New TV Season at a Glance: Monday REVIEW

First night of the new season has begun and while I couldn't watch everything, I did watch a lot -

First up, I have to admit a fondness for HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER and it seems as though the show is going forward with the reveal of who the titled mother is at long last. In the opening episode we know at least where he meets her (at a wedding where he's in the wedding party). As HIMYM tends to zip back and forth in the time line, I have a suspicion that they'll keep going back to the wedding throughout the season until we finally get to the identiy of the Mother. Thankfully, the show is actually quite enjoyable without ever really caring that much who the mother is... but there seems to be some sort of 'fan outcry' that the show gets around to it. (Really? That's like saying there's 'fan outcry' about Charlie Sheen not returning to TWO AND A HALF MEN. I'm sure there are people who care passionately about these things but I'd worry about meeting them outside of their mother's basement).

I was lucky enough to catch the few minutes of DANCING WITH THE STARS when Margaret Cho did a sensationally sexy/funny number. The judges didnt like it much but I re-watched it a couple times because it was just that good. I didn't feel that compelled to stay for the rest of the show though especially when the stuffed shirt judges gave Cho grief for having fun with her performance. Whatevs.

The two centerpieces of the night were THE EVENT (NBC) and HAWAII FIVE 0 (CBS) at least in my book.

A half hour into THE EVENT I realized I didn't care about one person on my screen despite being introduced to likeable actors (Jason Ritter, Laura Innes, Blair Underwood) nor did I care much about the situations (an airplane crash, a tropical vacation, something about a refugee camp). It was too many people, too many different locations and, on top of it, too many different time frames (11 days ago, 8 days ago, enough!) but I have to admit that towards the end of the episode I started to get drawn in and, while I don't think what we saw at the climax is the Event, I'm sure that what the writers have in mind is 
probably just a larger version of it (and I'm being mysterious here only for those who haven't seen the show yet). I'm not sure what happened exactly. How did I go from being bored enough to get up to wash the dishes to worrying that so and so was going to be killed? LOST took a few weeks to start playing it's freak card, THE EVENT takes 58 minutes. Let's see how that plays out.

It seems the whole reason to watch HAWAII FIVE O is simply to look at nearly naked Grace Park, nearly naked Alex O'Loughlin or super hairy, cuddly, sexy Scott Caan. Not that there's anything wrong with that. The crime stories are a little too violent for my personal taste but Caan brings lots of charm to his role of "Dano" and is in danger of overpowering lead O'Loughlin who plays the Jack Lord role of Jack McGarrett. I think O'Loughlin was better cast in MOONLIGHT, the vampire drama from a couple years ago. I think he does well in romantic dramas but it's hard to feel his edge here. It's not a total loss, he just gets marginally lost amidst his more charasmatic costars. Also a little adrift, Daniel Dae Kim who can do crime drama well but isn't a compelling lead. On the upside, Jean Smart as a political big wig is effective and the aforementioned Park and Caan have loads of charm and talent to make this show a hit.

Coming up tomorrow, TV Season at a Glance: Wednesday and Thursday.