Plot Isn’t as Important to Great TV as You Think

How important is plot to a TV show? I thought about this recently while looking at The Ringer’s updated list of the 100 best episodes of the century. Before, I probably would’ve said that for a scripted, narrative series, plot was the single most important element. OK, a sitcom might live or die by its jokes, but even the jokes need a story to contain them, and for every other type of show, I’d have supposed that plot—the source of conflict, mystery, and suspense—determined an episode’s success or failure, as well as the scale of its artistic ambitions.