Laura Prepon is one of my favorite actresses. Not because she’s the greatest actress that ever lived (not that she’s bad, mind you – I enjoy her work), but she’s my kinda gal.

Heck I watched “October Road” just because she was on it.

Anyway, Ms. Prepon will be appearing on 2 episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” according to TV Guide.

She will be playing the character of Karen who is an ex of Ted’s. There’s no word yet on when her episodes will air, but expect to see her in the next month or so.

(s04e03) I (heart) NJ

Tonight the show opened with Ted lamenting the fact that Stella lived in New Jersey while he lived in New York. The entire HIMYM gang despises New Jersey, including Ted, which becomes clear when he refers to a bathroom visits as “dropping a huge New Jersey.”

Classy.

The ongoing sub-plot of Robin hating her job continued, with her finally getting the call to the national anchor position that Barney previously encouraged her to pursue…except that we find out later that she didn’t. She just got an audition.

Ted, wanting to merge his friends and his love life, convinced his gang to hang out in New Jersey with Stella…where they find out that she couldn’t find a sitter.

Not one second after Stella walks out the door to get them some beers, they begin to rag on New Jersey, and plot to leave. Stella catches them, of course, and convinces them to pretend her basement is a bar instead.

After Barney refuses to drop his fist until it is properly bumped (after a lame joke), Stella casually drops the bomb that she thinks Ted will be moving to New Jersey after they get married.

For someone who lives in a relatively small town most of the New Jersey hatred spilled over directly to all smaller cities and towns throughout the US – so that wasn’t all that cool.

After a few minutes of New Jersey bashing, Robin called her boss to get her job back, and found that she only had 30 minutes to get to the studio to read the 11 o’clock news.

So she stole Stella’s daughter’s bike.

After a brief commercial break we’re back into the basement and Ted tells Stella he doesn’t want to move to New Jersey. This quickly turns into an argument of which is better New York or New Jersey…which I’m sure is interesting to New Yorkers and New Jersians – but the rest of us don’t really care.

Barney’s “fist bump” running gag continues, and we occasionally see Robin riding the bike with a time clock in the right hand corner.

The argument in the basement escalates until Marshal reveals that he hates New York because he’s too big and is constantly bumping into stuff. Ted tries to compromise with living in Brooklyn, and Stella walks out of the basement telling Ted he can live “wherever he wants”.

As sad music plays Ted gets a dose of parenthood by reading Stella’s daughter a story after she wakes up from hearing the argument. Ted is so moved by the situation that he tells Stella “New Jersey wins”.

After Robin makes it to the studio she is forced to read some terrible news writing, and quits on live on the air. A few days later the gang is sitting around their favorite table at their favorite bar and Robin reveals that she got another job as a foreign correspondent…and she’s moving to Japan.

All in all, this was another less than spectacular episode of the series. It moved the story forward, but did very little to actually entertain.

Barney, again, stole the show – but there wasn’t much to steal this time around.

(s04e02) The Best Burger in New York

Last weeks CBS premieres were so good it would it was clear that this second week of shows was going to have a lot to live up to. In the second episode of its fourth season “How I Met Your Mother” focused on getting Marshall off of the couch and back to work.

It did this through his quest for “The Best Burger in New York” – a saga that eventually involved Regis Philbin, a diner with a green door, and lots of bank talk.

The episode had its fair share of funny lines, but the burger-gasims that the entire cast seemed to experience were more than a little off putting. This episode did the important thing of setting up Marshall’s co-working with Barney (which is sure to bring a few laughs in future episodes), but I did find myself missing Stella.

Stella and Ted work really well together, and after watching this episode without her present, I have to say that I’m going to miss her if she ends up leaving the show this season. I certainly hope that isn’t the case.

All in all, this was not a spectacular episode of the series – but it was heads and shoulders above most of the sitcoms currently on television.

Jason Jones (”The Daily Show”) will be making an appearance on a future episode of “How I Met Your Mother” according to the Hollywood Reporter. Jones will be playing Sarah Chalke’s (Stella on the show) ex who is the father of her son.

Chalke will be guest starring on the show throughout the upcoming season.

There is still no official word on if she is actually the “Mother” mentioned in the title of the series.

Is “Stella” the ‘mother’ in question in the title of the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother”? That’s the question that’s heating up the TVGuide comments section right now, and I’m sure the producers are pleased by the mixed reaction to the idea that “Stella” played by Sarah Chalke (”Scrubs”, “Rosanne”) could be “the one”.

In the 5th episode of the season Stella’s sister is scheduled to get married, but the wedding isn’t going to end up happening…rumor has it that Stella may decide to take Ted down the already paid-for-isle instead.

People are arguing the point that if Stella was the mother that would somehow be bad for the show because the kids wouldn’t be Ted’s since Stella already has a daughter. Others have dismissed it because Stella’s daughter isn’t there with the other two kids listening to the story.

Frankly, none of those arguments make any sense. The show is called “How I Met Your Mother” not “How I Met your Mother and Conceived you in a night of Fiery Passion”. They could easily NOT be his kids.

As for Stella’s daughter – she could easily be off at college, because the kids listening to Ted’s story would obviously be younger than she is.

Regardless, there is no confirmation that she is, in fact, the mother – but I’m a big Sarah Chalke fan. So I’d love it if she was the mother. I think she and Ted have a great chemistry, and I’d love to see her involved with this show for the rest of its run.

What do you think?

SPOILER ALERT! The title asks a question – the post gives the answer. If you don’t want to be spoiled, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!

The answer to the question is yes. In an October episode of the series there will be a wedding for Ted and Stella. One of two things are going to happen…either Stella really is the Mother, or one of them is going to no-show the wedding.

It’s possible, I suppose, that Ted and Stella could get married and it just not last…but somehow that just doesn’t seem like it will fly with the series.

What we know for sure is that HIMYM creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas don’t have a problem keeping us on our toes. We’ll just have to wait until October to find out for sure.

“How I Met Your Mother” is a stand-out comedy on CBS. It is, in fact, the ONLY show that I currently watch on the network, and it seems like it belongs more on an NBC Thursday night than a CBS Monday night.

Which is probably why it has had constant ratings struggles. Last year the show reached deep down and pull “Britney Spears” out of its hat for a few episodes in a gloriously blatant stunt casting attempt. There are some that speculate the ratings boost from her appearances saved the show and gave us the upcoming fall season.

If so – I’m fine with that. Whatever it takes to keep this show going, is ok with me. The HIMYM creative team is going back to the stunt casting well again in September, with Regis Philbin guest starring in an early “hamburger-centric” episode of the series.

There is no word right now as to what role Regis will play, but it is assumed he will somehow fit into the quest for Ted to find the first place he ever bought a hamburger in New York.

Yeah…seriously.

Starting on the first day of September, all the way through to the 30th of October we have new shows debuting on all the major networks. Below you’ll find a complete list of all the new and returning shows and their premiere dates!

Be sure and check back here at TV Jab for reviews of these new programs as they premiere…we’ll be covering almost all of them this year!
Read the rest of this entry »

Some of you may recall that Britney Spears recently appeared on “How I Met Your Mother” as a semi-crazy receptionist who fell in love with Ted, and was eventually taken advantage of by Barney.

She will be making a return appearance in the near future, which isn’t terribly surprising since her first guest spot on the show garnered huge ratings.

What will her return involve? Don’t have a clue at this point, but my guess would involve some kind of retribution for Barney being…well…Barney.

Dowisetrepla (se03ep07)

This week’s episode of How I Met Your Mother seemed to be one of those shows that was necessary to move the plot into a new direction at the expense of being all that funny. Lilly and Marshal get a new apartment. That’s the entire episode. Everything is focused on that, with the foreshadowing that it is a mistake.

There is is a bit with Ted where he pretends he’s a CSI investigator, and another bit with a comically large bottle of champagne, but the majority of the episode is spent reminding us that Lilly had tons of credit card debt, and that Marshal will call buying this apartment one of the 3 biggest mistakes of his life.

So, you can expect this apartment to play a role in the rest of the season (assuming there is one – what with the writer’s strike). All in all, there wasn’t much going on this episode, and what was going on was moderately funny, but nothing special.

Grade: B-