Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Notes From How I Chucked Your Mother, Say Who?

I really tried to work that title didn't I?

Chuck - Chuck Versus the Nemesis - Ep. 110
Samantha Who? - The Wedding, The Virgin, The Restraining Order, The Hypnotherapist, The Hockey Date - Ep. 103 - 107
Notes From The Underbelly - She's Gotta Have It - Ep. 201 - Season Premiere
How I Met Your Mother - The Yips - Ep. 310

Victoria Secret models on Mother, Eddie Cibrian on Samatha Who?, Matthew Bomer back as Bryce on Chuck, and some funny preggers people on Notes. Something for everybody!!!

There's something to be said about Chuck when they can make a horrendous mistake like Morgan and it still rarely detracts from the awesomeness of the show. Now that Bryce is found alive, Casey and Sarah want to know why he went rogue while he's trying to prove to Chuck that he wasn't. In another game of who to trust, Chuck falls in the middle of the shoot outs again as The Fulcrum attempts to track Bryce down to capture the Intersect/Chuck.

So many hilarious moments, some even with Morgan this time. Who while still always annoying, was being watched by new girlfriend Anna who suspects Ellie is taking Morgan away from her at the Thanksgiving dinner. Chuck, now back in love with Sarah after the bomb-kiss, discovers Sarah kissing Bryce, leaving Chuck torn as to what to do, and leaving Sarah secretly torn herself. But since that was the last Chuck for 2007, we will have to wait until the new year before we find out if Sarah decides to leave with a cleared-Bryce, off on a covert mission again, or answer Chuck's lovelorn telephone call. On the good new side, Chuck's been given a full season, the bad news is, there is still a writer's strike that may not actually give us the rest of the full season so it's time to make a call to the networks today (in another WGA campaign). Let's hope Henry Tang returns when the strike ends and Morgan is forced to Hawaii. Can we see that happen people?


I haven't really posted about Samantha Who? and while I realise it's really only getting the big numbers because it follows Dancing with the Stars, I still really enjoy it even though there are a lot of haters out there. Though I don't see the show as a typical sitcom. While Chuck feels like a comedy within the confines of an hour action/drama, Samantha Who? feels to me more like a drama within the confines of a half-hour sitcom.

Christina Applegate is terrific as Sam, good or evil. She was better as evil at first, but her charms are incredibly winning even as good Sam as she tries to figure out parts of her life and I enjoy following her situation. I came to watch Samantha Who? because of the rest of the cast and I'm still loving Melissa McCarthy and Jean Smart and even Jennifer Esposito is funny as the mean bitch best friend but Barry Watson has surprised me since he's doing the whole befuddled ex-boyfriend job really well and really funny (well, I guess he played unintentional comedy all through those years on 7th Heaven). I will say the whole show is more amusing then hilarious, yet when it hits the right notes, they totally can be. Still, I'm watching mainly because of Christina Applegate which is weird because I never loved her or anything but I really want to see her do well for some reason.

Anyways, this week Sam's mom sets her up with Kevin (the hunky Eddie Cibrian) and they share a hockey moment since Sam remembers something about her liking hockey but not remembering why.

Following Sam, Notes From the Underbelly returned for a (surprising) second season but for a show following a couple during pregnancy which sounds REALLY REALLY lame, it's terrifically funny, although tonight's season premiere was more amusing then LOL but usually I find Notes totally LOL funny. Still, I liked it enough to place it on my Top 20 list of the 2006-2007 Television season.

Part of it is Rachael Harris alone as Cooper, friend to pregnant Lauren, a lady whose career is number one and where pregnancy basically disgusts her. Harris whips every line into comic heaven.

I still don't know where Peter Cambor came from but there's something adorably funny about his Andrew against more straightlaced yet neurotic Lauren (Jennifer Westfeldt) but the couple works well. The crazy Danny character can be too much sometimes but the pairing of him and Cooper last night set a perfect match up between the pregnant couples best friends. Meanwhile, Melanie Deanne Moore's Julie is always surprisingly funny even though everything about her screams annoying, yet it works, without being annoying. Maybe it's the pair up with her usually calm husband Eric (Sunkrish Bala).

If you aren't convinced, Notes From The Underbelly is produced by Barry Sonnenfeld. The same person that also produces and originally directed Pushing Daisies. While Notes is a realistic take on life, there is still a lot of zingyness to the scripts like Daisies, and much more than you would expect from a comedy about pregnancy. Then again, who knew a pie-maker bringing dead people back to life would be so funny?

Finally, on How I Met Your Mother, we finally get to meet the woman who deflowered Barney and created the womanizing monster that he is, and apparently, the first time, was all a lie. Sadly, finding out Barney's persona was based on something his brother James (Wayne Brady back again) had paid for wasn't as funny as one would have hoped. It wasn't as Slaptastic as Slapsgiving which really was as amazing as the buildup. Luckily, and surprisingly, the best part of the episode was when Ted and Robin finally were through with each other.

The gang joins a gym and Robin, unselfconscious about her looks (being mistaken for a lesbian or a man) totally turns off Ted. When Ted, who had been secretly avoiding actually working out, is finally forced to move after Lily and Marshall pawn off Marshall's terrorizing personal trainer onto Ted, Robin is totally turned off. Simply done. Laugh out loud funny!

I wish Barney's return to the manmaker were better but it was more amusing then hysterical but it was all worth it just to finally have Ted and Robin separated for good, and remaining friends only.

Oh, and Heidi Klum and a bunch of other models I couldn't really care about/get excited about appear when the boys attend the Victoria Secret's show after-party and Klum continues her TV domination playing funny with her German mother tongue.

4 comments:

mB said...

While it wasn't as good as Slapsgiving, I did have to thank HIMYM this week for giving me shirtless Neil Patrick Harris - did you SEE the abs under that unzipped hoodie?

Vance said...

Oh how Doogie has grown up!

Liz said...

Yeah, those abs were Uh-MAZING. Who'dathunkit?

On the Chuck front, I can't belive that's all the Chuck we'll be having for more than a month! I LOVED last night's ep, and though I'm with you on the Morgan-hating train, I did think he managed to make eating sweet potatoes very funny, which takes some skills.

Anonymous said...

I thought Stephanie Faracy (sp?)did a great job on HIMYM. They originally hired Brett Butler, who they had to fire after a day of filming. Wonder what the story was there, like I didn't know. Anyway, Faracy used to turn up in all kinds of stuff in the 80s -- it's nice to see her again.