USA Today: Familiar CBS Comedies Come Back With A Bang

[Superbowl]

Familiar CBS Comedies Come Back With A Bang

By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

Let's face it: This strike was no laughing matter.

There have been a few sitcoms around since the strike-induced comedy drought began, but not in groups, and generally not the ones we wanted. So it must be a great relief to fans of the form to see TV's most popular sitcom block, CBS' Monday night lineup, back in full force.

They're not all exactly back at full speed or finest form (the last in the group, the already-running The New Adventures of Old Christine, wasn't made available for preview). But some delay in getting the engines going again is to be expected, and even with a few sputters, it's still a very entertaining two-hour stretch. Think of this as a week designed to ease you back into the habit.

Actually, there's a change in the habit right off the bat: The lineup now begins with The Big Bang Theory (8 ET/PT). Easily the year's best new sitcom (not a particularly competitive category), Bang returns with a story that finds genius roommates Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) fighting over whether to present a paper at a physics conference. Penny (Kaley Cuoco) tries to help — while also trying to get Leonard to wear something other than a corduroy suit. ("Don't even give it to charity. You won't be helping anyone.")

As it has been from the first episode, Parsons' hilarious brand of bewildered egotism is one of the season's great gifts. What has made the series work, though, are the post-pilot improvements in Penny and Leonard. Cuoco no longer plays dumb, and Galecki has found a comfortable spot in between Cuoco's sweet, "normal" Penny and Parsons' monumentally odd Sheldon.

If the comedy comes from character in Bang, it often comes from structure in How I Met Your Mother (8:30 ET/PT), a well-cast show with some of TV's most complex plots. Tonight, while Lily, Robin and Marshall deal with a flawed apartment, Ted deals with a flawed Barney-borrowed idea: that he can live as if there's no tomorrow. It takes awhile for the setup to pay off, but the final scenes do seem to be pointing the character toward new horizons. And it's St. Patrick's Day, so you get Neil Patrick Harris in a green suit — which for many fans will be enough.

Mother leads into the night's biggest hit, the decidedly non-maternal Two and a Half Men (9 ET/PT). The focus is on Alan, whose collapsing relationship sends him to Charlie for advice. Charlie also tries to share his life wisdom with Jake, who is convinced that everything his uncle says and likes is stupid.

There's nothing in that plot you won't see coming. But when you have comic pros like Jon Cryer and Charlie Sheen carrying the load, you don't always need a lot of structure. Sometimes, just staying out of their way is enough. The fun, of course, is for adults only — but by now, you must know that.

Come on, the strike didn't last that long.

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