Anybody watch
How I Met Your Mother last night? I read a promising article in the NY Times and figured I'd check it out.
I was pretty disappointed (but not surprised, I suppose). There were a few funny lines in there, but for the most part, the show took an interesting premise - a father replays all the events that led up to him meeting his wife (and kids' mother) - and just went the same old formulaic route.
For starters, all the characters are one-dimensional. The character played by Neil Patrick Harris is clearly going to be the obnoxious, sketchy character. (And yet I found his method of hitting the punchlines oddly inconsistent - which I think is more of a writing problem than an acting problem). And I had a bet down that they wouldn't get through the episode without having Allyson Hannigan call someone a bitch - since a similar line in "American Pie" is what really made her well-known.
They also had a random bit where the taxi driver somehow became (temporarily) a part of the group of friends, which I found a little too Seinfeld-esque for me.
To top it off, the laugh track was overused. There actually is a bit of an art to using the laugh track, and they completely missed the boat. I think I laughed maybe three times during the entire episode.
Anybody else watch it? Did you think it was good? Am I missing the boat? All I know is that it's one less show for me to watch this fall.
Still holding out hope for
My Name Is Earl...