Two of the best sitcoms on television right now are back-to-back on CBS every Monday. How I Met Your Mother and The Class are both very funny, quite intelligent, and extremely interesting to follow. However, both have very little diversity: all characters are white, generally affluent, and fairly homogenous, outside of one gay character on The Class. It’s a shame that such great writing and such great acting can’t be accompanied by a little diversity. The Class just killed off Lucy Punch’s Holly Ellenbogen character, so perhaps she will be replaced by someone more diverse.
That said, both shows are rolling on all cylinders. The Class has an amazing cast, including Jason Ritter (son of John), and the plotlines manage to stay interesting despite the fact that everyone reunited only recently. As a viewer, I am very interested to see what happens to these characters, and the overall plot advances without diminishing the value of any single episode.
How I Met Your Mother has an advantage because all of the characters grew up together. Again the plotlines advance without hurting the individual episodes. And the acting is great, especially Neil Patrick Harris (you may know him as Doogie Howser), who plays the Quagmire role perfectly.
There is no shortage of talent on either show, only diversity. I will definitely continue to watch and perhaps CBS will decide to improve in that area.
