6 posts tagged “how i met your mother”
24 isn't as exciting as last season. How I Met Your Mother is still good but hasn't managed to sustain the hilarity of slap bets and Swarley. And Studio 60 is now dead to me. I don't have an alternative (I'll probably fill in by watching my recordings of Everybody Hates Chris and Girlfriends) but last night confirmed to me that I find this show unwatchable as it makes me want to put my eyes out with hot pokers.
And it's sad. The cast is good, the writers have solid track records and the pilot had so much promise. But it has been steadily downhill since then, save a couple of hopeful moments. However the new "romantic comedy" direction has just been unbearable as it is completely unromantic and not at all funny. I liked the Matt and Danny relationship but we get none of it because Matt is busy moping after Harriet, the woman with whom he has no chemistry and Danny is busy stalking (not wooing, creepily stalking) Jordan. And then we have the distraction of several women wanting all of scrawny Tom Jeeter's junk, some sad cartoonish slapstick involving animals failing to eat each other and the hilarious race and power struggles between Simon and Darius. Alrighty then. Good times over for me.
As shows arrive back after being gone for the holidays I'm finding I'm not feeling as fond of them as I did before.
How I Met Your Mother on Monday was OK but not great. Which is fine because good-not-great for them is better than most sitcoms. The Ted office scenes with Bryan Cranston as his boss where meh, but I did enjoy Barney begging Lily to paint him nude after finding her painting of Marshall. Especially when she gave him the "Ken doll" and didn't paint his "barnana."
Studio 60 on the other hand was practically unbearable. I doubt I can continue to keep watching heavy handed, preachy characters I feel no emotional engagement with. I don't care about the Matt/Harriet relationship, the Danny stalking Jordan and her having to beg him to stop storyline was creepy, I just can't buy multiple women vying for Tom and the Darius/Simon "massa" conversation didn't feel bold and enlightening but rather unsettling.
On Tuesday the Gilmore Girls returned but it just felt wrong. Chris and Lorelei were great when the alternative was Max. But at least it seems like they are moving Luke and Lorelei closer towards understanding and forgiving each other and it's clear the Chris doesn't fit into Stars Hollow or Lorelei's life. The Lane pregnancy story is just awful and ridiculous and sad. And where were Miss Patty and Babette and Kirk...? Why wasn't Sookie knocking sense into Lor? I'll ride the wave to this once great show's sad end but it makes me sadder with every passing episode.
Top Chef is on tonight but after that over-the-top head shaving episode where Chef Tom wanted to send everyone but Marcel packing and declare him the winner without a final cookoff, put the nail in the coffin to me caring who wins this hot mess. Top Design can't get here fast enough.
Lost is coming back next week and I am surprisingly not that excited about diving back into the Jack-Sawyer-Kate love triangle. Please get back to the mysteries of the Island!
Armed and Fabulous and Beauty and the Geek are your alternatives to the unpleasantly mean American Idol auditions which apparently virtually everybody in America hates but is watching anyway and the critically adored Friday Night Lights. I encourage watching one episode of Armed and Fabulous as it is funnier and sweeter than expected and not in a train wreck way. However one episode will be enough for me, I think. I'm going to watch Beauty and the Geek again tonight but I'm not really enjoying the Beauties that much this season - they don't seem to be learning their lessons very well - but once AI is out of it's cruel debut I'll switch over.
Happy viewing!
HIMYM was awesome as Swarley would say. Swarley is the nickname that name-challenged crazy-eyes Chloe gave Barney, much to his dismay. Oh, and, Marshall and Lily got back together. That's how great this show is, that what would be the most important plot point in most other shows was almost an afterthought.
Everybody Hates Chris was a weak outing with Jason Alexander as the new principal and wanna-be guru who tries to get Chris and the racist Caruso to resolve their differences by making them field trip buddies. The big lesson? The experiment mostly fails and the principal is wrong.
Studio 60 continues along with strong acting, snappy dialogue and little heart for me. For instance, while Nate Corddry was very good as the focus of this episode, I had a very hard time believing that, in addition to him being one of the "big three" stars of the fictional show that Tom is so popular that a teenage girl would rope her business executive father into flying halfway around the world so she could meet him.
Tonight is mostly election coverage but I'll watch the all-boy Dancing With The Stars final three and record Gilmore Girls and Law & Order: CI.
Anyhoo - on to the TV!
Wednesday: 30 Rock once again featured no "girlies" past or present which is a mixed blessing but, hey, more Alec Baldwin, yay! ... Lost - darn it, I was right about who got died - memo to ABC - don't promo that someone is going to die on Lost and then promo by name that an actor from Lost will be making the talk show rounds the day after that episode! The Nine continues on its maddening pace but I'm intrigued enough to keep watching... Top Chef picked up a bit after the lackluster first couple of episodes but it still seems like the "characters" are edited a little too closely to match last season's cast.
Thursday had another fun Ugly Betty, but no Justin! What up with that? After his fabulous Halloween Gene Kelley dance break how could you leave his energy out of an episode? And focusing on the story about the Dad being a killer illegal immigrant is a downer. More Justin and less immigration drama, please. However, Debi Mazar guesting as an immigration lawyer was a kick so maybe a little more immigration drama... Roseanne Barr was enjoyable as a guest item on Earl's karma list... The Office was my favorite episode I've seen. I haven't drunk the kool-aid on this show and I generally find it amusing though sometimes repetitive in the jokes. At times the humor in Michael's cluelessness wears thin. However, this "Diwali" episode written by Mindy Kaling (who plays Kelly) was freakin' genius. And Jim and Andy, drunk and rolling around on the floor singing "Closer to Fine" by the Indigo Girls... I'm still giggling... ER continues to benefit from John Stamos' injection of Clooney-esque bad boy rebelliousness.
Skipping to Friday (saving the best for last) - I got hipped to Battlestar Gallactica too late and now I want to play catch-up before getting into it. Someday I'll rent it all and learn what I'm missing.
Saturday is a complete wasteland now that NBC isn't even burning off the remaining episodes of Kidnapped.
Sunday is, of course, all about The Wire. And, just a spoiler alert note, HBO has started offering the next week's episode of some shows, including The Wire, a week prior to when it runs in its scheduled time slot. So, if you visit some sites that cover the show they will have recaps of the On Demand episode up several days before it runs on Sunday. Just be careful with your clicking if you hate spoilers.
Today is Monday and that means watching How I Met Your Mother and it should be interesting to appreciate anew the awesomeness of Neil Patrick Harris' acting abilities and his portrayal of womanizing Barney and, even playing "himself" in the hilarious Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle now that he's outed himself. Recording Everybody Hates Chris and Girlfriends, and Studio 60 which I appreciate more intellectually than emotionally. I'm hoping it will grip me more but if, as rumors persist, it goes away, I don't think I'll be too sad except for the fact that it means NBC will give us more game shows.
OK - the best thing in the past week (other than The Wire) was the return of The OC. Seriously, wonderfully, awesome. And the music was perfect. "A Bad Dream" by Keane came at the end, but bookending the show was Placebo's cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill."
"If I only could, make a deal with God, and get him to swap our places..."
The perfect soundtrack to this episode which showed the ways in which those Marissa left behind were continuing to mourn her 5 months after her tragic demise. The show benefits from the absence of Mischa Barton's sulky, slouchy Marissa. It gives Ryan's brooding the appropriate weight in the show's balance and keeps his Fight Club life from going too over the top. We got Luke's younger twin brothers as Kaitlin's lap dogs - hopefully this means that somehow Luke will make his way back to be Ryan's pal once Seth goes off to RISD.
Unfortunately, the viewership for this airing was abismally low. So Fox is playing around with the schedule and will run the next two on Wednesday and Thursday. The show is up against too much fire power either way but perhaps, if it can survive this week, Fox can run it against Day Break once it subs in for Lost. I just hope that Fox doesn't give up and dump the show before even finishing off the shortened final season. And, hopefully, Josh Schwartz will spare us any more Olivers or Johnnys to disrupt the flow now that Marissa is gone.
For some reason I continue to find hilarious any reminder of the song "Summer Girls" by boy band LFO. The shear absurdity of the lyrics crack me up every time:
Tim Goodman from the SF Chronicle has an excellent rundown of what to watch and what to record. I have a few difference but I overlap with most of his recommendations. One difference comes tonight where Tim recommends Friday Night Lights in its regular time slot but as I mentioned I'm just not feeling that one.New Kids On The Block had a bunch of hits
Chinese food makes me sick
...
I like girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch
I however can't quit Gilmore Girls. I definitely miss the much better pop culture references of Amy Sherman-Palladino but the Lorelei-Chris reuinion isn't bugging me as much as I thought it would. And, even though I don't dig Logan on GG, I would have enjoyed seeing dueling Logans last week on Veronica Mars. But I suck because I don't watch even though I would probably love it (teen girl heroines are a fav like in my favorite series Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I was especially bummed when I saw that last week's episode was titled "Charlie Don't Surf" in homage to my favorite film, Apocalypse Now.
And let me just warn you that I also suck because the only series I watch on Fox are 24 (my favorite show last season) and American Idol. Yes that means no House, no Bones, no Prison Break, no Simpsons... Bad TV watcher, bad!
So tonight it will be Gilmore Girls on the DVR and watching Dancing With The Stars plus Law & Order: CI and SVU. Nip/Tuck is not bad but I've never been drawn into watching an entire season.
And, last night, not much to report back on. How I Met Your Mother was a good, classic S1 episode showcasing Ted in all his hopeless romantic glory and Barney in all his quippy bad boy glory. Girlfriends was suprisingly good. Not one "heifer" and, unlike most shows where if an actress leaves to do Baileys Irish Cream commercials and everyone just pretends not to notice, Girlfriends is actually dealing with the breakup of the central, longest-standing girlfriend
relationship between Joan and Toni and powerfully so last night.
If you are interested in fabulous in-depth coverage and analysis of this show, Heaven and Here is your guide. And for one of the best pieces of analysis that I've ever seen, certainly about television, check out Andrew Dignan's piece on The House Next Door titled The Wire and the Art of the Credit Sequence and read through the comments for further inside illumination.
Add me to the chorus of viewers missing McNulty but that's the bargain you make with The Wire - you'll go where the story takes you not where you want to go as a viewer. Regardless, I was glued to my screen trying to remember to breathe the whole time like every Sunday. The "golden rule" theme was interesting with little illustrations peppered throughout. Like when Crutchfield tosses out the message from Carver about Randy who could help Bunk with his investigation into the zombiefied murder of Lex after Bunk messes with Crutchfield's case against Omar by raising doubts. And when it turns out that Carcetti was elected in part by bogus assumptions about the witness murder which might not have been made if the police weren't forced to sit on the case by Royce and his brass in pocket. More classic Wire action where things don't always go as you think or hope they should because the reality that petty jealousies and behind-the-scenes bureaucratic bungling derail things. On another note, the beating, robbing and distress because Sherrod did not return home that Bubbles suffered were heartbreaking to watch.
So that's Sunday. I would watch Dexter if I subscribed to Showtime and I'm sure I would be a big fan, but I already spend a ridiculous amount of money on my television habit.
Monday preview: not much - schedules still seem to be in the reruns in the face of the World series mode. How I Met Your Mother is a repeat from last season. Everybody Hates Chris is new. I sheepishly admit that I still record Girlfriends even though, seriously, how many years can you watch a group of women express their friendship by calling each other "heifer"? I have a very hard time giving shows up. At least I've managed to ignore The Game. I've tried but can't get into fan favorite Heroes. And, NBC is giving Friday Night Lights a trial run in Studio 60's slot but I also couldn't fall in love with this critical favorite.
Regularly on Monday's, I like Studio 60 but there is much that bugs and bores. I'm with the other bloggers who wished they had more Lauren Graham last week. In her one minute with Matthew Perry they had more chemistry than he's had with "Harriet" all season so far.
And, again, I would watch Weeds if I had Showtime, especially since my friend Gary Calamar is the music supervisor (he previously worked on Six Feet Under) and Mary Louise Parker is one of my favorite actors.
So I'm hanging through the lean times awaiting the return of 24 and The OC Yes, The OC - read here for some explanation. I agree completely with Jonathan Toomey's assesment: "Let me go on record as saying that the first season of The OC is one of the best seasons of television I've ever watched. That first season? Yeah, it's that good. Then came the sophomore slump. Not bad but not great. Then last season? A stinker? A bomb? I could be harsher, but the general consensus seemed to be that season three wasn't all that good." But Toomey got a sneek preview of the first 4 episodes of the new season and he reports that it's looking good, so yay!
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