deep dish beautifully rendered into fine dining—really matter. [Tim Lowery]

Over its three-season run, beautifully explored the nuances of Indigenous culture and history. The show always came from a place of authenticity because its creators, writers, and cast were Native American. In the show’s final batch of episodes, Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) is struggling to make it back home to Okern by himself. He gets some help from Deer Lady, who made an appearance all the way back in season one. She assists Bear in his return, but not before flashbacks reveal her origin story from when she was a child suffering and witnessing abuse at an American Indian boarding school. It’s a horrifying reality, and Reservation Dogs paints it with tenderness without compromising on truth. [Saloni Gajjar]

Despite being centered on about as unrepentant a crew of amoral bloodsuckers as you’re likely to find on basic cable, rarely toys with the world of outright horror. The occasional exceptions are almost always stand-outs, though—notably this installment of the show’s most recent season, which sees poor Guillermo (Harvey Guillén, who gets some great line-reads after being doped to the gills with tranquilizers) dragged to “Familiar Urgent Care,” a nightmarish spin of veterinary medicine where the cheerful suggestion to any ailment is always to put the poor broken human down. (After all, even if they get better, what have they got, another 40 years?) Director shoots this trip into the realm of vampiric medical infrastructure like a slickly edited torture-porn flick, while star Natasia Demetriou lands the always tricky balance of making our main vamps just a bit more palatable than the other monsters they run into. After all, if anyone’s going to brutally murder Guillermo, it’s going to be his employers/family/owners, right? [William Hughes]

After a second season that saw its star humbled, meandering with occasional and frustrating aimlessness through time, Disney+’s finally nailed the dismount. “,” the show’s second-season (and almost certainly series) finale, is really three great episodes in one: The first sees Tom Hiddleston in Bill Murray mode, using Loki’s newfound control over the timestream to try to Groundhog Day his way through the cosmic crisis threatening the Time Variance Authority. When that fails, it kicks over into a high-stakes drama, with Hiddleston getting to play off of each of his three favorite scene partners for the series—Owen Wilson’s Moebius, Jonathan Majors’ He Who Remains, and most especially Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie. It all culminates in a positively mythic conclusion that’s sad and satisfying all at the same time, giving one of the MCU’s best characters the finest sendoff we’ve seen to date. [William Hughes]

Few shows on TV are as ambivalent toward the use of violence—while also being extremely good at doing violence—as ’s . For the latest case in point, look no further than “Insolubilia,” which opens with one of the tensest TV-action sequences of the year. We in the audience already knew that Juno Temple’s Dot Lyon is a far more dangerous opponent than her Minnesota nice affect and love of Bisquik might suggest, but her defense of her home and family from Joe Keery’s Gator and his Nightmare Before Christmas-masked crew is still a revelation of violence … and its consequences, as Dot’s vigilance ends up taking out huge chunks of her own life in the process. Fargo roots much of its capacity to shock within the swiftness with which terrible, life-destroying moments can occur, and “Insolubilia” bookends itself with moments of gut-punching brutality that remind us why this is still one of the best crime shows on TV. [William Hughes]

If this list published two weeks from now, I’d likely pick the action-packed, funny, and even emotional season finale for this. But as this is merely mid-December—also, how is it mid-December?—it’s worth shouting out ’ excellent, tight by highlighting “Negotiating With Tigers.” Why? Simply because watching Jack Lowden’s River Cartwright get the shit kicked out of him at MI5 HQ is … delightful isn’t the right word, but it’s close, and the whole beat-down speaks to why the show works. Much has rightly been made of Gary Oldman’s stunning turn as the chain-smoking, boozing boss Jackson Lamb, but Lowden’s comedic timing is sharp as ever in this sequence and certainly worth singling out. [Tim Lowery]