Who Eats Salt And Pepper Without Cumin?

Spoilers...

How I Met Your Mother – “The Stinson Missile Crisis” (A-)

Three weeks in and still going strong. I think probably the best sign for the season ahead is that despite this episode not dealing with any the series’ major story arcs (generally those are directly related to Ted’s search for the mother or some sort of variation on that theme), it still worked out to be quite funny.

Ted, Lily, and Marshall’s storyline this week is exactly the kind of one-joke over the top affair I normally hate, but the one joke was so funny in this episode I couldn’t help but love it. Josh Radnor’s absolute commitment to that salt & pepper and cumin bit somehow managed to make me laugh every single time he brought it up. And some of the best iterations were saved right for the very end of the episode: Lewis and Clark and their canoe, Dr. Frankenstein & his monster and a scared villager, and my personal favourite, C3P0 & R2D2 and the robot Luke’s Uncle almost bought from the Jawas – absolutely hilarious.

I also liked how the writers framed the episode (yes, I realize I say this every week), this time through Robin’s court-ordered therapy.  The way they managed to tie Lily, Marshall, and Ted’s story into Robin’s retelling was awesome. The writers knew there was no way they could naturally fit it into the premise so they just made a joke about how out of place the storyline was. It’s not exactly cutting edge storytelling, but it certainly was funny.

ROBIN: Wow, the lesson you learned with Lily and Marshall is directly applicable to my situation and is therefore a valid part of how I’ll eventually tell this story.

Of course the reason why she was telling that story in the first place was partly due to Barney, who also had an excellent week. I like how the writers are handling Barney’s decision to go monogamous this time around. I think part of the problem people had with Barney dating Robin originally was that his character sort of lost what made him funny in the process. It’s only really been one episode, but the way the writers seemed to use Barney’s past conquests to keep up his usual brand of shenanigans was a smart way of allowing the character to grow while maintaining that mystique. Who knows whether that’ll be sustainable in the long term, but it worked well in this episode.

And last but not least, I just have to commend Cobie Smulders for her role in tying the whole episode together. She did a great job of playing off a surprisingly stiff Kal Penn (I still love you though Kal). I’m glad she’s set her sights on Barney again. It’s given her character a good arc so far this season. There’s nothing like unrequited love for bringing the laughs.

The quotes:

ROBIN: Nobody asked you Patrice!

MARSHALL: It’s fascinating how profoundly little I know about vaginas.

TED: Come on! We’re a trio. We’ve always been a trio. We’re right up there with Batman and Robin and Alfred. Romeo and Juliet and the Apothecary. Salt and Pepper and Cumin.

ROBIN: You think you’re so smart just because you went to Harvard, and Princeton, and... wow Harvard again.

ROBIN: Why not rerecord it?
BARNEY: I did like a hundred takes, it kept happening.

BARNEY: Thanks Robin, you’re the only person I know who would help me do all that. You’re a real bro.
ROBIN: Am I though? Cause I’m really more of a woman. To my femininity!
BARNEY: No you’re more of a bro. You’re a dude. You’re a man.

And line of the night (obviously):

TED: Who eats salt and pepper without cumin?

Grey’s Anatomy – “Take the Lead” (B)

How many times now have we had to watch Richard lose is his chiefdom? Three? Four? Let me see... there was the infamous race to become Chief back in season 3 or 4. That ended with Derek refusing the job. Then there was the time he lost it because he was drinking again. Derek was actually Chief for a little while that time around, but I think he gave it up in a season premiere. Actually that was in last year’s season premiere. So... I guess this is the third time. Man, the writers really love to go to that well.

They really need to either make it permanent this time, or, you know, stop doing it over and over again. I mean, I get appeal. It gives the Chief something new to do and lets one of the attendings explore how well they do in the job. It just gets stupider and stupider every time it happens though. Let’s just hope Owen does a little better than Derek did. He’s already off to a bad start. That plotline with Bailey was terrible.

Luckily Richard’s resignation wasn’t the only thing that happened in this episode. I think on the whole I enjoyed watching the residents get there first shot at solo procedures. I thought it was pretty funny that both Christina and Teddy forgot how to do an appendectomy. The moment when Christina realized Teddy didn’t know how to do it either certainly brought a smile to my face.

I think my favourite storyline of the episode though had to do with the one resident who didn’t get her own procedure. Kepner is slowly emerging as one of the better characters on this show right now, and so far I’ve enjoyed watching her struggles as Chief Resident. She had a few great scenes with Karev in this one and I especially loved the way she saved him from some of the other Residents’ ridicule at the end of the episode. It’s always nice to see an underdog character get a win.

I was a little more apprehensive going into this episode about Derek and Grey. Save for the first few seasons when the relationship was fresh Grey’s tends to go downhill fast whenever there’s drama between the two of them. But I have to give the writers (and actors) credit for this episode. I thought the scene where the two of them finally had it out was really well done. The way Derek progressed through his frustrations made the scene feel like a natural argument. When he pointed to the post-it note and said “I meant that”, that was a powerful moment. And I’m glad Meredith was able to reason with him. At least now they’re talking.

Now please Grey’s writers, make it last.

House – “Twenty Vicodin” (A-)

House was really struggling last year to maintain the status quo. After 7 seasons the patient of the week formula, combined with little personal growth for the character (he tends to sway back and forth) just wasn’t doing it anymore. The few episodes that were worth watching usually had some sort of novelty to them, Thirteen’s return being an excellent example.

That’s why I’m quite pleased that at the end of “Twenty Vicodin” House didn’t leave the prison. It’s not that I don’t want him to get out, it’s just his character is substantially more interesting when he’s locked up. It’s like if that great season premiere from a few years back, with House in the mental institution, had continued on in that format. It gives us new characters, new episode ideas, new situations for House to stick his neck into.

I think House is at his best when he’s forced to improvise, and prison is the perfect setting for that. The way he sized up the doctor, or nursed his mute roommate’s pet cricket back to health, even the way he diagnosed the patient was all that much more interesting because of the setting (that tracheotomy was pretty cool). That patient would have been boring in a state of the art hospital. Here, he was a mystery worth solving.

I’m interested in seeing how the team will eventually come into play in all of this. The same goes for that doctor who basically gave up her job to test House’s theory. I hope she wasn’t a one-off character. Right now the writers are using this as a great cover up for why Cuddy and Wilson aren’t around (Lisa Edelstein left the show and I believe Robert Sean Leonard is doing a play right now though I could be wrong), but I assume eventually House is going to need some contact from the outside world and how that comes into play is going to be important.

For now though I think I’m just going to enjoy the renewed life this show seems to have and just keep hoping that it doesn’t go away too soon. There’s a lot of talk about this being House’s last season. I hope if that’s the case that we’ll finally get a little bit of closure for the character. Like I said before, we’ve had a lot of false starts for House on his way to some form of happiness; it would be a pity if after all this time he never got there. Even if it’s just some small victory, at this point I’d take it.