Monday Night Joss Alum TV

My yoga class is off for three weeks, so I went to dance last night instead of watching How I Met Your Mother and Summer Glau's episode of The Big Bang Theory, so I caught up on those and the premiere of Nathan Fillion's Castle today.

The Big Bang Theory

I know several people who've told me how funny this show is, and I've never been able to get into it. Since with_a_kay wrote Tractorbeam, a J2 Big Bang AU, I've thought it was the only good thing to come of the show. However, the lure of Summer Glau as herself was too much to resist, and I found myself pleasantly surprised by the show. It was actually funny. I don't think it speaks well of the show, however, that what made it so funny was that it didn't have anything to do with the Leonard and Penny relationship.

How I Met Your Mother

I've been thinking that this show has lost its way recently. It got popular fast, so they don't have to stick to the how Ted met the kids' mother story as closely for fear they'll get cancelled soon. This means that they just keep going on and on with miscellaneous plotlines. They also decided Barney should be in love with Robin, which totally ruins Barney's character.

This episode was much better. They still haven't gotten back to the how Ted met their mother part of the story, but they let go of the Barney/Robin plotline, and it was a great return to the all five of them sitting around their booth at the bar telling stories structure.

Castle

There are things I really liked about Castle:

• The premise of a famous author helping out the cops and treating the case like a story that needs to be plotted.


• Stana Katic does a lovely job as Detective Beckett.


• I loved Castle laying out why Beckett is a detective.


• ( Spoilery )


• Rick's family - Molly Quinn as his daughter and Susan Sullivan (Greg's mom from Dharma & Greg) as his mother - is wonderful, and I really like his relationships with them.


• I love it that Rick has a poker game with other famous writers, two of whom were played by themselves, and one of whom was a woman who perhaps was only supposed to be the dealer since she didn't get a name, and that they help him solve the crime.


• The other two detectives are also hilarious.


• The color palette is fantastic. You've never seen a squad room that looks like this.

For all the good things, and the way I laughed out loud several times, the show has two issues. First of all, it feels a little flat in the crime solving parts, which have really predictable dialogue, where the scenes with his family pop. But the bigger problem is that they're underusing Nathan Fillion. He's a stronger actor than the material and what they're having him do.