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, Flavorwire is compiling the five best moments on TV each week. This time, Mad Men‘s most mysterious character shows his true colors and Stephen Colbert delivers a touching on-air eulogy.
Bob Benson Reveal Somewhat Worth the Wait
All season long, SCDP’s latest hire has been driving Mad Men‘s conspiracy theory-prone fan base completely nuts. Of course there was no way a handsome stranger could show up at the newly expanded agency and not have a few skeletons hiding in his closet, but most thought the mystery had been solved with last week’s underwhelming revelation that Bob is gay (and in love with Pete Campbell, of all people). In “Favors,” however, Matt Weiner threw viewers the curveball they’d been waiting for: Bob is a fraud, neatly paralleling Don Draper in his rise from West Virginia hick to “manservant” to accounts man at Sterling Cooper & Partners. And thanks to Pete’s surprising show of mercy, it looks like Bob will be sucking up to his bosses and taking beach trips with Joan for a while.
True Blood Sex Scenes Reach a New Level of Gratuitous
Everyone who’s still watching True Blood at this point knows the show is ridiculous, and Sunday’s season premiere didn’t disappoint. In between Bill’s weird speech comparing his vampire superpowers to General Sherman and Eric floating out of Sookie’s house while looking at her like a wounded puppy, the writers took us back to the werewolf plot line. Apparently they’ve now realized that no one cares about Alcide and hasn’t for two seasons, so “Who Are You, Really?” dispensed with coherence altogether and replaced it with a) Alcide eating an arm and b) threesome sex. Maybe we’re supposed to take it as a super-intense relationship power play. Maybe we’re just supposed to sit back and watch the hot people do their thing.
Selina Hits a (Glass) Wall on Veep
In what Dan aptly described as “a living metaphor of her own career,” Veep heroine Selina walked straight through a glass door minutes before arriving at a brunch for wealthy donors, racking up some nasty cuts to the face. The VP then spent the remainder of the episode “fuckin’ trippin’ balls” on a combination of St. John’s Wort (helpfully provided by Gary) and antidepressants, doing insane things like implying she’s running for president and agreeing to go to Gary’s parents’ anniversary party. Best one-liner of the episode went to Mike, discouraging Selina from going through with the donor brunch: “You’re wearing a robe. Unless you want to go down there and sing the chorus of ‘Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee,’ you can’t go downstairs.”
Will Graham Finally Figures Hannibal Out
In a fine finale to a promising first season, Hannibal‘s “Savoreux” saw unstable FBI profiler Will Graham isolated and pushed over the edge, courtesy of the show’s title doctor. Suffering from encephalitis and framed for the string of murders committed by Hannibal over the course of the season, Will remains convinced of his own innocence. In the episode’s climactic scene, he returns to the house of Garrett Jacob Hobbes, where he finally figures out it’s been Hannibal all along — but he’s too late, because then Jack Crawford arrives and shoots them. It’s not clear in the season’s final shot, which sees Will staring at Hannibal through the bars of his cell in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, whether Will still thinks he’s right, but I can’t wait until next season to find out.
Stephen Colbert Pays Tribute to His Mother
After taking a short break from hosting The Colbert Report in the wake of his mother’s death on June 12, Stephen Colbert returned to the show this week, opening with a short eulogy for Lorna Tuck Colbert, who was 92 at the time of her death. It’s a moving speech; Colbert comes close to tears several times during the monologue, giving viewers a brief biography and praising his mother’s warmth and ability to cope with tragedy (she outlived both her husband and three of her 11 children). Colbert rarely breaks character, but when he does, he’s just as eloquent and sincere as his television personality is hilarious and overblown. The clip above is no exception.