How I Met Your Mother would like you to meet the woman you've waited for so long: Marshall and Lily's nanny
Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Monday, October 8. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 8 p.m.): Two weeks ago, we finally got our longest look at the Mother yet, even if we didn’t get to see her face. (Those fool umbrellas! Who is she? Penguin?) Last week, even the resolute Donna Bowman—who continues to love the show in the face of growing numbers who grumble (Godspeed, Donna; we're right there with you)—had to admit the episode was off a touch. So how will Marshall and Lily’s attempts to find a nanny fare with her? And will we finally get to see the slightest bit of the Mother’s face? Maybe just a chin? That could be fun!
REGULAR COVERAGE
Adventure Time (Cartoon Network, 7:30 p.m.): Tonight’s episode features “the Gunthers,” and while we were all ready to proclaim the triumphant return of the guy who worked in Central Perk on Friends and was really in love with Rachel, Oliver Sava wishes to inform us we are sadly mistaken.
Alphas (Syfy, 8 p.m.): Lauren Holly evidently has little-to-no Alpha ability, since she probably didn’t foresee her career ending up with a recurring arc on the second season of this show. Still, she could have done much worse. Todd VanDerWerff will be sharing his Picket Fences fanfic in comments.
Regular Show (Cartoon Network, 8 p.m.): There’s a dude on this show named Muscle Man? Our continued attempts to learn nothing about this program have been successful for yet another week. Fun facts: Muscle Man is inspired by Alasdair Wilkins, a 25-year-old power lifter. (Was it body builder?)
Switched At Birth (ABC Family, 8 p.m.): How can you guys not watch this show when it has awesome episode titles like “We Are The Kraken Of Our Own Sinking Ships”? Isn’t that cool? Carrie Raisler has told us the show probably won’t feature an actual Kraken, but we don’t believe her one bit. Krakens ahoy!
2 Broke Girls (CBS, 9 p.m.): “When the diner is robbed, everyone sees a surprising new side of Han,” says the episode description. Pilot Viruet swears that if it’s just that he knows martial arts (because he’s Asian, get it?), she’ll be done with this show forever. Aw. She was just kidding, show! She’ll never leave!
Castle (ABC, 10 p.m.): Castle figures it’s three weeks into the new season, so it may as well get the inevitable Storage Wars episode out of the way. Tonight, our intrepid mystery solvers investigate a murder in a storage unit, and Phil Nugent crosses Storage Wars off his list of possible Castle specs.
Revolution (NBC, 10 p.m.): We’ve decided to like this episode sight unseen because it’s named “The Plague Dogs,” which is one of our favorite grim animated films, complete with an ending that has to be seen to be believed. Les Chappell has never seen it, so he doesn’t believe us. No, Les! It’s that grim!
The Inbetweeners (MTV, 10:30 p.m.): You’re not even reading this capsule, are you? If you are, please tell everyone in comments that you can’t believe we spoiled the series finale of Breaking Bad in this capsule, because you hadn’t caught up yet. Also, something about Margaret Eby. Now laugh. Laugh!
TV CLUB CLASSIC
The West Wing (11 a.m.): With only a few episodes left in the series’ fourth season, Steve Heisler checks out two hours where tiny problems become huge issues, like that time he went out to get some milk, and he ended up serving five years for a crime he didn’t commit. The ‘90s were stressful for him.
Justice League (1 p.m.): It's the most wonderful time of the year, by which we mean that it's October, when all of the stores start preparing for the onslaught of Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas stuff, as we wait for the three holidays to become one. Anyway, Oliver Sava watches superheroes celebrate the holidays.
WHAT ELSE IS ON
90210/Gossip Girl (The CW, 8/9 p.m.): The CW sees that it’s nearly mid-October, so it’s probably just about time to start rolling out its premiéres, starting with the fifth—fifth!—season debut for 90210 and the sixth and final season debut for Gossip Girl. We’re predicting lots and lots of teenage shenanigans.
Titanic: Blood And Steel (Encore, 8 p.m.): Forced to come up with some new take on the famous ship that sank, the British finally just gave up, shrugging and saying, “Hey, why not show them building the damn thing?” Phil Dyess-Nugent once built a scale model of a 7-11 out of popsicle sticks, so he knows.
The Mob Doctor (Fox, 9 p.m.): Despite the fact that it pulled a dreaded 1.0 in the key demo last week and seems to be just as roundly rejected by all of the viewers outside of that demo, Fox just keeps airing this damn thing, even though it’s totally wrecking all of our cancellation pools. Do us a solid, Fox!
Hawaii Five-0 (CBS, 10 p.m.): We saw a bunch of promos for this one during football today, so obviously, CBS isn’t giving up on it, despite its own ratings slide. We’re excited to see two characters end up stranded in the middle of the ocean. Daniel Dae Kim has seen this one somewhere before.
Behind Enemy Lines (AMC, 8 p.m.): After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, this nondescript little action programmer starring Owen Wilson became a whole thing, where box office pundits were predicting it to blow up because of the military connection. America mostly shrugged, but maybe you won't.
Fury (TCM, 8 p.m.): Fritz Lang directed this one, so that alone makes it worth checking out. But TV Guide’s capsule also describes it as “a stirring indictment of violence,” then says Spencer Tracy is tortured after being accused of kidnapping. And this is from 1936! So you know it’ll be good.
Monday Night Football: Texans at Jets (ESPN, 8:30 p.m.): Rather quietly, the Houston Texans have unexpectedly mounted a so-far perfect record, scoring 126 points and only allowing 56. Now, they get a chance to show they’ve got the right stuff in primetime, against the struggling New York Jets.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Homeland (Sunday): If you haven’t seen this one yet, check it out now. There’s an ending twist you’ll never see coming, even though we’ve already told you there’s a twist. Todd VanDerWerff hopes you’ll take a look, because he’d really like to talk about this one with you in comments. Go, go, go!