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 round, Nathan for You has to live up to the hype, while Masters of Sex hits a creative high.
Dumb Starbucks Gets Meta
Unlike most Nathan for You stunts, viewers were well aware of how “Dumb Starbucks” would play out: they’d already seen it attract a national media frenzy, months before. So it was up to the show to make up for giving its punchline away. Luckily, the final product included extra parody art (“Jamba Jews!”) and a storyline about “Nathan Fielder” reacting to all the newfound attention. The result, as TV editor Pilot Viruet wrote earlier this week, is near-perfect.
Sharknado 2: Electric Boogaloo
More sharks! More tornadoes! More tweeting! And most importantly, Tara Reid!
Ann Dowd Speaks!
A significant chunk of The Leftovers’ creep factor comes from the Guilty Remnant, the cult whose trademarks include chain smoking, wearing all white, and never, ever speaking. Except in “Gladys,” a member’s horrific murder prompts cult leader Patty (Ann Dowd of True Detective and Compliance fame) to take Amy Brenneman’s Laurie out for a chatty gal’s brunch. The show uses the sit-down as an opportunity to tell viewers more about what the GR actually believe, a difficult task to accomplish in silence. But the scene’s also a chance for Dowd to show off her capital-A Acting Chops with a tearful monologue.
Masters of Sex Pulls a “Suitcase”
Two coworkers spend a few more hours in close quarters than they’re used to, get emotionally vulnerable, and have a breakthrough in their relationship. It worked for Mad Men with Season 4’s phenomenal “The Suitcase,” and it’s the formula for the episode many are calling Masters of Sex‘s best to date. Except unlike Don and Peggy, Virginia and Bill have very intense hotel room sex.
The Daily Show Explains Clickbait
My favorite subspecies of Daily Show guest is the one who clearly falls into the show’s target demo, knows what’s going on, and gamely follows along as their interviewer skewers them. Neetzan Zimmerman, the man once responsible for Gawker’s most shamelessly traffic-boosting #content, spoke with correspondent Jordan Klepper about the general uselessness of any article that doesn’t bring in the clicks, including the noble student journalism done at the University of Michigan. You’ll cry, but you’ll also laugh? Maybe?