Even compared to their wide-ranging lists of the 25 best TV shows and the 18 best new shows of 2018, Paste's ranking of the year's finest episodes covers a lot of ground: There are pilot episodes (two) and series finales (also two), "bottle" episodes and serial entries, animated series, actioners, and Random Acts. Still, within this variety, two trends stand out. First, it was an exceptionally strong year for comedies, which account for eight of the top 10. (Admittedly, a few of those episodes are pretty bleak—but that's the state of TV comedy these days, rich with sorrow and anger in addition to laughs.) And, even more essential, it was an exceptionally strong year for women, both on and off-screen: Of the 25 episodes below, 20 are credited, in whole or in part, to women writers and directors.
Here are the 25 best TV episodes of 2018:
