Could we take a minute to talk about what a good actor Mark Harmon is?

If you want to see a terrific example of economic acting — few words, underplayed expression — look at the one on in the "NCIS" season finale where Gibbs calls Ducky with the news that Shepard is dead. I have this image stuck in my head of Harmon going through scripts and trimming lines, constantly thinking, "Too many words. Don't need 'em." It's not a tic in the show's writing overall; other characters get to yak. But Gibbs doesn't, and with Harmon playing him, he doesn't need to.

It was no great surprise that Shepard, played by Lauren Holly, was the dead character; what was, was how she died. It had already been established that the director was gravely ill, so it was a nice touch to let her go out in a hail of bullets — and take down four bad guys before she bought it herself. And the way the other characters handled her passing was very nicely done; I really liked the scene with Pauley Perrette talking about the way Shepard dressed — and expanded that into touching, funny thoughts about the other characters' wardrobes.

As for the big cliffhanger, with a new director and the team split up, I'm not getting overly worried. I am sure we'll see more of the new director (well played by Rocky Carroll), although I don't know if he'll become a series regular. Could that shredded document indicate trouble? As for the team being split, well, this is a show that ended a season with Gibbs quitting — and he came back. And "House" found a way to break up its core group and still keep them in the show's mix.

"Reaper" certainly set the stage for a lot of stuff when it comes back midseason. The closing shot of Sam's parents certainly suggested that Sam's powers may not come from being the devil's son; other forces are on the loose. But there has been a shift in Sam's relationship with the Devil. And we got another taste of what it will mean to have Andi in on Sam's secret — can't wait to see her keep pushing for more method in the madness. (Sort of reminds me of when Cordelia went to work for Angel.) The show really feels as if it has a roadmap for next season and beyond, and a good map at that.

Before I leave Tuesday's shows, I have a long post below about "American Idol" and why I think David Archuleta sealed the deal. Which makes the analysis over at Dialidol.com very intriguing, since it has David Cook winning easily. Not sure if I trust the numbers, but I wouldn't mind being wrong on this one.

Sliding back to Monday night, "House" finished its two-part finale and I thought it did very well something I absolutely hated them for doing. Amber had become a strong character, especially because she was so much like House; her ending up with Wilson was precisely on point — giving Wilson a romantic partner with the qualities of his best friend. And there was no question that Amber and House had some chemistry (and boy, was the chemistry flying in House's fantasy). But if the show felt the need to add to the characters' suffering, it did so with considerable skill. I just wish the need hadn't been there.

Disappointing finales from "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two and a Half Men." The best thing in either episode was Marshall's battle with lice — silly, but inspired silliness. Beyond that, not much to offer, and the Stella melodrama was implausibly stretched. As I said after last week's "Men," we've already seen plenty about Charlie's women and Charlie's mother issues; the finale just played out a bit that probably shouldn't have been bothered with.

By the way, Susan Blakely — who played Angie — is 55 or 59, depending on the reference. Seeing her did provide some measure of nostalgia — "Rich Man, Poor Man," anyone? — although judging from IMDB she's been working fairly regularly, just in shows I don't pay much attention to.

Shake shake shake, shake shake shake …

This was one of those episodes where you realize how much the cast does to sell the material.

I'll start with the way Sarah Chalke is making a case for being part of this or any other show show if and when "Scrubs" ends, because she's just plain good. She almost carried off Stella's ridiculous rethinking of her anger at Ted — come on, Stella had every right to be mad at him. '

Similarly, Will Forte did as much as could possibly be done with a really badly written portrait of a Barney wingman wannabe. I mean, how many times have we seen the stepping-aside-to-be-giddy thing? (My personal favorite is Laura Linney's in "Love Actually.") But Forte almost made it work with his verve and varied movements. I said almost.

Finally, there was Jason Segel's reading of the items about the last time Stella had sex. The items went nowhere — the "Da Vinci Code" line was a lousy payoff — but Segel's Marshall had a cheerfulness about them that made me smile. (And any time Marshall and Lily talk about their sex lives, they make it sound so convincing that, even on sitting at home, they make me uncomfortable.)

Episode as a whole? Ho hum. The Barney-Ted estrangement just reminds us what an ensemble piece the show is, and separating the players is bad for biz. Robin had nothing to do. The Ted-Stella story wasn't well told. Quite a disappointment. Between "HIMYM" and "Two and a Half Men," I count on a couple of big laughs on a Monday; I need them to ease the burden of listening to the judges on "Dancing With the Stars." This week, they weren't really there.

Sandcastles in the Sand

OK, so we've got the complete "Sandcastles in the Sand." And not a bad episode around it. Although the shocker — the real "OMG" for a Monday night — was, of course …

that Barney-Robin kiss. Holy cow! And does this provide even more reason for that reference to "Aunt Robin" back in the series premiere — that she's close to the family because she also got close with Barney?

But I would have liked the video-watching better if they hadn't felt compelled to ID Tiffany and Alan Thicke in the video. Is this the price of celebrity cameos these days? (Sort of like Tracy saying "Gladys Knight" to Gladys Knight after the "Midnight Train to Georgia" "30 Rock.")

New video for Monday's episode of "How I Met Your Mother"! Cameos by Tiffany, Alan Thicke and James Van Der Beek. Here's a preview clip:

I should have a second clip later today.

Yes, it's the legendary "Let's Go to the Mall" by Robin Sparkles. (Thanks to Alan Sepinwall for pointing this out.) "How I Met Your Mother" fans will note that Robin Sparkles was, in fact, "HIMYM's" Robin in her younger days. But you don't need history to appreciate the sublime, perkalicious '80s quality of the video.

And, just because you can't listen to that song just once, here's a version with paper-bag puppets:

Stay with it. Some great cat socks near the end.

And, just to remind you of the roots of "Let's Go to the Mall" (and the great detail in the video) here is Tiffany's mall-hopping epic "I Think We're Alone Now":

I should also mention "New Amsterdam," but I'm something like three episodes behind in watching it. But I did catch up with all of the above last night and this morning. Notes after the jump …

I keep tabs on "The Bachelor: London Calling" because Holly Durst, one of the contenders, is local. And since she got her rose in a one-on-one date, I could have just bagged the rest of the show at that point. Not to mention that the whole red-carpet "premiere" that she and Matt attended was promotional puffery of the worst sort, an obviously contrived bit of make-believe whose primary purpose was to promote the movie (which, conveniently, also had a commercial during "The Bachelor"). And not a very impressive contrivance at that: no crowd outside the theater, with just a few "reporters" along the red carpet. (Yeah, yeah. the show called it a "private premiere." Makes the trappings seem that much phonier.)

But I did eventually watch the rest of the show, which is just Catfight City at this point. And I have to think that Matt is turning into a big old horndog whose interest in love is not nearly as great as his interest in tub time and serial smooching.

I had high hopes for "How I Met Your Mother" last night. The blackboard theft was funny enough, and the Barney-brackets debate pretty good. And who didn't get a laugh out of the "Doogie Howser" homage at the end? But when we got to Barney's Final Four, it dragged, with too many predictable gags (the attempts at being inconspicuous, Barney thinking Robin's friend was the woman sabotaging him). Still waiting for the show to get fully back on game.

"Two and a Half Men," meanwhile, went to one of its most reliable sources of humor: filth. Herb's gardening jokes were fine, the seed payoff even better. Add in Jake's discontent at an R-rated movie (continuing his recent dogging of stuff he has watched with Charlie), the Judith-Herb clinches in every room and Berta's moments, and it's another gem.

A toast to your return, gentlemen!

I don't know if it was to make room for that "Tropic Thunder" trailer or what, but CBS and my DVR were not in sync last night …

Although I had the recorder set for "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two and a Half Men," "HIMYM" obviously started before the 8:30 mark, since the playback began with opening scene already in progress. And had I not gotten "HIMYM" I would have missed the first minute or two of "Men" following it. I don't usually mind the networks playing their don't-change-the-channel games with early starts and overruns as long as the DVR has gotten the correct information, but it obviously did not have it last night. And I won't rule out Time Warner missing it, since I am on the verge of another rant about the current situation. (In my Monday notebook, I grumped about the channel realignment. But I'm also fuming about the glitches in their new DVRs. …)

Anyway, the two new episodes, our first in months, were a welcome return. I wouldn't rank any among the best by either show. And "HIMYM" especially seemed rusty in spots; the sloping apartment didn't work as well as I would have hoped, and it feels as if the show has spun the Ted-changing-character card before. Still, I can't get the word "bro-pocalypse" out of my head, and the sheer glee of Barney in action is always a delight.

"Men," meanwhile, was at its best in the running bit about Jake hating what Charlie liked on TV, although Alan's attempts to dump his latest girlfriend had some good spots. Not in the script so much — we knew this would end badly for Alan — as in the way Jon Cryer so adeptly plays desperate anxiety.

And even as the two episodes seem less good as I think about them (although you should never think too much about comedy), I can't get over how happy I was to have them back. This is where we really feel the effects of the writers strike — not in missing things while they're gone, a feeling that could be put aside, but in the relief felt when they at last return. That tells us that the collective shrugging during the strike was just a defensive mechanism. And now, inside, we're all starting to go, YAY YAY YAY.

When logic and proportion have fallen … after the jump.

Much as "Californication" loves Warren Zevon, after tonight's season finale I was thinking "White Rabbit." Even if a show is about a messed-up character (or many messed-up characters), there has to be some logic to it, or at least a sense of what the characters consider logic. None of that in the finale.

Why would a woman, seeing Hank standing with a girl, not think that he wanted tampons for her? (And yes, we could figure that the woman was PMS-ing, but that doesn't make it any more logical.) Why would Karen go through with the wedding, when she had a perfect out — and then run off with Hank? It can't just be that he seemed loving and mature. (This is Hank, and a second season looms.)

And why is no one visibly disturbed that Mia is going to get to steal Hank's book after all? (Didn't Charlie condemn for that stunt earlier in the same episode?) What we had here was a lot of false trails and one trick designed so that Showtime could run that promo about staying for the last 30 seconds, when that last event — Karen's flight — should have happened long before.

But here's the thing. I dislike countless aspects of this show and I keep watching. And I'm not sure why. I think it's like a big, bad novel of the sort I suspect Hank actually wrote (for all his claims otherwise), where as painful as it is to read, you still wonder where it's going next — and hang in through all the implausibilities and bogus moments just to get to the end. At least we're at a season's end, if not a series end. But I would have been quite content if this were the latter. I don't have enough energy and time for all the good TV I want to watch, let alone something bad that I tune to compulsively.

Now, you're probably wondering what all this has to do with "How I Met Your Mother." Two things. First, that's a show where people do behave in a way that, as weird as it sometimes can be, is logical for the characters as we know them, and for the show overall.

Second, I wasn't all that crazy about tonight's episode. Better than "Californication," but still not better than good "HIMYM."

I liked bits of it. They made the Porno Ted story interesting for much longer than I expected, and they can usually make something out of a Marshall crisis of conscience. But aside from the "sex architect" clip and reactions at the end, I didn't get any big laughs. And I don't want "HIMYM" to impress me only in a formalist, nice-structure way. I want some funny.

Besides watching the (not available for preview) "Cavemen" premiere last night, as well as recent doses of "Carpoolers," "Everybody Hates Chris," "Aliens in America," "30 Rock," "The Office," "My Name Is Earl," "How I Met Your Mother," "Two and a Half Men," "Girlfriends" and the overall picture is, well, mixed. …

That list should demonstrate that the sitcom is far from dead. It may be getting tweaked ("Arrested Development" appears to have been as influential as it is unsuccessful). Still, that something as mind-numbingly dreadful as "Cavemen" could get on the air is an argument that networks have faith in the sitcom form.

"Cavemen" actually took a pilot with some interesting edges — cavemen as oppressed minority — and retooled it into a dull, formless mess. (This is not the first time a pilot has been screwed up. "The Wedding Album," a not terrible-seeming show, was revamped into the unrecognizable, dismal "Wedding Bells.") "Carpoolers," which ABC has paired with "Cavemen," is not the next great sitcom but it at least offered a couple of laughs.

But there are alarm bells going off in other parts of sitcom land. "How I Met Your Mother," capable of great style and humor, was a big old lump of boredom on Monday. Well, except for Robin's hair in Guatemala. But after a decent season premiere, this week's show was uncertain — and I'm really puzzled by the seeming shift in Robin toward an overly sexualized creature (the note about Ted's size in the season premiere, the Robin-attracted-to-Robin moment this week — shades of Kira and "Deep Space Nine.")

Then there's "Everybody Hates Chris," a show that I like a lot but haven't watched as much as I should have. During my absence — or possibly just over this summer — Tyler James Williams, who plays Chris, has gotten taller and deeper of voice, and the show's not as cute because of it. I know, young actors get older and change. But when a show still calls upon its main character to run upstairs crying "Daddy!" it doesn't sound as amusing when his voice has deepend. In fact, playing opposite Chris Rock — yes, Chris Rock, not Kid Rock — Williams's voice was deeper than the real-life adult his TV character is supposed to grow up to be.

The show still has its virtues, notably Tichina Arnold and Terry Crews as Chris's parents, but even they are getting pigeonholed. This week's show indicated there are only so many ways you can do a Terry-is-cheap story.

Not so much bad news as iffy news is "Aliens in America," a show that's charming and warm about its characters, but isn't all that funny. I've seen two episodes of it and thought, well, it's nice, and Scott Patterson is almost channeling Joe Flaherty's performance on "Freaks and Geeks." But when I sit down to watch a comedy, especially when I'm in the middle of weary times, I want to laugh. And "Aliens" at best made me smile.

So what made me laugh? Well, tomorrow's "30 Rock," with Jerry Seinfeld as himself, is pretty funny. Don't miss any of the bits from NBC shows, real and fictional, that Seinfeld has been put in. And always listen to Alec Baldwin — especially when he's listing his most recent program concepts for NBC. Pirates, yes! Unfortunately, next week's episode is not as funny. But I have higher hopes of this bouncing back than I do for "HIMYM." Although I hope for it, too.

"Two and a Half Men" knows exactly what it is — often crude comedy of aggravation — and its two shows this year have delivered more of the same. And I still laugh. I was encouraged by the season premieres of "The Office" and "My Name Is Earl," but I haven't seen this week's shows yet, to be sure that they can maintain momentum.

And, among the shows that don't get talked about as much as they should, there's "Girlfriends." I haven't checked in with it in some time, but I still found a sturdy comedy-drama that understands its characters and their follies very well. And it's not afraid to push things. When Joan (Tracee Ellis Ross) was arguing with her fiance Aaron (Richard T. Jones), the intensity was so high that you could almost feel a threat of violence underlying their words.

So where does all this leave us? Pretty much where we've always been with comedies — some good, some bad, some vacillating between two extremes. No reason to kill the form, and plenty of reason to keep trying to make it better.