Sunday, December 20, 2009
It's a little late, but here is my weekly review of How I Met Your Mother from last week.
HIMYM was a little controversial this week. The show is told as one big story a father is telling his two kids in the future. This allows for some flexibility in the continuity of the storyline. They can do stuff like insert a bartender into scenes from a previous year by asking if he had mentioned the bartender before. They can hint at a forthcoming event by mentioning it, then have the narrator simply say that it must have happened a year later. And since it is a father talking to his kids, he often cleans up certain activities like changing "marijauna" to "sandwich". (Still, it's amazing what he does tell his kids.)
So this week it is revealed that the whole gang smoked. The father had not mentioned this before cause he didn't want his kids to know him or their aunts and uncles smoked. Now I know a couple people who didn't like this episode cause it centered around smoking and liked the characters less because they smoked. Now they are only a couple years younger than me. While we grew up in the "smoking is bad" era, we didn't grow up in the "smoking is evil and everyone who does it is also" era. Most groups of people around my age has atleast one person who either smokes or has quit smoking recently. Also, it's not like they were unapologetic smokers. They, like alot of smokers, were trying to quit and would quit for extended periods of time. Anyway, they are the same people we knew, only with an additional flaw. If your opinion of them changed from love to hate because you found out they once smoked, then that says more about you than it does them. And I really liked the last scene where they said when each quit for good and that made the rest of the episdoe worth while. Knowing that Lily and Marshall both quit for their first kid and Ted quit for his wife added an additional quality to them, especially the relationship between Ted and "the mother".
So yeah, I like the episode. It was good. I'm not sure how I feel about Robin's new love interest, but I like the idea that local anchormen and women don't wear pants behind the desk and don't care what happens cause nobody is watching. As someone who once hosted a radio show that nobody listened to, I can relate.
On BBT, you had another guest star this week. Christine Baranski returned as Leonard's mother. She annoys me more often than not, but her interacting with Penny and not just giving her opinion and blowing off anyone else's point of view as ignorance let to some funny moments. Her insistence that Howard and Rejesh are gay makes for hilarious moment. And having Penny teaching her to drink, having her want to hit on the busboy and then kissing Sheldon was genius. But lets face it. Making Sheldon uncomfortable is always good for quality laughs.
I'm judging this week on most amounts I had full loud laughs. Both were funny, but BBT gets the win and takes the lead in the season series 6-5.
HIMYM was a little controversial this week. The show is told as one big story a father is telling his two kids in the future. This allows for some flexibility in the continuity of the storyline. They can do stuff like insert a bartender into scenes from a previous year by asking if he had mentioned the bartender before. They can hint at a forthcoming event by mentioning it, then have the narrator simply say that it must have happened a year later. And since it is a father talking to his kids, he often cleans up certain activities like changing "marijauna" to "sandwich". (Still, it's amazing what he does tell his kids.)
So this week it is revealed that the whole gang smoked. The father had not mentioned this before cause he didn't want his kids to know him or their aunts and uncles smoked. Now I know a couple people who didn't like this episode cause it centered around smoking and liked the characters less because they smoked. Now they are only a couple years younger than me. While we grew up in the "smoking is bad" era, we didn't grow up in the "smoking is evil and everyone who does it is also" era. Most groups of people around my age has atleast one person who either smokes or has quit smoking recently. Also, it's not like they were unapologetic smokers. They, like alot of smokers, were trying to quit and would quit for extended periods of time. Anyway, they are the same people we knew, only with an additional flaw. If your opinion of them changed from love to hate because you found out they once smoked, then that says more about you than it does them. And I really liked the last scene where they said when each quit for good and that made the rest of the episdoe worth while. Knowing that Lily and Marshall both quit for their first kid and Ted quit for his wife added an additional quality to them, especially the relationship between Ted and "the mother".
So yeah, I like the episode. It was good. I'm not sure how I feel about Robin's new love interest, but I like the idea that local anchormen and women don't wear pants behind the desk and don't care what happens cause nobody is watching. As someone who once hosted a radio show that nobody listened to, I can relate.
On BBT, you had another guest star this week. Christine Baranski returned as Leonard's mother. She annoys me more often than not, but her interacting with Penny and not just giving her opinion and blowing off anyone else's point of view as ignorance let to some funny moments. Her insistence that Howard and Rejesh are gay makes for hilarious moment. And having Penny teaching her to drink, having her want to hit on the busboy and then kissing Sheldon was genius. But lets face it. Making Sheldon uncomfortable is always good for quality laughs.
I'm judging this week on most amounts I had full loud laughs. Both were funny, but BBT gets the win and takes the lead in the season series 6-5.
Labels: BBT, competition, HIMYM
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Yesterday was new episodes of How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory.
HIMYM had a funny episode about "The Window", referring to the window of time when the girl of your dreams become available. The girl has to be so special that she never stays single for long. I know more than I care to about "Windows". So this episodes hit some familiar nerves for me. Also Joanna Garcia is an actress who is perfect for Maggie, the girl next door of Ted's dream. I loved her in Reba and wanted to watch Priviledged because of her. Barney is overalls trying to pick up women and the rest of the gang trying to keep guys away from Joanna's character while Ted is teaching class was top notch, except for Robin's acting desperate for an uninterested guy to keep him away from Maggie. Whenever Robin acts desperate, I cringe. Usually the more together she is, the funnier (and hotter) she is.
On BBT, Howard's girlfriend gets interested in Leonard's work causing Howard and Penny to get jealous. Howard because he's afraid he'll lose his girl to Leonard and Penny cause she can't talk to Leonard about his work. This causes Penny to convince Sheldon to teach her about Physics. This leads to alot fo Penny/Sheldon scenes. Penny/Sheldon scenes are among the funniest scenes ever on the show and this week didn't disappoint.
Both shows had quality episodes this week. But BBT had less weakness (Howard>Robin) and more laugh-really-loud-out-loud moments. The season standing is once again tied: HIMYM:5-BBT:5.
HIMYM had a funny episode about "The Window", referring to the window of time when the girl of your dreams become available. The girl has to be so special that she never stays single for long. I know more than I care to about "Windows". So this episodes hit some familiar nerves for me. Also Joanna Garcia is an actress who is perfect for Maggie, the girl next door of Ted's dream. I loved her in Reba and wanted to watch Priviledged because of her. Barney is overalls trying to pick up women and the rest of the gang trying to keep guys away from Joanna's character while Ted is teaching class was top notch, except for Robin's acting desperate for an uninterested guy to keep him away from Maggie. Whenever Robin acts desperate, I cringe. Usually the more together she is, the funnier (and hotter) she is.
On BBT, Howard's girlfriend gets interested in Leonard's work causing Howard and Penny to get jealous. Howard because he's afraid he'll lose his girl to Leonard and Penny cause she can't talk to Leonard about his work. This causes Penny to convince Sheldon to teach her about Physics. This leads to alot fo Penny/Sheldon scenes. Penny/Sheldon scenes are among the funniest scenes ever on the show and this week didn't disappoint.
Both shows had quality episodes this week. But BBT had less weakness (Howard>Robin) and more laugh-really-loud-out-loud moments. The season standing is once again tied: HIMYM:5-BBT:5.
Labels: BBT, competition, HIMYM, review
Sunday, December 06, 2009
This television season, I've been writing on Plurk (http://www.plurk.com/PittsburghTom) giving brief reviews each week of How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory. I've then declared a weekly winner and keeping track of the standings. Last week were repeats, but I never wrote the review for the episodes the week before. Starting with this week, I'll start posting the reviews and winner here. The season series stand at a 4-4 tie.
On HIMYM, it was the thanksgiving episode, or should I say the Slapsgiving episode. It was a classic, as any of the show's "Slap bet"-related episode are. Chris Eliot was the only weakness of the episode. His style of comedy clashed with the rest of the show. But how could you not love the fact that the episode ended with a commercial for the Slap Bet game.
On BBT, the main plot centered around him being humiliated by a Kripke prank. Sheldon goes back to Texas to hide at his mom's. This means another hilarious appearance from Laurie Metcalf. It ends with Sheldon getting revenge on Kripke in a prank I would like to try.
For a second week in a row, BBT put on an episode that would win most weeks, but all HIMYM had to do was say the word SLAP then live up to the expectations. HIMYM takes the lead 5-4.
Labels: BBT, competition, HIMYM, tv
