Monday Night Bromances

House sharing custody of Wilson with Amber? Ted and Barney on the outs after Horndog Stinson admits he broke the “bro code” by trysting with Robin? Maybe I was just in a good mood with so much great TV to choose from on Monday, but I got a kick last night out of the twists and turns of these legendary TV bromances on an eventful How I Met Your Mother and the first new House in ages. (On a similar guy theme, watching the geek geniuses of CBS’s The Big Bang Theory—which I’m reviewing in the new issue of TV Guide this week—fight over the actual time machine from the 1960 The Time Machine movie cracked me up as well.)

But seriously. With all due respect to Jeremy Piven on Entourage (which did not have its best season last summer), but how does Neil Patrick Harris not win the supporting-actor comedy Emmy after last night’s sensational episode? The drama of the Ted-Barney fight was about as powerful as that punch to the groin, and his pain (also emotional) was evident, but he was flat-out hilarious in the opening reel as he squirmed in guilty discomfort at the bar, flinching and twitching while Robin stayed cool in her denial that they’d just slept together.

Ted on getting rid of stuff he no longer needs: “Barney, you want my Xbox?” Barney: “Ted! She has a name!”

It's hardly a surprise that Barney’s Revolutionary War-era ancestor Barnabus wrote the original “bro code”—Jefferson and Franklin being too busy with that other document—but is there a forgiveness clause hidden away in some appendix? Let’s hope so. Because Ted’s outrage and sense of betrayal was real. Barney is a “no limits” kind of guy, for sure, but Ted had a point when he said, “I always thought I was the limit.” Ouch.

Other favorite moment belonged to Lily, grilling Robin for deets on the night with Barney: “Is he all smooth down there?” You goat, you!

And ah yes, the goat. That old thing. A device to ultimately tease the bombshell that Robin is living in Ted’s apartment a year from now, when he turns 31. Guess we’ll have to wait until next season—and yes, there will be a next season—to figure that one out. Until then: Robin, Schmobin. What Mother-lovers like me want to know is when and how the Barney-Ted relationship can be saved.

Weirdly, I probably laughed as often during House (which I watched first) as I did during Mother (which I played back after playing back Dancing With the Stars: poor Cristian). First I laughed as House skeptically observed a patient so nice he took all of the indignities of the ER in stride. Someone that pleasant must be sick. (True, that.) I laughed as House, missing Wilson, bowled by default with Chase (the tragically underused Jesse Spencer). I laughed as House squared off with Amber to get quality time with Wilson on a schedule signed off on by Cuddy. (Of course the boys find ways to cheat.) I laughed as Wilson sheepishly rationalized the situation: “I’m going to p--- off one of them, and they both scare me.” (Again, so true.) I laughed (then felt ashamed) as the nice patient had some sort of stroke while crooning Bread to his wife. “Not a moment too soon,” growled House. Manipulating Foreman with the performance reviews, manipulating his new team with the false vial of syphilitic blood? All funny. Returning Wilson to Amber drunk? Amber spilling the syphilis scam to the newbies (what a blabbermouth, that Wilson) to get back at House? Also funny.

This may not have been the greatest House episode ever—I’m already getting e-mails and have seen other comments from folks who take this show way too seriously—but it was awfully entertaining. Loved how they foreshadowed next week’s Jason Lewis episode by showing House glued to his favorite medical soap. Wonder what he thinks of Grey’s Anatomy?
TVGuide Links:
House
Neil Patrick Harris
How I Met Your Mother

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