We did it! We did it! We're past the halfway point! These next 10 items were wayyyyy too good to be relegated to the bottom half, but not quite awesome enough to make it all the way to the top. Still, we love them all equally, or at least that's what we tell them while secretly playing favorites—hey, just like parents do with their kids! Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present the middle children of this year's Top 100 Everything list:
50. Grey's Anatomy loses its person
Lots of Grey's characters have come and gone over the years—Dr. Burke, Izzie, George, Addison, Kyle Chandler when that bomb blew up—but none of the show's departures was more emotionally powerful than Cristina Yang's (though we'll consider arguments for Chandler in the comments). And rightfully so! Cristina was an integral part of the ABC medical soap since its inception. Not only was she Meredith's person, she was a great doctor, and she proved that there's no shame in being fierce, ambitious, and dedicated to oneself and to one's career. There are great doctors everywhere, we suppose, but there's only one Cristina Yang.
49. The worst kind of villains
In 2014, TV baddies reached an all-time high—or perhaps we should say low?—with the help of Billy Bob Thornton's perfect portrayal of Lorne Malvo on Fargo and Lorraine Toussaint's Vee onOrange Is the New Black. Malvo was the epitome of a cold-blooded killer, a man who didn't think twice about capping people he'd befriended as part of a scam or duct-taping a co-conspirator to an elliptical machine with a gun taped to his hand so the cops would shoot him full of holes. And Vee might've been even MORE devious; she went from compassionate mentor to evil mastermind without even blinking.
48. Supernatural celebrates 200 episodes of the family business
Maybe someone at The CW sacrificed a unicorn and that's why Supernatural has lived for 10 seasons with no end in sight. Maybe someone sold his soul at a crossroads in exchange for 10 years of success. Or maybe the show's loyal fandom has CW prez Mark Pedowitz locked in a cabin with the Benders. Whatever the reason may be, the beloved series hit the big 2-0-0 this fall, and it marked the occasion with one of its now-signature meta episodes, an original musical that acted as a true love letter to fans. If ever you feel like you're losing faith in the Winchesters, just listen to "A Single Man Tear" and appreciate the fact that a drama about two brothers who look like models but spend their days hunting demons can still laugh at itself.
47. Enlisted's band of brothers
We'll never understand why Fox primed this heartwarming military comedy for failure by relegating it to Friday nights. The sly humor and goofy hijinks of the rear detachment unit made us laugh, and the hunky Hill brothers' endearing relationship gave our feelings feelings. Geoff Stults and Chris Lowell were both excellent, and Parker Young—a bottle of infinite energy, enthusiasm, and childlike wonder dressed up in fatigues—was truly exceptional; as a trio, they made Enlisted feel like a treat to watch every week. The news of the show's cancellation was sadder than Toy Story 3, but at least its name will live on forever in the internet's plentiful "TV Shows That Were Canceled Too Soon" photo galleries.
46. So long and thanks for all the laughs, CraigyFerg
Craig Ferguson's special brand of humor might not have been broad enough for him to be a serious contender for other late-night gigs, but it's exactly what separated him from his peers. Where else but and The Late Late Show could we were we going to find a host who ripped up his interview questions, played with puppets, was an unabashed Doctor Who fanboy, had a robot sidekick, celebrated Magic Week, and was basically besties with Kristen Bell? Ferguson's special brand of crazy will definitely be missed in late-night, but we can't wait to see what he does next. Also, the ending of his last show was effin' brilliant.
45. Rick escapes being dinner on The Walking Dead
It took eight episodes for The Walking Dead to arrive at Terminus, the heavily guarded human-meat processing plant constructed by some wacko cannibals. But it only took one bloody episode, the action-packed Season 5 premiere, to get out. For all the praise AMC's undead drama has received for focusing on its characters in Season 5, we'd be stupid to forget what drew us to the show in the first place: zombies getting blown to smithereens! "No Sanctuary" took the series' biggest swing yet, and it landed like a haymaker thanks to its relentless brutality and enough spent ammunition to impress Charleton Heston. Oh man, and that scene with the baseball bats and the blood trough? We still haven't recovered.
44. Orphan Black's Alison takes the stage
Orphan Black is hella dramatic—and with good reason—but the reason it's one of our favorite series is that's particularly skilled at merging dark comedy with its central clone conspiracy. Sometimes the science gets confusing, and sometimes we don't know which way is up, but there's nothing too confounding about the ways in which the show makes us laugh, and Alison's absurd musical is a prime example. Yeah, yeah, it was sad because she was drunk and dealing with some pretty big issues, but her fall off the stage was comedy GOLD.
43. Alaric's magical return to Mystic Falls
When Alaric died in Season 3, the world basically stopped turning. That might sound melodramatic, but it's true; Damon lost his best friend, Elena and Jeremy lost their guardian, andThe Vampire Diaries lost one of its only characters who was capable of rational thought. Consequently, seeing him pop up in later episodes—like whenever the veil was down, for example—was like having salt poured into an open wound. So when he returned for good at the end of Season 5, we rejoiced and then consumed a lot of booze in celebration. Damon and Alaric aren't exactly braiding each other's hair after the whole "Damon compelled Alaric to rummage through his girlfriend's underwear drawer in search of a mysterious and ancient powerful magic artifact" situation, but it's still nice to have a level-headed adult presence on the show again (and no, 100-plus-year-old vampires do NOT count).
42. Ward's beard betrayal on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Goodbye Agent Handsome, hello Most Interesting Character! The reveal that Hydra had existed within S.H.I.E.L.D. for years was cool, but it was really Ward's affiliation with the organization that flipped ABC's then-relatively-lackluster-and-boring procedural on its head. A bold move that ultimately rattled S.H.I.E.L.D.'s very foundation, Ward's betrayal altered the course of the series and put it on a path toward becoming intensely gratifying television. It's not often that you can credit a single character with turning a series around in such a short amount of time, but Ward managed to pull it off, and that's no small feat. (His Evil Scruff of Evil probably helped, too.)
PREVIOUSLY: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: "Providence" Review: Or How Ward Became the Show's Most Interesting Character
41. Tyrion's passionate courtroom speech on Game of Thrones
Aspiring actors, watch this. It's powerful, Emmy-worthy stuff.