2023 in Review: The Scenes We Can’t Stop Thinking About

As you might imagine, the TVLine staff watches a lot of TV over the course of a year. A lot.

So after consuming hours upon hours of drama, comedy, reality and everything in between: If a moment sticks with us, you know it’s gotta be good.

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As part of our ongoing Year in Review series, the list below calls out some of the most memorable interludes from 2023 TV. There’s no real criteria, just vibes: If a scene looked cool, made us feel a certain way, stunned with its beauty or just kept popping into our minds, it was eligible for this rundown.

And, as always, if you’re not caught up on the following shows, you might inadvertently get spoiled. So please consider this a giant Spoiler Alert! for: Abbott Elementary, Barry, Dancing With the Stars, Dark Winds, Doctor Who, Gen V, Ginny & Georgia, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, The Last of Us, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, Loki, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Nancy Drew, Only Murders in the Building, Queen Charlotte, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Star Trek: Picard, Succession and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.

Read on to see which scenes live, rent-free, in our brains (we’ve included videos wherever possible, so smash that PLAY button!), and then hit the comments and tell us which scenes would’ve made your list.

Still to come in TVLine’s Year in Review: Performer of the Year, Best First Kisses, Dumb Things TV Did and more!

Abbott Elementary (Season 2, Episode 15)

It’s not often that refined school teacher Barbara Howard loses her cool, so watching her melt down after finding out that she was responsible for a fire in the teachers’ lounge is a moment we won’t soon forget. “I never listen to Chaka Khan’s ‘Through the Fire’ when it comes up on my Pandora. I’m every woman, not a pyromaniac,” Barbara frantically declared, earning portrayer Sheryl Lee Ralph a spot in our Performer of the Week column. (The actress should also put this scene in her acting/FYC reels for life.) — Vlada Gelman

Barry (Season 4, Episode 6)

Barry and Sally’s new life as a normcore suburban couple with a kid was already a fever dream, and then it became a nightmare when a groggy Sally spotted an open window in her house and then was shadowed by a creepy stranger in a black mask. It only got weirder when Sally felt the ground shake, and a pickup truck full-on smashed through her bedroom wall. Was it all just a metaphor? A hallucination brought on by cheap vodka? Whatever it was, it scared the bejeezus out of us. — Dave Nemetz

Dancing With the Stars (Season 32, Episode 5)

Every season, one Dancing With the Stars routine emerges as the one we rewatch constantly. This year, it was the show’s gorgeous, understated waltz in honor of late judge Len Goodman, performed to “Moon River” by current and past ballroom pros. The dance captured Goodman’s sophisticated essence perfectly; it’s a good idea to have Kleenex nearby when watching. — Rebecca Iannucci

Dark Winds (Season 2, Episode 4)

Having finally gotten the drop on the elusive Blonde Man, Leaphorn tied a rope to his prey’s neck and veritably dragged him across the valley — all whilst nursing a painful-looking, freshly broken wrist. The trek was arduous, spine-tingling at times, and still oh-so-vivid in our minds. — Matt Webb Mitovich

Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road

We know, we know. This Christmas special doesn’t air until Dec. 25, but trust us: The musical number “The Goblin Song” (get a tiny taste above) is an instant delight — a catchy bop married with weird visuals, unsettling lyrics and rousing performances by new franchise stars Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson. — M.W.M.

Gen V (Season 1, Episode 5)

Not since Angel‘s “Smile Time” episode have we seen such inventive use of puppets in a TV show. Troubled Sam already had visions of a Deep puppet on a Sesame Street-style program (hosted by Jason Ritter!) chatting with him through the TV screen, but the fight sequence in which Sam and his potential captors battle as puppets, complete with glittery guts upon decapitation, that really delivered the memorably felty wackiness. — V.G.

Ginny & Georgia (Season 2, Episode 8)

We didn’t expect the show’s Bridgerton-meets-Into the Woods high school musical, Wellington, to be legitimately good. But the production’s big original number, “Marriage Is a Dungeon” (expertly performed by cast members Tameka Griffiths and Sara Waisglass), was a Broadway-worthy earworm that had us hitting rewind over and over. — V.G.

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (Season 1, Episode 1)

Reason No. 204 to sulk that we only got one season of Paramount+’s prequel to the 1978 movie: Its opening number — a redo of “Grease Is the Word” — hit all the right notes as it introduced the future Pink Ladies with a little song-and-dance that was a whole lotta fun. — Charlie Mason

The Last of Us (Season 1, Episode 8)

When a traumatized Ellie needed him the most, Joel bulldozed the last of his reservations about getting close to her and held her while she cried. “It’s OK, baby girl,” he whispered, using the same term of affection previously reserved for his dead daughter, Sarah. It still haunts us, the way Pedro Pascal made Joel a complete wreck who’s barely holding it together as they walk away. — Kimberly Roots

Lawmen: Bass Reeves (Season 1, Episode 3)

The camera stayed on Bass for a very long time as he was sworn in as one of the first Black deputy U.S. marshals, a move that let us clock every complicated emotion that passes over David Oyelowo’s talented face. It’s rare that TV gives the audience such a meditative moment; the lingering shot is the best argument for giving high-caliber performers room to do their thing. — K.R.

Loki (Season 2, Episode 5)

In a year when the MCU at large was called out for, among so many other things, muddy/drab visual effects, the “spaghettification” on display in Loki‘s final Season 2 episodes — especially when O.B. and then A.D.’s entire workshop unraveled away — was as stunning as it was haunting. — M.W.M.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Season 5, Episode 9)

Prime Video’s fizzy retro comedy was always at its best when thinking on its feet, and its final flourish was perfectly chaotic: Midge changed plans at the last minute and decided to do her stand-up act live on Gordon Ford’s talk show without permission, launching into a live four-minute set that ultimately made her a star. The propulsive real-time feel of the scene made it feel like a death-defying tightrope walk, and Midge’s hilariously revealing act was nothing short of triumphant. We were there for every step of her journey, so it was a joy to see her dreams finally come true. — D.N.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (Season 1, Episode 5)

In a brilliantly directed scene, Monarch fired up a film projector to offer a captive Lee Shaw a look back at his titan-hunting days with Keiko. The way that Kurt Russell mirrored his younger self (played by real-life son Wyatt Russell), and especially when Wyatt’s face overlapped perfectly with his dad’s, struck an emotional chord. — M.W.M.

Nancy Drew (Season 4, Episode 3)

We didn’t always know exactly what was happening on Nancy Drew, but we knew exactly how the titular sleuth’s first actual kiss with (possible Hardy Boy) Ace made us feel. It was a long-awaited moment made even more epic by the way the duo relived the moments that led them to this monumental event. There’s a good reason that the lead-up to the ritual earned a spot in our list of 2023’s sexiest TV scenes, and it’s a safe bet that (spoiler!) you’ll be seeing this kiss in another future list. It was just that huge. — Andy Swift

Only Murders in the Building (Season 3, Episode 8)

Steve Martin was quick as a whip as he made his way through Charles’ increasingly difficult patter song “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?,” hitting every accented refrain with just the right amount of fervor. His cadence was flawless, his pitch impeccable. The only crime is that we’ll never get to see him perform it on a real Broadway stage. — Ryan Schwartz

Queen Charlotte (Season 1, Episode 6)

Charlotte brought her ailing, rarely lucid husband George back to reality with a playful invite to their favorite meeting spot under the bed. We were both delighted and devastated as George recalled their first meeting all those years ago at the palace wall — the king seeming like himself again for one brief, bittersweet moment — and the achingly romantic kiss that ended the scene made our hearts grow three sizes. — Keisha Hatchett

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Season 1, Episode 3)

It’s not everyday that a fight scene manages to blow our minds and break our hearts, but such is the versatility of Roxie, one of Ramona Flowers’ “evil” exes (voiced by Performer of the Week Honorable Mention Mae Whitman). Their nostalgic battle at a video rental store was as much a painful walk down memory lane as it was an exciting tour through various cinematic styles. The experience gave Ramona and Roxie’s relationship the closure it deserved, one of the many ways this anime-style series managed to improve upon Scott Pilgrim‘s 2010 live-action adaptation. — A.S.

Star Trek: Picard (Season 3, Episode 9)

Picard’s final season was one big nostalgia tour for Next Generation fans, with Jean-Luc reuniting with his old Enterprise crew, but that nostalgia hit maximum warp when Geordi revealed he had their old ship the Enterprise-D stashed in the fleet museum. Seeing Jean-Luc and the gang step onto that familiar bridge once again — which had been lovingly recreated down to the last detail by Picard’s art department — and take their familiar positions was like a photon torpedo straight to our hearts… in a good way. — D.N.

Succession (Season 4, Episode 7)

Shiv and Tom’s marriage was always on shaky ground, but that ground completely fell out from under them during an explosive argument on a balcony, with both of them going straight for the jugular and twisting the knife for good measure. It was tough to watch them be so cruel — she labeled him a “conservative hick,” and he declared her unfit to have kids, not knowing she was secretly pregnant — but it was a fascinating portrait of a marriage running on fumes, with Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen portraying the warring spouses’ anger and pain with stunning clarity. — D.N.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (Season 1, Episode 2)

We knew what was coming, of course, when the Walking Dead spinoff flashed back to the night that deceased Parisians began reanimating. But what we couldn’t have imagined was just how magnifique the sequence would be, especially as played from the viewpoint of the luminous Clémence Poésy’s Isabelle. — C.M.

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