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, Jerrod Carmichael and Patrick Stewart premiere radically different comedies, while AMC angles for world domination with its latest series.
Jerrod Carmichael Brings Back the Multicam
Yesterday, TV editor Pilot Viruet wrote in praise of The Carmichael Show‘s episode addressing Black Lives Matter and police brutality in its second episode and first night on television. Thanks to just this kind of Norman Lear-esque humor, the short-run sitcom from stand-up Jerrod Carmichael (check out his Spike Lee-directed special, Love at the Store, on HBO) has potential to be the return of the multi-cam, live-taped comedy to the zeitgeist that Mulaney tried to be. Running for three-weeks on NBC, the show follows Carmichael, his on-screen family, and his girlfriend — an orthodox set-up that’s already giving rise to unorthodox humor.
Fear The Walking Dead‘s Spinoff
AMC unleashed its guaranteed summer hit on the world this week, and the ratings didn’t disappoint — in fact, it set an all-time record for the launch of a cable series. Luckily, the show about a Los Angeles-era family at the onset of an apocalyptic zombie plague also happens to be pretty good! Buckle in for at least five more seasons, plus a much-deserved starring turn from Deadwood and House of Cards alumna Kim Dickens.
Rick and Morty Goes Interplanetary Idol
Yes, this is another shameless Rick and Morty plug, and no, we will not apologize for it. This week’s musical moment had big shoes to fill following Jemaine Clement’s appearance as Fart the Sentient Cloud (don’t ask), but when Rick has to come up with an epically catchy single so an alien race of giant heads won’t destroy the planet, Rick steps up to the plate. Hence “Get Schwifty,” Rick and Morty’s entry into an interplanetary musical competition where all the losers get zapped. You’ll be singing its filthy, filthy chorus all day.
Patrick Stewart Goes Full Antihero
Yeah, that Patrick Stewart. Critical punching bag Seth MacFarlane and critical darling Jonathan Ames teamed up for this Starz comedy about a British talking head attempting to lecture the American public. The resulting show has had the so-so reception you’d expect from that particular partnership, but it’s worth watching for Stewart, who’s mastered the nonstop PR campaign that is the Internet like no other celebrity over 50 — except maybe his bromantic better half, Ian McKellen.
Another Time, Another Period
Natasha Leggero and Riki Lindhome’s part-Kardashian, part-Downton comedy wrapped up its freshman season this week in appropriately showy fashion. Pool catfights! Stair-throwings! Journalist murders! Another Period left plenty to explore in its second season, which Comedy Central has already guaranteed — though unfortunately (spoiler alert!), it looks like Christina Hendricks’ Chair/Celine won’t be around next time.