Entertainment News - TV

THIS ISSUE: Big Brother, American Gothic, Wayward Pines, The Real Housewives of New York City, Masterchef TOP MOMENT OF THE NIGHT Twists Abound on Big Brother CBS BECAUSE: Big Brother turns 18 this season, so it only makes sense that it might start to push the boundaries a bit. First, the season 18 housemates were joined by four familiar faces: Nicole (season 16), James (season 17), Frank (season 14), and Da'Vonne (season 17). Then those veterans got to act as captains to pick the teams -- teams! -- of four that will be in play for an unknown portion of the game. And just when superfans thought their heads might explode, a third twist was introduced: a second competition that put an entire team -- aptly named the Freakazoids -- on the chopping block.

American Gothic CBS WHAT HAPPENED: This is no Parenthood. CBS' dark new thriller does follow the lives of an extensive family tree, but rather than opening indie record labels, the Hawthornes are busy discovering evidence linking the family to an infamous serial killer. The series kicks off with the collapse of a tunnel that was built using concrete made by the family's company. The debris reveals a belt with fingerprints that belong to a victim of the Silver Bells Killer, who haunted the city years ago. Golden daughter and mayoral candidate Alison has to give a stump speech on her family's connection to the collapse, soon followed by her father's physical collapse on stage when she mentions possibly finding the murder weapon. Also to be dealt with: the box full of the serial killer's signature silver bells Tess and Cam find in the garage of their childhood home; the return of prodigal son Garrett to whisper, "I'm gonna tell them it was you" into his hospitalized father's ear; oh, and Mama Hawthone cutting off her hubby's oxygen supply when he suggests that they "tell the truth." Not to mention, a member of the family's tween generation has cut up a cat in the garage. Yep, something is going down before American Gothic's first season is up. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: This murder series features well-known actors and is produced by Steven Spielberg, meaning all the pieces are there forAmerican Gothic to score a home run, but critics aren't exactly receiving it as such. The Hollywood Reporter first admits that the laughs Wednesday's pilot drew were probably unintentional (and not in that so-bad-it-is-good way), but then puts it plainly: "American Gothic is about a bunch of good actors who got suckered into a really bad series." And they really are good actors! If you'll follow Oscar nominee Virginia Madsen to the ends of the Earth (or if you arelaughing in the so-bad-it-is-good way), perhaps you can fight through to see ifAmerican Gothic ever lives up to its potential.

Wayward Pines Fox WHAT HAPPENED: Wayward Pines has a ton of secrets. Let's start with Rebecca, who drops a big bomb in Wednesday's episode. It turns out all those glances from Xander mean something. She finally tells Theo that when she first woke up in Wayward Pines, she was matched with Theo and they're currently married. Theo is, shall we say, not happy -- okay, he punches Xander in the face -- but in a series of flashbacks we learn that thousands of years ago, his marriage to Rebecca wasn't so happy either. She was struggling with projects at work until a man named Pilcher showed up with the project to end all projects. That's right -- Rebecca designed Wayward Pines! In other huge and mysterious reveals, the Abbie that surprised Frank at the end of last episode is, in fact, a female Abbie. The lab employees doing Megan's experiments on her give her the nickname of Margaret and soon discover that she's much calmer than the other Abbies, and seems to in turn make the male Abbies calmer when she's around. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: The final scene follows the Abbies as they head toward Wayward Pines with torches, only to come to a halt when we see Margaret focusing on something. It had EW recapper Shirley Li wondering if the Abbies perhaps "operate in a hive mind." And she's not alone in sensing thatWayward Pines is heading toward a trickier future. As the A.V. Club says, "After four episodes of dour warmongering and dystopian violence, we're finally getting some juicy new puzzles wrapped up in character development." Of course, Wednesday's major character development revolved around Rebecca, for whom the A.V. Club is feeling a good bit of empathy now. "No wonder she didn't want to tell Theo the whole truth right away -- she can barely handle that knowledge, and she's been there almost three years," writes Alex McCown. "We thought Dr. Theo Yedlin was the big 'get' for Wayward Pines, but it seems he may have just been an afterthought, a bonus prize for ensnaring Rebecca." Let the ladies lead the way.

The Real Housewives of New York City Bravo WHAT HAPPENED: We'll be frank: Wednesday's episode of The Real Housewives of New York City is 60 percent vaginas and 40 percent a celebrity dog wedding. So all is really as it should be. But the vagina stuff isn't the fun -- it's continuing in the franchise's new tradition of introducing major health scares. EW recapper Tim Stack declares that Bravo might "need its own official doctor -- and someone who's not Terry Dubrow." Bethenny spends most of the episode talking about how her trip to Mexico (on which Luann and Sonja werenot invited) is going to be very mature and involve many, many helicopters, only to have to cancel it when her bleeding problem turns out to be indicative of something quite serious. Jules, on the other hand, merely scraped her vagina. She whipped out her phone to show the results to Sonja, who announces she's stopped drinking. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: The dog wedding is at The Highline Hotel and is covered by Vanity Fair. As if that's not big enough, the dog bride wears a custom Marchesa gown. You might think that's why Vulture finds this to be "one of the strangest episodes of The Real Jewelry Shoppers of the Union Square Kmart, " but they're actually referencing the fact that Wednesday's episode spent nearly the entire hour batting around questions concerning Luann and Sonja not being invited on the Mexico trip, only to have those questions become moot. And Vulture is out there repping for Son and Lu too: "Let's be honest: Sonja and Luann were always going to be the most fun part of this vacation. ... You want Sonja around when things are going well and you want Sonja around when things are going poorly. If I ever decide to try ayahuasca, it's going to be on Sonja's imaginary yacht. Luann, well, you just want her to bring dudes around and encourage your worst behavior." Alas, they'll have to invite themselves somewhere else instead.

One More Thing...

MasterChef's Wedding Challenge Goes Up in Flames Fox COLD LAMB, COLD FEET: Nothing says "most important day of your life" like Gordon Ramsay screaming at his failing home chefs about raw lamb in the background of the father of the bride's speech. But hey, MasterChef alum Nick likely knew the risks when he let catering his wedding reception be part of Wednesday's team challenge. Let's just hope his bride's lamb was "the perfect medium rare" it was supposed to be.