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: a not-so-surprising surprise, another stellar episode of The Americans, and Larry Wilmore’s kick-ass White House Correspondent’s Dinner speech.
Larry Wilmore slays
Obama’s mic drop was an instant gif, but Larry Wilmore stole the night with a bold, no-holds-barred roast that ripped into Joe Biden, CNN, Brian Williams, Bill Clinton, Don Lemon, Bill Cosby, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, and more. The reporters in the room did not take kindly to his digs, and the consensus in the room seemed to be that he bombed. But on Twitter and in the days after the dinner, Wilmore emerged as a fierce, uncompromising comic who said exactly what he came to say.
He’s aliiiiive!
Alright, so it wasn’t exactly a huge shock — fans had been predicting that Jon Snow wasn’t really dead since his brothers in the Night’s Watch took turns stabbing his guts in the Season 5 finale. When Melisandre appeared at the Wall, it seemed inevitable that she’d work her strange magic on Jon, and that’s exactly what happened in this week’s Game of Thrones . Now that’s out of the way, we can concentrate on what exactly Jon Snow is now that he’s been resurrected. Will he still be the show’s moral centre, or will he become something darker and cloudier? (We’ve all seen Practical Magic , haven’t we? Haven’t we?!)
The Americans gets a hole in one
If it seems like I include The Americans on this list practically every week, well, psyeah — it’s the best show on the air right now. This week’s episode, directed by co-star Matthew Rhys, was particularly stunning, opening with a near-wordless sequence that perfectly captured the mood of dread and disintegration that the show has been building over its four seasons. We also said good-bye to Alison Wright (presumably) as Martha takes off for the Soviet Union, never to return to America. I don’t know how things could possibly get worse, but I know they will. Tune in Wednesdays at 10 on FX!
(ABC/Richard Cartwright)
Scandal tosses out its Trump
Along with Veep, Scandal is required election-season viewing, and this season has been particularly sharp as it follows the contours of real-world politics. We’ve been treated to the wonderful sight of first ladies swigging moonshine in a mammoth walk-in closet, and on this week’s episode, “Trump Card,” we get to see Olivia take down the show’s Trump stand-in, Hollis Doyle (Gregg Henry, a.k.a. Mitchum Huntzberger). Hollis admits to Olivia that his hateful rhetoric is a blatant grab for votes: “When I get to the general, all them mouth-breathing morons who couldn’t read a newspaper column if their lives depended on it” will assume they’ve heard the real Hollis already, and won’t mind that he no longer spews racist and sexist garbage every time he opens his mouth. But Olivia secretly records the conversation, handing over the tape to Sally Langston, who plays them on her show. Bye, bye Hollis. Now, who will be our Olivia Pope?!
Grace and Frankie returns
Set aside a couple hours this weekend to watch the second season of the Netflix original Grace and Frankie, starring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda as buddies whose idyllic retirement is upset when their husbands abruptly leave them — for each other. In the new season, available on Netflix as of today, the late-life roomies explore the over-60 dating scene, with appearances by Sam Elliott and Ernie Hudson.