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"MOTHER" VS. "KITCHEN" … FIGHT!
October 7, 2005
Looking at some of the battles between new shows sharing a time slot this fall, one of the more interesting is now underway Monday nights at 8:30 p.m - Fox's "Kitchen Confidential" versus CBS' "How I Met Your Mother."
It's a classic match-up between a modern, single-camera, laugh-track-free comedy (that would be "Kitchen") and an old-fashioned, multi-camera sitcom ("Mother"), featuring canned laughs aplenty. The difference in style isn't the only interesting thing about this showdown, though. By some twist of fate, each series features a former cast member from not one, but TWO beloved cult shows. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"'s Alyson Hannigan is among the cast of "Mother" while her ex-Scooby Ganger Nicholas Brendon co-stars in "Kitchen," which also stars John F. Daley, once a geek on the short-lived but well-regarded "Freaks and Geeks." Meanwhile, Daley's old "Freaks" castmate Jason Segel turns up in "Mother."
Bizarre, huh? Well, okay … maybe to no one but me. Yes, I watch too much TV.
Anyway, after watching the first three episodes of both shows, a clear victor has emerged, at least in terms of laughs. And the winner is … "How I Met Your Mother," which isn't yet a must-watch sitcom, but does show promise with some clever writing and likeable characters.
"Mother" is structured as one massive flashback. At the beginning of each episode, we get to hear a disembodied voice from the future (Bob Saget) tell his two teenage kids another chapter in the story of how he met, uh, their mother. Except none of the episodes so far have really been about said meeting, making this framing device kind of awkward.
The voice's younger self is an amiable chap named Ted (Josh Radnor), who yearns for love while bouncing around the big-city bar scene with his friends - newly-engaged couple Marshall and Lily (Segel and Hannigan); object of his desire, but not future wife, Robin (Cobie Smulders); and excitable party guy Barney (Neil Patrick Harris).
Funny enough, it's old Doogie Howser himself, that makes the biggest impact. Barney is pure cheese - an wannabe player with a closet full of sharp suits and a brain full of bad pick-up lines - but Harris' hilarious embodiment of this lame, but also endearing, character is reason numero uno to watch "Mother." His comic timing is impeccable, and Harris can earn big laughs using but a single word, such as "legendary." (If you saw episode three, you know what I'm talking about.)
Unfortunately for "Kitchen Confidential," the entire cast put together hasn't scored as many good chuckles as Harris all by himself. The new Fox series stars Bradley Cooper as Jack Bordain as a bad-boy New York chef who gets a second chance at life after being done in by his partying ways. Bordain is a smug and self-centered … much like his assistant chef, Steven (Owain Yeoman). Oh, and also the pastry chef, Seth (Brendon). Yes, almost everyone on this show is smug and self-centered. That is unless the character happens to be a raging stereotype - like the flamboyantly gay waiter or the dumb blonde hostess.
By eschewing the laugh track and taking on a more cinematic look, "Kitchen" wants to be a hip, modern comedy in the same vein as "Arrested Development," which it follows on Mondays. However, "Development" doesn't need the canned laughs - it earns them all by itself. "Kitchen" is left with nothing but the sound of chirping crickets.
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