Mikey Likes TV

How I Met Your Mother‘s return to the air wasn’t exactly a return to form. Last week’s episode had it’s moments, but it didn’t pack all the funny that over three months of downtime should have guaranteed. This lowered my already dismal expectations for this week’s Britney episode that would understandably include all of the pandering that generally comes with a stunt of this nature. I’m not upset with the decision. Mother is struggling, and if lowering their standards for one episode to grab a wider audience is what it takes to skirt a premature death, I can reconcile that.

Well, as it turns out, all of my nerves and over thinking were for naught. The Spearsy “Ten Sessions” was one of the best episodes of the season and saw Ted back as the giddy romantic we’ve barely gotten since the first season when he started courting Victoria, the cupcake girl. Mother never ceases to surprise me with their inventive ways to tell a story. Bouncing back and forth from the gang’s table at McLaren’s to Ted’s various visits to the dermatologist’s office was a nice method of keeping the focus on Ted. The supporting cast is the show’s greatest asset (as is often the case on TV), but it’s no reason to ignore the protagonist. Their departure from his journey towards matrimony is one reason why a lot of people became frustrated with the series. The third season is bringing him back into the loop.

So what about Britney? She was not bad, though her greatest success may have been her ability to not be completely awkward. The writers even gave her some pretty cherry lines. She botched one or two, and her hairline only completely distracted during one scene. Like the character she was playing, this girl is desperate in a way that’s almost endearing. She just wants a chance, and regardless of your feelings for her, it’s nice to see that she’s still more than a few bad days away from drowning in her own barf at the Hard Rock Hotel.

That’s not to say she was the highlight. Hell no. That came near the end when Ted treated the ever darling and hilarious Sarah Chalke to a two-minute date. I’m glad the Silverstone appearance fell through. Unless she was to arrive on set via a time machine from 1995, her charm would not have been in tact. The episode would not have been as tight. Chalke is a worthy sparring partner for Ted, and I hope the show took notice. The open-ended manner in which they left her storyline leads me to assume they did, but all this talk of Scrubs moving to ABC will put a speedy and to any potential return. Sad… I really wouldn’t mind if she ended up being your mother.

The episode earned high ratings, as did last week’s, so my naive heart feels that HIMYM will return for a fourth season. And for anyone who feels that it doesn’t deserve one, I offer the following clip as a rebuttal… just ignore that soundtrack.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… Few of this week’s post-strike news items were as exciting as CBS’s prompt order of nine more episodes of How I Met Your Mother that are slated to start airing as soon as March 17th. There hasn’t been a new episode of Mother since the early December, and it’s absence is responsible for one of the most painful holes in the Jarlsberg that is my viewing schedule. Too bad my moment in the sun was short-lived. The eye network announced their series guaranteed pickups for the 2008/2009 season this morning, and Mother was notably absent.

I really can’t understand why this show has had such a difficult time finding an audience. It’s far superior to any other comedy on CBS, yet they all do much better. It would be understandable if Mother was more similar to Arrested Development or The Office, but there’s no sophistication here that might alienate potential viewers. It is, quite frankly, a formulaic, multi-camera sitcom – a dying breed of show. And while most in its shrinking pool of contemporaries are still finding a wide audience (see every other show in CBS’s Monday lineup), none of them offer Mother‘s consistent humor minus the cliché. Their draw is something I will never be able to understand, and my frustrations are such that I could never fully communicate.

How I Met Your Mother will not be saved by a letter writing campaign or truckloads of yellow umbrellas. If it’s return next month isn’t marked by a solid improvement in ratings, it will probably not be back next year. I would blame the network, but it’s really not their fault. Three seasons have offered the show more than enough to time to grow an audience. The audience just isn’t biting. So if this really is the last season of How I Met Your Mother, the only ones at blame are the foolish people who wait to turn their dial to CBS until 8:30 and 9:00 every Monday to watch boring stereotypes and stale humor in favor of refreshing, intelligent comedy.

Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down. And How I Met Your Mother may falter, but it’s rarely anything short of legendary. This season is clearly not as consistently irreverent as the second. The pitfalls (and pratfalls) of standard sitcom puns and one-liners are proving to be quite the temptation for the folks over at Mother. They soldier on though, with more than enough moments of brilliance to compensate for the occasional cheesiness. Such was the case with last night’s long-awaited (seriously, the countdown started at 130 days or something) “Slapsgiving” episode.

What makes me love Mother more than all the others? Sure, it may have the best chemistry of any primetime comedic ensemble, the writing tends to tap into cultural moments with the speed of those fellas at South Park and the made-up words are often their biggest water cooler asset… but in the end, this show would be nothing without Neil Patrick Harris. For that matter, I would be nothing without Neil Patrick Harris. With one dated, hip-hop-referencing mispronunciation he can make a stale joke fresh as a daisy.

After all, Barney Stinson is probably the most perfectly crafted sitcom character there’s ever been. He sits on the outside, not a part of the show’s key relationships, the eternal bachelor for everyone’s amusement and a dependable sparring partner for the most fulfilling banter. His mechanically chauvinistic attitude should make him more of a caricature than a person, but instead of leaning too heavily towards a “Joey,” Barney’s neuroses and penchant for unpredictable emotional displays make him the most exciting part of the show. In last night’s episode, his cool collectedness melts away when the countdown to the third of his five impending slaps gets too short. So while everyone else is marveling over Jason Segal’s equally entertaining “You Just Got Slapped” ballad, there is only one moment from Slapsgiving that I’ll be incessantly replaying for the foreseeable future:

There just aren’t many shows on TV capable of making me laugh hysterically while simultaneously warming my cockles. Actually, there’s just one (all of my other comedies are too offensive to make me swoon). I’m speaking, of course, of How I Met Your Mother – the only show currently on CBS to not only capture m’heart but find a place on my extremely short list of shows I’ll go out of my way for to watch live.

Well, it’s back! And, having already seen the first episode, I can vouch for sustained whimsy and general awesomeness. Though it occasionally falters from the trappings of conventional sitcom-dom (in tonight’s episode, there’s a musical refrain with Enrique Iglesias), it always comes through in the end. And for every Enrique, there’s a Mandy Moore! After over a month of leaked publicity shots, you’ll finally get your chance to see her charm the pants off of Ted and Barney.

This season has a lot in store for us: Robin Sparkles redux, slap bet 2.0 and a considerable amount of development in the long-stagnant search for your mom. Are you sick of being an orphan yet? I’m not – she can take her sweet time. Check out my full review of the season premiere, and, if you haven’t already gotten on board, watch How I Met Your Mother tonight!

How I Met Your Mother airs tonight/Mondays at 8pm on CBS

With all of my other shows renewed, save Veronica who’s one nail shy of an airtight coffin, I now only wait to hear word on How I Met Your Mother. Last night’s finale, its 22nd masterpiece in a row, opened one door and closed many. Lily and Marshall galloped off to marital bliss and Barney continued to be uproariously funny (though void of any real character development), while Robin Scherbatsky and Ted Mosby, Architect, came to the most amicable of endings. Ted might not have met your mother in last night’s episode, but everything else seemed to be eerily wrapped in a series finale colored bow.

Ample references were made to the pilot episode (including obscure cameos), all five leads seemed happy and hopeful… even the final line was the show’s once signature catch phrase that seemed to have fallen by the wayside. I know it’s the pessimist in me, but almost everything about last night’s episode seemed final.

It’d be unfair for me to say that my love of HIMYM came from a place of genuine appreciation. I watched much of the first season solely in support of a most cherished Buffy alum. But I became endeared to the show, and by the end of the first season loved it for who it was. Then the second season defied all expectations when the cast, writers and directors all seemed to become comfortable with the unique pace and absurdist tone of what they’d created. At times it seems more like a live-action Family Guy than a conventional sitcom, but it works so well. And while millions of Americans fail to turn the dial to the eye network until Charlie Sheen and What’shisface come on to engage in clichéd banter with that creepy child, they are missing out. Mother is the best thing CBS has going, and if early reports speculating that they aren’t picking up any comedy pilots are true – they’re well aware.

Check this out for some particularly stellar Mother moments and cross your fingers for many seasons more.

UPDATE: No need for fingers, word came late this afternoon that How I Met Your Mother is indeed returning next season. Glory be!