TV Update Three

If "How I Met Your Mother" does as well as as most critics seem to think it will, it may be this year's "Desperate Housewives." Meaning, a show that although I don't care for it, I'm pleased to see do well because I like one of the stars.

At the risk of sounding like a guy telling a girl "It's not you, it's me," part of it is that I'm feeling really weary of sitcom mechanics: Set-up, pause, faraway stare...and deliver punchline.

Still, it'd be aces with me if Alyson Hannigan had a hit on her hands. It's almost impossible for me to watch her without smiling; she has that much goodwill from both "Buffy", and even American Pie.

Nevertheless, this show never made me laugh out loud and barely held me past the first commercial.