It is the TV version of Christmas (or is it Hanukah?): Premiere week. So I am going to give my thoughts on two old favorites and two new ones.
The first favorite: How I Met Your Mother. Last year was eh: some great episodes, some not funny at all episodes. We wasted a lot of time with Zoey who was neither funny, fun, interesting, nor the mother. However, we did find out where Ted finally meets the mother and that Barney will in fact get married. Monday’s double feature premiere was not exactly pantheon material but it was entertaining and a good start to what hopefully will be a solid year for the show. It was great seeing Jason Segel actually get to be Jason Segel between taking shots for two at Punchy’s wedding and beating an old college friend (played by Sunny alum Jimmi Simpson aka Liam McPoyle) in everyone’s favorite Edward 40 hands. I’m also interested to seem how the intricacies of the Barney, Nora, Robin triangle works out. Clearly Bays and Carter want us to think that both are in the running to be Barney’s wife. Here’s hoping that they don’t drag that mystery out like they have at times with who is the mother; if it is coming soon great, if not please keep it out of sight/ out of mind. We also had three returns with Ted: great chemistry between Josh Radnor and Cobie Smulders (Ted and Robin), Ted’s incredible douchiness (played surprisingly entertainingly with the magazine cover at the newsstand), and finally the big bombshell: Victoria. I don’t know how I feel about this; my gut reaction was “not another non-mother relationship that isn’t interesting.” But then I thought: there is a lot of unfinished business between Ted and Victoria, Radnor and Ashley Williams do work well together (can’t say the same Jennifer Morrison aka Zoey), Ted is in kind of a dark place as far as given up on the “the one concept.” Victoria could be a great relationship to put Ted one step closer to the ever-elusive Mother.
Now for the two new shows. I’m guessing the success of Bridesmaids had ripple effects in TV (no not Melissa McCarthy getting an Emmy for it even though the show she “won” it for is mediocre at best). Both CBS and Fox have rolled out female centered comedies that have potential. 2 Broke Girls debuted Monday and I have to say I was not impressed. Kat Dennings was Kat Dennings, who is hilarious, intelligent and witty in her role for the most part. Beth Behrs’ Caroline kind of fell flat. Half of the episode she was a clueless spoiled brat. The second half she showed she is actually very deserving of a degree from Wharton Business School. Hopefully the writers pick the latter approach because it will be nice to see a smarter-than-she-holds-herself-out-to-be character. I am ambivalent on the goal of a cupcake shop; it could be a great plot engine, but it very well could get in the way by narrowing the focus to the point of no options but to drag out one long quest, and CBS already has one of those. We didn’t see enough of any other characters to think of them as anything more than trite clichés, so there is some work to be done. That being said, the show will probably get a few more than my usual three episodes of proof to make the rotation.
Tuesday night brought Fox’s version with The New Girl starring the charming Zooey Deschanel. Again, a lot of potential, but not much that went well in the pilot. The Dirty Dancing thing barely worked out well. The hysterical crying while watching it was too much for sure, but at the end when the guys serenaded her in the restaurant was a nice moment. I’m also not crazy about the singing to herself all the time. I love, love, love Deschanel’s voice (watch Elf and tell me the girl can’t croon), but the weird theme songs not only did not showcase it, but felt forced and awkward. I understand that the whole point of her character is to be awkward, but this just didn’t seem to fit. Deschanel is very charismatic on screen and it is interesting and entertaining to see her not as some untouchable mega-babe, but as a delightfully nerdy (she dropped a Gandalf AND a Smeagol reference) goof. The roommates did not show me much besides a great alternative to a swear jar (a douche jar!). Like 2 Broke Girls there is tons of potential that just needs some time to work the kinks out. More than 3 episodes for this one too.
Lastly, there is Emmy award winning Modern Family. It is hard for me to write about Modern Family because there doesn’t seem to be a steaming narrative. Each episode seems to be its own capsule easily digested individually. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this approach. As long as the show stays clever and poignant towards family dynamics it will remain entertaining. Tonight had great jokes, like Dylan thinking Claire was hitting on him, or Phil flirting in the grocery store. There were great plots: Alex’s first kiss, Mitch trying to be manly, Manny under pressure. There were great sub-plots: the attic, firecrackers. There were great gags/ one-liners (Gloria’s ears, Phil’s “only we can touch our women when they don’t want us to”). There were a few things I didn’t like. First, possibly as a result of the individual serving quality, the Phil trying to win Jay’s approval has already been done and supposedly resolved. Second, the Claire doing something crazy to prove she was right is a cliché sitcom trope that didn’t work even if there was the “where did you get it from” piece. And thirdly, I am getting a little weary of Mitchell thinking Cam wrong only for him to be the one in the wrong. I feel like they’ve done it at least once and this time, while mildly amusing, this joke has diminishing returns. Overall though, it was everything it has been the last two years, which rightfully won it many Emmys.
