Has Anyone Gotten A Bite Yet?

I think these shows fall somewhere in the Thursday to Monday range...

Spoilers!

How I Met Your Mother – “Ducky Tie” (A-)

Oh Victoria, if only you’d stuck around just a little longer.

I have to say, so far I’ve been quite impressed with How I Met Your Mother this season. I mean, yeah, we’re only two weeks in, but set-ups are important, and I’ve really liked the groundwork set over these last three episodes.

Unfortunately this week we found out that Victoria’s time with us would not be long (or at least that’s how the ending made it out), which makes me a little sad because even just in this episode you could still see what an enormously likeable character she is. Five years and she’s still got it.

But even though we only got a brief appearance I very much liked what the writers did with her. I’m one of those people who get really nostalgic over TV (no, it’s true), but I find oftentimes when shows try to play off the nostalgia of their glory years all it does is taint what came before it. There was a risk of that in this episode – they could have easily ruined Victoria’s character – but the writers did a spectacular job of pulling all the right strings at all the right times. I think my single favourite moment in the episode was listening to Victoria reminisce about her time with Ted. Marshall’s game night, the wedding night – that was How I Met Your Mother in its prime and it was nice to hear from the characters themselves (and more accurately the writers) that they remember it fondly as well.

It’s also a good testament to just how far How I Met Your Mother has come. Listening to them talk about those episodes like they were all old memories is a stark reminder that this show is entering its seventh season. Where does the time go?

I think maybe the true genius of “Ducky Tie” though was the way it was structured. It’s a comment made a lot about How I Met Your Mother (by me especially), but it still rings true. I loved the way they moved from the incredibly silly bet between Barney and Lily – I can’t wait to see if they have Barney in that ducky tie all season or not – and into the more serious entanglement between Victoria and Ted. The pacing was perfect and I think both storylines ended up benefitting from it.

Other than that I think I’m going to leave the very ominous ending note for a different post. It looks like the writers are about to shake something up. Victoria made a very good point when she said the dynamic between Ted, Robin, and Barney just isn’t normal. You forget because it’s a TV show and we’re so familiar with the characters but it’s true: exes don’t often hang out with each other like that in real life. What the writers end up doing with that though I don’t know. Let’s just hope they do...

Pan Am – “Pilot” (B+)

You know, before this season started, when I was hearing about all the Mad Men wannabes the networks were planning on putting out, I didn’t give much thought to this show. There was just nothing about the previews that made me to watch. They all had a very been-there done-that vibe to them.

So perhaps it was all my low expectations coming to a head, but I was surprised at how solid this pilot turned out to be. The characters are at least on the surface quite interesting. The espionage side-plot, something I originally thought sounded stupid in a period piece, ended up working quite well.

It’s not Mad Men, nor will it likely ever be Mad Men. The writers seem to spend exorbitant amounts of time describing to the audience just how important these women are, Mad Men is much more subtle. But when the writers do get out of their own way the show works quite well. It turned me into a believer, at least for a couple episodes more.

Grey’s Anatomy – “Free Falling” and “She’s Gone” (B)

Man, Seattle has to be the unluckiest town in the world. Plane crashes, hospital shootings, ferry crashes (yeah, that happened) and now a massive sinkhole in the middle of the city. It’s as if some cruel force was just picking on them for its own entertainment. Oh, right.

Ironically, after all that destruction this episode wasn’t really about the patients at all. I mean, sure, there was that couple they went all House with at the start of the episode – since when do they show the patients before they get to the hospital – but all in all they didn’t exactly get a whole lot of air time, or that developed a storyline. Nope, this one was all about the doctors.

And that worked to varying degrees. I mean, you’ve got to hand it to the writers for figuring out a way to get social services to take a baby away from two surgeons. Manufactured drama at its finest. I guess in some way you had to know Meredith wasn’t going to be out of the hospital too long. There really aren’t a whole lot of stories in her raise a baby outside of the hospital.

I am somewhat surprised though how quickly the writers put everything back together again. Normally they like to get a little more mileage out of their season finales. I expected Christina and Owen to be at odds with each other for a lot longer than they were. They aren’t exactly the most stable couple ever. They probably could have used the work to shore up their relationship. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about – I’m in first year psych.

I thought the best part of the episode was Karev’s storyline. It was good before the attendings pulled the Gunther, but after he got stabbed with the epi needle I couldn’t help but laugh at his disgruntled rants at Christina, or her passé attitude towards almost killing him.

All in all the episode was pretty average. Not the worst season premiere I’ve seen and certainly not the best. We’ll just have to wait and see how this new we-have-to-get-Zola-back storyline ends up playing out.