This week:
- How I Met Your Mother
- Raising Hope
- New Girl
- The Mindy Project
- Happy Endings
- Don’t Trust The B—- In Apartment 23
- The Big Bang Theory
- The Office
- Parks and Recreation
How I Met Your Mother – “Lobster Crawl”
As soon as I read the episode description – “Robin hatches a plan to win back Barney” – I knew I’d be disappointed in this episode of HIMYM. The writers have absolutely killed that relationship for me by going back and forth on it too often. And Marshall and Lily’s “sometimes parents miss important firsts” storyline was one of the most predictable new parent stories you can do. For once, the only character that worked for me was Ted. I loved watching him have so much fun babysitting. I wish the flash ahead had been more specific than “a few years later…”
Best moment: Lily’s sweet-but-evil “Who’s ready to meet Santa?”
Raising Hope – “Squeak Means Squeak”
I wish I could say I liked this episode of Raising Hope, but it didn’t do it for me. The idea that Sabrina should start taking a more active role in Hope’s life – and not just participating in the fun stuff – was great material, but they kind of squandered it with everything in the middle. The auxiliary police thing and the squirrel thing just didn’t grab me and I found myself barely paying attention. And doesn’t Sabrina have enough quirks, does she really need to eat dirt, too?
Best moment: Hope calling Sabrina mommy. It wasn’t funny, but it was sweet and a nice payoff for anyone who’s watched the show since the beginning.
New Girl – “Bathtub”
Jess and Winston isn’t a combination we see often on New Girl, but this week’s episode showed it can be an effective one. Their attempt to get a bathtub gone wrong, and the havoc it wreaked on Schmidt’s suits was hilarious. Then they bonded of anxiety which, yeah, is something that might have spoken to me. I liked seeing their friendship become more clearly defined. Schmidt’s declaration of love to Cece, despite the pigeon, was lovely – even if it didn’t work. I still have hope for those two. The fact that Nick’s crush was a stripper without a heart of gold was a funny surprise, but I think Olivia Munn is funnier than the material she was given. It was the weakest of the storylines for me.
Best moment: A tie between Jess’s meth head impression and Schmidt talking to himself in the mirror.
The Mindy Project – “Two to One”
I think this show deserves some cred for trying to improve as it goes along. While I’m sad to see Stephen Tobolowski off the show, I understand why the writers might decide that it’s better if Mindy is in more of an authority position rather than working for someone else. I think her, Danny and Jeremy having to make decisions together as partners could be very funny, and help give Jeremy something more to do. The midwives stuff really cracked me up, and I enjoyed seeing that girl from Newsroom as one of Mindy’s friends. She was funny and could be a good character to keep around now that Anna Camp won’t be regularly appearing. This wasn’t the strongest episode yet, but I really like this show and I think it’s moving in the right direction – defining Mindy as a professional woman.
Best moment: “Don’t judge my bra” and “No, Diana – I’m holding on to this mallet.”
Happy Endings – “P&P Romance Factory”
It’s hard to review Happy Endings because a good show is made up of a million little hilarious moments. I loved this episode. The helmet thing was stupid, but provided too many jokes (Alex’s wigs on top of helmets!) for me to hate it. Jane and Brad’s storyline was my absolute favorite. So much to love. But Dave’s storyline was great too. The sangria lips! I liked how many throwback jokes there were in this one. Penny hitting her head on things, “so cute” and more.
Best moment: “Alright enough with the showboating you tiny hooligan, it’s bad enough we’re getting beat by someone who’s only slightly larger than the actual foosball players.”
Don’t Trust The B In Apartment 23 – “Whatever it takes…”
Was this an old episode? Continuity wise, it seemed like it came from season one. The Dancing With The Stars stuff was old, and it felt like June and Chloe’s relationship was at a different place than it is now. There were still some laughs, mostly thanks to JVDB’s friendship with June’s mom. But in an otherwise strong season, this episode felt off.
Best moment: Chloe referring to Jeopardy as “Old Man Questions” and answering “What is AIDS” when it should have been George Washington.
The Big Bang Theory – “The Fish Guts Displacement”
I recently had a conversation with a friend about The Big Bang Theory and whether or not it’s a good comedy. It’s a hard thing to debate because, on the surface, TBBT is not a show I would normally be drawn to. It has a laugh track, it’s on CBS, it’s made by Chuck Lorre. It’s much broader than the other comedies I watch. But there’s something warm and fun about this show, and the argument I made was that the series has come a long way since it first debuted. I think this episode was a good example of that. Sheldon caring for his sick, and somewhat horny, girlfriend was quite funny. Howard trying to get along with his in-laws, that’s a storyline I never expected to see. And Penny has become much more than the ditzy blond next door – she’s the person all the guys go to when they need advice on fishing. I love how all these characters have developed, and there was something about this episode that really displayed that well – even though it wasn’t the funniest installment I’ve seen from TBBT.
Best moment: “That’s great. Cheerleading, way to man things up.”
The Office – “Dwight Christmas”
Jim leaving Dunder Mifflin is a big deal, and I liked how this episode dealt with some of those issues. Pam is sad, and knows she’ll be lonely without him. Dwight’s anger about Jim leaving the Christmas party early was all about his feelings of abandonment, and Darryl drank his feelings of jealousy away – until Jim returned and mentioned that his business partners would be bringing Darryl in for an interview. It wasn’t a Christmas party up to scratch with ones from the good ol’ days, but it was a nice send off.
Best moment: Darryl falling into the table of food.
Parks and Recreation – “Ron and Diane”
I just love this show so much. Everything about this episode was perfect. First, let’s talk about Ron and Leslie at the woodworking awards ceremony. Diane feeling threatened by Leslie and Ron’s friendship rather than his crazy ex Tammy was just perfect, and there were so many hilarious moment. Ron would sooner visit Europe than have something romantic with Leslie! And – OMG – the return of Duke Silver. Amazing. All fantastic.
Then we had Jerry’s Christmas party. Everything there tied perfectly together – that Donna, Tom, April and Andy weren’t invited because they’ve been automatically sending years of lovely emails from Jerry to spam, that they put a dollar into a dinner fund every time Jerry does something funny, and then that they’d eventually give him that money to help out with his medical bills from the fart attack. I loved it. Christie Brinkley was very effective as Jerry’s confusingly hot wife, and putting Chris in contact with his ex, Jerry’s daughter, was the ultimate test for how his therapy is working. This episode, for me, will be a classic.
Best moment: “I’ve had a Ron Swanson Google alert for seven years, and it finally paid off!”
Runners up:
“It’s been a real whirlwind.”
“I’m allergic to sushi. Every time I eat more than 80 sushis I barf.”
“So, Gail and Jerry…” “I’ve thought about it a lot, there’s no logical explanation.”
