Sharp writing and layered performances are the bedrock of good TV, but when a showrunner wants to make a moment sing, they bring in the big guns: the music supervisors. The just-right song can turn a memorable scene into an unforgettable one, and 2023’s new and returning shows offered plenty of moments that prove just that. Even series that arrived a little half-baked (Daisy Jones and the Six) or threatened to overwhelm us with lore and plot twists (Mrs. Davis, Yellowjackets) yielded transcendent moments, many of them underscored by songs that sent us scrambling to add them to our playlists. Let us now sing the praises of ten such moments and their accompanying soundtracks.
10.
Mrs. Davis
“Electric Avenue,” Eddy Grant
Appears in: Episode 108, “Great Gatsby 2001: A Space Odyssey”
Let’s kick this list off with the weirdest and least-explicable needle drop of the year, which closes out the penultimate episode of one of the strangest and most rewarding shows of the year. Why does a group of beachgoers — at the behest of the series’ titular omniscient AI — suddenly surround and launch into an intimidating sing-along directed at a nun who’s just emerged triumphantly from the ocean in a deep-sea-diving suit, clutching the Holy Grail? And why is their song of choice Eddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue,” a modest hit about a 1981 riot prompted by racist overpolicing and terrible economic conditions in London’s Brixton neighborhood? After reading that description, does it even matter? Mrs. Davis is so committed to encouraging viewers’ wild theories, only to burst those thought bubbles with an explanation so simple that Occam’s razor itself might slice it away, that it would be folly to venture a guess! Being reminded of this socially conscious banger is a gift, and the fact that we’re still talking about it is proof enough of its success.
9.
For All Mankind
“X Gon’ Give It to Ya,” DMX
Appears in: Episode 407, “Crossing The Line”
This pugnacious psych-up jam — an odd choice for the equally odd couple of Ed Baldwin and Dev Ayesa — signals another gutsy plot pivot in a wobbly season. Moments before, Ed was disgusted by Dev’s viciously effective strikebreaking strategy, but Dev quickly wins him back with another ace he has up his sleeve (or in his staggeringly deep pockets, if you prefer): How would Ed like to join him in a little asteroid heist and claim the iridium-rich Goldilocks for Mars, rather than for Helios or any M7 Alliance space agency? Neither of these guys seem like they’d be fans of Ruff Ryders-released hits of the early aughts, but DMX’s much-missed signature gravelly bark atop a furious marching-band riff leaves no room for doubt about the new partnership’s aim: “Fuck waitin’ for you to get it on your own / X gon’ deliver to ya.”
8.
Daisy Jones and The Six
“Gold Dust Woman,” Fleetwood Mac
Appears in: Episode 109, “Feels Like The First Time”
What restraint music supervisor Frankie Pine exercised by holding out until Daisy Jones’s penultimate episode to incorporate a Fleetwood Mac song, and what a bull’s-eye choice she made with “Gold Dust Woman.” Stevie Nicks’ woozy, raspy portrait of a woman in the grip of heartbreak and drug use perfectly underscores the opening scene of “Feels Like The First Time.” Daisy regains consciousness, followed by the understanding that her husband, Nicky, bailed on her in the midst of her overdose, while Billy chose to stay. The song’s relentless slow burn matches the scene’s arc, which concludes with the feckless Nicky shattering Daisy’s illusions of love, while Daisy summons the will to throw him out so she can do as the lyric suggests: “Pick up the pieces and go home.”
7.
Poker Face
“Fille du Soleil,” Francis Lai
Appears in: Episode 108, “The Orpheus Syndrome”
Dreamy vocals, undergirded by harpsichord and strings, close out this Natasha Lyonne–directed episode (which scarcely features her bullshit-detecting lead character, Charlie Cale) about a fatal, decades-old film set accident — or was it? Using a French-language song leaves the door open to foregoing any lyrical resonances to the plot or characters, but this track goes the extra mile, inviting viewers dogged enough to seek out a translation to have a good long think about what’s less devastating: attempting to resolve lingering doubts about the past, or choosing to let potentially murderous sleeping dogs lie.
6.
Cunk on Earth
“Pump Up the Jam,” Technotronic
Appears in: Every episode
Let us all praise the pure silliness of Cunk on Earth. In a TV landscape continuing to overflow with prestige dramas, this goofy British mockumentary is doing the heroic work of keeping the world safe for righteously dumb jokes. Every episode features self-serious narration by host Philomena Cunk about a period of human history, all employing Technotronic’s 1989 hit “Pump Up the Jam” as a benchmark. Each mention of the “unrelated Belgian techno anthem” then interrupts Cunk’s narration by segueing into a solid half-minute of the song’s music video. The joke grows funnier with each repetition, assisted by absurd Pop-Up Video–style facts displayed on the chyron at the bottom of the screen. Ours is not to ask why, or to attempt to understand, only to be reduced to a tear-streaked heap of giggles.
5.
Yellowjackets
“Cornflake Girl,” Tori Amos
Appears in: Episode 201: “Friends, Romans, Countrymen”
In its second season, Yellowjackets stumbled a little bit under the weight of its own ambitious, meandering plot sprawl, but the songs chosen by series music supervisor Jen Malone were flawless throughout. Tori Amos’s “Cornflake Girl,” a peak Lilith Fair–era track about how women can be anything they want, including ghastly enforcers of patriarchal subjugation, is paired in the season premiere with Shauna — who’s been in the woodshed, hallucinating a conversation with the spirit of her late best-frenemy, Jackie — taking a bite out of the chewy, protein-rich ear that’s just fallen off Jackie’s corpse. Amos’s lyrical back-and-forth with herself, the disbelieving “This, this, this is not really happening,” followed by the howling retort “You bet your life it is!” is Yellowjackets’ entire thesis statement wrapped up in a five-minute alt-rock classic.
4.
Our Flag Means Death
“This Woman’s Work,” Kate Bush
Appears in: Episode 203: “The Innkeeper”
Max’s pirate workplace-and-romantic comedy doesn’t often come for our tear ducts, but when it does, it goes all the way. As Stede sits weeping beside what he thinks is Ed’s corpse, apologizing for having ruined their relationship nearly before it began, the unconscious Ed has a vision of himself with Stede as a merman and realizes that he has a choice to make. Stede is no siren luring Ed to his death; he’s calling Ed back to life. The ethereality of Kate Bush’s voice, singing from the point of view of a man praying that his wife and child survive childbirth, interweaves with Stede’s sobs as they turn from broken to desperately hopeful. Together, they transform a mourning scene into one about the everyday, life-saving magic of love, how it calls us back to our truest and best selves and to the people who love us the best and most truly.
3.
Somebody Somewhere
“Gloria,” Laura Branigan
Appears in: Episode 207, “To Ed”
You could argue that this doesn’t qualify as a needle drop, since Laura Branigan’s synthy ’80s belter doesn’t appear in its original recorded form, and is performed within the show by star Bridget Everett. But let’s not disqualify such a crucial song over some curmudgeonly nit-picking. “Gloria” is emotionally and narratively integral to Somebody Somewhere’s second season, which includes two tonally different but equally resonant invocations of Branigan’s track. The first is in the context of an early lighthearted conversation between Sam and her bestie, Joel, as they chat and then sing about his vision for an ideal future wedding. Out of respect for her holy trinity of female vocalists, Sam says she’ll never perform it in public — “no Barbra, no Judy, no Branigan” — but she can’t resist bursting into a brief a capella rendition in the car anyway. Following a painful midseason rift, the friends reconcile just in time to participate in their friends’ season-finale wedding. Sam’s performance at the reception brings the house down and emphasizes the significance of her repairing and acknowledging some necessary changes in the bond she shares with Joel by breaking one of the arbitrary rules that no longer serve her or her relationships. Lyrics about romantic desperation and paranoia make “Gloria” a strange song for a wedding reception, but the unbridled giddiness of Joel’s response when he realizes what Sam is doing, and that she’s doing it especially for him, makes it very clear their love is here to stay.
2.
The Bear
“Love Story (Taylor’s Version),” Taylor Swift
Appears in: Episode 207, “Forks”
The Bear’s second season used episodes focused on individual characters — Marcus in the Copenhagen-set “Honeydew”; Sydney’s culinary odyssey criss-crossing Chicago in “Sundae” — to provide long stretches of self-reflection that pulled double duty as antidotes to the riveting, awful chaos of episodes like “Fishes.” Richie embarks on his weeklong assignment to a restaurant with three Michelin stars as a punishing exile, but eventually learns that meeting Chef Terry’s sky-high standards gives him opportunities to respect himself, his colleagues, and their guests. His fist-pumping, slightly lyric-flubbing solo sing-along to Taylor Swift’s early crossover hit suggests Richie may just have earned the happily ever after her narrator is hoping for — “baby, just say yes” — professionally, if not romantically. Here’s hoping he and his Swiftie daughter Eva exchanged several arms’ worth of friendship bracelets with fellow fans at the Eras Tour.
1.
Reservation Dogs
“The Weight,” The Band
Appears in: Episode 310, “Dig”
Sure, it’s a tiny bit on the nose to choose a song about the physicality of an emotional burden to play under a scene about literal communal grave-digging. But when the song is “The Weight,” written by legendary Mohawk songwriter Robbie Robertson, it’s also the perfect song choice. Robertson’s own death preceded “Dig” by just a few weeks, and he long attributed the inspiration for The Band’s classic-rock-radio staple to a trio of films by Luis Buñuel about trying to do good, and then being asked to do more and more good. While the young men of the community honor Old Man Fixico by digging his grave, and the aunties and young women hold a kitchen dance party, Levon Helm’s soulful country vocal invites his listener to “put the load right on me.” Earlier in Reservation Dogs’ series finale, Hokti used a vending machine snack-based metaphor to illustrate for Willie Jack that the people we love aren’t ever completely gone. Grief draws us together and creates moments of joy, and the weight of mutual responsibility isn’t a burden, but an honor shared.