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, Brooklyn Nine-Nine kicks off while The Newsroom winds down.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine Is Off to a Promising Start
Reviews for Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher’s new FOX sitcom haven’t been great, but they haven’t been awful either. The consensus seems to be that the show has potential, which makes sense given that it comes from the guys who brought us Parks and Rec, a now-amazing show that had a very rocky start. Samberg and Braugher play an odd-couple cop duo of cocky hotshot detective and buttoned-up (but still openly gay) captain, aided by a solid ensemble cast including the action-star version of April Ludgate and the amazing Chelsea Peretti. We’ll definitely be watching again next week, but one small quibble: if you’re gonna name your show after New York’s hottest borough, you’ve gotta incorporate it better into the plot.
Louis CK Sits Down with Conan
We won’t have Louie back for a while, but we did get a full hour of one-on-one chat between the man himself and Conan O’Brien. Up for discussion were, among other things, CK’s dislike of smartphones and his failed flirtation with Gwyneth Paltrow. We recommend watching the whole thing: CK was the only guest on Conan’s show last night, so there’s plenty of material to sift through.
Walt’s Intense Phone Call Upstages Hank’s Death
We knew something big was going to happen on Sunday’s episode of Breaking Bad; the previous week’s show had, after all, ended with Walter, Hank, Jesse, and Gomez midway through a gun battle with some neo-Nazis. But Hank’s death had been so heavily foreshadowed that, by the time it actually happened, viewers had already prepared themselves. Instead, the scene that kept Breaking Bad fans talking all week came at the end of the episode, after Walt fled with baby Holly following a physical altercation with Skyler, as she called the police. Debate has centered on whether the phone call — in which Walt terrifyingly berated Skyler for disobeying him and also admitted to many serious crimes as police officers listened in — was a sincere expression of his rage, a clever ploy to exonerate his wife of any blame for his crimes, or a little bit of both both. — Judy Berman
Jeffrey Wright Blows Up Boardwalk
If there’s one thing Boardwalk Empire does well (besides insanely beautiful sets and gratuitous insertion of various historical heavyweights), it’s compelling villains. Gyp Rosetti, the sadomasochistic brute who terrorized Atlantic City last season, is long gone, but in his place is Doctor Valentin Narcisse, an ice-cold black nationalist and shrewd Harlem businessman. While the trailers made it seem like Narcisse would be Nucky’s main adversary, the far more interesting dynamic is between Narcisse and Chalky White, another successful African American who’s as far from Narcisse’s polished manners as one can get.
The Newsroom Packs Up (For Now)
Aaron Sorkin’s not-much-beloved show ended its second season, which clocked in at a mere nine episodes, on Sunday night. Among the problematic developments viewers proceeded to hate-livetweet: Mac and Will got engaged; Reese Lansing came over to the Light Side; and everyone decided Genoa was not their fault and hated on Jerry Dantana now that Hamish Linklater is safely off the show. We’re all waiting with bated breath to see if the madness will continue for a third installment, but until then we’ve got enough McAvoy-induced rage to last us a lifetime.