TV- Monday Night Recap 10/6

Warning: Spoilers Ahead- Particularly Heroes and Terminator

How I Met Your Mother

Not my favorite episode of all time.  Ragging on my home state of New Jersey is never cool.  The running joke about no one responding to Barney's fist pump was kind of amusing, but the set up was that no one would respond to his lame jokes.  Usually his one-liners are some of the best laughs, so that hurt this episode.  Marshall's rant about being too big for New York was pretty funny, though.

Chuck

Decent episode.  It looks like they've gotten the formula to balance the action and comedy just about right, and they're not going to veer away from that too much.  John Laroquette and Melinda Clarke were both fine in guest roles, but I don't think either was stronger than Michael Clarke Duncan last week.  My one problem with the episode was that it would have been nice if they didn't spoil the surprise at the end by putting the actor's name in the guest credits at the start of the episode. 

Heroes

Good episode.  Time travel episodes have always been solid, and it's good to see them using it quite a bit within episodes this season.  I'm still not 100% sold on Sylar being Peter's brother (it feels like a "jump the shark" move) but it was interesting to see how different he is in the future.  I'm not quite clear on why it was necessary for Peter to take Sylar's power- they essentially already have the same power, except Peter doesn't need to tear someone's head open to gain their ability.  Unless maybe Peter can only do this for people with natural abilities, and Sylar is capable of getting them from people who got abilities by injection.  I also don't understand why Hiro would dig up Adam... one, it doesn't make sense for him to do it based on their history together, and  two, he can teleport.  The pacing and action have definitely been better this season than they were last year, but they still need to tighten up the characters.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

This is quickly becoming my favorite show on TV.  Last week's episode was a little strange.  Being so heavily focused on Cameron didn't quite fit with the rest of the season so far, and seeing her malfunctioning again was not great.  This week was back to form, and was another excellent episode.  Seeing John begin to mature while at the same time rebel has been the highlight of this season.  Thematically, his frustration with accepting fate and the predetermination of events makes this show much closer in tone to the first two movies. (Thankfully the show ignores the crapfest that was Terminator 3.  T2 ends on "No fate but what we make for ourselves.  T3 ends with Skynet launching it's attack because the future is predetermined.  Did the people responsible for T3 even watch James Cameron's movies?)  

Back to this episode, it was a perfect example of what this show does so right.  Introducing a character like Bidell, mirroring John's frustration as another person who's "destined" to become a great man.  It maturely looks at the question of destiny, as John and Derek talk about Bidell's desire to run away. "He has a choice.  We just have to help him make the right one."  Through his actions, we again see John becoming a man who could lead a resistance against the machines, and he inspires Bidell to become someone who would die to protect John in the future.

The only thing I would have liked to have seen that this episode didn't have, is more information about Weaver's daughter.  Is she human and just doesn't know that her mother has been replaced, or is it a child terminator?