Opening Credits Bonanza: How I Met Your Mother

See? The opener doesn't have to be long in order to completely capture the tone of the show.

We've got a lot to discuss...

I've had a busy couple of weeks, but never fear, I've still got my priorities straight and I've made time for TV via Tivo and the internet. Let's start with VERONICA MARS. Veronica, Studio 60 called and they want that preachy sermon back. I did, however, enjoy the 15 minutes that were devoted to Logan and Parker's functional relationship and Piz mustering the balls to make a move. Finally!

Speaking of Piz, apparently he works out, as witnessed by his buff turn on GREY'S ANATOMY. The spin-off has possibilities although if any man ever said, "I'm going to kiss you. With tongue. So you feel it," to me in an empty stair well, he'd be getting a knee to the balls for being equal parts creepy and cheesy. You know what kiss was neither creepy nor cheesy? George and Izzy! Am I the only one who's totally on this bandwagon? Cause I LOVE it. Almost as much as I hate McDreamy for his sudden ambivalence about Mere. I'd forgive it if it really had to do with her lack of will to live and not the fact that he wants to further his career. Ass.

I don't talk about it much, but UGLY BETTY is a seriously solid show. Who said Rebecca Romijn as a lonely transgendered ice queen wouldn't play in Middle America? Also on ABC, OCTOBER ROAD. The show is full of holes and silly twists. It pisses me off and yet I watched every damn episode. I actually care about the stupid characters, especially Eddie and Janet. I even like Laura Prepon and she used to bug the hell out of me with her perpetual post punchline smirk on That '70s Show.

Speaking of things that bug the hell out of me... INSTANT STAR'S still flirting with mediocrity. Let's be honest, I think mediocrity has gotten to third base at this point. Here's my thing about the Jude/Jamie/Tommy triangle we're inexplicably revisiting: Jude will never be in love with Jamie. Yes, he's the better guy, but he's not her guy. She invited him on her first tour AFTER Tommy turned her down. She hooked up with him because Tommy was with Sadie. She wrote White Lines about Tommy while she was dating Jamie. It's not really a love triangle, it's a set up for disaster.

Shows I've recently tried on for size: HEROES - last night's episode was a little assy and I'm a bit creeped out by the dynamic between Peter and niece Claire, but I've caught the last few eps and I'm intrigued and looking forward to watching it from the beginning. I'm also eager to get further into WILDFIRE on ABC Family. Yes, I love shows aimed at tweens, but this one's really good. I'd caught episodes before, but now several eps at a time are available on abcfamily.com. Ever wonder what happened to Degrassi's school shooter? He's on an ABC Family show called Falcon Beach. It's pretty unwatchable, but Degrassi will be back (sans Rick, of course) this summer.

Oh and last night's HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER was super cute. That's all I've got for now.

Funny/Not funny: Monday Night Round-up

On How I Met Your Mother, Robin is uncomfortable with the things Ted still has from past relationships, like a couch pillow and a cute lamp. He sucks it up and gets rid of all the old mementos, only out that all her dogs are gifts from old boyfriends. Fun banter ensues and hilarity comes in the form of zany single guy Barney, who stages a retaliatory one-man play that consists largely of repeating Lily’s least-favorite word, “moist,” and spraying her in the face with a water gun.

On Rules of Engagement, that brunette chick is uncomfortable with the bed Oliver Hudson has from his past relationship. He sucks it up and agrees to return to her smaller bed, only to be reminded of all the men who’ve been there before him. Fun banter does not ensue and hilarity is not breached by David Spade, who at least doesn’t look as bored as that dude from Seinfeld and Less Than Perfect.

It's weird that these shows are in the same programming block, because they're in completely different leagues.

Moments in TV Awesome: Freaks and Geeks

Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

Alternative Viewing Update

Men in Trees in now available online at abc.com! So far it's just the pilot and the last episodes, but with shows like What About Brian? offering the full season, let's hope they'll add more soon. As the owner of a persnickety tivo, I've made it my business to know the following:


The-N.com offers new episodes of Degrassi and Instant Star.

NBC.com shows select series. Ratings challenged Friday Night Lights is available, but The Office is not.

CBS.com uses InnerTube to show comedies like How I Met Your Mother and The Class. The player doesn't work on my mac, but seems to be compatible with PCs.

ABC.com offers Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Knights of Prosperity and several other shows.

YouTube and Google Video are hit and miss when looking for entire episodes, but using them I watched the full first season of The IT Crowd and the series finale of Everwood (what? I had to make sure they'd get a happy ending).

Unsolicited Golden Globe Opinions

The Golden Globe nominations have been announced and now it’s time to examine the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s silly little ideas of TV excellence (Sarah Paulson? I’d laugh if I got the joke).

DRAMA
My pick of the nominees: Big Love. It’s compelling and interesting. Its exploration of family life and plural marriage is at once deeply familiar and completely foreign.

Overlooked: I love Veronica Mars, but if I have to pick one, I’d say Friday Night Lights. This show appeals to a much broader demographic than VM and the fact that it’s not appointment viewing for more people is a shame. Degrassi may have bogarted the expression, but FNL really does go there.

ACTRESS (DRAMA)
My pick: Kyra Sedgwick. I love The Closer and though the rest of the cast is uniformly excellent, I can’t take my eyes off Sedgwick.

Overlooked: Kristen Bell for Veronica Mars. Lead actresses on critically acclaimed teen shows have been recognized by the HFPA in the past (Keri Russell for Felicity, Amber Tamblyn for Joan of Arcadia), so why does KB keep getting snubbed? She’s the heart of one of the most compelling and entertaining shows on TV and she deserves some props.

ACTOR (DRAMA)
My pick: Bill Paxton. As a thoroughly modern polygamist patriarch, he manages to make me sympathize with someone I would normally find fairly abhorrent. Beyond the foreign concept of his life style, he is simply a father, husband and son stretched to the very limit.

Overlooked: Kyle Chandler for Friday Night Lights. From the accent to the demeanor, everything about the way Chandler inhabits Coach Taylor is dead on.

MUSICAL OR COMEDY
My pick: The Office. I laugh, I squirm, I tune in week after week and am rarely disappointed.

Overlooked: Old school multi-camera sitcoms aren’t dead. Seriously, just ask How I Met Your Mother. While you’re at it, ask why Desperate Housewives stole their Golden Globe nomination.

ACTRESS (COMEDY OR MUSICAL)
My pick: Mary-Louise Parker is spectacular on Weeds, but despite the show’s comedy label, she gives what I would dub a dramatic performance. That said, I would give the trophy to America Ferrera for her effervescent turn on Ugly Betty.

Overlooked: Anne Heche for Men in Trees.

ACTOR (COMEDY OR MUSICAL)
My pick: Alec Baldwin is beyond brilliant on 30 Rock. His sly turn as a corporate stiff among creative bafoons makes me thank God he's not being wasted on something higher brow like Studio 60.

Overlooked: John Krasinski for The Office. Steve Carell is great, but the most affecting performance has been Krasinski’s and after taking the reins for the Stamford portions of the show, he has graduated from supporting character to capable leading man.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
My pick: Elizabeth Perkins is black comedy gold (would that make her comedy oil?) on Weeds. She’s awesome as a thorny (and horny) cancer survivor whose family and community at large kind of hate her.

Overlooked: Ginnifer Goodwin, Chloe Sevigny and Jeanne Tripplehorn for Big Love. Without the perfect combination of spouses, Bill Paxton’s performance would be nothing.

SUPPORTING ACTOR
My pick: Justin Kirk for Weeds. Completely overlooked by the HFPA for his performance in Angels in America, it’s about time he get some recognition for being so dead-pan awesome.

Overlooked: Neil Patrick Harris for How I Met Your Mother. He’s easily my favorite part of a damn fine show and Harris has proven that his hilarious cameo in Harold and Kumar was no fluke.

How the C*nt Stole Christmas

That's what they were getting at, right? I mean there's no way everyone was getting that upset about Ted calling Lily a bitch? Or maybe I'm just desensitized to cursing. Cause it doesn't seem very in character for Ted to bandy about the C word. It's certainly not very empowering. But it was funny.

One thing I love about How I Met Your Mother is that it's broad like the traditional sitcoms so many say are dead, but it also manages to tell engaging stories that are often quite small. Lily hears Ted call her something unflattering on a message left during the summer when Marshall was heartbroken over their break up. She's hurt and he's embarrassed, but refuses to apologize for trying to buoy Marshall's spirits while she was gone. It was a real situation that led to over-the-top fighting and retaliation. The conclusion was sweet, but earned and nowhere near as treacly as the holiday eps I've come to expect from traditional sitcoms.

Funny/Not funny: Monday Night Round-up

Funny: Robin Sparkles wished everyone would go to the mall. The teasers for How I Met Your Mother made it seem like Robin's big secret was Canadian porn. Lily and Marshall suspected that Ted's anti-marriage honey actually had a husband. Instead it turned out that Robin was once Canada's answer to Tiffany (our neighbors to the North didn't get the '80s until around 1993... strangely this helps explain Degrassi TNG). Her video featured bad hair, leggings, a robot co-star and an ill-advised rap. Awesome.

Not funny: Jessica Simpson wishes for peace in the Midwest. Off camera. It may seem like I'm picking on Studio 60, but let's think of it this way: instead of harping on Matt Albie being a COMIC GENIUS who wants to explain to everyone in America that he had nothing to do with Ricky and Ron's (or is it Ronnie and Rick's?) little sitcom, we'll focus on the Jessica Simpson thing. Let's be honest, she's not a tough target. A single joke about the dumb blonde host filling air time and making a dumb blonde mistake is one thing, but it felt like everyone in the cast got to take a shot at the unseen Simpson. And beyond the smugness of the jokes being about 3 years old (we might as well have brought up the great tuna/chicken debate or buffalo wings), the show's choice of Simpson seemed to dovetail with the Harry storyline. Tom and Simon (who are both dead to me) lectured Harry the whole episode that by posing in her underwear for some men's magazine, she's not going to stop losing parts to Debra Messing (really?), she's just going to play into the hands of those who fetishize the pious (are you listening, Jessica? What about you Kristin Chenoweth? I mean, not that you should be cause this in no way has anything to do with you. At all. For real.). I don't know what to tell you, kids. It wasn't as bad as the past few weeks, but it was no where near as entertaining as its pedigree would suggest.

Tolerance!

Isaiah Washington:
Cool, collected--maybe trying a wee bit too hard--class act.

Reunited and it feels so good

And I'm not just talking about the fact that Lily and Marshall are back together (yay!). Last night's episode of How I Met Your Mother was a reunion of Joss Whedon alums. Morena Baccarin of Firefly and Serenity displayed her comic chops as Marshall's crazy-eyed date Chloe, former Buffy star Alyson Hannigan is a series regular and although imdb doesn't list him, I'm pretty sure Tom Lenk (Buffy's Andrew) was Chloe's co-worker. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking...