Up Chuck On Mondays With Some Big Alien Mother Heroes

How I Met Your Mother - We're Not From Here
The Big Bang Theory - The Big Bran Hypothesis
Aliens in America - Revised Pilot
Heroes - Volume 2 Chapter 2 Lizards
Chuck - Chuck Versus the Helicopter

Was it me or did Chuck's episode 2 cement that the pilot wasn't a fluke, while usual favorite How I Met Your Mother and Heroes sort of rested on their laurels and produced filler episodes?

Gael (Enrique Iglesias) is still living with Vacation-Robin in New York but Old-Robin is slowly creeping back in now that they are back on an island without palm trees. Watching unhinged Robin go all island tropics was funny but I'm not sure we needed a whole episode of that. The Robin on Robin almost kiss was a little too creepy for me.


However, Barney was loving it of course, especially after his plans with Ted of pretending to be from Misoura' backfired when they tried to pick up New York girls who were GASP... in fact from New Jersey.

Finally, Lily and Marshall were making preparation plans in case of death as Marshall writes a teary farewell letter to Lily, then discovers she just left him her pin numbers. Funny, but again, seemed to stretch a bit for a whole episode.

Again, Barney saves the day as I could have watched more of Misoura' Barney, especially with that accent. I'm not even going to say the Mother L word... I don't have to anymore. Still, overall, felt more like filler than a classic Mother episode.

Okay, fine. The Big Bang Theory isn't great or anything but it's still cute enough. I still love Jim Parson's Sheldon, and Johnny Galecki's Leonard is adorable as they start cleaning Penny's apartment which freaks her out. Yes, but now you have a clean apartment. Feel free to come to my place. Lord knows it needs all the help it can get.

That being said. I think I do prefer Aliens in America and while I love Luke Danes, I did wonder a bit if Scott Patterson could stretch out of the role from Gilmore Girls into anything else. Well, his gruff but lovable manly man seems to suit the Tolchuk family and I felt his presence more than original dad Patrick Breen (who I think is good, but has yet to really find a role that suits him that lasts more than a season (he was good in Kevin Hill)). Patterson's Gary Tolchuk is more believable as someone that lets Frannie call the shots, but still has the usual father cluelessness while still being a loving dad. Plus, I buy it more when he falls in love with Raja because he's willing to clean and not eat the bacon.

Well, what can I say about Heroes? Last year I complained that while it was a fun fast moving show, a little character development wouldn't hurt. I didn't mean completely halt the storyline. Granted, while some seem annoyed at Claire back in high school, I actually don't mind that storyline. Especially seeing HRG in regular normal life situations. It's a comedic minefield. And creepy student friend (Nicolas D'Agosto, who seems to have become really TALL) finding out about Claire seems to really continue the storyline that never really finished off when Thomas Drekker was written off (to join The Sarah Connor Chronicles).

I don't mind that Hiro is still back in 1671 (or whatever year it was) in Japan since his interplay with drunken Takezo Sensei (David Anders) is amusing, now if only the keep moving all the stories forwards. I could care less about Matt Parkman or Mohinder at this point with the little annoying girl, and Peter Petrelli just has to remain in the same wardrobe.

Maya's black eyes were creepy but the whole storyline seems to hack horror flick to me right now and I just don't care for them. Plus, I never thought I would say this (since I love my foreign films) but reading all the subtitles hurt my brain last night. Maybe it's just that bad dialogue is made more obvious when I actually have to read it. At least with the Japanese, they could get away with a "Watah" every once in a while and it would seem funny when Masi Oka spoke it.

Meanwhile, Chuck was FANTASTIC. Chuck is still not sure if CIA Agent Sarah or NSA Agent Casey are rogue and who is double crossing who, each telling him the other is trying to kill him. We get a nice comedy of errors, some kick ass fighting between Sarah and Casey in a Wiener shop (Sarah's new cover), and hilarity all around. Plus some more sister love who totally cares for Chuck and wants him to do well with a new girlfriend (the rapport between Sarah Lancaster and Zachary Levi is actually really sweet), while Captain Awesome remained... well... AWESOME! We also learned his name was Devon but I'm going to continue calling him Captain Awesome! And we, like Captain Awesome, feel the Chuck love (above)!

Oh, I forgot to mention, the shoutout to Oceanic 815 was a nice touch!