This is NOT the Next Friends

You know what I'm really sick of? Everyone looking for the "next Friends". Take for example Coupling... awful show (at least the US version) because it tried too hard to re-create a Friends type environment in the Friends timeslot. Now, to be fair, I absolutely loved Friends... I watched it until the bitter end. But the reason I loved it so much was because it was different than the other sitcoms that were on, not because it was the same formula as the comedies I loved before it (i.e. Perfect Strangers and Growing Pains)NBC has pretty much lost its ability to find a good comedy. The only good comedy it really has left is Scrubs, and the network doesn't even give that show the respect it deserves.

What I think the next great comedy is How I Met Your Mother... this has the potential to have a nice long 5 or 6 year run, and not get stale. I like this show because the plots seem fresh (not the stale recycled scripts that tend to take over sit-coms these days) and the cast is likeable. The show is really starting to come into its own - I like the fact that they are starting to bring in some secondary (possibly recurring) characters, like the bartender in last night's episode. Also in last night's episode, they never solved the mystery of the pineapple... how great would it be to find out where the pineapple came from out of nowhere in a random episode in Season 3? (Hopefully the show makes it that far!) What else I like about the show is that the writers have said that Ted (the main character) most likely won't meet his wife in Season 1. Right now they seem to be focusing on his love story with Robin (apparently his wife's sister)... another good episode for a future season could be a "flash-forward" (as opposed to a "flash-back", where we actually meet "current Ted", his wife, and Aunt Robin... and see the interactions. And then of course there has to be a wedding episode eventually, and there is always plenty to work with during a wedding! Definitely get on this train while they are still laying the groundwork for future inside jokes.... afterall, this could be the next... well, nevermind. CBS, Monday's at 8:30.