Nip/Tuck: Everett Poe (5.3)

Eden is an oversexed porno monster, a character so ridiculously implausible that she fails to even work as comic relief. She's so much a walking porno character that she makes the equally porny Kit McGraw look like a Merchant Ivory creation. In her ten minutes on screen this episode, she references blow jobs, anal sex and a black man's ding-dong, calls Sean 'daddy', discusses her hymen and masturbates in public. She's also fine with belittling a pre-teen about her weight. AnnaLynne McCord looks like a porn star and acts like one too, Eden Lord being one of the most absurd things to happen to the series in a long, long time.

Charmed: The Wendigo (1.12)

The first of many, many, many episodes about one of the sisters becoming possessed by something demonic, The Wendigo is nowhere near greatness, but it is an atmospheric little mystery. It's by turns fun, exciting and ridiculously contrived (all ingredients that create the best Charmed episodes), and there's enough here to make it one of those early classics. This is mostly down to Holly Marie Combs, who has so far created the most vivid of the three sisters, and who gets a real showcase here to display her versatility as well as Piper's neurotic charm.

Charmed: Feats of Clay (1.11)

This should have been an interesting episode from a Phoebe stand-point, but unfortunately too little time is given to her history, or her own feelings of personal growth since her return to San Francisco. Instead, most of the script's attention is given to her dull-dull-dull love interest Clay, his ham-fisted proclamations of having 'gone straight', and a flat mystery involving a cursed urn. Throw in a couple of dull subplots and yet another superfluous Andy appearance, and it's no surprise five writers are credited to this mess.

The X-Files: Zero Sum (4.21)

Skinner continues to prove he's one of the strongest characters on the show with this Mitch Pileggi-heavy episode. Skinner is a stoolie for a reprehensible monster, trying to do the right thing but forced to orchestrate an awful chain of events in the hopes of achieving his end goal (to save Scully). There was a lot of fun to be had here, with the atmospheric and almost dialogue-free early sequences with Skinner disposing of Jane Brody's body, while Mulder seeking help and advice from the very man he's unknowingly pursuing was equally entertaining. The conspiracy episodes only truly work at this point when it doesn't feel like the writers are simply tossing a series of elements into a pot, and Zero Sum thankfully only explores one of them.

Nip/Tuck: Joyce and Sharon Monroe (5.2)

Julia's detour "from dwarf-humping to carpet-munching" is never explored as successfully again as it is here. The story is quickly derailed by... uh, next episode, but her explosive revelation this episode is wonderful. Away from the sensationalism of the 'idea' of the story, it isn't totally surprising that Julia would explore her sexuality. She did seem to be attracted to Ava in her dream episode in season two, Ava even remarking that Julia has always wondered what it would be like to kiss a woman. I loved her explanation for her attraction to Olivia, not that she's explicitly gay now, but just that she fell in love with somebody who happened to be another woman. Portia de Rossi was also great. Like the story, she's quickly wasted as the season progresses, but she has a sexy, confident and almost masculine (while still flirtatiously feminine) energy in this episode, easily bantering with Christian and showcasing the exact qualities that Julia would find attractive.

Undercovers: The Key to It All (1.11)

It's about damn time that the mythology element to Undercovers was explored, but frustratingly we were once again just blessed with the 'idea' of mythology. Here we have a secret key, a locked vault, and a mysterious book. The problem is that just by having allusions to mythology doesn't make the show more interesting. It's the show dragging its feet to create some kind of tension or drama, but it's only succeeded in backfiring completely. A show like Heroes also seemed to intentionally drag out story arcs and 'ideas' for so long that they became stale, and that show too became unwatchable. The fact that NBC ordered several additional scripts and, after reading them, then decided to cancel the series goes a long way in revealing that even after warnings of cancellation, the show didn't re-tool enough to make the concept work.

Birds of Prey: Devil's Eyes (1.13)

In a lot of ways, Birds of Prey was a show that struggled to find an identity. This was pretty evident in the on-screen changes that occurred throughout the thirteen episodes produced. For a show conceived with an three-character ensemble (echoing its source material), it quickly became a vehicle for The Huntress. Likewise, as the season progressed, Dinah became almost entirely phased out - her scenes reduced, her high school subplots removed. At the same time, no over-arching storyline was ever present, besides the flat Helena/Reese romance. The series also couldn't work out how to use its source material. I'm sure DC copyright forced the writers one way or another, but it never really worked out whether it would confidently wear its comic-book roots on its sleeve, or only briefly allude to it. The latter only ever came off as lazy and illogical, such as Reese's ignorance of Batman, while the former was barely used outside of the pilot. It's disappointing that the show was canceled, but I'm not sure it would have made any significant improvements without an entire production overhaul.

Charmed: Wicca Envy (1.10)

Re-watching the early episodes, it's pretty great to see a story arc involving villains that aren't just reduced to the whole "crush, kill, destroy" method of dispatching the Charmed Ones. The show's villains eventually became so shrill, flat and one-note that seeing Rex and Hannah forming this elaborate plan is actually pretty refreshing. Wicca Envy is occasionally both melodramatic and ridiculous, but it's probably the strongest episode of the series so far, and a benchmark for what the show would eventually become.