New shows - more hits and misses

Over the last few days I've caught up on some of the new shows premiering this week. As with the last batch I previewed, they are hit and miss. First, the good:

Surprisingly, How I Met Your Mother (on Mondays) is witty and engaging. It reminded me a lot of the early seasons of Friends (before it got too soapy for my taste). The three lead actors are especially fun to watch (Allison Hanigan was always just a passable actress to me, and nothing much has changed here). Neil Patrick Harris steals every scene he's in, as the funny letch who reminds me a bit of a grown up Alex Keaton. I expected the show to be a by-the-numbers sitcom, but hoped the cast might make it better. Thankfully, it does.

My Name is Earl(Tuesdays)... is it as good as everyone says? Almost. It's a little on the safe side of quirky for me, but still has a Coen Brothers feel. A lot of comparisons have been made to their classic Raising Arizona, and that's apt, but it's more like a network television version of it - duh. Jason Lee is so endearing you can't help but like his deeply flawed character anyway.

While it's not a new show, The Office (Tuesdays) new season premiere was a pleasant surprise for me as well. Hit or miss last season (especially when re-doing plotlines covered on the original UK version), it seems to have hit its stride with the premiere. If you dismissed this last year, give it another shot.

Now for the bad...

A show I did not expect to be a rote, annoying, dumbed-down sitcom was Out of Practice (Mondays). Sadly, I was wrong. Despite having Stockard Channing and Henry Winkler at the helm, the show stinks. It's not funny and it's filled with canned laughter. Blech. While I did watch the entire pilot, I took it out of my season pass list the second I was done.

Up tonight is the premiere of Lost, Martha Stewart's version of The Apprentice and Invasion.

Posted by tivogirl at 9:23 AM