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, TV gears up for fall with a few much-anticipated returns, one bittersweet goodbye, and an uneven comedy special with one serious high point.
He’s Baaaaack
While John Oliver went above and beyond with his guest hosting duties, but Jon Stewart was a sight for sore eyes on Tuesday, when he returned to the helm of The Daily Show after a summer spent directing Rosewater in the Middle East. Deploying the kind of self-aware humor that made Oliver’s tenure so enjoyable (the one-liners explaining just where Stewart had gone were a nightly highlight), Tuesday’s show opened with Oliver and fellow cast member Jessica Williams attempting to restore Jon’s American-ness using a Big Mac defibrillator, a Heineken bottle, and eventually, Stephen Colbert. Stewart’s whispered “I miss you guys” before launching into the night’s coverage was also a nice touch.
Futurama Says So Long (and Thanks for All the Fish)
Television’s other beloved, prematurely cancelled animated show that got a second chance wound down for good this week. Matt Groening’s chronically underrated space comedy finally had its will-they-or-won’t-they main characters tie the knot, a move that screamed “series finale” without coming off as too saccharine. That’s thanks to a few odd time travel subplots, a few years spent frozen in time on Earth, and a total reset whereby Professor Farnsworth sets chronology in motion again by having Fry and Leela restart their journey from the start. It’s all very sweet and nostalgic and a little bit crass, but overall a well-executed sendoff.
Andy Samberg One-Ups Everyone Else at the James Franco Roast
…by pointedly not roasting anyone at all. One example of Samberg’s vicious satire: “Aziz Ansari’s parents are from India and he’s from South Carolina. Hey Aziz, what’s it like to have a unique perspective on what it means to be American, you little sack of shit?!” Also “roasted”: Jonah Hill’s politeness, women’s ability to give birth, and the majesty of God. During an otherwise uneven roast that unsurprisingly yielded mini-controversies over rape jokes and homophobia, Samberg’s set felt genuinely original and, more importantly, hilarious (check out Ansari’s chair-thumping during his shoutout). Yet another reason to get psyched for next week’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine premiere.
The League Launches Round Five
Literary editor Jason Diamond already sung The League‘s praises as a worthy successor to Seinfeld earlier this week, so we’ll simply direct you to his case for the show and its fifth season premiere, which went live on FXX this week.
Michael Kors Returns to Project Runway
The legendary designer was a guest judge this time, along with regulars Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia, and Zac Posen. Kors’s critiques were especially cutting this week; it seemed to us like he’d been actively looking forward to the opportunity to tear some amateurs to shreds on national television. Among the one-liners: “It looks like she’s going to a buffet on a cruise”; “If you want guys to leave you alone at the gym, wear that look”; describing high pockets as “pleasure-me-pockets.” We’d feel bad for the poor designers on the bottom if it weren’t so entertaining. Reality television: it’s a brutal, brutal place.