Everybody Loves Saturday Night

The Bro Code

Last night's episode of How I Met Your Mother provided the rationale for loving the character of Barney as much as I do. Yes, he is despicable and callous; yes, he is selfish and self-absorbed and usually acts out of self-interest alone. But he feels guilt, he can't handle the idea that he did something wrong, and he can't handle the idea that Ted will hate him forever. This doesn't excuse everything else, but it does make him human.

I liked that this episode focused on the consequences of last week's hook up on Barney's friendship with Ted, and not Barney's friendship with Robin, that well-traveled territory where each of them insists "this never happened, it will never happen again" only to have the show jump cut to them in bed, again, latherrinserepeat.

The goat bit I found a little weird. That whole story was to set up the reveal at the end that at some point in the near future Robin moves into that apartment? And this matters why? It's not like that gets Ted any closer to meeting his kids' mother. (P.S. I was a little bummed that Stella got mentioned but didn't appear in this episode.) She takes Marshall and Lily's room, I suppose, after they move into their re-floored apartment in DoWiSeTrePla (that still makes me laugh). And then a goat eats her washcloth. Whatevs?

A satisfying night of TV

My Thursday night TV lineup just got better: I can watch Ugly Betty at 8 (though I missed it last night), The Office at 9, 30 Rock at 9:30 and then Lost at 10. Provided I can stay up past 10. Which I managed to do last night (though I admit to nodding off a wee bit at the end, despite a strong and typically perplexing episode).

The Office felt different--still funny, but more menacing. I liked the dark bitterness of the dinner party episode a lot, and this felt similar, but clearly a different shade of dark. Ryan a cokehead, his life spiraling out of control because the Dunder Mifflin Infinity project is tanking? The idea that a paper company would support a MySpace-like social network is hilarious, and . . . well, let's just say that hit a little close to home, mmmkay? And because I can't help but analyze fictional characters, I'd say that it makes perfect sense that Ryan wouldn't be able to really cope with the enormity of going from Temp to Executive. And therein, really, lies the beauty of this show--so many aspects of it are ostensibly comic, but there's always some sort of reality-based logic to how they play out.

Also loved: Jim and Pam getting some hate: an unusual, awkward position for them to be in. Jim pretty much becoming Michael for the night, talking with the security guy and bringing Oscar over to talk with the cleaners. Toby declaring his upcoming move to Costa Rica and then jumping the fence (oh, Toby). Creed being the one who knew Hank's name. Dwight being the one to succeed with the ladies. "Amazons." Heh.

30 Rock was also a little bizarre. I think I read somewhere that they were going to have an Amadeus-laced episode, but I still was not prepared for it. And I have to love a show that bases almost an entire episode on a movie that no one has thought about for 20 years. Because I have seen that movie more times than I care to admit in public, and 30 Rock's riffs were pitch-perfect.

"Business juice." That is all.

On to Lost now, which I now realize I haven't written about at all since Season 4 began, which is just shameful. I still have all of them saved on DVR, so maybe when the season is over I could go back and do a retrospective, but . . . oh, you and I both know that's not going to happen. Bygones. Onward.

I said in a comment a while back that my standard response to everything that Lost has been throwing is "now that is some fucked-up shit." And last night's episode was no exception. That is not at all how I imagined Sayid's involvement with Ben starting, though it makes absolute perfect and logical sense given Ben's brilliance at manipulation. I cannot stress enough how much I adore Michael Emerson. That little self-satisfied smirk Ben gives as he walks away from Sayid? Chilling.

Also chilling was Ben's total shock at the execution of Alex. Someone called his bluff and he was not expecting that at all. I'm not sure what to make of this game he's playing with Widmore, but Ben's pledge of vengeance certainly raised the stakes quite a bit.

I also don't know what to make of Ben's flashfoward, either. He appears, out of nowhere, in the Sahara, wearing a winter parka with the name Halliwax on it (oh wait! Isn't Hallifax one of the Orientation video guys, along with Dr. Marvin Candle? Dun dun DUN!). And it's 2005. His need to ask for the year makes me think not that there's time travel involved in this show, but that the island/time/distance equation we have started to figure out thanks to Faraday is perhaps a bit unpredictable, and that this was an unscheduled trip to the mainland brought on by Widmore "changing the rules."

Oh, yeah, that's it. Ben recruits Sayid to do all this killing, and the last name on the list is going to be Penelope. How in the world is that going to be justified to Sayid?

There were some truly heartbreaking moments in this ep, too. Jack finally realizing he's been wrong about the freighter people? My stomach would be all up in knots, too. Sawyer carrying Claire from the exploding house (ok, how the hell did she survive that? Without a scratch on her? It makes me think of "course-correcting" for some reason except that no one saved before the house blew up) and later wanting to protect/save Hurley? If it were possible to love Sawyer more, that moment did it for me.

Oh, and the smoke monster. Clearly controlled by Ben, possibly from his secret underground lair accessible from his hidden passport room (how many strata of secret rooms does this dude have, anyway?) via a wall covered with hieroglyphics. So now we know what we already suspected, that Ben's claim that he had no idea what the smoke monster was was a lie. My question is: does he always control it? Meaning, was Ben behind every single appearance of Smokey, from the very beginning, when it ate Greg Grunberg? When it killed Eko? Or is Smokey allowed to roam free but will come when called, like a dog (makes sense because another name for the smoke monster is Cerberus).

That's all that can fit into my brain right now.

How I Met Your Mother: Aw, hell yeah!

First: Someone NEEDS to record the audio of Barney saying, "Michelle? She sounds hot!" and send it to me. Please.

Now then: James Van der Beek shows up all the previous guest stars. Dang, he was funny. Even if his Canadian accent was overblown and bordering on brogue.

 

Lily and her homegirl friend were hilarious. Alyson Hannigan, I love you.

The second Robin Sparkles video: not an instant classic as "Let's Go to the Mall" is, but there are some excellent 80s music video touches in it--the cuts between color and artsy B&W, the supreme close-ups, the whole "telling a story" aspect of it, and of course, the classic scoop neck striped shirt + acid-washed jeans skirt outfit.

But really, there's only one thing to talk about in this episode--Barney and Robin hooking up. You saw it coming, right? I mean, from way before this episode. I can't speak for everyone, but I think this has been on the docket since the episode they first hang out at the laser tag place and the club and that's what, first season? And there have been little hints about it since then, and they really ramped it up with the March Madness episode (Robin letting Barney "pretend" to hit on her, and then getting turned on by what he tells her? Yeah). I think this pairing makes sense, but it's hard to say where it's going.

I see many possibilities, starting with the Harry/Sally or Monica/Chandler approach. It's possible that these two approaches will be combined. It's possible that there will be a very special episode of HIMYM involving telling Ted. It's possible that we'll find out next week that Uncle Barney and Aunt Robin are married...but I'm thinking that we won't. I think that's a little too easy.

Finally, whoever came up with the term "revertigo" is a genius.

Oh, Dotcom, I love you.

Note: at the end of this post, which is mostly about sitcoms, I have some info on Battlestar Galactica--just to warn those of you who aren't caught up with Season 4 yet.

So, I meant to start writing up more TV shows because you know, they're on again and all, but life sorta intervened and things got all frakked* and anyway, now I'm back.

And then I was going to write about both 30 Rock and The Office, only neither show was very good, I thought--particularly The Office this week. Yeah, we had the development of Jim and Pam's relationship, but am I the only one in thinking that Jim's approach to proposing to Pam is incredibly insensitive and out of character? And of course she would play along because she's Pam. Maybe it's me, but I don't think you should tease someone who once called off her own engagement because of you. (is it me? am I alone on this?) The rest of the episode I thought was one of the blandest shows they've had ever. It was nowhere near last week's cringe-inducing, often painful, and yet painfully funny "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" episode, which I thought was near-brilliant (though that also might have been in part due to my sheer delight at having this show back on the air).

30 Rock this week I also thought was a bit unfocused and not as sharply funny as it has been. My favorite part, the only part that is still making me giggle, is Dotcom's response to Jack's calling the Republican Party the Party of Abraham Lincoln (in an attempt to get Tracy to appear as the token celebrity at this fundraiser for McCain). He says that because Lincoln fought a war to preserve the federal government, among other things, that the Republican party of today would be unrecognizable to Lincoln. Jack tells him that his "need to be the smartest guy in the room is offputting," to which Dotcom replies, "I guess that's why I'm still single." Oh, Dotcom.

* yes, in other news, I am completely caught up with Battlestar Galactica, but haven't been able to write about it or frame any real coherent thought about it except for "holy crap!" I absolutely loved the last episode, "Six of One," in which a Six (who looks like Gina?) brings the Centurions on to eliminate the "skin job" Cylons who voted to lobotomize the Raiders--I just had the slightest pang of empathy for those Centurions, you know? To be given free thought and then learn that your cousins or whatever are being punished for expressing theirs? Oof. I also loved, absolutely LOVED, Gaius seeing Chip Gaius (for lack of a better term). "Oh, my giddy aunt!" has become my new exclamation.