2 Broke Girls - 1x14 - And the Upstairs Neighbor

Yeah so...not bad, I guess? I don't really remember much about this. I really should write these posts right after the episode. I guess if I don't remember much about it, it couldn't have been that bad. It also wasn't that good either, I suppose.

How I Met Your Mother - 7x14 - 46 Minutes

Alright, I think about a month since Symphony of Illumination, with Tailgate tossed in between, has calmed me down a little. I'm not so angry. I even kind of liked this episode, with very few reservations. It kind of hearkened back to Season 1, with wild drunken adventures, veering off in random directions, ending up with a legendary night. We got the return of Stripper Lily (always welcome). We even got acknowledgement that Long Island is a long fucking way off from the city, even though I have a feeling we'll still be seeing Lily and Marshall at the bar just as often.

New Girl - 1x09 - The 23rd

Now this was a much better episode. I liked this a lot. Jess is quirky, but believeable, with a legitimate problem that she handles maturely though not perfectly. The guys continue to be the high point of this show, and even Winston gets something awesome to do. And most importantly, cause I'm a huge damn wussy dork, we get more of the awesome Cece/Schmidt. Overall, pretty damn cool.

New Girl - 1x08 - Bad in Bed

Yeah I'm not buying this. I didn't buy this in the Pilot, I didn't buy it in Kryptonite or Thanksgiving or basically any of this show. So please, for the sake of this show, stop trying to convince us that Zooey Deschanel is ...whatever kind of incompetent you're trying to portray her as. It really just immediately sucks any enjoyment out of the show. What you're doing is not making her seem like an approachable, wacky girl we'd all love to meet. You're making her look like one of those damaged children that were lost in the woods or locked in a psych experiment for 23 years, and have only recently become acquainted with other people.

You're doing bad, is what I'm saying.

New Girl - 1x07 - Bells

A surprisingly pretty sweet ep considering the cliche-sounding plot. Jess helps a group of wayward kids, Winston finds a way to reclaim his self-esteem and learns an important lesson about being competitive, and Nick and Schmidt hash out money issues. And yet, we end up with the best screaming matches this side of Philadelphia, and a few awesome bell recitals (Eye of the Tiger for fuck's sake!). Seriously I can really barely remember anything except for bells. I didn't know you could play bells that awesome. Is this what I miss when I don't have ESPN? Is there a US Bell Ringing Championship? Playoffs? Is this a thing?

Oh, apparently it is

Up All Night - 1x11 - First Christmas

A mostly forgettable episode, though not bad or anything. It never came close to the lows of Cool Neighbors, but it also didn't have anything hilarious or memorable in it like First Night Away. Ava sinks to a new low in her relationship with Kevin, but we've seen her sink so much lower, and she manages to maintain much more dignity than usual. We do get Blythe Danner back as Reagan's overbeating/intellectual mom, but she doesn't really do anything but be borderline bitchy, without any of the great over the top moments or anecdotes of Parents. So overall, eh.

2 Broke Girls - 1x11 to 1x13 - Quick Thoughts

Listen...I just can't. I'm sticking with this show till the end of the season, but between being super behind and it...just being this show, I can't bring myself to do full recaps on the last three eps. So hit the jump for a quick overview of the three episodes I've missed so far...

How I Met Your Mother - 7x13 - Tailgate

Listen, show, this was a pretty okay episode. Any other season, it might even have been a pretty good episode, MAYBE even great. But I'm still disappointed in you, after the blatant backpedaling last ep. I know, I know, I shouldn't have expected so much from you, you can't help what you are. But it hurts me to see you satisfied with these minor accomplishments, when I can see you're not living up to your true potential. This isn't bad, show. It's pretty good. But you can be better.

How I Met Your Mother - 7x12 - Symphony of Illumination

Game Reset.

Seriously, what the fuck? That was...low. Truth be told, I only had myself to blame for getting my hopes up. It's not like I'm NEW to formulaic television and sitcoms. Why WOULD this show take a daring risk to reinvent itself or even reaffirm it's principal conceit, when it could just hit the reset button, paper over any real consequences with some sad faces and mournful eyes that last all of one episode, and stick to the same formula of stubborn attrition that's worked for them so well over the past seven years. But did they have to do it so cruelly? Did they really have to change the entire shows narrative framing device (for the very first time), just to pull an extended gotcha! The outcome may have been expected, but that doesn't make it less frustrating or disappointing. I mean, for fuck's sake, at this stage in the game, even Friends was shaking up it's formula more than HIMYM is. That's just tragic, right there.

My Boys - 1x01 to 1x03

I only really discovered this show about two years ago, right before the final season aired. I was just moving into my new place, and TBS was the only channel that was coming in on my TV at the time, and they were *really* pushing it. Commercials, bumpers, cute promos, the whole shebang. I'd heard of it before, but everything I'd seen made it look like a stupid "Oh ho ho, I'm a girl and I have guy friends, isn't that wacky??" kind of thing. But it had good reviews, and the promos were actually semi-amusing, and like I said, only channel that showed up. So I gave that last season (and a smattering of reruns) a shot, and it actually turned out to be pretty awesome.

Imagine my surprise (or don't, it's really underwhelming) when I find My Boys suddenly available on Netflix streaming. Now, in order to allay my guilt about splurge-watching a six year old series when I have so many other current shows stacking up on my hard drive, I decided it might be nice to do a little retrospective as I go along. I keep meaning to write about more than the three or four deeply flawed sitcoms I seem to be trapped with, but I can't quite seem to get on the ball as far as hour-long dramas are concerned. So maybe this can be a compromise.

Instead of a post per episode, I'm going to be doing a light overview of groups of episodes at a time. This'll either make things a little easier for me, or a lot harder.