So it's come to this: 2 Broke Girls is the top pick. Deal with it, Internet. Deal with it.
Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Monday, Dec. 5. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
2 Broke Girls (CBS, 8:30 p.m.): Okay. So we’ve never featured this show as the top pick, and, to be fair, there’s not really a lot on tonight, so it kind of takes the top spot by default. But the show is finally dealing with the question of, “Hey, how do these two supposedly broke girls afford a horse?” so there’s a chance this could be one of those episodes that delves into the economic and class issues that have driven the best episodes. Or it could be a parade of stereotypes, because there’s also a whole storyline for that fucking socialite, Peach. Todd VanDerWerff is insane to watch this.
REGULAR COVERAGE
How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 8 p.m.): The last episode ended with a pretty major cliffhanger. And if you’ve watched tonight’s preview clip, this one opens with a pretty big stunner, too. Donna Bowman hopes this show can pull all this off.
Enlightened (HBO, 9:30 p.m.): The title is “Consider Helen,” which sounds like a sequel to the execrable Kate Hudson film, Raising Helen. But Hudson doesn’t appear, and it has nothing to do with the plot of that film. Erik Adams loves Kate Hudson.
Castle (ABC, 10 p.m.): “Castle and Beckett are abducted and awaken in a locked room, handcuffed to one another in a bed,” the summary says. So this show is going for the “relatable storylines” gambit then? That happens to Phil Nugent all the time.
TV CLUB CLASSIC
Scrubs (11 a.m.): J.D. collapses and ends up confined to a hospital bed, but hospital beds can’t confine the wonders of Zach Braff’s imagination. Myles McNutt once collapsed, but we propped him up and forced him to review Shark Tank.
Justice League (1 p.m.): Oliver Sava covers an episode called “War World.” We’re not going to look it up on Wikipedia but assume that it’s about a planet that declares war on Earth, and the Justice League has to call in Detective Chimp to save the day.
TV CLUB ADVENT CALENDAR
Northern Exposure, “Seoul Mates” (Sunday): Phil Nugent takes a trip to Cicely, Alaska, to celebrate the holidays with the quirky residents of that town. Oh, we’re sorry. They celebrate the Raven Pageant, not Christmas. So easy to get confused.
WHAT ELSE IS ON?
American Country Awards (Fox, 8 p.m.): Doesn’t the title of this show just sort of seem like it’s given up? “ Yeah, it’s hard to get too excited about it But Trace Adkins and Kristin Chenoweth are hosting. Maybe that gets you worked up?
A Charlie Brown Christmas/Prep & Landing 2: Naughty Vs. Nice (ABC, 8 p.m.): Chuckles Brown’s Christmas is, of course, the Christmas special gold standard, while Todd VanDerWerff reviews the brand-new sequel to Prep & Landing.
The Mortified Sessions (Sundance, 8 p.m.): Celebrities show off artwork from childhood that mortifies them now. Say, we’ve got a bunch of mopey poems about teenage ex-girlfriends that got published in a book that would be perfect.
Long Island Serial Killer (A&E, 9 p.m.): It’s such a light night for TV that we can barely even fill out this “What Else Is On?” section. So here’s an A&E documentary about somebody who dumps bodies on the beaches of Long Island. Shudder.
A Christmas Carol (1984)/A Christmas Carol (1938) (AMC, 8 p.m./TCM, 9:45 p.m.): If it’s Christmas ghosts ye seek, here are two of the better versions of this oft-filmed tale, the former starring George C. Scott and the latter Reginald Owen.
A Single Man (Showtime 2, 9:30 p.m.): Colin Firth received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for this film, designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut, about a gay man who works through the death of his longtime partner in the early 1960s.
Monday Night Football: Chargers at Jaguars (ESPN, 8:30 p.m.): There are weeks when ESPN anxiously eyes the piles upon piles of Australian rules football from the ‘80s it has laying around and wishes it could air it instead of something like this.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Boardwalk Empire (Sunday): We feel confident in saying that this is one of the weirdest, most controversial episodes of this show yet. Noel Murray fills you in on all of the horrifying twists and turns in an episode that was so edible.