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 week, The Americans come clean, Cougar Town says goodbye, and The Rock sings T. Swift.
The Rock Inaugurates Lip Sync Battle With Taylor Swift
Expectations were low for Spike’s Lip Sync Battle, a show based on on a popular segment on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show, but thankfully Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a bag of charisma, and so successfully carried the show with his performance of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.” Johnson’s competitor was Fallon himself, but even his lip syncing choir couldn’t match the fierce energy of the People’s Champ.
Rihanna Crashes Jimmy Kimmel’s Dreams April Fools’ day is kind of the worst thing, but thankfully we have people like Rihanna who are willing to televise their cruelty for our own enjoyment. Jimmy Kimmel, often the prankster himself, found himself on the receiving end of this one, in which Rihanna and a crew of backup dancers (kind of) performed “Bitch Better Have My Money” in his bedroom. While he was asleep.
Jake Doesn’t Want to Kill Dave — He Wants to Save Him!
It’s usually pretty typical that Scandal will land itself here each week, but this last episode was a doozy. Its four-plot structure was pretty good, but the “Oh my — what?” moment came when we discovered that the killer of a bunch of ex-B613 agents wasn’t Jake, but David’s assistant — who had planned to kill David, too. Only, Jake was there to save him. Double whoa.
Cougar Town Is No More
Pour out a bottle of Malbec, everyone: Courteney Cox, Busy Phillips, and all the other people who drank a lot of wine on Cougar Town are gone forever, for better or worse. This was the show that would never die: it moved to TBS after having been canceled on ABC. It inspired a lot of stuff, such as full-bottle wine glasses and one of the best episodes of Community ever, and it ended with a birthday party, lots of wine, and one last dig at the fact that the creators never succeeded in having the name changed to Sunshine State.]
The Americans’ Paige Can Handle The Truth!
FX’s The Americans has always worked, mostly, because of the tension of its secrets, both between Elizabeth and Philip, and between Elizabeth, Philip, and everyone else — including their daughter, Paige. This week, Paige finally asked their parents exactly what the hell was going on, and, surprisingly, they told her. Whatever this means for the show going forward, who knows, but it’s a nice that the writers broke and finally let Paige in on her parents’ secret. If I were Pastor Tim, though, I’d be sleeping with one eye open.