How I Met Your Mother: "The Playbook", V: "A Bright New Day" & Glee: "Ballad"

Okay, it's been a week since last I blogged. So what does that mean for you as a reader? It means you deserve something truly special today. Something like a TRIPLE POST!

As a brief preview, I'll say that V was better this week, Glee was much better this week and How I Met Your Mother was EXCELLENT.

This TRIPLE POST! will start in the realm of:















So like I said, this week was EXCELLENT.

In this week's installation, Barney, having broken up with Robin, decides it's time to pull out a thing he hasn't been getting to use as much as he'd like to... he calls it The Playbook.

Written by Barney himself, The Playbook contains every one of Barney's scams, cons, hustles, hoodwinks, gambits, stratagems, bamboozles, and even flim flams for tricking the world's females into the nearest available bed. It contains such classic maneuvers as:

The Don't Drink That












The Mrs. Stinsfire












The Lorenzo Von Matterhorn












The He's Not Coming











And quite a few other hilarious techniques, all delivered perfectly. So, Barney's scheming is definitely the most noteworthy element of this episode, but he certainly isn't the only person delivering the plot and entertainment.

For plot, we turn to Robin and Claire.













Robin's going through a whole deal where she's decided to give up on dating and relationships for a while since things are over with Barney, but we'll get back to that in a second.

Because you are currently wondering "WHO THE (insert profanity of choice) IS CLAIRE!??!"
Well. Claire is actually sort of the foundation of the plot in this episode. Most of the episode is set in flashback form as Lily explains to Claire what Barney's been up to with The Playbook in an attempt to persuade her away from any contact with him. So Claire hangs out with the gang while Barney sits in the corner in a scuba suit (you'll have to watch to see what that's about).

And Claire is actually really cool and gets along great with everyone, despite having come out of nowhere and just meeting these people.

Okay, back to Robin. So she's convinced that she's out of the dating scene for the time being and completely focused on herself. Which brings us to the entertainment factor. I have to say, aside from Barney's awesome Playbook descriptions, Marshall is the one pulling the weight with throwing in great comedy from left field. None of the plots directly involve him, so he spends most of his time providing commentary in on the discussions of others... as well as demanding adamantly to Robin that she will definitely be married in a short time span if she goes on "not looking" for love. He then goes on to give a really excellent speech about frozen waffles.








Annnnd other than that, the episode is just chock full of hilarious moments that make viewers love the characters and the show.




















"The Playbook" is certainly a MUST WATCH.


---------------------------------------------------------------
SPOILERS










V was cooler this week. It still didn't have me on the edge of my seat, but I was definitely curious and interested all the way through.

Overarching plotwise - The Vs are granted visas by the United States and the freedom to roam New York. This has the nation in an uproar and debate as to the wisdom springs up all over. Riots, of course, ensue.

Characters to watch this week:

Let's start with Erica.

I'm starting to like her character more having watched this episode. She's smart and she's playing the whole "Vs are actually killer lizard aliens" game very cunningly. Not to mention being a believable mom.

Tyler

is STILL trying to get his girl back after last week's little violent debacle.



And as it turns out, all it takes is Lisa asking the Vs to let him back into the ambassador system and it's as good as done. But Tyler's still sort of a loser.


Ryan

Ryan is definitely amongst the coolest and most badass characters this show has to offer. Not only is he a rogue V, but he is now balancing his resistance plotting and his love for Valerie. Unfortunately, the other potential resistance members he's in touch with all tend to be cowards who end up betraying him.













The main draw of the show at this point is the forming of factions and the introduction of new players to the multiple sides of the conflict. We as viewers are given a few more details about the long-since-disbanded V resistance, known as the 5th Column. The small group of humans that are aware of the Vs' true intentions is beginning to meet the V betrayers. And there are a few surprise faction players, adding to the intrigue of the oncoming conflict.


Oh and there was also this scene.
Which did not go unappreciated.

So, V this week has moved from a "Watch if You Must" into a "Watch because this may be going somewhere"

------------------------------------------------
Aaaaand last but certainly not least:












Glee is back in my good graces, despite the lack of any really phenomenal music for the most part this week. They're just not taking enough chances with the group pieces anymore.

But the good parts:

Firstly and most importantly, Emma is back!!! And while her role in the episode isn't huge, it's good to have her present as Will's moral compass as well as lovestruck admirer. Don't accuse me of being completely biased toward her - I really do think her part in the show is pivotally important.

Second, There's a good mixture of existing plot meets episode plot. By this I mean that we see main plotlines like the pregnancy and the Will and Emma dilemma, as well as side plots both old and new (Kurt's crush on Finn and Rachel's sudden infatuation with Will).

Okay, so what actually happens?

Let's start with the frame of this week's story - the ballads.
Each member of Glee is randomly paired with another member with the assignment of looking into that person's eyes and singing what they truly feel. The noteworthy pairings are as follows:
+Rachel and Will O_O
+Finn and Kurt
+Mercedes and Puck

Chaos ensues.

Rachel and Will
So Will ends up pairing with Rachel because one of the members of Glee is absent during the assignments. Unfortunately, while they sing a duet of "Endless Love", Rachel suddenly forms a rather persistent crush on Will.
Which has Will terrified.







Because this same situation has come about before with this girl:
Sarah Drew (aka Hannah from Everwood) who plays Suzy Pepper - and things got ugly that time around, so Will is determined not to let history repeat itself.
Therefore, he consults Emma! (I really think the love triangles surrounding Will are solid and well-thought-out) But Emma's plan to have Will sing a song that conveys a message of disinterest to Rachel backfires when both she and Rachel become completely caught up in his angelic voice and ignore the words he's singing completely.



Finn and Kurt (and Quinn)
While Quinn isn't a part of this pairing, she and the baby become important factors in Finn's ballad singing. Kurt, who is madly in love with Finn, does everything he can to help Finn choose a piece that will fully express what he's feeling.
So he sings to his little girl... about how he'll be there for her no matter what. And it's really nice - until OOPS! his mom sees him singing to a sonogram and finds out about the baby. At this point, Quinn gets involved.

Because now the question of whether they should tell her parents gets raised. She's very against it, but that just can't stop Finn from singing...
So he reveals his feeling toward Quinn by singing "You're Having My Baby" right in front of her parents.
Which results in her father disowning her and kicking her out of the house. Ouch...
(Also, the guy who plays her dad is in EVERYTHING - firefly, dollhouse, castle, glee...)

Mercedes and Puck
Puck tells Mercedes that Quinn's baby is his!!! OMG

A few of these issues get resolved by the end of the episode, but just as many are left hanging wide open, so tune in and keep watching!

Glee this week gets a WATCH for sure

Glee: "Wheels"

Glee, the show that takes serious issues, like teen pregnancy, divorce, discrimination, and slushies in the face, and places them in the most straighforward, colorful, bubbly atmosphere imaginable.











Ooookay, how was Glee this week? It was a good return from a 3-week hiatus but it wasn't amazing.

"Wheels" is an episode focusing more on our side characters, namely Artie, Kurt, and Quinn. (I consider Finn, Rachel and Will to be our "main" characters, but there were no major plot lines concerning any of them. Seriously... Finn gets a job, Will gets suspicious of Sue and Rachel deals with self-esteem issues. Normal day for the trio we generally get the most internal monologue from.

What I found to be extremely disappointing was the fact that Emma didn't appear, nor was she even mentioned, once. At this point I tune in MAINLY to see things develop between her and Will. Maybe Jayma was just off doing some shooting for Heroes or something (really excited about Charlie being back) but it seemed like in general, we didn't see a lot of the cast members that help give this show the complete, comfortable feel I watch it for. Ken was nowhere to be seen, nor was Will's wife Terri. So our weekly dose of crazy was a little lower than usual (but for Glee, slightly less crazy is still plenty of crazy)

Missing faces wasn't the only thing that left me feeling uncomfortable about this week's episode. It seemed like the creators very suddenly became compelled to create countless out-of-the-blue subplots for the show despite already having a plethora of rather pressing main plots lines that we as an audience are all on the edge of our seats over!!! These random new additions for the week include, but are not limited to:

--->Puck being extremely conscious of Quinn's needs and doing whatever he can to support her and win back her love (this one we kind of knew about, but it suddenly became very explicit). But the man is now trying to provide some financial support and calling her and the baby his "family," saying that when she decides to be with him and live in the house he buys for her, than Finn will be angry for a little while but understand...







--->Artie having a crush on Tina and vice versa?!? It's clear now that any character in this show who has an average of at least 3 spoken lines per episode will almost definitely be romantically involved with another character with at least 3 lines per episode by the end of this season. So we get a hint (a pretty blatant hint) that Artie is all of a sudden (unless I've been missing something) into Tina while he's blaring out a pretty rockin' solo of Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself", commenting on how he has to deal with being the only one around in a wheelchair. And by the end of the episode it becomes clear that Tina likes him back and that they are going to hit it off!!
...until Artie decides he only really liked Tina for her stutter because it made her weird like him... and then rolls away... douche...






--->And lastly, the Sue Sylvester has a heart subplot: Apparently Sue has an older sister with a mental condition and is a massive softy. Sure it's the writer's way of saying "Don't you dare take any of my characters for granted! They've all got layers upon layers of personality!!" But a lot of the appeal of this show, coming out of the gate, was that there were characters with such straightforward personalities that it created an excitingly ridiculous setting for the characters who we did expect to see some sort of development in. Sue being the most one-way personality of them all!

--->oh and also Quinn's suddenly more of a raging bitch than ever about the pregnancy and she's letting her frustrations out on Finn


Ok, the action we DO get:

Artie:
In keeping with the episode's emphasis on treating those with disabilities as they deserve to be treated, Artie gets the spotlight as Will decides that the Glee Club needs to raise money to rent a wheelchair accessible bus so they can all drive to nationals together(Holy run-on sentences Batman)! This stirs up a big hubbub (yes, hubbub) where no one else realizes how important the issue is to Artie and they resist the entire fundraiser idea outright. So Will lays down the law and makes them put on a bake sale... as well as requiring each club member to spend at least 3 hours a day in a wheelchair to understand what Artie has to go through. You'd think most handicapped individuals would want to draw emphasis away from their differences, but Artie eats up the attention and then sings a song about it.



Kurt:
When Kurt hears that Will's chosen "Defying Gravity" as the new piece for Glee and reflexively gives Rachel the lead, he requests the right to audition for the part. Despite Kurt possessing many more feminine tendencies than Rachel, Will gets old fashioned on his ass and rejects him outright. ...UNTIL Kurt's dad gets involved and makes Will realize that he's being unfair. At which point it's decided that an audition will be held and that the Glee members will decide on the victor. Kurt throws the audition in the end anyways because of some complex internal issue he's been discussing with his (surprisingly cool) dad. But the parallel edited audition between Kurt and Rachel was by far the greatest musical number of the week.








I liked the episode. But it made me feel like the story as well as my feelings toward the main characters progressed very little. Also, the big group musical number and Artie's solo were only so-so compared to past weeks. And I miss Jayma.







Final rating: If you were going to miss one episode of Glee this season, this would be the one that would be least damaging to emotional investment and plot comprehension as of yet.