In the new year, Monday is quickly becoming not only one of the busiest nights on TV (with 24 and the new Life Unexpected yet to take their spots), but also one that offers up its share of quality programming, as evidenced by last night’s crop of noteworthy episodes.
Men of a Certain Age: Moving beyond what was a slightly bumpy start, this TNT show has made great strides in recent weeks, delivering its best installment yet last night. Ray Romano’s Joe spent the hour cajoling buddies Terry (Scott Bakula) and Owen (Andre Braugher) with the details of the first blind date he’s gone on in twenty years. From an awkward IM session that had Joe pulling his pants down in his office to a black eye sustained while faking a leg cramp staged to ward off premature ejaculation, Joe’s tale was funny, poignant, and relatable to anyone who’s ever suffered the nervous pangs of a first date. It’s nice to see that this worthy show is finding its footing.
How I Met Your Mother: Five years and 100 episodes on, we finally got a glimpse of the titular matriarch. Kind of. We saw her foot, and at this point, we’ll take it without complaint. Turns out that Ted’s eventual wife is the roommate of the graduate student (guest star Rachel Bilson) he went on a few dates with. He hasn’t actually met the Mother, but he did accidentally leave behind that yellow umbrella we’ve seen a few times over the years. If that weren’t a big enough deal, this centennial episode also had plenty of Barney in it as he tried to bed a hot bartender who can’t stand guys in suits, leading Barney to a fantasy musical number in which he sang the praises of his sartorial standby. It was a joyous moment in a show that is often filled with them. Let's just hope it doesn't take another hundred episodes for us to see the Mother in all her splendor.
The Big Bang Theory: Having written this show off as a one-joke pony early in its run, I’m glad I gave it another chance last season. It still relies too much on that signature joke (have one of the nerds say something nobody at home could possibly understand, causing us to laugh not at the joke itself but at the fact that we don’t get the joke), though its characters are so earnest and sincere in their utter cluelessness when it comes to human interaction that it becomes funny despite itself. Case in point: a woman was actually interested in Sheldon (Jim Parsons, wonderful in medium-sized doses) last night, to the point where she was practically throwing herself on him, yet he could not have been the wiser. Big Bang is at its best when it doesn’t make its viewers feel like morons for not being brilliant physicists themselves.
Chuck: How great is it to have Chuck back on NBC's schedule? That’s a rhetorical question to anyone who’s ever basked in the glory of this underrated gem. While it too can get a little nerd-intensive sometimes, the show’s real strengths lie in the tumultuously endearing relationship between Chuck and Sarah. Their feelings for each other go beyond will they/won’t they; it’s more can they/should they with these two, given that the CIA forbids agents to get involved and they can’t seem to decide what’s more important, their mutual love or their desire to serve their country. The spy-jinks are amped up this season as well, with Chuck now equipped with a mega-powered version of the Intersect, chock full of skills ranging from dance to music to kung fu to surgery. But no matter what kind of trouble our heroes find themselves in, it’s always the quieter moments that keep this terrific show centered.
On a separate note, Conan O’Brien has issued a statement to address his feelings about the NBC late night debacle. In it, the Tonight Show host laments the position he has been put in, having his hand forced only seven months into his run. “I sincerely believe that delaying The Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting… I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.” O’Brien expressed concern for Jimmy Fallon, whose show would also be affected by the changes NBC has proposed, and said that he has no other offers on the table. The statement doesn’t go so far as to say that O’Brien is quitting, though he minces no words in saying just how disappointed he is by this unfortunate turn of events.
In his monologue last night, Jay Leno said, “I take pride in one thing. I leave NBC prime time the same way I found it: a complete disaster.” You have to wonder, if this is the way Leno feels about the network that has supported him for nearly twenty years, even now to its own detriment, why does NBC continue to show such allegiance to him? It has been said that late night audiences simply use TV as a sleep inducer. Couldn’t that mean that more people simply found that they were able to fall asleep more soundly with the unfunny Jay on in the background than they are with Conan, thus accounting for Leno's higher Tonight Show ratings? I guess at this point, NBC will take all the eyeballs they can get, whether they’re open or not.
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