The one-off episode is a hallmark of exceptional TV. It exists to fly far away from a show's narrative arc, creating little worlds in and of themselves. When the strings of a narrative get tangled up, one-offs act as palate cleansers — the sorbet of mid-season TV, if you will — to wash out the taste of heavy-handed cliffhangers or tangential spats or a showrunner's artful but exhausting trail of breadcrumbs.I'm thinking of "Here's Not Here," the flashback episode in season six of The Walking Dead, which was entirely devoted to discovering when and where Morgan Jones learned his "code" of relative nonviolence. If only for a brief time, the show abandoned Rick, Glenn, Daryl, and the crew to trace the spiritual development of a relatively new character. And it was fabulous. Or take "The International Assassin," from the second season of The Leftovers, in which Kevin Garvey dies, dreams, and...
- 2/9/2016
- by Hillary Kelly
- Vulture
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