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, the new Shondaland show starts off with a bang and a comedy legend gets a fitting tribute.
Conan Pays Tribute to Garry Shandling
More than most peers in comedy or even late night, Conan O’Brien and Garry Shandling had a special relationship; just read the wonderful opening anecdote of Amy Wallace’s equally wonderful GQ profile of Shandling from 2010. Both had bittersweet — though ultimately more bitter than sweet — experiences with The Tonight Show, and O’Brien’s eulogy of sorts for Shandling before last night’s show focused on how Shandling helped O’Brien through his in Hawaii. It’s worth a watch or three.
There’s a New Girl in Shondaland
And she’s played by Mireille Enos! The Catch isn’t the best the super-producer (and as with How to Get a Way with Murder, she is acting only as a producer here) has to offer, but it’s a fun, fast-paced, vaguely silly crime series with room for both a serialized arc — the heroine’s fiancé leaves her and takes her entire life savings — and episodic romps in the form of Enos’ character’s highfalutin private investigations firm. Keep your DVR schedule unchanged: as of this Thursday, your HTGAWM itch can be scratched in the exact same time slot.
Meet Mr. Abrams
Broad City daringly took a step into the great beyond that is “not New York City” this week. First stop: Abbi’s native Philadelphia, more specifically the Main Line community of Wayne. The girls are there to clear out her childhood bedroom, so they crash with none other than Tony Danza, this week’s special guest, in the role of Abbi’s dad. He’s exactly the kind of sweet suburban parent we’d expect, and full of endearing revelations like the fact that young Abbi used to play in the trash.
Liza (Almost) Comes Clean
The penultimate episode of Younger‘s second season ended on one of the most endearingly ridiculous cliffhangers in recent memory: Kelsey’s douche of a fiancé threatening to out Liza… then getting hit by a freak falling beam! In the ensuing fallout, Liza blames herself, quits Empirical — and gets convinced to come back before anyone can actually learn her secret. It’s a close call, but one that includes a sweet connection between Liza and Hillary Duff’s Kelsey. Until next year!
Full Dream Sequence
Guided by the “Dream Ghost” of her therapist, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend allows its heroine the most self-awareness yet. In a journey through her own past, Rachel Bloom learns a series of important lessons: that her mother is a better parent than she gives her credit for; that love can be a passion, not a romance; and that she has a more meaningful support network in West Covina than she ever had in New York. Combined with a great, Josh-related cliffhanger and some tentative progress with Greg, it’s the most plot-heavy episode of the show to date.