RIP Big Carl

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How I Met Your Mother – “The Magician’s Code” (B)

And so the season ended the way it lived –with a so so episode and a twist ending.

I’m going to focus as much as I can on discussing that ending because, frankly, that’s what I care about, but I will say, the writers really need to stop foreshadowing crazy future moments if they don’t have anything planned for them.  The “No Motorcycles on the Casino Floor” was a decent bit if only because of Barney’s bravado in the interrogation room, but Dr. Sonya’s blowout just seemed perfunctory and out of place. The novelty of these jokes, at least so far, aren’t worth the disruption they cause to the future episode they inevitably have to be inserted into.

 In general, the “The Magician’s Code” was fairly average from a comedy standpoint. I liked Marshall’s intense struggle to get up two stairs, but the rest of the drunk act wore thin pretty quickly. Ted’s “that person’s a parent” bit was pretty good too, even if he could only come up with two examples. I would have preferred more of those over the flashback stories Lilly kept demanding.

Regardless, baby episodes are always a bit of a letdown and it looked like the writers were just doing the best they could with a storyline that lends itself to clichés. Using Wait-for-it as a middle name was a nice way to add the How I Met Your Mother touch, but the obligatory delivery room bits combined with the fairly anticlimactic reconciliation of Ted and Robin bogged down the first half of the episode.

The writers are smart though – they know that people still care about the happily ever after of these characters and they use it to prop up these episodes that need the help. But since I’ve been speculating about who Barney’s bride will be for as long as I can remember it’s hard to be disappointed about finally getting an answer. While I’ve always maintained that Barney will end up with Robin in the end, now at least we know it won’t be a last minute catch-him-at-the-altar type situation. She did look worried when she saw Ted though, so I’m guessing there’ll be some potential cold feet involved. Of course I doubt the writers have planned that far ahead.

I think the bigger twist was Ted deciding to run away with Victoria. Everything up to that point in the storyline was fairly predictable, but I honestly didn’t see that coming. Shame on me I guess, since it is a finale. It’s another perfect example though of the writers leveraging the goodwill they earned in the show’s early seasons. I said it at the start of the season and I’ll say it again – I like Victoria, I like Ashley Williams, and I like that the writers have recognized her as the one that got away from Ted. What I worry about is that they don’t use her well and it end ups tainting those wonderful first season memories.

On one hand there’s a story worth telling in revisiting an idealized relationship that ended before it should have. In real life that’s a pretty common occurrence and it can hold people back. But at the same time, we know this relationship is doomed from the start, and if the writing staff isn’t delicate it could end up backfiring. It’s at the core of almost all the problems people have with How I Met Your Mother these days – every girl Ted dates that’s not the mother is a stall.

House – “Holding On” (B+)

This was a dark one. Granted it needed to be. “Holding On” dealt with some pretty heavy themes, and even though it was excruciating to watch at some points it was better that it stayed true to them than pull back in fear of turning off part of the audience.

There were a few times where this episode got a little off tone (I’m not sure we needed House using actors to psyche out Wilson one last time) but there were at least a few powerful moments to add to House’s prolonged farewell tour. I thought the scene where House revealed to Taub why he was so angry with Wilson was particularly strong. Before that moment I’d just chalked his behaviour up to House dealing with his emotions poorly like he always does, but after you could understand his anguish. He’s been living in pain all these years, if anyone’s allowed an opinion on that matter it’s him.  Needless to say, I thought it was one of the more intimate glimpses into his character we’ve seen over these past few episodes.

The other moment I liked was the scene where House told Wilson that Wilson was smarter than him. It was one of those easily forgettable moments, but it stuck out to me because I don’t think I’ve ever heard House say that to anybody. For House intellect has always been king. I think at least part of the reason that these two have remained friends all these years is that in some way Wilson challenges him in a manner no one else does. Of course I could spend hours uncovering all the different layers of that statement, so I’ll just leave it at it was a nice sentiment.

As for Thirteen’s appearance in the episode, it was for the most part well done. I’m glad they could get Olivia Wilde back in for at least one more episode. Granted her appearance felt a little “inserted”, but I liked the content of her few scenes as she fit in quite well with a lot of the themes in the episode.

Personally, I don’t think House as a series can finish on a completely upbeat ending, and considering he’s headed back to jail it looks like I’m right. But I do hope the writers leave House with at least some measure of peace. He’s not the easiest guy in the world to cheer for, but he’s been through a lot and he deserves that much.

Cougar Town – “Square One” & “It’ll All Work Out” (A-)

I’m so happy that Cougar Town got picked up by TBS. It’s been a rough couple of weeks speculating about what was going to get renewed and what was going to get cancelled and for a while there it wasn’t looking great for this series. Luckily TBS stepped in and saved the day, which is the second time they’ve done that for me. (They were also the network that picked up Conan. On a related note, watch Conan).

 And these last two episodes are perfect examples of why this series is worth keeping around. Actually ironically enough “It’ll All Work Out” had a nice meta commentary on the show’s long absence in the fall and the potential of its cancellation. It was a nice wink to the fans and a funny little setup for why the series was doing a Thanksgiving episode in the middle of May. Plus I have to agree with some of the points made by Jules, Laurie, and Ellie – I mean what is so great about those new people.

If I had to pick my favourite between the two episodes though it would have to be “Square One” by a small margin. I’ve loved watching Grayson and Jules take to going to therapy this season. Their therapist (played by Nicole Sullivan) made me laugh out on more than one occasion in this episode, which was by far her best appearance on the series. And while I literally said this exact same thing the last time she showed up, Nicole Sullivan is incredible at playing the straight man while still remaining funny herself. Watching her reactions to Jules and Grayson saying she was “off her game” was probably my favourite part of the episode.

Of course I’m always a fan of great Bobby/Andy moments and “Square One” had a plethora of those too thanks to the white shirt competition between Bobby and Jules, another quirky Cougar Town invention. I love how committed those two are to each other (Bobby and Andy that is), with Andy actually taking off work to follow Bobby around and protect him from stains. I mean the man took a meatball for him. They truly are worthy successors to Scrubs’ J.D. and Turk.

“It’ll All Work Out” was a very watchable episode as well though. The touching tribute to Big Carl in the tag was alone almost worth the half hour, but I had at least a few favourite moments in this one. Laurie’s explanation of her outfit, including everybody wondering whether it was supposed to be a costume or not. Stan, the toddler, somehow finding his own way downtown to tag things. Bobby’s touching words to beer. The box head of varying emotion.  Laurie’s vows about sex with Matt Damon watching. Wow, I probably should have just written this out in list form.

In general it was just a good week for the entire cast. To me, Courtney Cox has had incredible delivery lately. She’s always been funny, but somehow she seems even more comfortable than ever as Jules. And of course Brian Van Holt, Ian Gomez, Busy Philipps, Dan Byrd, Josh Hopkins, Christa Miller – everyone was on their game in these episodes.  Great comedies are born out of great ensembles and TBS was smart to scoop this one up.

Oh yeah, and Cougarton Abbey – hilarious. It’s nice to see them paying tribute to the British original.