As well as many new US TV shows, last week saw the return of several that I enjoy, including House, The Mentalist, Castle, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Heroes and Dollhouse.
I haven't had a chance to watch Dollhouse yet, although after the literally mind-blowing DVD-only episode 'Epitaph One', I'm really looking forward to seeing it. Heroes will have to wait until I finish Season 3 (I know it's supposed to get a lot better once the fourth 'chapter' starts, but I got stuck ploughing through 'Villains' and still haven't got round to finishing it). But how were the others?
(Oh, before I forget, I should point out that the following may contain 'spoilers' about previous seasons of the shows in question. I honestly don't think that anything I say is going to ruin anyone's enjoyment - I think all are worth watching to one degree or another, whether you know how they're going to end or not - but if you really, really don't want to hear what happened in the last season of 'Show X' because you haven't got around to watching it yet, it's probably best to read with care.)
House Season 6
The end of Season 5 saw House suffering from hallucinations and, after years of largely regular (and regularly large) drug (ab)use, the perhaps-not-so-good-any-more doctor finally got shipped off to rehab. Rather than go the traditional TV route of using the summer break to skip past his stay and begin the new season with his return to work, Season 6 started with a double-length special focussed entirely on House's time as a patient at the Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital, and his efforts to make that stay as short as possible.
If your immediate thought is that watching two hours of someone going through withdrawal doesn't sound too entertaining, you'll be relieved to know that the actual drug rehab is skipped through via montage within minutes of the show starting. Instead, the bulk of the episode focuses on House trying to convince his psychiatrist, Doctor Nolan, that he's fit to return to work. The resulting mix of House and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is held together by the battle of wits and wills between House and Nolan (ably played by the always-excellent Andre Braugher), and was pretty entertaining stuff that at least suggested the chance of some genuine character development for the titular doctor.
That being said, House and Laurie's virtually flawless, incredibly watchable portrayal of the 'Sherlock Holmes as a doctor' character has never been a problem with the show - rather, it's what's held it together - and until he returns to the more familiar surroundings of Princeton-Plainsboro, it's going to be hard to say whether Season 6 is going to improve on the rather mixed previous year. I've always loved House, and will almost certainly continue to watch it for as long as Laurie continues to play the role, but I do hope this season proves to be more consistent than the last.
The Mentalist Season 2
I have a few different mental categories for the TV shows I watch, which are perhaps best summarised by my viewing habits and attitude towards DVD box sets. At the top of the pile are the relatively rare 'must watch' shows that I'll make an effort to see when they air or as soon afterwards as I can get my grubby mitts on a recording of some kind, and that (finances permitting) I'll pick up on DVD on release. The next level down are the 'worth watching' shows that I'll tend to watch sometime before the next episode airs, but not necessarily immediately, and that I might pick up on DVD if I see them in a sale or for a particularly tempting price. At the bottom of the heap are those that I find entertaining or interesting enough to be 'watchable', but may let a few episodes accumulate before I actually get around to them, and am generally unlikely to bother with on DVD.
The first season of The Mentalist, a crime procedural in which a former 'psychic' uses his finely-honed skills of observation and psychological manipulation to help the fictitious California Bureau of Investigation (a sort of 'mini FBI' similar to California's actual Bureau of Investigation and Intelligence) solve cases, fell pretty squarely into that last 'watchable' category for most of its run. The main hook for me being that, unlike the majority of similar shows that revolve around an exceptionally skilled or talented 'expert', what Simon Baker's Patrick Jane is doing and how he achieves it is rarely explained in any detail, but I know just enough about some of the techniques involved to have fun trying to work it out.
Although the continued arc concerning 'Red John' (the serial killer who murdered Jane's family, prompting his move from fleecing the gullible and into crime fighting) has some promise, there was little in the first episode of the new season to suggest any radical change in the direction - or quality - of the show, which seems likely to continue in much the same 'watchable' vein as before.
Castle Season 2
In contrast, the first season of Castle was a show that should have fallen squarely into the merely 'watchable' slot, but has two things going for it that lifted it into 'worth watching'. The first is star Nathan 'Captain Tight Pants' Fillion, who remains as charming and charismatic as ever, the second is that it seems to be a deliberate attempt to create a modern Moonlighting, and Moonlighting remains one of the fondest TV memories from my youth.
This tale of a best-selling thriller writer teaming up with a police detective is TV as entertainment, pure and simple, and rather endearingly makes no bones about it. Like The Mentalist, the first episode of the new season didn't make any real changes, but in this case that's just fine with me.
How I Met Your Mother Season 5
Sitcoms are ten a penny on US television, but consistently funny and enjoyable sitcoms are much harder to find. For four seasons, How I Met Your Mother has been that rarest of televisual beasts, a squarely mainstream sitcom that I find genuinely entertaining and don't even feel any vague 'guilty pleasure' embarrassment over admitting to it. In many ways it's Friends for 30-somethings, with the differences between the two shows perhaps best summed up by the fact that the main characters spend much of their time in their local bar rather than their local coffee shop.
The first episode of the new season was solid rather than inspired (although a bullwhip was repeatedly put to effective comedic use), and highlighted one of my concerns about the direction of the show - as the character development of Neil Patrick Harris' Barney (frequently the source of the best laughs and nearly all HIMYM's catchphrases) continues, he's becoming more sympathetic and human, but also less funny.
You also can't help but wonder just how long the central framing device (that in 2030 one of the main characters is telling his son and daughter how he met their mother) can continue, given that the poor kids have already sat through four years of stories without getting more than a few hints and references to her allegedly imminent appearance. Still, even the average episodes of How I Met Your Mother continue to raise at least a few good grins, and it's nice to have it back on the air.
The Big Bang Theory Season 3
Being a lifelong geek and having gone to a science and technology focussed university, it's probably no surprise that a sitcom where all but one of the main characters are post-grad uber-geeks would appeal to me. What makes The Big Bang Theory stand out, though, is the wonderful balance it strikes between poking gentle, affectionate fun at the nerdy characters while also slipping in gags about theoretical physics and references to science fiction movies, superhero comics and video games. The result manages to be funny if you're a geek, but also funny if you're not.
In some ways its success (it won the Television Critics Award for best comedy series in August, and the Season 3 premier was the highest rated show on CBS last Monday) represents the continued triumph of geek culture in the new millennium - not so very long ago, characters such as these would have been nothing more than targets for derision in American TV and movies, and the idea of them being the stars would have seemed very strange indeed.
The first episode of the new season saw the guys returning from their expedition to the magnetic pole, and sets things up nicely for the rest of the season by bringing the relationships between both Leonard and Penny (the 'normal' neighbour) and Sheldon and the rest of the group to a head. Another show that I'd glad to have back on the air.
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