A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

I HUNG OUT WITH A DIFFERENT SET OF ROWDY FRIENDS: Since no post is up, I figure we probably need an omnibus post about Monday TV. My thoughts?

• How I Met Your Mother--Rather than being a highly funny or a structually clever episode, this week was all about plot--Lily figuring out what she wants to do with her life and Ted being assertive at work and having a breakthrough (in an exceedingly unrealistic matter). The stuff with Jane Seymour as a "Cougar" was funny, but less so because it seemed to be ripped from Wedding Crashers, without any of the raunch, and the "building looks like a penis!" joke got tired a while back--though credit to the folks in charge for not showing us the building and leaving it to our imagination.
• The Class--While Holly and her notgay husband remain pointless and meandering, the rest of the show continues to be decent, with nice efforts at mixing the characters up a little bit rather than keeping them in their subgroups--Jesse Tyler Ferguson's lessons on sarcasm were particularly nice, and it's nice to see his morose character find joy. Also, credit must be given for having a show that's set somewhere other than New York or L.A. that's not generic or unnamed--but use Philly as a basis for plotlines--I'm sure we have some folks around here with suggestions.
• Heroes--I haven't watched yet, but I'm sure folks want to talk.
• Studio 60--This week reminded me of some of the best stuff from Sorkin's prior work--for the most part, the storylines didn't depend on the fact that the characters work together in sketch comedy (or for a sports show, or in the White House), but simply on letting the characters interact. Sure, each and every plotline was cut from prior Sorkin work (Eli Wallach was a slightly rejiggered version of In Excelsis Deo, Tom's tour of the studio was reminiscent of Donna giving her parents a tour of the White House, Jordan's drunken quest for friends was reminiscent of Abby Bartlett, and Simon's "save them from South Central" bit was reminiscent of the "Charlie is a Big Brother" plot from Season 4 of West Wing), and there were anvils (did we really need to cut to Harriet in the background during Wallach's "I was writing for her!" speech?), but I thought this was pretty good.