Top 5 TV: Welcome Back, ‘Transparent’ and Dubya!

3. You’re the Worst pulls out of its sprial in season finale (FXX)
Creator Stephen Falk made the show’s fans sweat a bit during the sitcom’s sophomore run, by putting the cranky, proudly irresponsible L.A. couple Jimmy and Gretchen through an emotional wringer, set in motion by a recurrence of the latter’s clinical depression. The payoff arrived in the season’s penultimate episode, with Gretchen bursting into grateful tears over Jimmy’s decision to stay with her rather than running off with another women. With her numbness having finally subsided, the season finale felt like an overdue return to the show’s happier days, as everyone went back to misbehaving because they wanted to, not because everything’s falling apart.

Directly paralleling the first season-ender, “The Heart Is a Dumb Dumb” mostly took place at a party thrown by the persistently awful Becca and Vernon, where an excess of alcohol and honesty turned a carefully stage-managed birth announcement into high farce. All the fast-paced drunken mayhem was a gift to all the YtW-lovers who can appreciate the show’s serious turns, as well as those who tune in to hear the butthole described as “the bronze medal” (because it’s the third-best hole), or to hear a pregnant character declare she has “a baby in my pussy.” Between the tender karaoke rendition of “Don’t Know Much” and an ending that saw Gretch and Jimmy saying “I love you” for the first time, this episode was like a sweet shot of liqueur after a heavy meal.