Last Night's TV: The Wiz Live!, Top Chef, and More (SPOILERS!)

VIEW IN BROWSER THIS ISSUE: The Wiz Live!, Top Chef, The Vampire Diaries, Game of Thrones TOP MOMENT OF THE NIGHT Hold the Phone: The Wiz Live! Was Excellent NBC BECAUSE: No need to tremble in fear of The Wiz Live!, little cowardly lions -- it was actually Glinda-level-good! NBC's recent tradition of airing star-studded live musicals in December has become more of a pastime for live-tweeting lovers of snark and trainwrecks than for lovers of musicals, but Sound of Music Live! and Peter Pan Live! can just ease on down, ease on down the road of memories, because -- let us grab the mic for a minute -- The Wiz just became the best televised live musical of all time (or at least the 21st century)... READ OUR RECAP The Wiz Live! NBC WHAT HAPPENED: Oh no, we're not done talking about how an unknown 19-year-old from New Jersey led this huge production through dozens of musical numbers, two-and-a-half hours of airtime, a sultry storm of poppies, and the treacherous line into Common's Emerald City club. Pitch-perfect Shanice Williams was in good company too: The Wiz Live included the comforting presence of David Alan Grier as the Cowardly Lion, the dreamy appeal of Elijah Kelley and Ne-Yo (who helped write the production's only new song, "We Got It," aka "The most uplifting tune ever written about plotting to kill someone," according to EW reviewer Melissa Maerz) as the Scarecrow and Tin Man, Amber Riley belting out stunning notes as the Good Witch of the North, Queen Latifah taking on some serious costume changes as the androgynous Wiz, Uzo Aduba, a dream as Glinda, and probably best of all, Mary J. Blige bringing every bit of menacing evil to Evillene. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: Critics loved it; Twitter loved it; hopefully the ratings love it too. The Hollywood Reporter admitted that within the first five minutes, The Wiz Live "[crushed] dreams of an evening spent in glorious communal mockery" with the opening scene between "revelatory newcomer" Shanice Williams, and The Wiz's Original Dorothy, Stephanie Mills, killing it on Aunt Em's "The Feeling We Once Had." The New York Times noted that director Kenny Leon's minimalist approach to the production (especially in comparison to the two the preceded it) had one moment that was truly "progressive and inclusive, on the one hand, and deeply natural, on the other" in the fan-favorite Emerald City interlude complete with men and women voguing like they came straight from Paris is Burning. The Wiz live had its awkward moments, sure -- could we maybe get a live audience at these things? -- but the cast, music, and choreography by Fatima Robinson are certainly worth watching... just make sure you've grabbed your tissues by the time you get to "Home." READ OUR RECAP Top Chef Bravo WHAT HAPPENED: Exhausted from all the good music and overcoming of evil, perhaps you took a little time to unwind with Top Chef? Split into four groups, the 16 remaining chefs had to put together pop-up restaurants based on four popular Los Angeles cuisines: Persian, Korean, Mexican, and vegan. "Hmm, one of those four is not like the others ," says EW recapper Stephan Lee, astutely. Team Mexico's output was, at one point, compared to Hamburger Helper -- yikes -- Team Korea did a little better with their flavors, and Team Persia did best of all, with Marjorie's yogurt mousse with pistachio sponge cake and saffron orange syrup pushing them into the winner's slot. And that just leaves... WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: Team Vegan, significantly brought down by Grayson's attitude about their assigned cuisine. It certainly seemed like Grayson would be the one headed home after she gave some lip at the judges' critique of her lame salad. (A little Top Chef advice from Uproxx, Grayson: "Never go on the offensive. Padma hates that. In fact, don't even make direct eye contact. And try to stand perfectly still, Padma's vision is based on movement.") But snottiness be damned, Grayson wasn't brought back this season to be booted in the first week, so it ended up being Renee who was sent packing for her unappetizing stuffed beet. Sorry, vegans. READ OUR RECAP The Vampire Diaries The CW WHAT HAPPENED: A quick post-Thanksgiving TVD refresher: Damon and Stefan are plotting to destroy Julian -- the actual devil -- and Caroline is carrying Gemini twins in her vampire womb. Okay, all caught up!! The brothers Salvatore kind of achieve their goal on Thursday's episode in that they get Julian tied up. He had, however, previously done a little diamond-themed manipulation in the form of giving Mary Louise a giant engagement ring to propose to Nora with so ML helps the actual devil get free... and Julian of course then ties Stefan and Valerie up, hands Lily a stake and tells her only one of her children can live. Lily is all, "That's where you're wrong, buddy," and stabs herself with the stake, thinking it will kill Julian too, not knowing that Mary Louise had already unlinked them. Flash forward three years and Damon is tied up, poisoned with werewolf toxin, trying to apologize to Lily for his parting words to her being, "You made your bed. Have a nice nap." It's a good try but, turns out, Lily is just a hallucination -- some lady has Damon all sorts of trapped, and it sure ain't his mama. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: So... that all happened. An anniversary, a (called-off) engagement, and a death -- not bad, Vampire Diaries. The A.V. Club points out, though, that the death of Lily is a tricky one. First and foremost because death is kind of a relative topic in TVD land: "In this world where people have died and come back to life so many times, how do we believe it when someone dies? The world of the show right at this moment includes a magical stone that reunites dead vampires with their bodies so they can go on living like nothing ever happened." Good point. Another good point: What does Lily's death mean for all these Heretics we have running around now? (AKA, time to skedaddle, Mary Louise.) READ OUR RECAP One More Thing... Wanted, Dead or Alive HBO WE KNOW NOTHING: "They have no idea what's going to happen." Ha, ha, very funny, you guys. That's Bran Stark's foreboding line in the first teaser trailer of season 6 of Game of Thrones, which clearly speaks both to Westeros and the clueless fans heading into the next much-anticipated season with no George R. R. Martin books left to guide them. The trailer is 40 seconds long and all of the visual footage is from past seasons, so it should only take you about -- let's see -- 24 to 48 hours to fully break down. Good luck! READ OUR RECAP Also Check Out... Recommended by Copyright © 2015 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved. WANT MORE? To subscribe to any of EW.com's email products, please click here. PRIVACY POLICY Please click here for our privacy policy. For further communication, please click here Your California Privacy Rights Entertainment Weekly Customer Service ATTENTION: CONSUMER AFFAIRS 3000 University Center Drive Tampa, FL 33612-6408 You are receiving this email because you are a friend of Entertainment Weekly. 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