FTW vs. WTF: The TV Week in Review (Feb. 22–28)

As February transitions into March, there's a lot to look forward to. For one thing, March is a much better month than February. It's got more days, which obviously means it's sexier and more mature. It also contains the first day of spring, lays claim to St. Patrick's Day, and hosts that magical time of year we refer to as March Madness. However, before we can welcome March with open arms, we have to properly observe what happened on TV at the end of February, however inferior of a month it may be. So here's what we loved and hated about the small screen this week!

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't finished watching this week's new episodes (of Gotham, Parks and Recreation, Justified, etc.), we suggest that you hold off on reading this story until you do.

FTW:

For a couple minutes, "Everything Is Awesome" at the Oscars

Even if the overall telecast was poorly paced, way too long, and often a snooze, Tegan and Sara and The Lonely Island's performance of The Lego Movie's catchy tune was a definite highlight. Everything is awesome when you've got a dancing Awesome Possum, cowboys handing out Lego Oscars, and Will Arnett as Batman!

FTW:

Imitation is the sincerest form of irritation for Better Call Saul's Jimmy McGill

Instead of cowering to the corporate strength of his rival in "Hero," Jimmy met Howard Hamlin head-on by becoming Howard Hamlin, complete with an expensive, custom-tailored suit and whitened teeth. Jimmy's goal wasn't to get away with copying Howard's "brand"—he knew he was totally guilty—it was just to get under Howard's skin. But Jimmy knows how to make any situation work for him, and transformed a prank into a springboard for his business when he faked a dangerous rescue and ensured it was caught on camera.

FTW:

Fish Mooney's spite knows no limits on Gotham

Faced with two crappy options in "Red Hood"—lose her eyes to the organ trade and live out the rest of her days in the basement or die and lose the eyeballs anyway—Fish decided to create a third option... by melon-balling one of her peepers with a spoon and then stomping on it, thus ruining its value to the Dollmaker. While we're not sure how this helps improve Fish's situation, it doesn't change the fact that her glorious display of insanity/badassery was pretty much the most awesome thing she's done all season.

FTW:

Ding dong, Sleepy Hollow's witch is dead

Monday's Season 2 finale was a generally enjoyable hour of television that reaffirmed the bond between Ichabod and Abbie and got us excited about a series that frequently approached the WTF end of the spectrum during its second season. And now that Katrina's death, the show has the opportunity to regroup (assuming it gets renewed for Season 3, of course). However, if we have one quibble, it's that we wish the events of "Tempus Fugit" didn't feel so EASY. Sleepy Hollow basically just pressed the undo button, and it doesn't appear there will be any lingering consequences from Abbie's trip to 1781.

FTW:

Parks and Recreation goes out on a warm and fuzzy high note

Leslie Knope's seven-season journey came to a lovely end in "One Last Ride," a time-jumping series ender that played a lot like one of Leslie's own scrapbooks. The hour offered glimpses of what Pawnee's finest were up to in the future and showcased their biggest achievements and accomplishments over the years: Leslie eventually became the governor of Indiana (and possibly more), Ron took over the Pawnee National Park, Andy and April had kids, Garry was elected mayor of Pawnee (many, many times), Tom became a best-selling author, and Donna started a non-profit called Teach Yo'self. Oh, and Ben, bless his heart, became a congressman and never once gave up on calzones. The episode was light on the jokes but heavy on the happiness, and much like Leslie herself, a unique beacon of optimism and heart. We couldn't have asked for more.

FTW:

Agent Carter leaves us wanting more

Since its inception, ABC has billed Marvel's Agent Carter as a limited series, but we're not-so-subtly suggesting that the network ditch the one-time-only label and renew the spy series for Season 2. After all, if Tuesday's "Valediction" proved anything, it's that we've still only seen the beginning of Peggy Carter's story. Stark's inventions are all accounted for and Dr. Fennhoff is in custody, but Dottie is still out there somewhere—and since Peggy is no longer being held back by her love for Cap, she's in prime position to start a new chapter in her life, hopefully with all of the world watching. Plus: Who doesn't want more Enver Gjokaj in their lives, you know?

FTW:

Hindsight reveals what initially tore Becca and Lolly apart

It might be a little cliché that the wedge between BFFs Becca and Lolly was (will be?) a man, but Steve Talley's Kevin is so charming and likable that it's easy to see why both women fell for him (hell, we fell for him, too). So far, every time Becca has tried to alter her messy future, it's backfired—but will encouraging Lolly to drum up the courage to tell Kevin how she feels in 1995 finally break the cycle, preventing their friendship from imploding in 2003? God, we hope so. Someone should get the chance to be happy with this hunk.

FTW:

Barry Goldberg takes a day off

The Goldbergs paid homage to Ferris Bueller's Day Off with a cheeky episode that saw Barry skip school in an attempt to relive the legendary John Hughes film, and we were wholly impressed with the show's faithful scene recreations, even if they didn't always go Barry's way. It's obvious the movie meant a lot to series creator Adam Goldberg, which is how it should be because it's the best.

FTW:

Teen Titans Go! would like you to get over yourself

Much derided by fans of serious superhero fare, Teen Titans Go! decided to address the common criticism that it's too kid-friendly and silly by getting VERY SERIOUS. After a lecture from Young Justice's Aqualad (yes, that really happened), the Teen Titans grew taller and developed overly defined muscles and chins. They also embraced their inner angst: "I can use my cybernetics to see, but will I not lose my humanity?!" Even Aqualad was convinced they'd gone a bit too dark, but it was too late: the team broke up over trust issues—Cyborg drank Beast Boy's juice—and the world was left unprotected. Alas, that's what happens when you never have any fun.

FTW:

The memory of Star Trek legend Leonard Nimoy, who lived long and prospered

A great man and actor has been beamed up for the final time, and he shall certainly be missed.

FTW:

12 Monkeys brings the heartache

Beautifully tragic, Friday's "The Keys" was the impressive young series' most emotional episode yet. You don't know what you got 'til it's gone, and the look on Cassie's face as she said goodbye to Cole so he could be vaporized by an airstrike—something that she knew about but he didn't, because of time travel and all that—made it clear that she knew she was losing an important person in her life. Heartbreaking stuff.

FTW:

Banshee's blood feud reaches an impressive, deadly climax

Superhuman powerhouse Chayton has been marked for death since his heinous murder of Siobhan, but that didn't make his departure from this physical plane any less compelling. "All the Wisdom I Got Left" delivered another storytelling achievement with Hood and Chayton's multi-part final showdown, topped off with one of the most gruesome death scenes in recent TV history.

FTWTF:

Disney XD will reboot DuckTales in 2017

Woohoo? Disney is planning to take another go at DuckTales, presumably updating it for a new audience, and the cynic in some of us is admittedly concerned by the potential for a dubstep remix of the theme song, a movement to humanize the Beagle Boys, and Webbigail taking selfies while sporting "people face." However, we'll definitely be all-in if the company decides to model the new show after the live-action opening it created last year.

FTWTF:

Survivor: Worlds Apart features a silly gimmick, but a potentially awesome cast

The central twist of Season 30 pits three tribes against one another under the premise of "White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar," and the labels are troublesome as they sound. The categories themselves are a mess, but the 90-minute premiere's attempts to reframe the game around them was even more frustrating. The good news, though? The castaways of Worlds Apart could be one of the show's better groups of contestants in a long time, thanks to a nice collection of super-fans, goofballs, and hard-headed jerks.

FTWTF:

How to Get Away With Murder: Wait, didn't we already know that?

It turns out that if you'd stopped watching How to Get Away with Murder in October or November of last year, you'd still be pretty up-to-date on who killed Lila and whether the kids will get away with Sam's murder. In the end, as suspected, Sam was (mostly) behind the coed's death—he contracted Frank to do it for him, but he's still very responsible.

Thankfully, the finale opened up several new mysteries to drag out in Season 2: What did Frank owe Sam that killing a pregnant girl on Sam's behalf would make them even? Is Saul Goodman on the other end of that phone number Nick called? Um, Oliver is HIV Positive? And now there's another murder someone has to get away with? How long until the relationship between Bonnie and Asher devolves into the most hilarious break-up dumpster fire the world has ever seen? Is Eggs 911 some kind of brunch delivery service? Where is all this PCP coming from? We can't wait for Season 2! Well, we can, actually. But we definitely won't mind when Season 2 arrives.

FTWTF:

House of Cards is back—and doing House of Cards things

If you're into House of Cards, the early episodes of Season 3 were almost certainly a welcome sight. Now that they're sitting pretty in the White House, the Underwoods' struggles are a little less compelling than their efforts to get there, but a cavalcade of supporting characters continues to help flesh out the world.

WTF:

Monday Night Raw lays it on too thick regarding Roman Reigns

WWE's attempts to make the audience love its latest Chosen One by any means necessary took a few interesting turns this week. Sunday's Fast Lane match-up with Daniel Bryan proved that Reigns could handle the main event after all, but Monday's Raw featured two shockingly transparent promos from Bryan and Paul Heyman attempting to illustrate Reigns' greatness. WWE fans know that everything is predetermined, but the company is now throwing that in our faces far too often.

WTF:

Okay, Pretty Little Liars, we get it: Spencer's in London

While "Bloody Hell" itself was more action-packed than the set-up and filler hours we've been trudging through as of late, it was difficult to overlook how hard the writers were trying to sell us on Spencer having jumped across the pond. The episode opened a veritable firehose of U.K. tropes by unleashing Big Ben and roundabout establishing shots, a stiff-upper-lipped Oxford professor in a bowtie, and someone correcting Spencer on calling a flat an apartment. And then there were the Union Jacks; how lucky that Spencer arrived so close to Flag Day! The only thing missing was a chimney sweep Doctor Who fan standing in a phone box while eating fish and chips.

WTF:

Justified derails Choo-Choo

One of Harlan County's best new characters—the endearing, gargantuan Choo-Choo—was put down in Tuesday's "Alive Day," and right after we'd started getting to know the guy, too. A war vet who survived an IED explosion, Choo-Choo wasn't always the slow thug we've known him to be, and his unexpected sensitive side made his expiration that much tougher to take. And you know what makes it even worse? Now that Justified is in its final season, it's pretty much guaranteed that many more significant deaths still lie ahead.

WTF:

Nashville's Teddy is still the worst

The first rule of Banging a Prostitute Club is that you don't talk about banging a prostitute, Teddy! And you sure as hell don't show up to her house uninvited, insisting that you need to come up with a plan on the off chance that your dalliance will be leaked to the press. How are you the mayor? Not only are you dumber than a pile of rocks, but your storyline is even worse than Gunnar's at this point—and all he does is whine about the World's Second Most Annoying Child, Micah (No. 1 is obviously the kid who had his face pummeled on The Slap). Please just move far, far away from Nashville so we can focus on Juliette, or literally anything else.

WTF:

On Arrow, sex with Felicity apparently solves all problems

Look, we're Switzerland in the Oliver vs. Ray 'shipper battle for Felicity's affections, but we just can't let this one go: It's hilarious that just one night of doin' it with Felicity in "Nanda Parbat" was all it took for Ray's brain to unlock the secret to making his combat exosuit function correctly. He woke up from his post-coital slumber with such determination that it was comical (pun not intended). We know Felicity is special, but Ray's epiphany was a bit over-the-top.

WTF:

Crazy internet is crazy

First it was the televised llama chase that took the internet by storm. Then it was that damn dress convincing people there's something wrong with their eyes. Come on, guys. Don't we have better things to discuss? Which brings us to...

What's on YOUR list of TV loves and hates this week? The 100's same-sex kiss? The Americans' munchie-fueled Jiffy Pop fight? American Horror Story's casting of Lady Gaga and new "Hotel" theme? Vikings? Helix? Glee? Share your own FTWs and WTFs in the comments!