Laura's TV Round Up, Week 12

1. HIMYM – I thought the Maggie character wouldn’t have made a bad mother, but it was clear from the start that she wasn’t going to pan out. Still, I like the direction the writers seem to be taking, which is having Ted go back to that romantic, I want to get married person he was in the first season. I understand that he needed to go away for awhile after the whole being left at the altar incident, but it’s good to have him back. Once again, I really feel like they’re writing episodes with good premise but the actual follow through is somewhat lacking. I don’t mind Barney’s overall challenge, but most of Robin’s farmer jokes fell flat. I loved teenage Marshall, but felt like that storyline should have been in an episode that could have giving it more screen time. I sometimes feel like Robin is a character that they alter with time to suit their purposes – Robin of past would have had no problem keeping Maggie’s suitor away...Or at least would have done a way better job flirting with him than she did. And speaking of Robin, what happened to the coworker she met a couple of episodes ago (when it was implied that she’d have a serious relationship with him in the future)? Licky boom boom down.

2. Scrubs – I missed the beginning again, but there were definitely some laughs in the episode. Maybe I’ll catch an entire episode next week and be able to give an actual opinion.

3. Modern Family – Still not a very big fan of the voiceovers at the end. Voiceovers always seem like cheating to me; unless you’re revealing a character’s internal dialogue (Scrubs is an example because all the mental images come to life wouldn’t work without narration, but even they take it too far at times); it seems to me that if you’re writing well enough, the actions of the story itself should be able to make the ending, not a paragraph read by a person off screen. I think I’d be okay with it on Modern Family if they made someone being interviewed saying it (even then, turn down the sappy sweet), but as a voiceover, I just don’t like it. But aside from that, I really enjoyed this episode. The best part was Fred Willard as Phil’s dad...I don’t think there’s ever been better casting than that.

4. Glee:

- If you want us to be concerned when the other schools are stealing their songs and they have to rush at the last minute to come up with something else, don’t show them practicing approximately 11 billion songs throughout the season. There is no way they needed to do “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” when they’ve done eight hundred other things.

- That song always reminds me of House, so it was weird to see it on a different Fox show.

- I do not believe all of those people keeping the Quinn-Puck secret. Okay, maybe Santana because she wanted Puck to himself and Brittany because she’s really too dumb to know better, but you cannot tell me that Kurt would have resisted an opportunity to break Finn and Quinn up.

- I’m very happy with the secret being out in the open, but wish it wouldn’t have been done two seconds before sectionals. Finn as the hero swooping in at the last second didn’t do much for me. Probably because I’m not a huge fan of his, but it felt more contrived than this show usually does.

- I feel like the writing for Sue has been a little sloppy in the last few weeks. Jane Lynch is still bringing it, but the lines she’s been given aren’t as wonderful as they were earlier in the season. That being said, I loved her telling Figgins he had no proof of anything.

- I would love to see Sue on vacation terrorizing people in the tropics.

- Loved Will’s reactions as he listened to the club through the phone.

- I like the idea of Emma and Will together, but I’m still a little bugged by the fact that they both had feelings for each other while Will was still with his supposedly pregnant wife. I want to like them more than I do, but that just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The scenes with them together were very good.

- Emma’s wedding dress reminded me of one of the dresses my sister designed/made while she was in college.

- I think it’s incredibly stupid of the producers (or whoever makes these decisions) to have the show off the air until April. I think it would have made sense to stretch the episodes out, maybe finish them up in February and then take a month or so off. But taking over three months off when you have a loyal fan base willing to watch the show? Don’t give me that American Idol is going to be on bullshit – You can find somewhere else in your schedule for it, and I actually think pairing the show with American Idol makes some sense (get me straight: I loathe American Idol, but I understand that the same people who watch Glee might also watch the Ryan Secreast tool/douchebag hour). I’m considering giving the producers a kitty cat and then punching them in the face.