Episodes that defined a generation.

Mick1991

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We truly have been blessed with some great television over the last 10-15 years, The Wire, Sopranos, Band of Brothers, Seinfield, 24, Firefly, Pacific, Lost(Despised it after season 2 myself but can't leave it out). I think you all get the gist, there are too many to name!

Basically if you could pick one episode (or scene) of your choice that in your opinion captured the show of your choice, what would it be?

I think I'm going to go with Band of Brothers and Episode 9 'Why we fight'. One of the most finest pieces of television I've ever seen and one of the saddest scenes in television history to boot.

The World War Two mini-series captured the horror but also the imagination of it's audience and I felt it at it's most powerful in this episode, men that had seen horrors beyond belief were left astounded at their discovery on the outskirts of a forest. Everything great about the show manifested itself in an episode of pure t.v heaven.

Feel free to disagree, just a personal opinion! Try and give some other examples!
 

One of my favourite scenes in Lost.

Locke - Why do you find it so hard to believe??
Jack - Why do you find it so easy?!
Locke - It's never been easy!

Infact, I would say the vast majority of Lost's best and most iconic scenes feature Mr O'Quinn. Superb actor.

Edit:

On second thought I think this scene tops it:



Come to think of it there are so many better scenes then the first one I posted ...ah, what a show.
 
house of cards -the scene where he has blackmailed his way to be pm.the look of arrogant smugness.
spooks - deep pan fryer
life on mars -'aving hoops'
buffy episode 'once more with feeling' got all the characters secrets out in an original way.
newsnight paxo asking howard the same question ten times
dr who rose running into the tardis... i knew it was back and was done well.
the wire
 
redtilded121 said:
house of cards -the scene where he has blackmailed his way to be pm.the look of arrogant smugness.
spooks - deep pan fryer
life on mars -'aving hoops'
buffy episode 'once more with feeling' got all the characters secrets out in an original way.
newsnight paxo asking howard the same question ten times
dr who rose running into the tardis... i knew it was back and was done well.
the wire
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Randomly this is the main thing i remember from that episode.



That and the demon being some lounge singing paedophile. I have to admit to buying the CD, i had German music stations at the time and they kept playing "Walk Through The Fire" over and over and it got stuck in my head.
 
Also another one for Band of Brother, I think episode ten. It's a scene which is pure brilliance, the past meets the presence. Sobel walks by Winters and he doesn't salute, Winters calls him back and tells him something along the lines of 'You salute the rank not the man'.

The look of disgust on Sobel's face is priceless.
 
Mick1991 said:
Also another one for Band of Brother, I think episode ten. It's a scene which is pure brilliance, the past meets the presence. Sobel walks by Winters and he doesn't salute, Winters calls him back and tells him something along the lines of 'You salute the rank not the man'.

The look of disgust on Sobel's face is priceless.
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Great scene
 
Big-Red said:
Great scene
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Love that scene!

@ Wittmann. That is spot on mate (BoB scene), completely forgot! An epic scene in every sense, showed they were two sides of the same coin.

The Wire has so many as well, I think for me McNulty's funeral might pip it.
 
For BoB I can't pick anything besides the one Mick described. That defined the series and I think it helped define the WWII generation and part of why every other generation reveres them.

I know not everyone likes the last season of The Wire but I just absolutely loved the montage at the end.

The whole series itself touched on how we all claim that we want to change things, but in the end we're perfectly willing to let that die when we're presented with a selfish opportunity. The ending captures that perfectly when it shows how in the grand scheme of things, nothing ever changes. Only the cast changes but the story remains the same.

It pretty much highlights what's wrong with our local governments and why we go through every election cycle hoping the next regime is going to improve things for our families and our kids and our communities, but in the end it's always the same old same old.
 
I think you have that one nailed jveezy, that does indeed pip McNulty's funeral. Very classy ending to the greatest t.v show ever made.
 
The West Wing - 20 Hours in America, Two Cathedrals
The Pacific - Episode 8
The Office - "I think there's been a rape up there" scene.. :D
Seinfeld - The Outing
Band of Brothers - Bastogne
 
redtilded121 said:
buffy episode 'once more with feeling' got all the characters secrets out in an original way.
Click to expand...

I remember that. We turned on the TV, and there was a musical on the channel that came up first. Not our favourite thing to watch. So we changed channels, and found Buffy. Alright, good. Except that all of a sudden, they all started signing! Fun, but not what we really wanted right now. So we changed channels again, and there was an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess on.

"Well", my elder sister said, "at least this won't be a musical!"

And then Xena started signing.
 
The episode of The Sopranos (S3E6) where Ralphie kills the stripper was haunting, i genuinely felt sick over it. Incredibly powerful stuff and even against the staggeringly high quality of all The Sopranos it stands out for me.

Ralphie, Tony and the Stripper all turn in fantastic performances, Tonys sadness at her death is particularly striking but the way the whole episode is played out with the relationship between the 3 is just brilliant. I wanted so badly for it to work out well for her but instead she's dealt a brutal demise :(

Its horrible, and yet utterly compelling viewing
 
zain said:
The West Wing - 20 Hours in America, Two Cathedrals
The Pacific - Episode 8
The Office - "I think there's been a rape up there" scene.. :D
Seinfeld - The Outing
Band of Brothers - Bastogne
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Cant believe this wasnt mentioned earlier....

Too many to think of really but The Sopranos " Pine Barrens " is a masterpiece.

chris_paulie_l.jpg
 
Count Duckula said:
You fecking cnut. I'd managed to successfully eradicate that scene from my mind, it was so upsetting. I hope you get eaten by bears.
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Really is a great scene. He appears in a later episode as well which explains him getting fossilised, and also makes out that he wasn't dead at the end of that episode.
 
It's Benders Big Score, and it's only one scene near the end. And actually he might just have died i can't remember exactly.

EDIT:
Actually it alters that entire clip as he spends the whole of that time, and the film, with Lars. Not sure why they went and did that. Although they could explain it away as being a parallel universe. My head hurts.
 
Red_Aaron said:
The episode of The Sopranos (S3E6) where Ralphie kills the stripper was haunting, i genuinely felt sick over it. Incredibly powerful stuff and even against the staggeringly high quality of all The Sopranos it stands out for me.

Ralphie, Tony and the Stripper all turn in fantastic performances, Tonys sadness at her death is particularly striking but the way the whole episode is played out with the relationship between the 3 is just brilliant. I wanted so badly for it to work out well for her but instead she's dealt a brutal demise :(

Its horrible, and yet utterly compelling viewing
Click to expand...

That episode was unreal. I wanted Tony to beat Ralphie to a pulp there and then. I couldn't get it out of my head for ages after.
 
Lynott said:
That episode was unreal. I wanted Tony to beat Ralphie to a pulp there and then. I couldn't get it out of my head for ages after.
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Me either, it was the one episode of The Sopranos I felt uncomfortable after viewing, usually you'd feel great after the show finished knowing you'd just watched a great show and you'd be eager for the next one but not that episode I just felt like crap for days after. It was just so sad :( that poor girl (she had cracking norks too iirc)
 


:lol:

Fellatio, cunnilingus, french kissing........rimjob!
 
Lost - The Constant
South Park – Scott Tenorman Must Die
Band of Brothers - Bastogne
The Pacific - Okinawa
Carnivale - This scene, creepy as feck.

2qira5s.jpg
 
Oz - The one where Said kills Adebesi.

BSG - The 1st episode where every half hour the cylons attack and the crew are all knackered and losing hope.

24 - The one where Jack is trying to get info from someone and sets up a video conference of the guys kids getting shot.

The Wire - Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale betraying each other at the same time.
 
Eriku said:
Suicide with an escape clause remains for me the most epicly funny of shorts... it's societal criticism, stark black humour, seems irrational and devoid of meaning till the very end... aaah <3
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Yup, it's absolutely stunning. Deeply tragic, beautiful and hilarious all at once.
 
The Wire-
the scene McNulty realizes everything he has worked for the past 3 years has not been a waste, but doesn't get to actually get his man as someones got to him already. It's classic tragic storytelling, absolutely brilliant, you just feel so gutted for him, he FINALLY gets the super smart Stringer, and he's dies before he can arrest him.

The Sopranos - College sums the show better than any episode ever, and easily so. Maybe the best, but definitely the defining episode of the series.
 
zain said:
The West Wing - 20 Hours in America, Two Cathedrals
The Pacific - Episode 8
The Office - "I think there's been a rape up there" scene.. :D
Seinfeld - The Outing
Band of Brothers - Bastogne
Click to expand...

Absolutely epic, the monologue in the cathedral is one of the best scenes of the whole show.
 
The finale of Season 5 of The Shield for me. Just the most stressful hour of television I've ever seen
RIP Lem
 
Randall Flagg said:
The Shield finale cannot be beaten. Shane Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!111
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The thing about The Shield was from a pure quality, writing, point of view it wasn't as good as The Sopranos or The Wire but I think the audience felt closer to the characters, Shane and Lem in particular.

Also, in the penultimate episode
Vic's confession scene was just perfection. On the DVD commentary they mention how much the agonised over the thirty odd seconds of silence before he speaks. But it worked so fecking well.
 
Misfits "Your'e giving birth to an alien" Or something along those lines. I choked on my drink I started laughing and cringing so hard!
 
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