FTW vs. WTF: The TV Week in Review (February 8–14)

Ummm, well this is awkward. It's Valentine's Day weekend and we still haven't received a gift from you. It's okay, we guess. After all, we've only been seeing each other for [however long you've been reading TV.com], and relationships can be complicated these days. We'll be okay.

WE CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DIDN'T GET US ANYTHING FOR VALENTINE'S DAY! HOW COULD YOU BE SO INSENSITIVE!?!? We work so hard and put so much effort into making this thing between us work. We give you our all, and what do we get in return? A "Hey babe" and a kiss on the cheek after you come home late, smelling like Yahoo! TV or A.V. Club or one of those other TV floozies! How dare you not reciprocate our love?!

We're so sorry, darling, we overreacted! Please come back! PLEEEEASE! We can't live without you, you are our everything! We love you and we spent all week on this latest edition of FTW vs. WTF just for you, baby! So here's what we liked and didn't like about the last seven days in television...

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't finished watching this week's new episodes (of The Walking Dead, Shameless, The Vampire Diaries, etc.), we suggest that you hold off on reading this story until you're all caught up.

FTW:

Better Call Saul exceeds our expectations

Turns out we DID need a Breaking Bad spin-off after all. The new series chroncling the adventures of Jimmy McGill—which impressed us with a fantastic debutand got even better in Episode 2—features the same beautiful cinematography and dark humor as its parent show without feeling like its encroaching on hallowed territory. Also, anything that puts Bob Odenkirk in our living rooms on a regular basis is worth keeping around.

FTW:

The "Cathy C.K." Tumblr

Ack! Who would've guessed that Louis C.K. and Cathy would pair so well together? Certainly not us, but this funny collection of frames from the long-running comic strip captioned with C.K.'s stand-up has proved otherwise.

FTW:

Looking puts an end to Patrick's homewrecker status

As much as we want Patrick and Kevin to work out their issues and become a real couple, we also approve of the former finally growing a backbone and taking a stand. It's looooong past time for Kevin to choose between his long-term boyfriend and the man he clearly loves.

FTW:

Ian finally snaps on Shameless

Ian kidnapped Yevgeny and took off with him after Mickey told him he needed to get help. Don't mind us, we'll just be over here crying in the corner.

FTW:

The Bachelor took out the trash

Chris Soules cleaned house this week by ousting not just one, but TWO of the more poisonous members of his harem. And he did it on the same 2-on-1 date, dumping both Ashley I. and Kelsey before taking off in a helicopter by himself. The tear- and side-eye-filled ordeal was amazingly awkward... and deliciously diabolical.

FTW:

Justified engages in several pleasant conversations

The FX drama was was sizzling this week, as each scene delivered a bounty of delicious exchanges between old favorites and new threats. Not only were we treated to a wonderful stand-off between Raylan and new villain Avery Markham (the inimitable Sam Elliott), we also bore witness to 1) an entertaining reunion between old pals Raylan and Dickie Bennett (the also inimitable Jeremy Davies), with Tim tagging along for some bonus hilarity, and 2) Ava being lady-seduced by Katherine, who ultimately played the blackmail card after a wonderful lunch excursion full of cocaine and jewelry theft. Oh, and a dude blew up. "The Trash and the Snake" was Justified at its finest.

FTW:

April expresses her feelings and finds her calling on Parks and Recreation

April Ludgate-Dwyer is known for hating almost everything and everyone other than her husband Andy, so it's been rewarding to watch her realize she wants more out of life than a government gig. Her new job—which involves telling people what to do and then sending them away from her—is a perfect match for her personality, and the character development it represents has been a long time coming. Her acknowledgment of how much Leslie has meant to her over the years and her unplanned scavenger hunt with Ron were the icing (or perhaps wisdom teeth?) on the proverbial cake

FTW:

Supernatural's ghost in the machine

"Halt & Catch Fire" offed a lot of people in a lot of disturbing ways and it took us back to the old days of Supernatural—you know, the ones when killer blenders and hair dryers and hot tubs were a common occurrence. It's true that after 10 seasons, the series has moved beyond a lot of that stuff, but the episode was still a nice reprieve from the usual end-of-the-world material, allowing us to just watch the Winchesters banter their way through a regular old case of murderous electronics.

FTW:

The 100 somehow gets even darker

Not to knock the rest of The CW's lineup, because you know we love the C-Dub, but The 100 feels like its miles ahead of its network brothers and sisters. The show repeatedly asks Clarke to decide what kind of a leader she wants to be by pushing her to limits that would break even those with more experience, and this week's excellent "Rubicon" continued that trend as the Mountain Men threatened a missile attack with plenty of time for Clarke to warn everyone in Tondc. Would she keep quiet and let everyone in the village die in the name of keeping the the Mount Weather rescue mission alive? Or would she she alert the residents and evacuate, risking the entire operation and likely missing the opportunity to end the war between the Grounders and the Mountain Men? In the end, the missile hit its target, raising questions about Clarke's moral compass and opening up a larger discussion about the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few. While other shows bend over backward to stop this kind of event and ignore difficult discussions, The 100 confidently follows through with them and then asks WTF we're all going to do about it.

FTW:

Adam's display of manliness goes very wrong on The Goldbergs

Grounded and feeling threatened by post-pubescent high schoolers moving in on his lady, Adam decided to show Dana just how manly he could be by professing his feelings for her via the death-defying act of spray painting a message of love on a water tower. But then this (check the video) happened instead.

FTW:

NXT's Takeover: Rival gives us the first great wrestling show of 2015

[WRESTLING WRESTLING WRESTLING] Amid the seemingly neverending controversies that surround WWE's main product, the leader in sports entertainment continues to churn out great stories and programs with its 'farm system' show NXT. This week's Takeover: Rival special wasn't quite as superlative as the one that took Wrestling Twitter by storm at the end of 2014, but it featured three tremendous matches, wonderful storytelling, and real-deal drama. When we talk about the great shows found exclusively on streaming platforms, NXT's Takeover specials deserve to be part of the conversation. [WRESTLING WRESTLING WRESTLING]

FTW:

The Americans performs some DIY dentistry

How incredible was this scene? After last week's episode taught us a unique new way to pack a suitcase, this week's "Open House" blew our minds with this unbelievably intimate moment between Philip, Elizabeth, and a pair of pliers.

FTW:

Elementary finds a lovely way to bring Joan back to the Brownstone and reintroduces an old foe

The CBS procedrual has gotten a solid amount of mileage out of Joan and Sherlock not living together, but once Kitty made her exit, it was only a matter of time before Joan moved back. The push Joan needed was the realization that living a normal life, while nice, isn't going to protect her or the people she cares about from the dangerous folks she's put away. That truth came into stark relief once her boyfriend was accidentally killed in an assassination attempt concocted by a kingpin she locked up a while back, but the real zinger of it all was that Jamie Moriarty subsequently had the crimelord killed in a fit of overprotectiveness and revealed as much in a letter. As Natalie Dormer's voiceover explained, if Moriarty can't kill Joan and Sherlock right now, then no one else can, either.

WTF:

Grimm's Juliette and Adalind throw down

It could've been a gross cat fight with heaving bosoms and ample butt shots—and in fact, NBC promoted it as exactly that sort of thing while many of us cringed because we know Grimm can do better. And thankfully, the show did! Lamps were flying, banisters were smashed, and fight wasn't cute or exploitative by any means. Two powerful witches duked it out, plain and simple. It was nasty and personal and a little bit scary and totally awesome.

FTWTF:

Suits thinks we should let Mike do whatever he wants because he's an orphan (but at least the flashbacks were awesome

The show aired one of its beloved flashback episodes on Wednesday and took us waaaaay back to 2009, when Donna had bangs and Mike was a pathological liar. Only one of those things has changed since then—can you guess which one? However, even though the Mike angle made us shudder a little, seeing Daniel Hardman smarm it up again made all the awkward feelings worth it.

FTWTF:

Courtney Love joins Empire—and basically plays herself

Empire is a riot in its own right, but if the show is going to try to revive the careers of music-industry washouts like the former Hole frontwoman, then we're even more excited for the future. Love guest-starred as the troubled Elle Dallas, a once-bright star who'd lost her "voice," and while she didn't necessarily act all that well, she did help the series expand into a new corner of its universe. Can you imagine the countless musicians and pop stars Empire could bring on to riff on their own career mistakes? It'll be as glorious as Cookie's outfits. Speaking of which, this one was tops:

FTWTF:

While everyone is so darn mopey on Nashville, Jeff is SO ANGRY

One of the most weirdly successful elements of Nashville's third season has been the humanizing of record label head/reformed monster Jeff Fordham, played by Oliver Hudson. Jeff's friendship with the similarly hapless Teddy has produced some fun little side plots (escorts! Skinny dipping!), and Hudson has been better in the role than the show deserves. So of course, when Nashville needed the character to go full-on villain yet again, Hudson was ready to play ball. In Wednesday's particularly mopey episode, Jeff spent most of his screentime screaming and yelling at some random assistant about needing a new artist YESTERDAY, capping it all off with a hilariously dumb scene where he tossed CD cases around like a petulant teenager from 1999. Good for you, Oliver Hudson. You do you.

FTWTF:

How to Get Away With Murder is kind of a mess, but those last five minutes always deliver

When you build your show around a central mystery, it's not always easy to move forward after you "solve" that mystery. How to Get Away With Murder's first couple episodes of 2015 have been okay at best, but the soapy Shondaland drama still knows how to bring us back each week with wild last-minute sequences and cliffhangers. This week's big move—Annalise pinning Sam's murder on her sidepiece Nate to protect the students—was one of the better twists since early last fall, and Viola Davis sold it magnificently. She's absolutely earned the Golden Globe she recently won for her work on the show, as she's almost singlehandedly keeping it afloat.

FTWTF:

Jeremy's half-assed goodbye on The Vampire Diaries

All week long, The Vampire Diaries billed "Stay" as Jeremy's farewell hour, but when it came down to it, Steven R. McQueen's final episode was hardly about his character at all. His departure is probably for the best; the show has struggled to find a purpose for Jeremy since bringing him back from the dead, and we wish him success in his vampire hunting-adventure (yeah, that whole art school thing? It was a sham to fool Elena into thinking he'll be better off). Still, the dude's exit didn't deserve to be overshadowed by Sheriff Forbes' death and Stefan and Caroline's first kiss. "Stay" was a fine episode on the whole, but come on, give the guy his due.

WTF:

U.S. media loses two top-notch reporters in one week

It was a lousy week for American journalism thanks to the deaths of Bob Simon, a longtime contributor and foreign affairs reporter for 60 Minutes, and David Carr, a New York Times columnist who focused on the media industry; the former died in a car crash, and the latter collapsed in the Times' newsroom. Both men were immensely talented, and both men will be missed.

WTF:

The Walking Dead kills another character... but for what?

Tyreese never saw the zombie coming (stealth undead are always deployed at the most critical moments, it seems) and it bit him in the ass during Sunday's depressing, hallucinatory, and perplexing Season 5B premiere. Well, okay, it bit him in the arm, but you know what we mean. Yes, The Walking Dead takes place in a zombie apocalypse and rules don't always apply, but it's also a television show with characters we're supposed to be invested in, and Tyreese's demise felt like an admission that the writers didn't know what else to do with him. Just like Beth's did before him.

WTF:

Sleepy Hollow abandons all common sense

Ichabod Crane is a scholar and a former history professor, and yet he didn't take a single item from the fenestella in the puzzling "What Lies Beneath." That's right, the library held all the information that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington had collected about the Witnesses, but Ichabod—who had a satchel in which to carry things strapped across his back—destroyed the place without nabbing a single piece of intel. And we're sorry, but those reavers were not an excuse. They were easy to kill and Ike and Abbie could've defeated them all if they wanted to. Sloppy writing, Sleepy Hollow, and stupid story, too. Get your act together.

WTF:

Netflix "accidentally" and temporarily leaks House of Cards Season 3

Remember that hour on Wednesday when everyone on the internet lost their minds about the political drama becoming available two weeks early? Right. Remember how that's longer than we've been collectively excited about the show since its series premiere? Right. And you're telling us this wasn't planned? Okay, sure, Netflix.

WTF:

Stalker embarks on its most ridiculous (although still creepy) case yet

Yes, we're still watching Stalker (well, one of us is, anyway), and while the show hasn't set any women on fire lately, it's still pretty much the same series it was in its pilot (points for consistency?). This week, a lady was stalked by a large group of people who wanted her to get back together with a guy she knew years ago. It turned out he was the leader of a cult and had sicced his followers on the woman, but here's the kicker: He'd started the cult on the off chance that she ever visited Los Angeles, so he could use the power of his brainwashed mob to posses her. Go home, Stalker, you're drunk and doing bizarre covers of Doris Day songs.

What's on YOUR list of TV loves and hates this week? The Grammys? The Originals' possibly magic baby? Jon Stewart's announcement that he's leaving The Daily Show? SVU's take on Gamergate? Scandal's Olivia auction? The Slap's debut on NBC? Constantine's season (and probably series) finale? Share your own FTWs and WTFs in the comments!