Jericho or How I Met Your Mother?

With Friday Night Lights finished for the year, the battle for Best Show On Television comes down to a sitcom, How I Met Your Mother, and an action-adventure show that shot past 24, by a mile, in Jericho. This week’s How I Met Your Mother was great, but Jericho was better.

Barney showed his awesomeness yet again, winning every possible prize on The Price Is Right, and encountered someone who might be his real father. Lillypad and Marshmallow finally got married, and all sorts of other hilarity ensued. But it can’t match tonight’s Jericho. The town is headed to war against New Bern, a neighbor led by Timothy Omundson (Lassiter from Psych). New Bern has amassed military supplies and weapons, and seems to be a formidable foe. Jericho is at the ready, led by Robert Hawkins and Jake Green. In addition, several other characters have stepped forward lately, including Mayor Gray Anderson, who refused to give in to New Bern’s demands, and Jimmy the Sheriff, who acts as peacemaker no matter who is fighting.

As Jericho heads to war, I really feel attached to these characters. When they give away farms during negotiations, I feel the loss myself. Someone is going to die next week (I predict it’s Johnston Green), and I will feel that as well.

Jericho is staying around awhile. I can live without Six Degrees or Drive, but I simply have to know what happens to Jericho. Next week is the season finale, and I can’t wait.

Last dance for the best show on television?

Uh oh.

It’s the best show on television, but how long will it last? Give Me My Remote speculates that How I Met Your Mother might be canceled soon. I can’t imagine anyone deciding to cancel this show, but it looks l like a possibility. Perhaps I was wrong in my Knights of Longevity post.

GMMR also has a nice post about an attempt to save just one show, so perhaps that can help save How I Met Your Mother.

Marshall has three more slaps – let’s not waste em.

The Slap Bet Continues

This week on How I Met Your Mother, fans who have been following the show were treated to an awesome surprise, right at the end of the show.

A few months back (in the Robin Sparkles episode, actually), Barney made a deal with Marshall to slap him five times instead of ten in a row. The five could be spread out – coming at any time and without warning. Towards the end of that episode, Marshall slapped Barney with authority. The show ended with Barney cringing away from all sorts of fake slaps.

This week, the Slap Bet returned. In an otherwise mediocre episode where Robin and Ted fight about “stuff” given to them by old romances, Barney closes by performing in a play specifically intended to annoy the others. Right at the end, Marshall gets up, winds up, and slaps Barney with all his might. Then he turns to his friends and says “two!” – the second slap of the Slap Bet.

It’s a real obscure reference, and even fans who saw the original episode might have missed it. But the show is rewarding fans who have followed it the whole time. And self-referential shows are really funny. And fortunately, it turned a less than stellar episode into a good one.

Knights of Longevity?

There are a lot of great television shows currently in their infancy. Will any of these shows last and have a big finale? Here’s my estimation of which shows will last the longest:

1. Friday Night Lights
Players come and go. Even coaches come and go. But Texas high school football… not so much.

2. How I Met Your Mother
This is a great show, and the public seems to be catching on. I want to see the episode where he really meets their mother.

3. Knights of Prosperity
It’s Mick Jagger for now, but I’m guessing the Knights move on to other victims, some perhaps successfully.

4. Psych
Helped by the fact that it’s on USA Network, the show probably won’t be pulled. But James Roday and Dule Hill are perfect together.

5. Jericho
Sure, there’s only so much that can happen with an apocalypse plot, but this show is intelligent and interesting.

CBS Monday: Diversity, please

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.

Mark Cuban doesn’t Suit Up

If you’ve been by my desk on a Tuesday, you know what there is to see. A sport coat hanging on the hook and a tie around the neck. Around here, the second day of the week is Suit Up Tuesday. The “Suit Up” term comes from Barney (on the show How I Met Your Mother), but I’ve taken it to heart. Jeans on Friday, suits on Tuesday.

Mark Cuban, unfortunately, has refused to follow suit. “I just could never think of any good reason for any sane person to wear a suit in the first place,” he says. Well, Mr. Cuban, I will have you know that I feel more comfortable in a suit at work. It’s a good feeling to take a few seconds out of my morning to tie up a tie. And I feel better walking the streets, knowing that I took some extra time to get ready in the morning and am more ready to face the day. And, if I were a little more rebellious, I would start expressing myself with some funky ties!

Sometimes, I have to dress up on other days. That was the start of Suit Up Thoo-ursday, keeping with the rhyme scheme. Occasionally, other people suit up as well, although I bet they have funerals or Bar Mitzvahs to attend. It works for me, and I am happy to have one day of suitage. I know other people have differing opinions. All I can say is: Suit yourself.

How I Met Your Jean Valjean

Everyone knows that How I Met Your Mother is the greatest show on television right now. And we all know Les Miserables is the greatest broadway show ever, and is now making a comeback. But who ever guessed that the two would cross paths?