How I Met Your Mom

Over the weekend, I rented the first disc to How I Met Your Mom from Netflix.

I didn’t really know what to expect going in. I’d heard of the show before, but it always looked too sitcom-y for my tastes (similar to the Rules of Dating My Daughter or According to Jim Belushi). Netflix was predicting a high 4 star rating from me (close to a perfect 5 star score).

So, battling between how something looked and what others said about it, I put it on my queue. I eventually decided to bump it up on my queue because Jason Segel and Neil Patrick Harris are in it and that got me a bit curious.

It turns out that my first impressions of the show were pretty acurate. It comes off very sitcom-y (complete with laugh tracks so you know what is funny!).

But at the same time I’m dissing the format, Netflix wasn’t too far off. If you can get past the laugh tracks and the sit-com feel, there are several laugh out loud moments through out the episodes.

So, overall, HIMYM is quite possibly the weirdest TV/movie I’ve had to rate. At times it is the most awful hackneyed sit-com garbage on TV. Then at times it is fresh and genuinely funny. Then I think about the premise and realize that it is pretty much Coupling (the BBC show) with a lot less sexual themes.

Really, this show is all over the map. I ended up giving it 4 stars out of 5 on Netflix, but I could see someone giving it one star and I can also see someone giving it 5 stars. I’d say check it out and make a decision for yourself, because it is just to perplexing for me to describe and recommend one way or the other.

It’s Saturday Night Live

Did you watch SNL this week?

I was pretty impressed by it. Sure, it still dragged towards the end of the show, but the first few sketches were legitimately funny.

Tina Fey did a good job, but seemed to be a little under-utilized in my opinion (kind of like how she was during her SNL head writing days).

Also, I have to say that the current crop of SNL women are probably the best looking group. They aren’t the funniest group, but more than likely they are the best looking. Look at the run down of current females on the show:

1) Amy Poehler – Not extremely good looking, but she holds her own. She is probably the funniest of this group, though.

2) Kristin Wiig – Very attractive. Her level of comedy skills is still in question for me.

3) Casey Wilson – Last week’s episode was her first. She is definitely an upgrade over Maya Rudolph. She would fall into my cute classification.

Compare that group to some of the others:

Jane Curtin and Gilda Radnor (1975-1980 Era)

Robin Duke, Mary Gross, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (1980-1985 Era)

 Nora Dunn and Jan Hooks (1985-1990 Era)

Victoria Jackson, Julia Sweeney, and Ellen Cleghorn (1990-1995 Era)

Cheri Oteri, Molly Shannon, and Ana Gasteyer (1995-2000 Era)

Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph (2000-2005 Era)

Really it is not much of a contest. If you did want a contest, though, you could argue for the funniest group of comediennes.

Now that would be difficult to decide. I’d probably lean to the 1995-2000 ladies, but that may just be because those were part of my formative years. Curtin and Radnor would have to be in the debate. I also thought that the 2000-2005 group were pretty good.

So, what’s the point of all this? Nothing really, but if this past week is any kind of indicator, SNL is back to a ”watch if you get the chance” level. Definitely an upgrade over the “only watch if you are really into the host” that it had been at lately.

NBA Trades Fall Out

As you know, the NBA trade deadline passed last week. If you’ve been keeping up with it all, I’m sure you can rattle off all the big trades. If not, here’s a quick run down:

1) The Pau Gasol trade

2) The Shaq-Shawn Marion trade

3) The Jason Kidd trade

4) The Cavs’ 11 player swap