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 week, we bring you the TV movie that took over your Twitter feed and cable news’ cringe-worthy coverage of the George Zimmerman trial.
Sharknado Makes Landfall
The title says it all. SyFy made a movie about a freak natural disaster that spews otherwise aquatic man-eating predators all over LA, and social media blew up about it. What a time to be alive.
Zimmerman Trial Coverage Is Predictably Tasteless
The state of Florida put George Zimmerman on trial over the past couple of weeks, and the 24-hour news cycle turned it into a reality TV show. Sid Bedingfeld makes the case for why this is a Bad Thing over at Gawker, so we’ll let his argument speak for itself, but suffice it to say this has not been a banner week for the integrity of broadcast journalism, particularly CNN.
— MAJOR SKINS FIRE SPOILER ALERT —
R.I.P. Naomily
In the second installment of Skins Fire, Effy’s involvements with a hedge fund manager and a regulatory drone predictably went up in smoke. But much more devastating than her eventual insider trading conviction was the (not actually depicted, but heavily implied) death of Naomi, half of OTP Naomily. It’s bad enough that Skins succumbed to the hackneyed plot device of giving a character cancer (not even a freak brain aneurysm á la Chris!); it’s way worse that the show tragically ended one of television’s most nuanced, fully developed queer relationships. But it’s a major shock and sure got the Internet talking, so we’re including it here. Hopefully the return of Cassie next week will bring more convincing character development and less needless death.
Pam Gets a Sister
This week’s True Blood was full of twists, including the revelation that Sookie’s plain-vanilla fairy love interest is actually Warlow, the FAIRY VAMPIRE. It’s a lot scarier than it sounds. But more interesting to us was Eric’s decision to turn Willa Burrell, daughter of Louisiana’s vamp-phobic governor, into a vampire — then send her straight back to her father, just to prove a point. It’s a dumb move on several levels: baby vamp Willa promptly loses control, tries to eat her dad, then gets captured and sent away to vampire concentration camp, all while resenting her maker for using her as a chess piece. And given Pam’s noted jealousy issues, think she’ll be happy to learn she has yet another rival for Eric’s attention?
Awesome Web Series Takes the Edge Off Summer Hiatus
It’s not technically on television or even releasing new episodes at the moment, but we stumbled across the superb High Maintenance this week and already watched the whole thing twice. A series of short vignettes about various New Yorkers who all patronize the same drug dealer, High Maintenance (available in full at helpingyoumaintain.com) is the work of husband-and-wife team Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair. Sinclair plays the dealer, an endearingly levelheaded dude who helps out everyone from sick old ladies to douchey personal chefs. The series is ostensibly about pot, but it’s really about the people, man.