Television has left me a sniveling supplicant of my former self, an expectation-riddled reviewer waiting aside the monolithic media complex for new pellets of TV joy. Or, put more plainly, I was super pumped that the programming schedule was back to normal post Olympics, but I was wrong, I guess. CNN would probably blame the lapse in TV airdates on the missing Malaysian flight, but I know it’s probably just Joss Whedon’s fault. Well, we can begin.

HIMYM

How I Met Your Mother was sweet, I guess, not so subtly ruminating on the idea of regret (super fun, right?). The plot focused on a dude named Gary Blauman (played by Cobie Smulders’ real life husband and SNL giant Taran Killam) and his connections with the central characters. None of the flashbacks having to do with this were very interesting (save one that revealed Billy Zabka’s poetry career), but overall there were a few laughs and the episode was pretty decent.

HIMYM

Taran Killam didn’t really get to shine at all, but that’s ok, because Cristin Milioti was impressive in a sequence depicting Ted and the Mother’s first date (she did exactly what Ted should have done with Robin, making the first move). The date in question consisted of Ted telling the story of Gary Blauman (that’s meta!), and after stuff happened with Blauman, we learned the fates of many of the supporting characters we’ve met over nine seasons. Turns out Ranjit finally got rich, Scooter married the Lily lookalike stripper, and James (Wayne Brady rules) got back with his husband.

With only three episodes left, the hope here is the writing and acting will be a bit better, but I’d be happy with this current trajectory. Although, rumors abound about the ultimately melancholy ending, and that seems a bit of a rude way to end this sort of series. We were promised sap, God damn it!

New Girl didn’t air, but rumor has it Jess and Nick are in for some real relationship stuff next week. So, that’s something to look forward to?

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. also didn’t air, which is just plain silly. I’m beginning to think Joss Whedon loves playing on my emotions. Me specifically (I’m watching you, you evil television genius).

Community

Community, though, was beyond excellent. Nerds and geeks got to revel in a madcap sequel to the amazing Dungeons and Dragons episode from earlier seasons, complete with an awesomely nerdy cameo by David Cross (playing Buzz Hickey’s son). This time around, the study group was split into two factions, the battle over whether the elder Hickey would be granted access to the younger’s son’s life (so, real important stuff but solved via D&D). Some incredible moments included David Cross seducing his half of the study group’s characters via an Elven song of battle (or something akin to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack), Hickey playing good cop/bad cop with hobgoblins (played by Abed), and Annie as Hector the Well-Endowed (again) saying, “I spray all over them!” My weird obsession with Alison Brie continues. I’d consider this installment a fantasy romp with crazy bouts of deliberate overacting (Dean Pelton hugging Jeff while being impaled on a sword was beyond Oscar-worthy), the second best of the season so far, the Meowmeowbeenz dystopian episode inching in at first place. More, Dan Harmon, more!

And, disappointingly, Elementary wasn’t on, which almost ruined my week. Thank you, Dungeons and Dragons, for keeping my spirits high. See you all next week for hopefully more than two shows to review. Adventure on, my fellow Internet addicts, adventure on.

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