Fall TV Series Premieres Part 4 (IV, Four)

All I’ve got to say is “Suit Up!”

I still have to write up a review of Commander In Chief, which I should have done as soon as I get a chance to watch it.

CBS

How I Met Your Mother
(Monday at 8:30)

How I Met Your Mother is a story told through flashback of Ted (Josh Radnor) and how he met his wife. Ted is an architect who lives with his newly-engaged friend Marshall (Jason Segel; Freaks and Geeks) and Marshall’s fiancée, Lily (Alyson Hannigan; BtVS). He is spurred to find a mate by the engagement and receives sometimes unwanted dating help from Barney (Neil Patrick Harris; Doogie Houser, MD), although it is because of Barney’s prodding that he meets Robin (Cobie Smulders; Veritas). Ted instantly falls for her, but she is reluctant to return his affections because of her own insecurities.
So far, the show has been pretty funny, and especially, Barney gets the most outrageous lines. Robin is the girl you’d fall in love with at first sight, and Ted is your basic “Ross”-type. I like Alyson Hannigan (*tiny* BtVS obsession), but both her and Jason Segel are a bit underutilized, although I’m sure their characters can be fleshed out a bit more as the series goes on.

B+

Out of Practice
(Monday at 9:30)

Ben (Christopher Gorham; Popular) is a marriage counselor, who’s own marriage has just imploded, and he has to deal with his meddling mother (doctor [Stockard Channing]), wacky father (doctor [Henry Winkler]), pompous brother (plastic surgeon [Ty Burrell]) and a lesbian sister (ER doctor [Paula Marshall]). It’s your basic family sitcom, and it’s good. Henry Winkler is great, and I’m not sure if she’s just a recurring character or what, but look for Jennifer Tilly as his secretary/girlfriend. I’ve enjoyed the 2 episodes I’ve seen so far.

A-

Threshold
(Friday at 9:00 before NUMB3RS)

Dr. Molly Anne Caffrey (Carla Gugino; Spy Kids, Karen Sisco) specializes in creating plans for “worst-case scenarios.” Unfortunately for her, one of her scenarios has become reality, one involving possible alien first-contact. She’s called in to investigate, pulling together a team of a biologist (Brent Spiner; ST:NG), a “rocket scientist” (Robert Patrick Benedict; Felicity) and a linguist (Peter Dinklage; “an angry elf”: Elf). She also has crew of black ops military personnel to assist with “problems.” They head out to a ship that was in the area that the alien spacecraft landed and find that almost all of the crew is either missing or dead. There, they discover that there are aliens, and that they’re almost certainly hostile. Also the transmissions from the spacecraft were somehow able to mutate the DNA of any life in the area. It was even able to affect Dr. Caffrey, the aero-engineer and the head of the security team who watched a videotape of the spacecraft. It also seems that everyone affected by the spacecraft are now linked somehow. Creepy. I thought the show was pretty creepy, it had some humor (especially from the “civilians” in the team), and has a compelling mystery. It’s unfortunate it’s in a Friday night “death slot” because it had some excellent X-Files-style sci-fi goodness.
Recommended (for those that mourn the good-ole days of the X-Files)

A

[Soapbox]: I find it unfortunate that even though some sci-fi shows have arguably better writing, acting and direction than "regular" TV they tend to be overlooked because they have the sci-fi element. True, a lot of sci-fi TV tends to be crap, but so does a lot of regular TV. Do we really need 64535342 C.S.I.s and 45242523 Law & Orders? [/Soapbox]