Pilot Review: How I Met Your Mother

Network & Time: CBS, Monday @ 8:30pm EST

Stars (Out of 10): 5

One Word Summary: Poor

"How I Met Your Mother" Review:

          I don't know if there's ever been a show like How I Met Your Mother. The pilot begins with a Bob Saget voiceover telling his son and daughter the story of… how he met their mother. The whole show is a flashback (a lot like Wonder Years, except this is a live audience comedy which makes a Wonder Years comparison seem kind of weird) from 25 years ago… why they think Saget's character (played in the present day by Josh Radnor) would have a completely different voice 25 years later is ill-conceived.

          The point is, How I Met Your Mother is original. That doesn't mean it's good. The script is dry, the characters are bland, and the cast is, for the most part, not funny.

          Radnor plays Ted, a guy looking to fall in love DESPERATELY. His best friends from college, Lily (Alyson Hannigan, American Pie) and Marshall (Jason Segel, Freaks and Geeks, Slackers), just got engaged which leaves the 27 year old Ted with an unsettling feeling about the future. His other buddy Barney (played by an absolutely hilarious Neil Patrick Harris, Doogie Howser, M.D.) keeps on trying to convince him that he doesn't even need to consider marriage until he's 30… but Ted is beyond consoling. He meets Robin (Cobie Smulders) in a bar and immediately believes that she is 'the one.” (SPOILER: The pilot's first twist… she's not)

If there is a saving grace in How I Met Your Mother it is Neil Patrick Harris. He destroyed the memory of his 'good boy” image in Harold and Kumar, and if this show is successful, it might give him the chance to resurrect his career. Still, How I Met Your Mother has a lot of ground to make up after a bad first showing. Some pilots are just a fluke and the show becomes incredible later on… we'll stay tuned, but my Magic 8 Ball says it doesn't look good.

Pilot's Nielsen Rating: 7.2/11