Yikes, has it only been seven days since we last FTW-vs.WTF'd? Because holy moly, this week has been a long one. TGMIAH (Thank God Monday Is a Holiday), right? Anyway, here's what we thought was as winning as a game of Feely Cup and as sad as Lady Edith's not-a-wedding on TV this week.
Archer's Burgers
Not only is FX's hyperhilarious Archer back in our lives at long last, but Season 4 kicked off with one of the greatest cold opens in the history of the show. With H. Jon Benjamin supplying the voice of both Sterling Archer and Bob's Burgers patriarch Bob Belcher, it was only a matter of time before the two animated universes crossed over; positing "Bob" as an alternate identity constructed by an amnesiac Sterling—bantering with wife Linda after wiping the floor with a team of KGB assassins—was as odd and ingenious as the high standards of both shows deserved.
Suits is Baaaaack!
Donna is sassy. Harvey's hair is immaculate. Mike has the munchies. Louis is pure smarm and Jessica is the boss. All is right with the world.
Amy Jellicoe, freedom fighter
HBO's Enlightened returned for Season 2 a changed series—it's gone from character study to serialized dramedy—but it hasn't lost the weirdness that makes it one of television's underwatched gems.
Supernatural's Winchester revival
After half-a-season of deep (deeper than usual) tension between Sam and Dean, this week's episode of Supernaturalsuggested that the brothers are ready to put a lot of their baggage behind them. We've seen this story on the show before (like, 83 times), but new showrunner Jeremy Carver and his team really dedicated themselves to actually showing us why Sam and Dean aren't necessarily compatible anymore instead of just having them lie to each other to create drama. By the time Sam let go of Amelia and Dean said goodbye to Benny and both brothers begrudgingly chose one another, it felt like they'd been through real pain.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler rock the Golden Globes
Remember when people were like, "Billy Crystal should host EVERYTHING!" and then people were like "Ricky Gervais should host EVERYTHING!" and then everyone got over both of those things sort of quickly? Well, this time, we think it'll stick when we say that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler should host EVERYTHING after their kick-ass work at the Golden Globes. They were funny without being too mean (except to James Cameron, but oh well!), their Dog President TV movie sounds AMAZING, and then they got "drunk" after Lena Dunham thanked them for helping her get through middle school when she beat them in the Best Actress in a Comedy race. Why no one thought to ask these two BFFs to host anything before this is beyond us.
TVD goes Breakfast Club
The Vampire Diaries' main thread is even more convoluted than ever, but the show keeps managing to create moments full of palpable, raw emotion between the main characters. While the success of the love triangle is up for debate, it's tough to deny the efficacy of Elena's admission that she loves Damon, both to Damon and to the now completely destroyed Stefan.
Fringe's fan-friendly farewell
Kudos to Fox for keeping the ratings-challenged sci-fi series alive and for giving it a chance to go out on its own terms, and kudos to the show itself for not trying to do too much in its series finale. "Liberty" and "An Enemy of Fate" rightly focused on the themes of family and the question of free will vs. fate, with plenty of treats for long-time viewers who stayed with the show from beginning to end. Our Fridays will never be the same.
The totally lame ratings for The Carrie Diaries
Despite its problematic heritage, The CW's The Carrie Diarieshappens to be one of the season's better pilots. And though The CW did its best to promote the crap out of the new series, the premiere ratings were... not good. 1.6 million viewers and not even a 1.0 in the 18-49 demo is unfortunately part and parcel for The C-Dub at this point, but this show was meant to be part of a new beginning on Monday nights. Whoops.
R.I.P., The Wire's Prop Joe
Prop Joe was one of our favorite characters on The Wire, and actor Robert F. Chew will be missed.
Troy Barnes bumping uglies with Lena Dunham
See if you can guess who wrote this one: "As a Community fan, I did not need to see Donald Glover having sex with Girls' Hannah."
Kristen packs her knives on Top Chef
It's amazingly refreshing to watch anyone on a reality competition show, especially Top Chef, assume responsibility for the failings of a team challenge the way Kristen did this week during the latest installment of the almost-always-brutal Restaurant Wars. It showed the high degree of professionalism that Kristen expected of herself as an executive chef of her concept restaurant, BUT C'MON! Josie has been delivering dish after lousy dish to the judges for weeks now, and save for Padma, they were just looking for Kristen to just give them a reason to send Josie home. Yes, it's a competition, and Kristen didn't play the game the way she should have, but there's something incredibly noble about admitting your mistakes, and the judges should've done the right thing.
Being Human's Vampire Flu
They could have called it anything. "Vampire Plague" has a nice ring to it. But they went with "Vampire Flu" and that's just silly.
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