How I Met Your Mother – “Robin 101”
Barney Stinson has come a long way since we first met him. He was once (and maybe still is) a cold-hearted man-whore, moving from one one-night stand to the next. Now, Barney is so afraid of losing Robin that he’s taking a one-on-one class, taught by Ted: “Robin 101.”
This episode is centered around Barney and Ted’s class, with the side story involving Marshall trying to give away an old barrel, named Mabel, that he previously used as an end table (odd, I know). Neither storyline is superb, but Marshall’s definitely feels out of place and completely peculiar.
“Robin 101” only had about one or two moments that literally made me laugh out loud. Barney, Robin, and Ted’s scenes bring out most of the humor, with Ted pointing out all of Robin’s little quirks, and Ted and Barney inevitably getting caught. The evolution of Barney and Robin’s relationship has been carried out nicely, but I’m still waiting for this season to really show why it’s a primetime comedy.
Grade: B
Two and a Half Men – “Mm, Fish. Yum”
Herb and Judith are going off on a weekend getaway, and they leave Judith’s mom, Lenore, who is a recovering pill-popper, to babysit their newborn baby. Soon after, Alan, who is still convinced that he is the father of Judith’s new daughter, is called by Lenore who is in way over her head with the baby. Not long after Alan arrives, Lenore falls off the wagon and begins seducing him. This creates a very uncomfortable, and, unfortunately, not very funny scene, reminiscent of last season when Alan slept with Melissa’s mom. Lucky for us, this leaves Charlie and Jake at home together which allowed for a nice little storyline.
With Alan gone, Jake spends the entire day begging a slightly-injured Charlie (he tripped over Chelsea’s cat, Sir Lancelot) to let him drive. Jake’s persistence wears Charlie down, so he reluctantly decides to drive them for a bite to eat. However, the trip takes an unexpected twist as Charlie backs over what he thinks is Chelsea’s cat. Jake then takes an incriminating photo of Charlie and uses it to blackmail him. His scramble to hide everything while Jake blackmails him is fantastic.
Although Alan’s storyline is kind of disappointment, Charlie and Jake’s antics really steal the show, complete with a wonderful ending.
Grade: B+
The Big Bang Theory – “The Gothowitz Deviation”
With Leonard and Penny attempting to maintain a normal boyfriend-girlfriend relationship (which I’m still not fond of), Sheldon has to either adapt to the situation or change it in his favor. Being the pompous scientist that he is, Sheldon tries to use science to make Penny behave the way he wishes. He proceeds to treat Penny like he’s training a puppy (and eventually Leonard like he’s punishing a cat), feeding her chocolates whenever she does something that pleases him, whether it’s not sitting in his spot or keeping her voice down. Sheldon’s quirkiness makes for a highly amusing episode, mainly because I like seeing him upset Leonard, who’s been bothering me recently. Unfortunately, this storyline is supplemented by an utterly poor side story with Howard and Raj.
Howard, the horny little engineer, drags Raj along to a Goth club. There’s not much to say about it other than the girls were unattractive and the dialogue wasn’t funny.
In the end, the Sheldon segments were enough to keep the episode from being completely terrible. The show is best when it’s the entire group together, not everyone going their own separate ways. I think things will be back to normal soon, though.
Grade: C
Jordan is a high school student and aspiring journalist. He loves playing/watching and writing about video games, television, and movies. 
