Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Return of Big Monday Entertainment!!!

That's right kids, Monday's are huge here on GtT, and tonight was the return of How I Met Your Mother, Castle, and that other show.

Castle leads us off tonight, because I actually watched it live tonight. I've been looking forward to this thanks to the Twitter account of one Senor Nathan Fillion, who has been positively giddy about working with Alyssa Milano for this episode. Apparently the Double Captain has a wish list of people he'd like to have guest star on Castle, and everyone's favorite witch/daughter of the Boss made the cut. The case itself was decent, as a bridesmaid turns up dead the day of Alyssa's (aka, Kyra) wedding, which gives us lots of time with her in a wedding dress looking just spectacular. Castle and Kyra used to be an item, which pays off with a great picture of Young Nathan and Young Alyssa together. Most likely Photoshopped, although I like to think that they worked together in their salad days and saved a snapshot. A BOY CAN DREAM, DAMMIT!

So yes, Beckett has the federally mandated amount of jealousy towards the former flame, but the case wraps itself up with the expected number of twists, and a slightly softer side of good old Rick. Worth watching just for the opener, with Castle having to free himself from being duct taped into a chair (on purpose). Also, since I watched it live, I got to watch the preview for next week's episode, which promises to reopen the matter of the murder of Mom Beckett. Having The Bachelor as a lead-in doesn't hurt either (and good work following The Bachelor with a wedding themed episode, oh magical ABC elves).

How I Met Your Mother celebrated it's 100th episode tonight, and really loaded it up for the longtime fans. The main plot was Barney having to give up suits to score with hot bartender Stacy Keibler, but we also got a big step closer to The Mother, as Ted meets The Mother's roommate up at school and dates her. I really dug the scene at dinner where the roommate is complaining about all the things The Mother does, as Future Ted keeps stopping the story to talk about how he loves each of those things. It's a sweet moment that this show specializes in.

Barney's bartender conquest leads to a funny Tim Gunn cameo, and then the much ballyhooed musical number that closes out the show. And wow, what a musical number. I already knew that NPH (Gay Man of the Decade, for the record) has the musical chops, but I was still impressed by the performance. HIMYM needed a "Ted" episode, and it delivered. NPH directed episode 101, so I can't wait for that.

Heroes was the last thing I watched, and even though it delivered more than it has in a while, it still managed to annoy me. Hiro finally gets some screen time, hatching a plan to get himself committed to the asylum in Florida where he hid Mohinder two months ago so that he can break Mohinder out. Lucky for them, it has the worst security in the history of anyplace that has ever needed security. Ando is able to Hadouken the doors at will, and fiddle around with the drugs on the cart (given out during visiting hours, why not?) without any interference from the orderlies (I'm sorry, Stormtroopers). He does have to pop Mohinder's pill though, leading to Wacky Ando Shenanigans. Honestly, the thing that pissed me off the most about this part was the "zany Hiro/Ando music" in the background the entire time of the escape. It could have been a badass rescue scene, with Ando's Kamehameha Waves and Mohinder's Hulk strength, followed by Ando zapping Hiro back to normal. Instead, it looks like a damn circus act, and is just another reason why Masi Oka needs to jump to Big Bang Theory or something and stop with this nonsense on NBC.

I didn't even have time to be mad about the return of Mohinder, because Parkman is back too, being torn away from his live as Mr. Mom in order to help Bennett make contact with Samuel's...wife? Loved one? Stalkee? If they explained it, I damn sure missed it. Anyway, with Parkman involved, it's bound to get screwed up, and it ends with Vanessa in the hands of Samuel, Parkman telling Bennett to go home and get his house in order, and Bennett...actually going home and getting his house in order. Wow, that actually worked. He makes out with Blonde Agent, and starts to reconnect with Claire. Maybe there's hope for this show after all.

Oh wait, there's Peter and the Deaf Girl. Never mind. Peter talks to Deaf Girl about the compass marks, then Mom Petrelli comes in to screw everything up. Peter grabs her power, dreams about her playing cello in the carnival while Sylar stalks up behind her, then he wakes up and...smashes the cello! Way to FlashForward (oh hey, that show's still on?) Pete! Oh yeah, and Lydia can mentally contact Sylar, but that'd be way too cool to follow up on, so look for that to come back in a month or something. This week's Heroes falls somewhere between "Better than it has been" and "But that hasn't been very good since after Season 1".

Finally, I wanted to address NBC's total botching of the Conan/Leno situation. Plenty has been written about it, but I want to throw my ideas into the mix. Here's what I hope happens, in order:

A) Leno takes the classy way out, retiring from nightly television and clearing the way for Conan to continue letting the Tonight Show evolve into some really good television. Leno spends time spending his millions of dollars, writing new jokes, and eventually tapes an HBO special that shatters all kinds of records and leads to his own Broadway show. NBC, meanwhile, starts putting TELEVISION back on at 9PM.

B) Leno doesn't take the classy way out, and Conan skips out. The money is at Fox, but I'd love an hour of Coco on Comedy Central right after Jon and Stephen (or possibly before them). What he loses in money, he regains in cool factor, plus the outpouring of public support after his royal shafting. He'd still get the A-List guests, plus the awesome B and C-listers, and he'd have crazy amounts of creative control. The advertising rates would go through the roof.

C) Jeff Zucker is eaten by a tiger.

Either way, I hope the best for Conan, the middlest for Jay (I respect him, but he really needs to take a stand and help Conan out of this jam), and nothing but scorn for NBC. Well, for Zucker anyway. I can't lose my Thursday night 3/4 comedies.

Back soon with...something? I have two months to catch up on FlashForward, I'd like to marathon Dollhouse, and LOST comes back very soon. Mmm...LOST.

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