'Breaking Bad' to 'Friends': the best and worst episodes of eight popular shows

From the disastrous season finale of 'Game of Thrones' to the two highest-ranked episodes of 'The Office'

Bryan Cranston played Walter White in the hit series 'Breaking Bad'. Ursula Coyote/AMC

Few moments in television history can outperform the suffocatingly tense third-to-last episode of the drama series Breaking Bad.

Aptly named Ozymandias – in reference to the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which recounts the deteriorating legacy of an imperious king – the episode marks the fatal blow to Walter White's drug empire as the former high school chemistry teacher scrambles to deal with the devastating consequences of his decisions.

Even for a show that was critically praised for consistently dishing out quality episodes, Ozymandias stood out. So it comes to no surprise that, according to research by comparison service Money.co.uk, the episode is the highest-ranked in the series on IMDb. The worst? Well, it wasn't a Breaking Bad episode, but rather the lacklustre 2019 film El Camino that served as the epilogue to the show.

The research by the UK-based online service takes us through a number of high and low moments in some of our favourite television shows.

Here are the best and worst episodes of seven more popular shows, ranked.

‘Game of Thrones’

The TV adaptation to George RR Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice was all the craze when it premiered in 2011. For six years, it kept millions riveted with its raunchy, bloody plot that seemed to subvert all expectations.

Then came season seven, which saw a noticeable dip in storytelling finesse before the disastrous conclusion of the show with The Iron Throne episode. Then, as quickly as the Game of Thrones obsession spread, it dissipated. No one seemed to want to relive eight seasons of an engaging plot line that hastily wrapped up with more than a few loose ends.

Best Episodes: The Rains of Castamere (S3, E9); Battle of the Bastards (S6, E9); The Winds of Winter (S6, E10)

Worst Episodes: The Iron Throne (S8, E6)

Worst Season: Season 8

‘Stranger Things’

Between its nostalgia-inducing 1980s setting, myriad pop culture references and the blood-curdling dives into the Upside Down, it's no wonder so many were captivated by the sci-fi horror Stranger Things.

The show has undulated in quality since it premiered in 2016. However, that’s not to say many aren’t eagerly waiting for the coming fourth season, which is scheduled to be released later this year.

Best Episodes: The Upside Down (S1, E8); The Gate (S2, E9)

Worst Episode: The Lost Sister (S2, E7)

Worst Seasons: Season 2 and 3

‘Dexter’

Dexter started out as a promising original thriller when it premiered in 2006, following a forensics technician with homicidal tendencies who targeted murderers.

The show, which went on for eight seasons, became increasingly more trope and cliche-driven as it reached its conclusion in 2013. But that’s not to say its popularity suffered, as the original broadcast of the season finale – though rated the worst episode in the show – drew in more than 2.8 million viewers, the largest audience in Showtime’s history up until that point.

The show is now reportedly in for a revival as showrunners announced Dexter would return for a 10-episode limited series that is scheduled to premiere this year.

Best Episode: The Getaway (S4, E12)

Worst Episode: Remember the Monsters? (S8, E12)

Worst Season: Season 6

‘The Crown’

The Crown takes us into the inner circle of the British royal family, chronicling the life of Queen Elizabeth II. A first-rate character drama, The Crown was in hot water last year for the way it depicted the tempestuous relationship between Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, whose character made her debut in the show in the third season. So much so that it prompted UK's Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to tell The Daily Mail that the show's producers should make it clear that The Crown is a work of fiction.

“Without this, I fear a generation of viewers who did not live through these events may mistake fiction for fact,” he said in November 2020. Netflix soon responded saying it saw “no need” to add the disclaimer to the series.

Best Episode: Aberfan (S3,E3)

Worst Episodes: Olding (S3, E1); Coup (S3, E5); Moondust (S3, E7)

Worst Season: Season 3

‘Friends’

The popularity of Friends has hardly wavered in the 16 years since the US sitcom aired its final episode, which unsurprisingly is ranked as one of the show's finest episodes.

Though some of the jokes and themes feel outdated today, the show, following the lives of six friends living in Manhattan, remains every bit the phenomenon it was in the 1990s. Why else did Netflix fork out a whopping $100 million in 2018 to keep the show in its library for another year? Friends has since been pulled out of the service's US offerings, but the sitcom is still available in Netflix's regional library.

Best Episodes: The One Where Everybody Finds Out (S5, E14); The Last One: Part 2 (S10, E18)

Worst Episode: The One with the Invitation (S4, E21)

Worst Seasons: Season 1 and 9

‘The Office’

If there's one show that can outdo Friends in terms of popularity, it's possibly US version of The Office. The awkward fourth wall-breaking comedy was the most-watched show on Netflix in 2020, with viewers spending more than 57 billion minutes watching the sidesplitting misadventures of the employees in the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

The show’s two top episodes are, in a way, finales, with one marking the final appearance of the good-natured but largely inept manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and the other being the show’s last episode.

Best Episodes: Goodbye, Michael (S7, E21); Finale (S9, E23)

Worst Episode: Get the Girl (S8, E19)

Worst Season: Season 8

‘The Walking Dead’

The Walking Dead set a new standard for television horror when the series debuted in 2010. Based on the comic book series of the same name, the show follows a group of survivors of a zombie apocalypse as they attempt to navigate a world overrun by the undead walkers.

The show, unflinching in its grit and gore, drew in the most 18- to 49-year-old viewers of any cable or broadcast television series in its third season. The series is set to conclude in 2022, with the last season premiering later this year.

Best Episode: Too Far Gone (S4, E8)

Worst Episode: Swear (S7, E6)

Worst Season: Season 8