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September is almost over (WTF!) and October is soon to follow (FTW!)—see what we did there? There are two sides to every equation, and if we twist that expression enough we can conclude that there are two sides to every week of television, too: The good and the... less good. As always, we're here to talk about both. Join us!

The opening scene of Louie's Season 3 finale actually had us gasping for breath we were laughing so hard. For a comedy that usually makes us think instead of splitting our sides, it was a welcome, hilarious surprise. (Not that the episode didn't also make us think... dang that episode was GOOD.)

Stanley gets your lunch!

NBC comedies doin' (some) things right this week! Only in Pawnee is a "child-size" soda 512 ounces, or "roughly the size of a two-year-old child, if the child were liquefied."

Though we could count on one hand how many lines she had, Parker Posey's literally brain-damaged shot girl character provided a hilarious cautionary tale for Zooey Deschanel's newly unemployed Jess. Is Posey on a TV winning streak lately or what?

We don't know where this deadpan British bombshell came from (aside from Britain, obvs), but she's the best thing about Fox's already pretty-darn-good new sitcom. BJ's definitely the Schmidt of Ben and Kate.

No particular reason, why do you ask?

The best of several awesome moments in this interview with Gilligan occurs at the 2:15 mark, when Colbert challenges him to a meth-off.

The final season of Fox's sci-fi drama brought with it another Emmy-worthy performance by the overlooked actor, as we're witnessing a simultaneously more complex and simple Walter Bishop. And that moment at the end of the season premiere, with Walter sitting in a abandoned taxi cab listening to Yazoo's "Only You," was a thing of beauty.

How bored are we of "Last Season on [show title]" clips when a new season starts? CBS's Person of Interest (which is seriously great) let one of its characters, the omniscient Machine, quickly recap the complexities through its cloud-mind with screens from Season 1 coming alive and whooshing around the screen. It brilliantly captured the essence of the show—you are being watched, all the time—and used it to spice up one of the most mundane chores of television.

When given a choice between Blake Shelton and Christina Aguilera to be her mentor during the live competition rounds, Griffin didn't take the decision lightly and blatantly asked Blake and Christina what they would do to help her as a mentor. We're so used to watching contestants squeal in starstruck joy that it was absolutely delightful to see one of them think rationally and, as a bonus, make the judges squirm.

We get that it's Jeff Probst's job to rustle up some drama during each episode's Tribal Council, but this week he went too far when he clapped and shouted at a 20-year-old girl whose answers he deemed too frivolous. There's a fine line between being probing and behaving like a misogynist dick, and Probst definitely stepped over it.

We know, we know, who cares about the Emmys? But still, we like to think we live in a world of justice and righteousness, and a Modern Family sweep is neither just nor right. It's a decent show to watch with your family but that does NOT mean it's the best.

WHAT YEAR IS THIS?

The Season 9 premiere offered—and here come the spoilers—a fitting, tear-jerky send-off for McSteamy. But also the revelation that Arizona survived and is now an amputee, and Yang is now in Minnesota hanging out with Mr. Feeny? Plus we still don't know how things went down after the plane crash. Apparently we'll get the full story next week, but whatever, Grey's, keep doing your thing.

A beloved character was killed off and Sons actor Johnny Lewis was found dead and is suspected of murdering an 81-year-old woman while high on drugs. A cloud looms over both the fictional world and real world surrounding the FX show. The real-life tragedy overshadows what's been a great start to the series' fifth season, both creatively and business-wise: It was the number-two program on all of television in its Tuesday-night slot.

AND WON NOTHING. That's gotta hurt.

What made your list of TV loves and hates this week?

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After a couple weeks off, we're back with another round of TV wins and TV losses that we've chosen to over- and under-analyze in order to supplement and/or inspire your impending nostalgia and/or disgust for everything that happend on TV this past week. That was a really over-complicated sentence; let's under-complicate things by checking out what we loved, hated, and/or were confused by on television this week:

The invisible man who we didn't even know was on the show until Episode 4 avoided drama the entire season, took insults from the rest of the cast, and turned out to be the smartest player in the house by making the important decisions late in the game. So he decided to give the finger to the rest of the creeps and keep the $250,000 prize for himself to become the biggest badass in BP history. This isn't just a win for Nick, it's a win for America. The clip above is a must watch if you enjoy seeing people's dreams crushed.

The FX/DirecTV legal thriller never got the attention it deserved, but now it live on forever on Netflix to be rediscovered by future generations looking for smart, twisty television.

and:

If you skip the faux-reality footage and all the other terribleness, there were some great performances lurking inside The X-Factor this week, especially in the second episode with Jason Brock and Carly Rose Sonenclar. We're suckers for unassuming unknowns who hit the stage and nail their songs, particulary when they're crazy queens or cute kids. Yeah, it's all edited and manufactured, but these auditions seemed real and the singers could easily have flubbed it all.

Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Cee Lo Green and Christina Aguilera returned to our TVs on Monday for the third season of The Voice. Boasting bigger rosters, better mentors, and a new element of the competition called "The Steal," the three-day blind audition marathon was a bit of an overkill, but still a lot of fun. We met Cee Lo's new pet, Lady the Cockatoo, learned that Blake Shelton can moonwalk, and geared up for another season of "What Not to Wear: The Christina Aguilera Edition."

Yes, TLC is awful and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo is exploitative and blah blah blah. But Human Thumb (HT for short!) is a completely appropriate label for this lady, and we'll keep laughing at the joke as long as McHale keeps repeating it.

This week's episode, "Once Upon a Blog," was FANTASTIC. The MTV show went all Community on us with parodies and faked "What if?" scenarios, and the king of them all was the one featuring Jenna imagining her beaus, Matty and Jake, gay and in their own relationship. So, so rad.

Louie continues to nail down awesome guest stars, and creepy director Lynch as a creepy network executive designed to groom Louie into TV's next big talk-show host was a thing of beauty. But the capper was Lynch's fake introduction to the Late Show, accompanied by fake applause while Louie looked on in amazement.

Two episodes in and we've laughed, we've cried, we've even started choosing favorite characters! Matthew Perry's new comedy has laughs and comedy, and we really want to see it succeed.

While it's not unusual for ballet dancers to do well on the show, it IS unusual for them to actually get to PERFORM ballet on the show. That changed in this season's final round performances, when two of the dancers were tasked with dancing the Nutcracker Suite. An obvious choice, to be sure, but if only for the presence of Chehon's tights it was a victory for dance fans everywhere!

The combination of Alice in Wonderland PLUS a zombie outbreak was such a perfect idea it was incredible Face Off hadn't already done it! This image of the Cheshire Cat will be showing up in our nightmares for sure.

If only for the chance to make THIS .GIF!

Seriously, we could have skipped the entire first half (and then some) and not missed anything more than some cheesy retrospective montages and guest appearances by every relatively successful musician who just happened to be in Newark, New Jersey, during the finale. WE JUST WANT TO KNOW WHO WON THE MILLION DOLLARS, GUYS. (It was the Olate Dogs, FYI.)

The new cast is just another group of ANTM stock characters, just younger this time around (it's the "college" cycle), and shrill, nasally Victoria—who was home-schooled and now goes to college online—not only has the worst voice ever, she's generally just nuts. In Week 1, after Tyra put her on the spot to respond to a viewer who called her face "boring," she cited her Jewish and Native American heritage and replied, "Our people were led off on the Trail of Tears and the Holocaust—so if you have a problem with my face, well, you're a racist." In Week 3, she refused to take part makeovers (sacrilege!) and had a meltdown on the phone with her mom. She deserved to have that fried chicken thrown at her in last night's episode. Hate-watch times infinity!

Pill, who plays frenetic "intern" Maggie on the HBO series, was reportedly fall-down drunk at a fashion show in New York this week, talking to anyone who would listen about how she couldn't stop farting. Later, she accidentally Tweeted out a topless picture of herself. What disgusting behavior! (Please keep it up, Alison.)

Whatever past relationship Spears shared with former duet partner Don Philips is between them (or more likely, between Philips and his diary), so when the producers trotted him out to (1) dredge up memories of Spears' past; (2) come out of the closet (though this part was edited out of the episode); (3) sing poorly; and (4) cause Spears angst for having to say no to her own friend, we felt bad for Spears and angry toward Simon Cowell. It was truly sick manipulation of two people who didn't deserve it and enough for us to question whether to watch The X Factor ever again.

What made your list of TV loves and hates this week?

View the original article here