The most astonishing TV twists and turns of the 21st century, ranked
AMC
Television can offer magnificent surprises early, often, and anywhere in between. From series and pilots built around an unpredictable twist to moment-by-moment developments that’ll knock you for a loop, time is on TV’s side — and yours.
Great thrillers, mysteries, and other dramatic fair can deliver shocking moments on the regular, while more and more comedies are also getting in on the risk/reward ratio benefitting those who know how to play the odds.
If fortune favors the bold, then consider what’s below a list of the boldest television auteurs (or at least their boldest gambles). Limiting it to 25 slots, IndieWire has culled the most shocking moments and best twists of the 21st century (so far). Each selection is indisputably memorable, meaningful, and — hopefully — not too morbid. Death can often be a surprise, so some of the selections below steer away from the sudden departures and look at other scenes with equal impact.
If any twist or shocking moment is missing, let us know in the comments section, but before you scan the list know this: The below descriptions contain spoilers. While everything in bold and in photographs is safe to see, only those who want the truth need read further, or risk having some of television’s most unexpected delights ruined for you.
25. “Mr. Robot” – “Where do you think you are right now?”
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It would’ve been a bigger twist if Season 1 of “Mr. Robot” hadn’t ended with a Tyler Durden moment. While the show didn’t necessarily need to ask the same kind of season-long question in its follow-up, the answer of who was knocking at the door to Elliot’s apartment got revealed in spectacular fashion halfway into Season 2. Yes, many fans had anticipated the reveal that Elliott was actually in prison. But the way the show melted away Elliot’s facade was still an impressive way of reframing everything that had come in the seven hours prior. At the very least, it’s notable for being a twist that arrives with a direct apology to the audience: Elliot saying, “I’m sorry for not telling you everything. But I needed this in order to get better. Please don’t be mad too long,” is a bit of self-awareness that ultimately made the later Leon developments. Imagine a world gone insane, indeed.
24. “Orphan Black” – They Be Clones
BBC America
Season 1, Episode 3, “Variation Under Nature”
“Orphan Black” was a series that, for five seasons and 50 episodes, thrived on twists. Enemies became partners, every character had a secret, and even the shadowy organizations behind the show’s central conspiracies would shift. Among the show’s shocks were the death of Dr. Leekie at the unlikely hands of bumbling suburban dad Donnie; the reveal that Delphine, Donnie, Paul and others were actually monitors; and the fact that Mrs. S knew about everything from the start. But perhaps the show’s biggest twist came early on, in Episode 3, when Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) — and the viewers — were let in on the show’s central premise: That the “Orphan Black” lookalikes, all played by Maslany, were clones, and part of a massive experiment. From there, the mystery of how Sarah witnessed someone who looked just like herself commit suicide was revealed, but the “why” wouldn’t come for another several seasons, as part of yet another twist.
23. “True Detective” – The Light’s Winning
HBO
Season 1, Episode 8, “Form and Void”
“True Detective” began and remains a very bleak show. In its first (stellar) season, Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) were assigned a homicide case involving a 28-year-old prostitute who was discovered with a crown of deer antlers on her head and twig sculptures resembling bird traps around her body. The case itself was dark enough, but the pair of cops investigating it wasn’t much brighter. Though Marty cracked a lot of jokes, he was also a heavy drinking adulterer with an affinity for strip clubs and strong words. Rust, meanwhile, wasn’t invited to many parties, on account of his cold regard for the living and an eerie acceptance of death.
So that these two made it out of the eight-episode, decades-spanning investigation alive, well, that’s something of a small miracle. Nic Pizzolatto and Cary Joji Fukunaga somehow crafted a story steeped in melancholy and loss, yet found an extremely satisfying way to wrap things up without losing either of the leads. Just as Cohle stared up into an inexplicable spiraling vortex near the finale’s climax, so too did audiences stare in wonderment at a twist ending that doubled as a relief: If you look at the dark sky just right, you can see that the light’s winning.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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