Before we get to the commercials, we have to give credit to Madonna for putting on a well-executed half-time show -- much to our surprise. She's got quite a bit of energy for her age (or, our age) and manages to lip-sync successfully. Bonus kudos to the tech guys who made the Vogue covers dance on the ground. And the performance was filled with an eclectic group of guests from Nicki Minaj (in a somewhat toned down cheerleader outfit), Cee Lo (dressed like a giant sparkly monk) and LMFAO (as their normal dirty selves). If only MIA hadn't been so... MIA, what with flipping the bird at a cameraman and all, it would have been a smoothly run eight minutes that was memorable for the right reasons. Wish we could say the same about all of the commercials.

It's already time for the mid-season break, which means we won't be seeing most of our favorite characters until January (or, in the case of Community, who knows when...) Fortunately, many of them have learned how to be web savvy in TV land, though and we can follow them on Twitter now! Here are a few worth keeping up with over the holidays.

Praise the comedy gods for Mary Cooper. While last week's episode was a bit on the dull side (with the only bright spots being the too-few moments with Wil Wheaton and Brent Spiner), this episode was pretty fabulous thanks to a wonderful visit from Sheldon's mom. Laurie Metcalf just killed it singing Soft Kitty and giving everyone the what for. Here's why she was so great:

What makes Big Bang Theory so entertaining is its solid ensemble, but there's always someone that burns more brightly than those around them. This week, that person was Amy Farrah Fowler. Howard and Bernadette spent the episode playing house with his mother and making our skin crawl, Raj was basically a chauffeur, Sheldon was a child playing with tiny trains (even ridiculously sticking one in his mouth) and Leonard was tediously dull, unless Amy was around to make him more interesting. Here are the five reasons Amy is our Big Bang Supernova of the Week. We swear we weren't just won over by her beckoning pelvis.

Maybe this will lose me all of my comedy cred in this universe, but I never completely hated Two and a Half Men. I definitely never watched it on a weekly or even monthly basis, but if another person flipped it on while we were hanging out at a relative's or friend's house, I would sit and watch it and chuckle. But in terms of a weekly series, I would deem it unwatchable, because what discerning appreciator of comedy could possibly stand that much canned laughter and Charlie Sheen crammed into one half-hour?

Justified ends its exemplary second season this week, and if it's anything like last season's finale, I expect a tremendous amount of carnage to go down. Clearly, though we all love her dearly, some of that bloodshed may befall the gloriously villainous Mags Bennett (she may stick around indefinitely, Boyd Crowder-style, but my gut says that she and her son Dickie are dead meat), who has completely stolen the season and whose likely Emmy snub I'm already preparing to decry in a few months. So, just in case she goes out tomorrow night, I thought I'd compile all the wonderful, finger-smashing things I'll miss about dear old Mags. And if she lives, let's just call this a fun tribute to the antics of one of the greatest new characters on TV this year.

Of all of the characters that showrunner Stephen Moffat has introduced into Doctor Who, quite possibly the most interesting is River Song, whom we've been told will officially become his companion at some future point in the show's timeline. Over the past few seasons, she has been a wild card in the Doctor's adventures, popping into his life for some of his scariest adventures before leaving again with only the promise that they shall meet again. Because of this and her cocky nature, River sometimes doesn't get the respect she deserves. Here's why we think she's more compelling than any other companion we've ever seen -- past, present or future.

If you missed last summer's gay farming sensation The Fabulous Beekman Boys (and you likely did, as it's on Discovery property Planet Green, which no one has heard of), I highly recommend jumping into the show's second season premiere tonight. The show, about a gay couple from NYC trying to maintain a farm in the country, is some of the most enjoyable light entertainment on television, and whether you're into gay shows or goat shows, it's got a little something for everyone.

With Fringe's recent reveal that newly weaponized Peter Bishop will determine who wins the impending war between universes solely by choosing an Olivia to be with (it's a lot less stupid than that, but we're paraphrasing for brevity's sake), it seems to us that Peter shares some commonalities with another TV icon: the Bachelor. And since choosing an Olivia makes the foundation for the most dramatic inter-universe rose ceremony ever, we thought we'd run down each girl's pros and cons to help the guy decide.

Charlotte Rae, Mrs. Edna Garrett herself, made a surprise cameo last week on ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars, which makes perfect sense when you think about it. After all, don't Eastland's goody two shows and Rosewood's little vixens have a lot of common? Sure, they come from different economic backgrounds, but both groups of girls know what it's like to feel that the world never seems to be living up to your dreams. And despite their scheming, the Liars do have good intentions while Edna's gang have juicy little secrets of their own. In fact, the closer we looked, the more we realized how similar the characters were.