FTW vs. WTF: The TV Week in Review (Nov. 16–22)

Thanksgiving can be the worst! We're about to embark on one of the most stressful, fattening weeks of our lives, which means it's important to have a master plan to ensure that we make it to December. There's nothing you can do to keep your drunk uncle from massaging your shoulders, your slacker brother from hiding away in your old bedroom to do some bong-smoking, or your sister's kids from singing Frozen songs all day. However, you can carve out some time to spend with the only person you can truly be yourself around: the television! Use frequent bathroom breaks to catch up on How to Get Away With Murder, offer to retrieve more beer from the garage so you can sneak in an episode of Sons of Anarchy, and create a life-size replica of yourself to sit at the dinner table while you marathon Luther in the basement. Whatever you do, just promise us you'll avoid your family as much as possible and be thankful for your TV.

Also, 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 Homeland, AHS: Freak Show, Nashville, Parenthood, etc.), we suggest that you hold off on reading this story until you do.

FTW:

Carrie makes a big call as Homeland rebounds with a great episode

Homeland continues to zig when we think it's going to zag, and never has that been more true in Season 4 than in Sunday's excellent episode. The show followed its dumb BRODY RETURNS (but not really) incident with a very strong effort that smartly refocused on the growing tension between the CIA and ISI. Most impressively, it managed to make Saul's kidnapping feel significant not just to the plot, but to Carrie as a person. Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin were tremendous. Homeland is back! Well, at least for a week.

FTW:

Carol! Carol! Carol!

The former battered housewife continued to prove that she's The Walking Dead's most fascinating character as she and Daryl embarked on a solo adventure into the over-zombied ruins of Atlanta in another great, character-focused episode. The Walking Dead's been criticized in the past for doing too much talkin', but listening to Carol and Daryl critique art is mesmerizing. Why? Because we finally know these people. The series has really found its way under the leadership of Scott Gimple, and the first half of Season 5—if it manages to not flop in its final two episodes—will be its best sustained run.

FTW:

Jane the Virgin chooses #TeamRafael

Sorry, Michael. We liked you, we really did. Your attempt to fix things with Jane by trying to stage a romantic moment on a yacht—with snow—in order to mimic a scene from a telenovela was very charming and swoonworthy. Unfortunately, Jane wasn't able to get past your lies. Plus, she saw what Rafael's been hiding underneath all those tight, fancy dress shirts. And it looks like this:

FTW:

Marry Me's combo of vocabulary and Cypress Hill

Happy Endings' knack for verbal Kung Fu has carried over to its spiritual successor, and if we ever encounter an underground, illegal cheese-snacking gathering, you're damn right we'll be calling it a "speakcheesy." Plus, Tuesday's Thanksgiving-themed episode used Cypress Hill TWICE, and in the best and weirdest way possible. That's two good episodes in a row for Marry Me, keep it up!

FTW:

Sons of Anarchy gets all touchy-feely, fantastic

The truth about Tara's murder has been haunting Sons of Anarchy's final season like a ghost with unfinished business, but it finally found some closure when Juice told Jax what'd really happened. It was a watershed moment for the season and the series, and the quiet, methodical "Suits of Woe" handled the development spectacularly, making it one of Sons of Anarchy's best episodes ever.

FTW:

High drama takes over the CMAs on Nashville

Nashville should do more award-show episodes, or at least come up with more reasons for the majority of the cast to be in the same place at the same time. Wednesday's star-studded hour sent nearly everyone to the CMAs, and gave them all something important to do. Rayna and Luke's long-simmering tension over their competing-yet-linked careers hit a breaking point as the former swept every category, while Avery and Juliette reconnected after standing up to his douche of a dad (who was somehow invited to the biggest award show in country music?). Layla continued to be a punchline, and Gunnar won a big award but nearly lost his son in the building. The best part, though? Deacon and Scarlett's night on the couch, which morphed from disinterest to real investment to the kind of extended malaise we all feel watching these three-to-four-hour telecasts. Nashville is a silly mess, but "You're Lookin' at Country" was silly and messy in the best of ways.

FTW:

Randy Marsh performs cock-magic on South Park

The main story of "Cock Magic" was pretty lame—roosters were trained to play Magick the Gathering underneath Chinese restaurants instead of pecking each other to death in good old-fashioned cockfights. But the episode earned its keep thanks to Stan's dad, who performed feats of physical mysticism with his penis, including a bit where he "cut off" his wiener in front of youngsters at a kid's birthday party.

FTW:

Everybody shows up ready to slay in Scandal's fall finale

Scandal's last episode of 2014 was one of its best in recent memory, powered by a slew of strong performances. Jeff Perry and Tony Goldwyn made Cyrus's "resignation" seem like the massive deal it deserved to be, Joe Morton and Khandi Alexander took turns eviscerating all the scenery around them, and Kerry Washington pulled it all together with a wonderful performance that illustrated her great range.

FTW:

Parenthood: It hurts so good

Jason Katims has been ruining our lives on a fairly regular basis since Friday Night Lights debuted in 2006 (possibly earlier, depending on how you feel about Roswell), and his tradition of making us cry tears of happiness alongside tears of gut-wrenching pain continued in Parenthood's fall finale. Just seconds after Joel and Julia finally—FINALLY—kissed and made up, the show cut to Zeek possibly suffering a heart attack in bed as he tried to wake Camille to call 911. And this was after they'd decided to go to France on a romantic getaway. HEART. SMASHED. DAMN YOU, KATIMS.

FTWTF:

How to Get Away With Murder finally reveals #WhoKilledSam

After two months of hashtag hysteria, Shondaland's newest drama unveiled (a few of) the events of that fateful bonfire night—and the results weren't terribly shocking. Also, watching the fall finale recycle so many of the moments we've already seen, countless times, was a little boring. But hey, that last scene, right? Late January can't come soon enough.

FTWTF:

NBC hands over Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt to Netflix before it even debuts

Here's another sign of the quickly shifting dynamics within the television industry: After ordering the Tina Fey-produced, Ellie Kemper-starring Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt to series and shooting 13 episodes, NBC decided, "Nah." So instead of simply canceling the show prior to its premiere, the network and its production house Universal TV pawned Unbreakable off on Netflix, which then ordered a second season right up front. We're not sure if this awesome, insane, unbelievably dumb, or a combo of all three. Television in 2014!

FTWTF:

A nutty blindside caps off a weird, thrilling episode of Survivor

Pro: Wednesday's episode of Survivor featured a sizable blindside as alpha male Jeremy watched his own alliance turn on him—without the aid of the other alliance—due to the simmering threat he posed to the group's new glory boy, Jon. Con: The episode was edited in such a way that it focused primarily on two other probable island evictees, Reed and Keith, setting up a massive, but ultimately confusing swerve.

FTWTF:

AMC schedules Better Call Saul... for Mondays?

Hey, we're thrilled not to have yet another Sunday-night show clogging up the DVR queue, but this is an odd choice from AMC. Maybe Saul's rates are a little cheaper during the week?

WTF:

All the horrible Bill Cosby news

Bill Cosby, man. Bill Cosby. And it's even worse that the accusations aren't new.

WTF:

The Bachelor's creepy and corny Field of Dreams promo

RUN FARMER CHRIS, RUN! (This is pretty good, actually.)

WTF:

Legend of Korra did a clip show episode (but only because Nickelodeon forced it to)

Clip show episodes are one of the banes of TV. A regular staple of the medium for decades as a cost-saving measure, they've largely fallen by the wayside on live-action television (if you watch anime, they're still around, and still annoying). So it was an unpleasant surprise to find that Legend of Korra put out a clip show for its eighth episode. It had some funny bits, but at its core, it was still a clip show, and not even one that felt particularly necessary... until one of the show's creators revealed that it was essentially Nickelodeon's doing. The network cut Korra's Book 4 budget to the point where the show either had to fire people or do a clip show, so even though we were steamed to see such an episode just as the season was about kick into high gear, in the grand scheme of things, we're glad people didn't get pink-slipped due to Nickelodeon's continued shoddy treatment of the show.

WTF:

ABC ditches burn-off episodes of Selfie for Shark Tank reruns

Even though we knew that one of the season's best new comedies was already doomed, it still hurt us in the gut when we tuned in during the show's regular Tuesday timeslot and found wannabe inventors hawking their wares to rich dudes.

WTF:

Finn's personality transplant on The 100

Finn's never been The 100's most interesting character, but we've always been able to count on him as the voice of reason in any given situation. Over the course of only a few episodes, he's done a complete 180, and on Wednesday he ended up killing several members of Lincoln's tribe without a moment's hesitation in "Human Trials." He sure wasn't the same guy who sat next to Raven's bedside while she underwent surgery. It's almost as if The 100's writers realized how boring Finn was and tried to make him more interesting, but then overcorrected. If they wanted to explore possible mental illness for Finn as a result of living in such a dangerous environment, a slower descent into madness would've been the way to go. Instead, this latest development just feels like character assassination and/or an easy way to ensure that all the goodwill the Hundred had built up with the Grounders would be destroyed. For a show that's doing everything else right, this felt like a horrible misstep.

WTF:

AHS: Freak Show slows to a crawl, kills someone small

The fourth season of Ryan Murphy's horror series has been uneven to say the least, and Wednesday's episode was no exception. While peppered with a few great moments (you go, Amazon Eve!) and at times emotionally heavy in a very important way, it was still largely boring. And then Dell went and killed Ma Petite! Rest in peace, you tiny little butterfly.

What's on YOUR list of TV loves and hates this week? Katherine Heigl's return to television/State of Affairs' series debut? The League's burn-down-the-house Season 6 finale? Arrow's Felicity–Ray–Oliver situation? The Season 4 finale of Hell on Wheels? Share your own FTWs and WTFs in the comments!