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, American Horror Story continues reaching new heights/lows and The Daily Show ends a Republican official’s time on the North Carolina party board.
Gabourey Sidibe Had Sex with a Minotaur
American Horror Story: Coven has wasted no time in getting into full-on “WTF” mode. It’s only episode three, and yet the season’s racial allegory has already incorporating a healthy dose of cringe factor by showing the Salem coven’s lone black member having sex with the revivified minotaur boyfriend of Angela Bassett’s voodoo priestess, Marie Laveau. It’s just as terrible as it sounds, especially since it’s implied that Queenie, played by Gabourey Sidibe, feels isolated within the coven because of both her race and her weight. Bassett perched on a throne with an iPad in hand was awesome, but it wasn’t nearly enough to convince us Ryan Murphy has the chops to tackle race with any sort of tact. Then again, American Horror Story‘s never pretended to be a tactful show.
Bones‘ Main Couple Got Hitched
No, we don’t really watch this FOX procedural costarring Zooey Deschanel’s little sister and Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s resident (very soulful) plank of wood. But TV event weddings will forever have a place in our hearts, and a marriage between a “forensic anthropologist” and the FBI agent who helps her analyze human remains seems as good a union to memorialize as any. Seeing as the series is in its ninth season, this also seems a good way to begin tying things up with a neat little bow. Other than that, there’s not much to say, but mazel tov to the fictional newlyweds!
The Daily Show Got a Racist Official Fired
Don Yelton made the unfortunate mistake of being himself on camera this Wednesday, blithely admitting that North Carolina voter ID laws are there to make sure Democrats don’t win elections, not prevent voter fraud. Then there’s the racism, in which Yelton confesses he’s been called a bigot but argues that one of his best friends is black, apparently unaware that his line of reasoning is now a national punchline for feeble defenses of, you know, bigotry. Impressively, however, the Aasif Mandvi section actually got Yelton tossed from his position on the state Republican Party executive board. Not bad, considering the worst thing that happens to conservatives on The Daily Show is usually mild embarrassment.
Scandal Tackles Anthony Weiner
Pope and Associates’ latest client is a philandering senator whose very own Sidney Leathers ended up dead. Flavorwire editor-in-chief Judy Berman has the full rundown on the rest of this week’s goings-on in her recap, but it’s always fun to see shades of a real-life scandal in a TV show, and “Say Hello to My Little Friend” didn’t disappoint. Besides, the Scandal version of any given news story is going to be so much better than your average Law and Order ripped-from-the-headlines plot. Also: Lisa Kudrow!
Brooklyn Nine-Nine Gets the Halloween Episode Right
“Halloween” is otherwise a perfectly nice episode of a perfectly nice freshman sitcom. But Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s latest installment wins major points for pulling off a Halloween-themed episode largely devoid of gimmicks, working in a few Royal Baby/Hillary Clinton gags and a subplot about the relative merits of being a cop on All Hallows’ Eve without overwhelming the episode. As per usual, Andre Braugher’s deadpan performance stole the show, but it was nice to see Nine-Nine try its hand at the holiday-episode trope of sitcom humor and pull it off with aplomb.