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, Jon Stewart and Bill O’Reilly heal the liberal-conservative rift, and also racism. Just kidding!
Half of Brangelina Breakdances
One of the more memorable descriptions of Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night I’ve seen floating around the Internet is “Celebrity Double Dog Dare.” The host’s “Breakdance Conversation” with Brad Pitt definitely falls into this category, with the Fury star sporting a mustache and gamely showing off his moves (or more accurately, his stunt double’s moves) in the sketch above. Gimmicky as it may be, the sketch is also adorable as all get-out, and a step above the standard at-the-desk interview.
First Family Sex Tape
After a slow start to its fourth season, Scandal gets to the most scandalous Washington happening of all: a sex tape! From the President’s teenage daughter! The dirtiest sex tape that Olivia Pope, battle-hardened fixer, has ever seen! Olivia handles it, of course, but not before Fitz says what the audience has been thinking for years and admits he’s a failure as a parent. And a president. And a man. Also, there’s some great stuff between Mellie and her daughter on mourning and numbing the pain. Satisfying episode of melodrama all around.
Bill O’Reilly Is Ignorant of White Privilege; Also, Water Is Wet
The Fox News host gets points for even showing up to his arch-nemesis’ fake news show, but that’s about all he gets points for in this smackdown re: white privilege. Jon Stewart insists it exists, Bill O’Reilly insists it doesn’t, and thus begins eight minutes of debate in which O’Reilly admits to not knowing when his hometown was desegregated and insists that affordable mortgages for GIs don’t count as a subsidy. Unfortunately, Jon Stewart didn’t allow O’Reilly to offer his explanation for disproportionate incarceration of African-American drug users — that piece of doublethink would’ve been priceless.
Top Chef Shakes It Up
We’re in the 12th season of the reality show that’s both the metaphorical and literal comfort food of its genre, so Top Chef decided to do something snazzy for its season premiere: SUDDEN DEATH QUICKFIRE CHALLENGE! Periodically throughout the season, the typically low-stakes “Quickfire” will render its losers eligible for elimination, including the poor schmuck who got sent home this week. Also, this is all happening in Boston, that foremost of gourmet destinations. Gasp!
Boardwalk Empire‘s Plague of the Michaels
Almost three seasons after Michael Pitt left the show when Jimmy Darmody became Nucky’s first murder victim, Michael Shannon and Michael K. Williams went out in a single episode, leaving HBO’s flagship period drama tragically devoid of actors named Michael, and also two of its best characters. Chalky White and Nelson Van Alden couldn’t have been more different, but their deaths had a fascinating thematic unity to them; Chalky sacrificed his revenge to save his daughter, while Nelson decided to die for the Bureau of Internal Revenue, or at least pretend like he was. Two episodes out from the grand finale, this week was a powerful goodbye to some of the show’s most memorable characters.