Channel Surfing: HOUSE, HEROES, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER & THE BIG BANG THEORY

Call us crazy, but last night’s two-hour season premiere of HOUSE that had the good doctor (not to mention us viewers) stuck in Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital for what felt like an eternity alongside some very talented guest stars (including Franka Potente, Andre Braugher and Broadway’s Lin-Manuel Miranda) was an epic fail. Okay sure, Laurie now has the pre-requisite ‘Very Special Episode’ for next year’s Emmy reel already in the can. And yes, the show, which does tend to become somewhat repetitious did switch things up from the standard mystery illness of the week. But for our money, last night is not how you start off a season. Personal character journeys that leave supporting favorites such as Cuddy, Chase and Cameron in the wings should be reserved for mid-season or at the very least, sweeps episodes. Not a season opener where viewers have waited very patiently all summer long for the return of their favorite differential diagnosticians.

While Robert Knepper’s ‘King of the Carnival’ certainly piqued our interest, and Claire giving it the ol’ college try had us intrigued, Hiro and Ando’s ‘Dial a Hero’ had us dialing another channel… RIP HEROES.

Neil Patrick Harris was robbed! Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, there really isn’t that much else to say about last night’s HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER season premiere. After-all, it comes as little surprise that Barney has a ‘whip guy,’ or that we’re already in love with Robin and Barney together. Which is why, we’ll leave you with the following. A message if you will, to all those shows (*cough*cough*HOUSE*cough*BONES*cough*) who are terrified of putting their will-they-or-won’t-they couples together for fear that it will destroy their show and/or possibly cause a rift in some sort of time and space continuum… Allow us to present an argument for doing so: Marshall and Lilly, happily married remain one of television’s best twosomes. Oh yeah… you’ve been lawyered!

When it comes to THE BIG BANG THEORY we’re willing to accept a whole lotta crazy. Sheldon running off to his Mom upon discovering that his North Pole possé completely duped him into thinking he had discovered some sort of Nobel-winning-paradigm-shift makes total sense. Wolowitz donning a red cowboy hat to better fit into his southern Texas surrounding and to match his red turtleneck, ditto. But Penny and Leonard together, in the biblical sense? Sorry, not buying it. Seriously. Creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady can keep trying, but we will never buy into your bizarro version of Ross and Rachel because deep down inside, you know the truth: Penny is meant to be with Sheldon. (Exhibit A: Did you see how quickly she rushed to his bedside (again!) to console him?)