Shane Life

Two of my favorite shows on TV had their season finales last night, The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. There will be some small spoilers in here, so don’t read further if you intend to watch the episodes.

The Big Bang Theory

As I’ve stated before, BBT is probably my favorite new show of this TV season. The writing is smart (overseen by David Saltzberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California-Los Angeles, who checks scripts and provides dialogue, math equations and diagrams used as props), but not too smart to be inaccessible. It has its zany characters, not the least of which is Sheldon, the smartest of all the geniuses on the show and played brilliantly by Jim Parsons.

Last night’s finale, titled “The Tangerine Factor”, wasn’t my favorite of the season, but it certainly had its moments. I particularly liked how Sheldon wanted to learn Mandarin just to quibble with his local Chinese food shop about whether he was getting Tangerine or Orange chicken. The subtitles showed that he most certainly did not learn Mandarin.

The episode could have been called “Schrödinger’s Cat” because that really was the true theme of the episode – if Penny and Leonard date, will it ruin their friendship? After dancing around the issue all season, they managed to come at it in the same funny way they’ve approached much of the season.

I do kind of wish the episode would have been a little funnier, but at least it had some resolution to some of the conflict of the season and it gives us something to look forward to. Especially since, The Big Bang Theory was renewed for another season.

How I Met Your Mother

HIMYM is the new Friends.

That may be pushing it a little, considering that I loved Friends. However, since Friends went off the air, I’ve been looking for a sitcom that captures the same feelings of friendship and growing into adulthood that the folks at Central Perk did. I believe that it can be found in How I Met Your Mother.

The cast is terrific. Sure, it’s mostly carried by Neil Patrick Harris’ Barney, but all the characters are solid and each actor does a good job.

That being said, last night’s finale was just kind of whatever. I enjoyed Marshall’s miracle examples, but Ted, who is the one supposedly carrying the story, is just getting boring. I think that the twist at the end was really to try and bring some of the attention away from Ted’s story and put it more focused on Barney, but in doing so, at least they reconciled the beef between Ted and Barney because it was pretty lame.

I’m glad that both shows are coming back. Some people are going to point to the Britney Spears guest spot as the reason that HIMYM was renewed. I hope that it brought on enough new viewers that they don’t have to bring her back again. The first time she was OK, but the second time, she was lame. Just say ‘NO’ to Britney, Chuck Lorre. Just say ‘No.’

If you aren’t watching these shows, you should be. They’re well-written, funny, and they need more viewers. Don’t let them get cancelled.