[/caption]The sweeps period of the television season always contains stunt casting and substantial plot development and movement. If you watch lousy prime-time soaps like Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, Brothers & Sisters and Desperate Housewives then expect over-the-top melodrama--the type of stuff that will send you racing towards your facebook page to tell all of your friends how you surprised or shocked you are.
Of course, the arrival of sweeps means that the first extended hiatus for network shows looms so each show wants to leave the audience wanting more. Essentially, the network television season consists of three acts. Some shows have embraced the term "Fall Finale."
November sweeps grants me the opportunity to write about some shows that I watch and that I choose not to write about on a weekly basis. November is the month of Thanksgiving as well. Expect something similar to the Halloween Re-Watch with old shows.
Anywho, How I Met Your Mother is a show I haven't written about since the premiere so allow me the opportunity to write about the season thus far as well as the latest episode.
-Since the premiere episode, and the flashforward to the day Ted will meet the mother, absolute zero progress has been made in the central narrative of the show. Craig Bays and Carter Thomas promised they'd tell substantial character stories and move away from the stand-alone episodes. Well, the showrunners lied. The episodes so far have set up character stories like Barney and his father or the baby storyline with Marshall and Lily; however, Robin is involved in the same plot and Ted continues to waste time.
-Robin's co-anchor is someone who annoys her. The 'annoying co-anchor' happened last season with Don. Robin and Don entered into the greatest romance of all-time according to future Ted. Unfortunately, the writers never showed the relationship and only told the viewers that Robin and Don were what Romeo and Juliet would've been had they not acted so impulsively. The Robin plot of "Caning Ready" revolved around who she slept with at the Halloween party. I kept waiting for the writers to put the button on the annoying co-anchor storyline by placing Robin in a romantic relationship with the girl. Robin merely filmed a commercial to one-up her co-worker. Blah.
-Ted's storyline thus far has involved his professional ambitions. His work as a professor is successful and he mulled an opportunity to build a GNB building in Manhattan, only because an old building would have to be destroyed. This led to the introduction of Zoey, portrayed by the lovely Jennifer Morrison. Ted nearly turned down the job because he was attracted to Zoey; however, she's married and Ted began a war with her. I hoped Jennifer Morrison's character would be the mother when news broke that she'd join the show because I love Jennifer Morrison. I'm not sure what the House producers were smoking when they decided to get rid of Jennifer Morrison. Morrison was among the few bright spots in the fifth season of Dawson's Creek. I digress. The point: Jennifer Morrison is awesome.
-The Marshall and Lily storyline has been poor. Maybe the baby storyline in TV has run dry. Baby storylines are usually yawners. They end two ways: happily or dramatically, and the writers then spend episodes focused on baby hijinx storylines. As good as ANGEL was throughout its run, even they couldn't resist a terrible episode with baby hijinx (of course the episode featured blood thirsty demon clans trying to kidnap the baby but the episode isn't good and the writers were wise to age Connor 18 years). Hopefully Marshall and Lily decide to have a baby after the show has ended, thus I won't have to watch it.
How I Met Your Mother has many episodes left for the season to be considered a success and, hopefully, November sweeps brings something good out of How I Met Your Mother.
SCREENPLAY OF THE DAY
Knocked Up--Written By Judd Apatow--http://awards.universalpictures.com/pdf/knockedup.pdf
THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK
Will Forte and Jennifer Morrison guest starred in tonight's episode of How I Met Your Mother, which means one thing: November sweeps is upon us. Also, Claude Giroux is insanely talented.
1 comment:
Great review. But i have to disagree with you about Jen Morrison. I liked her in House but i find her terribly weak in this show. For me this is the worst casting mistake in the whole series.
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