So Monday brought us three shows I felt were worth watching. Overall, it fared better than most of what aired last week, but nothing has been fantastic yet.
How I Met Your Mother: Season 7 – CBS chose to launch this season with two back to back episodes. It wasn’t a two part story, and they were only tangentially related, so airing them together really wasn’t necessary, but I’ll review them as one nonetheless. The tone on this show has been incredibly inconsistent over the last two seasons, so I’m hoping they are able to even it out a little this year. These first two episodes succeed in accomplishing that, but everything else about them was stubbornly mediocre. The one shining spot was Barney and Robyn’s dance in the first episode.
Verdict: Watch it
2 Broke Girls: This series seems to be conflicted about what type of show it will be. There is both a broad, slapstick sitcom and a dark, dry comedy jammed into the same pilot. The long term success, either critical or commercial, of the show will likely depend on which formula becomes the dominant one. If the slapstick wins it could become a commercially successful, forgettable trifle. If the darker version comes out on top, it could evolve into a smart, critically accepted show but the ratings would likely suffer for it. Personally, I’m hoping for the later, but it will have to pick one in the coming weeks, because too many weeks of the jumble they are currently presenting will put off both audiences.
Verdict: Try it for 6
Castle: Season 4 – Castle is reliably good, seldom standing out but never falling on its face. It’s always been strongest when dealing with the case of the week and small family drama, while it has great difficulty with bigger stories, like the search for Kate mother’s killer. Unfortunately, this episode is yet another attempt at the big story, and it mostly suffers for it. It spends the entire first act trying to make the viewer believe Kate might actually die, then falls into the same post-cop-gets-shot story you’ve seen a hundred times (She says she’s ready to come back, but she’s SO NOT READY! She has to face down a bad guy but FREEZES! The next time she faces a bad guy she PUSHES THROUGH the fear and OVERCOMES!) Also odd was that this episode seems to be favouring a new lighting philosophy for the show, making every scene appear to take place at dusk. Hopefully that doesn’t become the norm because Castle was one of the few cop shows that wasn’t afraid to set scenes in multiple types of light environments. Next week should mark a return to the case of the week format, so hopefully it will also return to being much more fun.
Verdict: Watch it
Only two shows worth checking out for me tonight, and both are returns, the aging NCIS and the massive downward spiral that Glee has become, though they have a writing staff this year, so it might actually improve. Or at least have consistent characterizations. Regardless, I’ll be back here tomorrow with my thoughts.
Sleep well,
DTE
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