Comedy requires tragedy

I've written before about how much I like How I Met Your Mother because I can relate to it. For a group of characters who are supposed to be my age (fairly exactly--I graduated college the same year Marshall, Lily, and Ted did), they seem about dead on. Sure, I don't spend nearly that much time in a bar, but they're people I relate to.

SPOILER ALERT

There's some debate about the ending of last night's episode--the sudden death of Marshall's father. One reaction that I just don't understand is that people don't want to watch the show for tears and didn't like the unexpected ending and "I don't want to see a sitcom do that" or "I watch this to get away from real life." There are certainly shows that I can see for that, but HIMYM has always been more to me.

To me, it's an amusing look at people growing up. You see them deal with their careers and relationships that involve hard choices (the Ted/Robin "I love this person, but we ultimately want different things") and parental issues (Lily, Barney). The situations can be comical, but there's a layer of realism that's very much there.

For the past couple of seasons, it seems like the show has drifted. It's still been enjoyable, but the characters have become too sitcommy. A show that had real people became one with cartoonish characters. This season has been a return to form, and it peaked with this moment. Of course, where they go from here is an issue, but I have faith in these writers.

The other major complaint I see is about the countdown. Honestly, I didn't even NOTICE the numbers until a friend on Twitter mentioned them. Then, thinking about the episode, I remembered some numbers sticking out. I've seen people being all, "It so SO OBVIOUS and DISTRACTING!" But...no. I mean, yes, some people noticed from the beginning, but it was subtle enough that a lot of people didn't. Inappropriate? I didn't think so. Co-creator Carter Bays said that it was done to create some foreboding in the episode. Because really, you never do know when those big moments are going to happen (as Whistler said on Buffy so many years ago). A countdown in life like that might be nice.

Anyway, it's nice to know that the cast of the show also appreciates it. Also, Josh Radnor needs to marry me.

So THAT'S what Alan Thicke has been up to

If you're not watching How I Met Your Mother, you're missing out. It's completely hilarious and more realistic than most shows about people my age. Plus, you're missing out on the awesome tie-ins. If they mention a website on the show, you can be pretty sure that they've actually made the website. And CanadianSexActs.org, featured last night, is no exception. I highly recommend checking out all of the descriptions. I particularly recommend Two Girls, One Stanley Cup and Sloppy Dog Sled. You'll have that site bookmarked in no time, just like Barney!

(Also, the Manitoba Mail Bag.)

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

I just finished watching Coupling, the British sitcom. I wasn't sure that I would like it; I watched the first episode of the American one, and wasn't really thrilled with it. But again, British humor doesn't necessarily translate directly. I certainly spent the first season of the US The Office wishing I were watching the British one. And most of the characters on Coupling really need to be handled delicately--they walk a fine line between really annoying and likeable. Also, while sex certainly can be funny, I just wasn't sure that a show where every episode revolved around it would be my cup of tea.

Well, it was. I quite enjoyed it. I actually could see myself hanging out with some of these people. And it was laugh-out-loud funny. Plus, it tended to play with the format--kind of like How I Met Your Mother. Which came later, so I wonder whether its creators watched Coupling. HIMYM tended to play more with time, though, which Coupling certainly did as well. Both have fantasy sequences and the like, but Coupling also did things like split screens and whole sequences mostly in a foreign language. (It worked in context, trust me.) Things like seeing the same events from the eyes of multiple characters, playing with flashbacks...I love that stuff.

So I definitely recommend checking it out. I also might have to add Jack Davenport's character Steve to my list of tv boyfriends. (You know, like in a personal ad: "I'm looking for a guy like Jim from The Office, J.D. from Scrubs, Ted from How I Met Your Mother, Joe from Wings, Xander from Buffy--or some combination thereof. Or David Tennant. Call me, David!")

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do

What do you get when you combine Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris, and musicals? Awesomeness. Pure hilarity. I'm totally pumped for the next two acts. I'm just trying to figure out how Joss Whedon and Neil Patrick Harris met. I can't help but notice that the other two leads had appeared in previous Whedon shows. (Actually, now that I think about it, they were both in Season 7 of Buffy. Nathan Filian, of course, also did Firefly. It took me a second before I could place Felicia Day as one of the Potentials on Buffy that season.)

Anyway, you definitely should check it out. And do not miss the very end. Hee.

A new addiction and ruminations on boys

I've known about Doctor Who for a while, but have managed to mostly avoid catching an episode. Not on purpose or anything, and I'd heard that the latest series is pretty good. The time travel aspects always interested me; I mean, he goes back in time! That's awesome! In any case, I wound up catching "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood," which are set in England in 1913. And it was fantastic. It's interesting, because I know little to nothing of the mythology of the show, but it's still pretty enjoyable.

Anyway, after watching that two-parter, I kind of didn't want to see another episode. For one thing, those episodes were really good. To the point where I was like, "Why watch another episode? It won't be as good as those." I've since realized the foolishness of that viewpoint. Good Lord. I certainly don't insist on quality in shows I watch (I have the recent ABC Family movie Princess waiting on my DVR to watch), and God knows that even if the rest of the run isn't as good as those two episodes, it'll still be pretty darn good.

The other reason is that this is totally the type of show I can imagine getting a bit obsessive over, a bad habit of mine. I mean, it's on all the time, between Sci Fi and BBC America. This can't happen. I'm still not completely done with Veronica Mars, and that started for me in...February or so. But I did wind up watching another episode tonight, and I have, like, four or five waiting on my DVR. Completely sucked in.

So I watching the episode tonight and found myself, not surprisingly, totally giggling about how cute David Tennant is. Nice eyes! Great dimples! Fab glasses! Seems tallish! Cute smile! Only 7 years older than me! And British! (Seriously. British men are totally my weakness. Love 'em.)

Which led me to thinking about the shows I watch, and how much I watch them because of cute boys. I'd probably obsess over Veronica Mars a lot less if it weren't for Jason Dohring as Logan Echolls. But then, that's really about good characterization, in addition to him being brutally hot. (Seriously, check "An Echolls Family Christmas" if you don't believe me.) I certainly have enough tv boyfriends, the big question is: Do I watch the shows because of them, or are they just a nice bonus?

It's a combination of the two. I did manage to come up with a show that I really like, but don't crush on anyone (How I Met Your Mother; while I'd love to date someone like Ted, I don't giggle over Josh Radnor). I do think it's a combination of good writing/stories and cute boys, with the emphasis on the substance of the show. Because there certainly are shows with guys I like that I haven't stuck with. So I kind of feel better about myself. I'm not that shallow. Just fairly shallow.

Screw it. I'm going to the mall.

I was watching How I Met Your Mother and I realized how much more I relate to the characters on that than I do with the Friends. At first I thought maybe the actors were younger, but that isn't the case. When the show started, the leads on Friends were 25, 30, 31, 27, 25, and 28; the HIMYM folks were 31, 25, 23, 32, and 31. So I guess that isn't it.

It's odd, though, because the Friends seem older than the people on HIMYM, but I can't put my finger on why. Ted and friends seem to interact more like my friends and I actually do; there's something natural in their interactions. I wonder if any of it is because I'm actually a contemporary of them, though; when Friends started, I was a junior in high school. I certainly enjoyed the show, but it didn't represent my life.

Not that HIMYM particularly does, either, at least plot-wise; maybe my friends are just more like Ted's. (And Ted is on my list of sitcom characters I'd date. Chandler is too, but Ted is a bit more...normal.)

Thank you, EW photographer

When I first got my Entertainment Weekly on Friday, I wasn't blown away by the cover. At first. Then I noticed a blurb about John Krasinski. And, flipping through it, I also noticed an article on Jason Segel. Sweet!

Let me tell you, the picture of John Krasinski is very good. The story is also nice, confirming that he's a nice guy. And I may have swooned a bit at the sidebar, in which he imagines life as an English teacher. I already have a soft spot for teachers, and John Kras + English teacher = Hot. I'm just bummed that the picture goes across two pages, making it harder to tear out and put up in my cube. Because I'm 12 years old. And I saw License to Wed for him. (And will totally see Leatherheads when I have the time.)

Sadly, the article on Jason Segel doesn't mention that he also enjoys musical theater. One of my favorite YouTube clips is Segel and Neil Patrick Harris singing "Confrontation" from Les Mis on The Megan Mulally Show. Awesome. I totally want to hang out on the How I Met Your Mother set.

Also worth checking out from this week's issue is the list of top baseball players in the movies.