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, Stephen Colbert sits down with his audience and Ann Coulter pops up in unlikely places.
Colbert Upgrades the Desk Lunch
Stephen Colbert’s iteration of The Late Show won’t actually launch until September 8th, but given that most late-night television these days is consumed in bite-sized chunks via YouTube the next day, there shouldn’t be too much of a difference between whatever’s coming this fall and the delightful mini-web series Colbert and his writers served up this week. Titled Lunch with Stephen, it features the host “getting to know” his audience over a simulated brown-bag lunch. Watch the Monday version, featuring “small-sounding” foods like Little Caesar’s and baby-back ribs, above.
Key vs. Peele vs. Overwhelmingly White Extracurricular Activities
We are, it seems, in the golden age of improv comedy parodies: Broad City kicked it off with Statutory Crepe, BoJack Horseman ran with it and used improv to mock Scientology, and now Key & Peele has given us enough material for a trend piece, or at least a blurb. “A Cappella” begins with a singing group, fronted by Bo Burnham, that becomes the subject of a turf war between the series’ two leads (“This is my seven white boys!”), moves into an improv spoof, and ends with a button that’s too perfect to spoil. Watch the clip above.
Hannibal Goes from Predator to Prey
Whether the FBI — specifically, Jack Crawford — would ever catch up to Hannibal‘s title character was never actually in doubt. But as Hannibal enters what may be its final stretch, showrunner Bryan Fuller’s antihero has given up his freedom on his own accord, a sadistic gesture meant to keep himself in Will Graham’s life whether Will wants him around or not. Hannibal’s surrender is the satisfying payoff to two and a half seasons of buildup, putting one serial killer in captivity before the Red Dragon is introduced next week.
The President Pays His Respects
Thanks to Wyatt Cenac’s recent interview with Marc Maron, Jon Stewart’s exit from The Daily Show may not turn out to be the unambiguous celebration of the host’s legacy it’s been so far. But Stewart’s last month has been full of big-name guests, including an appearance last night from Ta-Nehisi Coates… and Barack Obama’s final TDS appearance during the Stewart reign, and possibly his presidency. The interview took up almost the entirety of Tuesday’s episode; watch part 1 of 3 above.
Ann Coulter Showed Up in Sharknado 3
Along with a bunch of other random “celebrities.” She plays the Vice President of the United States, who at one point surfs down a staircase filled with sharks atop the official George Washington presidential portrait. IRL Coulter also contends that Syfy’s gloriously campy disaster flick is actually pro-life. To paraphrase this installment’s subtitle: oh, hell no.