There are scores of TV shows out there, with dozens of new episodes each week, not to mention everything you can find on Hulu Plus, Netflix streaming, and HBO Go. How’s a viewer to keep up? To help you sort through all that television has to offer, we’re compiling the five best moments on TV each week. This time, lots of couples get together, and one couple finds out they’re expecting.
Nick and Jess Finally Do the Deed
Most of this week’s episode of New Girl had absolutely zero going on in the way of plot advancement considering that it was a flashback episode. But after thirty minutes of learning how Schmidt, Winston, Jess, Nick, and CeCe lost their virginities, the final minute made up for the funny but ultimately pointless gimmick by showing Nick and Jess together. Like, together together. As in looking at each other happily in bed in a Monica-and-Chandler-esque “we just had sex for the first time” kind of way. Right on!
Ron Swanson Is Having a Kid
Parks and Rec‘s season finale was remarkable on multiple fronts: the return of fan-favorite Burt Macklin, the most laugh-out-loud lines of the entire season, and the introduction of a few actual long-term conflicts into a show that’s spent too long feeling like one long, treacly celebration of friendship. Most important, however, was the last-second revelation that the pregnancy test Andy/Burt found at Ron’s cabin belonged to his girlfriend, Diane. It’s a development that has plenty of comic potential, of course, but it’s also an important opportunity to further develop a character who’s only just started to experience some personal growth this season. Swanson will likely be as ridiculously competent at fatherhood as he is at woodworking, but we’re looking forward to watching him get there.
The Mindy Project Picks Up on Its Chloe Sevigny Cliffhanger
In the opening minutes of this week’s episode, we learned that Danny’s ex-wife Christina wasn’t just stopping by the office, but showed up because Morgan mailed the letter confessing Danny’s love. In the closing minutes, Mindy delivered Danny Christina’s own letter and he agreed to ask her out for coffee. Plus one for great use of a guest star in a central player’s character development, minus one for all those fans dying for Danny and Mindy to get together. Also charming: Mindy calling Christina out for “not having the physique of someone who eats pizza on the reg” in front of her favorite food truck, where she’s ordering four slices’ worth of her favorite lunch. Christina definitely looks like the raw vegan type.
The Ladies of Bob’s Burgers Become Pseudo-Directioners
While Gene and the parents attended a “table-scaping” competition, Tina and Louise made their way over to a concert from boy band Boyz 4 Now. An obvious spoof of One Direction, Boyz 4 Now quickly convert the scornful Louise into a screaming, smitten superfan. Tina’s wonderfully nonplussed “concert scream” and the fake single “Coal Mine” were great, but Louise’s identity crisis after falling hard for a prepubescent singer named “Boo Boo” made the episode. Crazed fandom drives the Belcher sisters to stow away on the band’s tour bus, bury themselves in their underwear, and slap a booster seat-bound Boo Boo. Sisterly bonding at its best.
Deacon and Rayna Reunite on Nashville
It’s exactly the kind of schmaltzy, cliched reunion scene viewers are used to seeing on every network drama out there, but for some reason Rayna and Deacon’s end of episode bailing out on a trip to St. Lucia/doorstep confession of love/steamy sex scene worked. Not only do Connie Britton (she of the absolutely flawless hair) and Charles Esten look great together, but the show’s also done an unusually good job of building up the duo’s romantic and sexual tension over the past season. It’s reminiscent of early Gossip Girl, except Rayna is a thousand times more appealing than Lily van der Woodsen.