Really Long German Word

I went out after work last night (yes, I have a life) and didn't get to watch HIMYM until I got home this evening. To be honest, I wasn't that impressed. Last night's episode was OK, but a definite step down from last week's Slapsgiving. Here's the rundown:

Ted has one of those moments where he realizes he's out of shape (I have one of those moments every morning when I get out of the shower.......ugghhh), so he decides that its time for all of them to join a gym. This results in the night's two funniest moments, neither of which have to do with the A-plot, so I'll leave them for later. Barney already belongs to gym, but he doesn't work out there. Instead, he "invests"--he chats up overweight girls so that they'll remember him when they get skinny. The man might be an innovator, but he also might be crazy. While ordering a smoothie, Barney encounters Rhonda, his mom's chain smoking friend who he lost his virginity to. There's one small catch: Rhonda has no idea who he is. Apparently Barney wasn't as good out of the gate as he thought he was. We flashback to a grungy, ponytail Barney, who has just been dumped by the girl he was saving himself for. In attempt to get him back on his feet his brother (again played by Wayne Brady, who does a really good job with the not-out-of-the-closet-yet jokes) gets Rhonda to sleep with him and tell him he was great. I think one of those shattering glass noises from a couple of episodes ago would be appropriate here, given how Barney just falls apart as he realizes his entire sexual career is based on a lie.

In an attempt to turn things around, Barney scores three passes to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show afterparty (hey, what do you know! The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is going to air on CBS next week!). He makes a bee line for the first supermodel he sees and totally strikes out. So he moves on the second. And strikes out. And the third. And.....you get the picture. Apparently Barney has a case of "the yips," meaning that he is incapable of hitting on girls. I always thought it was called "horribly awkward in social situations," but I'm not one to turn down a new catchphrase. Barney spots Heidi Klum (who is so freaking hot I thought my computer screen might melt) in the crowd, but instead of talking to her, he just makes noises at her, then goes to a table and cries. Heidi asks Ted if he's ok, and Ted tells her he has the yips. Heidi sympathizes and says that in Germany they call it (really long German word which she will repeat again--it's a good moment). She then cheers him and tells him to get back on the saddle by sleeping with Rhonda and actually "rocking her world" this time. After some standard back and forth between Barney and Rhonda which I don't feel like recounting because it wasn't really that funny, Barney does the deed and gets right back to his old self.

The side plots revolve around the gym and give us the two funny moments I referenced earlier. Funny moment one: Marshall's cut, petite female trainer calling him a little bitch. That was great. Funny moment two: Robin grunting as she does bench presses with Ted looking on. Cobie Smulders can pull off the physical comedy quite well.

And that's the episode. There's only one more left (unless the strike ends this week--keep your fingers crossed!), so I guess I should have savored this one a bit more. But I didn't. Eh.

Chicken Soup Has Returned!

I love Thanksgiving. The food is always good, the company is always interesting (especially if you spend Thanksgiving with my family--think "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" but with Italian people), and I always go to sleep happy. Especially this year, since TV gave me a little surprise--the return of "October Road." I had no idea that I when I turned on the TV at home Thursday night, I would find the show that I defended so vehemently last spring. Now, don't get me wrong, I know "October Road" is NOT good TV. The plotlines are silly and bordering on saccharine, and the dialogue is so melodramatic that sometimes I want to vomit. But sometimes, saccharine and melodramatic are exactly what I need from a TV show. When friends used to ask why I would ever watch such a crappy show, I would say "It's like chicken soup" (because it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside--I'm a clever one, aren't I?). So for all of you out there who think that I'm completely insane, I can only say: (1) Shut up, b/c I won't be blogging about it b/c I know I'm the only fan and (2) What do you have against chicken soup, hmm? Don't you like feeling happy? And with that, I'll leave you to enjoy the few remaining hours of Thanksgiving weekend.

Toeing the Line

Since I was out of town all weekend, I didn't have a chance to catch Friday Night Lights (aka The Perfect Show) until tonight. As many of you that have been watching know, the show has been good this season, but there have been some problems (Tyra and Landry, I'm looking at you). In the past couple weeks, the show has gotten back on point, but this last episode concerns me. Here's why: FNL has always (and when I say "always" I mean "the perfection of Season 1") been about subtle drama. The things we loved were the little things: the nervous way Matt used to talk to Julie, the small moments between Coach and Mrs. Taylor, that one episode where Tyra has dinner at the Taylor's house and she's both delighted and disappointed at the same time, etc., etc., you get the idea. By contrast, this past episode hits you over the head with exposition. Here's the rundown:

The small town event of the week this episode is Pantherama, which from what I can gather is some kind of pep rally on steroids. Mrs. Taylor, who planned the whole event last year, is far too busy now with the new baby to be able to do it again this year, so she enlists the help of Tyra and Lyla to plan the entertainment portion of the event. The girls, making great use of their natural gifts, i.e. their hot bodies, get the football team to perform a striptease at the event, pushing the boundaries of decorum for many of the adults in attendance, who ultimately seem to like it, and Mrs. Taylor, who does not. Matt, who for the first half of the episode interacts cutely with his new girlfriend (although I'll be damned if I can remember her name.....Leslie, maybe?), has trouble with the dance and gets help from his grandmother's sexy Latin nurse. Her reward? A kiss from our QB 1, which should be totally inappropriate, but doesn't seem to be given the looks they were shooting each other the next morning over breakfast. Yeah, that relationship definitely ain't kosher and is way too soapy for my liking. There's enough of a story with Matt just dating the new girl and getting over Julie, no need to add the older hot Latina into the mix.

Speaking of Julie, she's apparently part of the school newspaper, where her assignment this week is to write an article about Pantherama which is supposed to focus on the seedy underbelly of the event. You know what I'm talking about: one of those articles that's supposed to expose school corruption that would definitely never get published in the real world b/c the faculty adviser would be too afraid of pissing the administration off. Speaking of the faculty adviser, he's a new young teacher who went to Columbia and worked at a newspaper and is supposed to be all cool and interesting. He and Julie become friendly after she ducks into his classroom to avoid Matt and his new girlfriend and then starts crying and tells him the whole story, blah, blah, blah, we all know where this is going. In fact, I knew where this was going as soon I saw her go into that room. I swear I could "Don't Stand So Close to Me" by The Police playing in the background. It wasn't? Well it should have been. Even Mrs. Taylor thinks so because she does not respond well to finding the two of them talking alone together in his classroom. Have I mentioned how awesome she is?

In a plotwise unrelated but episode-theme related coincidence, this week also happens to be the first week that college recruiters can talk to senior Panther players about scholarships and the like. Smash is as excited as a geek on a visit to the Lucas Ranch (what, you thought I was going to make a sports reference?) He sees this as his first step towards the pros and he'll do anything to make it happen, even if it means going against Coach's instructions and possibly damaging his high school eligibility. Some might say Smash crosses a line here. Are you sensing a theme yet?

Tim decides to move out his house because his brother and the older lady from next door that he used to do the nasty nasty with have been spending too much in the house. He stays with Tyra for two nights, but she makes him leave after that because if he stayed any longer it would be crossing the line (did I just say that again?) So he moves in with some guy with ferrets. Yeah.

And finally we have Santiago (Lyla's project, remember?). It turns out he has no legal guardian, which just makes me feel even worse for this guy, because he seems ok. Until he gets one, Mrs. Taylor won't clear to play on the team as Tim's replacement. Coach's solution? Let Buddy Garrity become his legal guardian. Great idea coach, given how much his other kids still like him. The episode ends with Santiago moving into Buddy's apartment and Buddy apologizing for the room being so small. Santiago doesn't mind, though, because it's his first real bed. Way to make choke up, show, way to make me choke up.

I think the Santiago and Lyla/Tyra storylines were the strong ones tonight, as they were believable but not over the top (some might say the Santiago one is, but given that Buddy's always been over the top, I think it fits). The Smash plot was also fairly realistic, but I didn't like b/c I don't want Smash screwing things up for himself. The weak storylines: Julie's and Matt's. Can we stop having these two hook up with inappropriate people, please? This is not The O.C., thank you very much.

So what do you guys think? Is the show staying too soapy? Would you like if it did? (If you answer yes to this question, we can longer be friends). One final piece of good news: FNL will have 15 episodes completed once they finish filming all of the scripts that were written before the writer's strike, meaning that the show will stick around for a while after all of your other favorite shows go off the air. That's something to make sure your thankful for as you gorge yourself on turkey on Thursday.

Picking Up Steam

I'm glad I waited until this morning to write this post, because it gave me the opportunity to have a nice, insightful conversation with one of my friends about what's been going on with this show lately. I think some poor choices were certainly made early on in the season (which fyi Tim Kring has apologized for), but I think it's still going to take some time for people to get back on aboard. That being said, I think the last two episodes have gone a long way to making that happen. That and the fact that Kristen Bell is smoking hot. Yeah.

I think the main reason last night's episode was much better is that (a) we're starting to move towards the resolution of the virus/old heroes dying plots which means (b) our characters are starting to cross paths again. The Bennet family is preparing to flee since Mr. Bennett can't deal with the fact that Claire has a boyfriend and is making friends at school (albeit by faking her own death to make another girl look stupid and thus exposing herself, but who's keeping track?) Mr. Bennett is not without reason, though, as Bob, Mohinder, and Veronica Mars (ok, I'll call her Elle from here on out) are hot on their trail. Mohinder wants to find Claire so he can save Niki from the virus, although I think we would be better off letting Crazy just pass on, because frankly I'm sick of her. Bob, on the other hand, is out to get rid of Mr. Bennett. Apparently we can only have one middle-aged, glasses-wearing white guy on this show. The three want to set a trap for Bennett which involves Elle shooting lighting, which is never a bad thing. Claire's boyfriend West, who has recently figured out that he was abducted by Mr. Bennett as a child, confronts him but then offers his help when Claire is in danger. One might say he wants to "play the hero." (Wop, wop) When the two are confronted by Elle and Mohinder, some quick work on their part allows them to take Elle hostage and use her as collateral to get Claire back. And given that we've all seen Isaac's paintings, we know how this plays out: Bennett gets shot in the eye and dies. End scene.....wait, it's not over? No it's not: Mohinder uses some of the blood Bob collected from Claire to revive Bennett, who wakes up in a company holding cell in shock and says 'Holy ---," just like his daughter did a year ago in the medical examiner's office. Nice touch, show, nice touch.

In the B-plot, Hiro can't deal with his father's death, so he decides to go back in time to stop it, but instead Papa Nakamura teaches him that just because one can change time, one shouldn't. This would have been a useful lesson four episodes ago when Hiro was still acting idiotically in Japan. And in the C-plot, Parkman realizes that not only that he can hear other people's thoughts but he call also transmit mental commands to them as well. He uses this newfound ability to interrogate Mama Petrelli as to why Adam/Kensei is killing all the old-people (they locked him up, and oh, p.s. he's immortal) and the identity of the unknown woman in the old Heroes photograph (her name is Victoria Pratt, and she will eventually played by Joanna Cassidy, who was in lots of things but whom I can only remember as the boss from Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead).

Noticeably and welcomely absent from this episode were the Wonder Twins, whom I can only hope are dead in the desert somewhere. Seriously.

Ok, that's it for this week. I'd like to hear thoughts about the way people feel about Heroes lately, since I'm beginning to get way too biased to be objective (although you have to give me props for cutting down on the Kristen Bell rhetoric-although you should all know that she is the Best. Actress. Ever.)

Happy Slapsgiving Everybody

So its been a loooong time since my last post. Every time I sat down to write another update something would come up and I would put it off. I wasn't even planning on writing an update tonight, but then something magical happened. what was that magical thing, you ask? Slapsgiving.

This was, by far, the best HIMYM episode of the season, in my humble opinion. It had all of the required elements: generic life event (first Thanksgiving with friends), funny catchphrases (relapse five--that's a high five, then an awkward pause, then another high five), inside joke (the title of the episode pretty much sums it all up), and that moment that makes you say "Aww, I wish these were my friends" (I'm looking at you Robin and Ted).

The quick rundown: Lily's is cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the group as its her and Marshall's first holiday together. She wants everything to go perfectly, but the others, lord bless them, make sure that that doesn't happen. Marshall chose Thanksgiving as the day when he would deliver his third slap to Barney (you remember slap bet, don't you?) and as such has rechristened the holiday as Slapsgiving. Robin, who thinks of Canadian Thanksgiving as the real Thanksgiving, invites her current beau, Bob, to spend the holiday with the group. Bob happens to be 41, which means Ted can make lots of jokes about him being old as dirt, which Ted of course does. Coincidentally, Ted does so when making pies alone with Robin. This leads to an argument, which then leads to sex. The next day at Thanksgiving, Robin and Ted gossip with Lily and Marshall and Barney, respectively. Robin, like a normal, healthy adult would like to talk about what happened. Ted, like a man, would rather pretend that nothing happened. If I had a dollar for every awkward hookup that I pretended didn't happen the next day, I would have a lot of dollars. Well not a lot, but several. Well, actually a lot. But enough about that. After Lily locks the two of them in Ted's bedroom, they decide that they're not really friends and haven't been since they broke up, so they decide that after dinner, they'll stop pretending to be and go there separate ways. Sniffle, sniffle. That is until Marshall's speech at dinner which leads the two of them to do that thing that really good friends do: say something at the same and look at each other and giggle. That leads to the best voiceover ever: "Friendship is like a reflex. It just happens." Do you hear that sound? It's my heart inflating by three sizes. Sigh.

What, I'm forgetting something? Oh yeah Barney get SLAPPED as the slap countdown clock runs out. Afterwards, Marshall sings a very Manilow-esque ditty about getting slapped and all is right with the world. Happy Slapsgiving everybody.

Apologies

So my life has gotten a little out of control lately. Work got busy, friends came to visit, and I didn't have time to blog. But due to popular demand, I feel compelled to resume blogging. So I will, starting tonight. HIMYM and Heroes updates to follow.