Tuesday, April 29, 2008

A tale of two TV shows...


Interesting contrast last night as "House" returned to the air for a short run of hastily written post-strike episodes, meanwhile "How I Met Your Mother" continued its dominating post-strike performance.

Why is a half-hour sitcom coming off the strike with fresh energy and renewed enthusiasm, while "House," which had the greatest first-half of a season, like, ever last fall, comes back with a half-assed, rote, formulaic mess of an episode? "House" was sort of in a transitional phase with its post-"Survivor" switch to the new team. But it certainly had the elements in place for a triumphant return. Wilson's love life alone should be enough for a half-season of comedy gold. But no, we got... this. Blech.

Meanwhile, "HIMYM?" Brilliance, even if it couldn't top last week's Robin Sparkles shocker. Barnabus Stimson. Gold, I tell ya.

2 Comments:

At 6:58 PM, April 30, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said...

andy what is your infatuation with HIMYM?? because you seemed so smitten with this show,.i watched
the robin sparkles episode of last week..as randy jackson would say "it was just aigh't for me" i mean really...compared to more elegantly stuctured comedies of say the office or 30 rock..it was just not that good...amusing kind of cute at times and kinda funny at times..so, please enlighten me. i agree though that House was not up to its usual standards..

 
At 7:33 AM, May 01, 2008, Blogger AndyW said...

It's a show that builds on itself. The more you watch, the closer you pay attention, the funnier it is. "30 Rock" has some of the same elements, but "30 Rock" is a comedy in the "Arrested Development" mold - it's extremely funny, but kind of cold. You can't relate to the characters. HIMYM sort of dances along that line, giving a nod to traditional sitcom conventions, while also playing with them. It's also very loyal to its format, often mixing up timelines, telling the story from different points of view, and so on. It's not any one joke that makes it great, it's the whole of the thing.

 

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