Donna Bowman's posts

Sitcoms through the decades have used the family as their setting and their primary situation. Whether the family is…

Sometimes, a concept is the worst thing that can happen to an episode of television. “The Over-Correction” puts its…

If you have a television show about an ensemble of friends, then over the course of several seasons, they’re duty…

When we want to get all jargony and academic as critics, we talk about formalism and stuff. Normally, formalism is…

I may want Marshall to make good just a little too much. There’s something in me that responds with deep yearning…

This episode almost plays like a challenge: Break up the ensemble into random pairs, perhaps by drawing out of a…

I’m a sucker for the classics. When Ted opens Marshall and Lily’s apartment door moments after leaving with Marvin…

Last week, there was some discussion in the comments about how much Haley we were likely to get this season, given…

One of the worries we’ve all had about the HIMYM endgame is that all the romantic changes have been rung on the main…

When a sitcom gets all its major characters together in a single, extended, episode-long scene, you can be sure of…

Halloween has been good to Modern Family over the years, but “Open House Of Horrors” doesn’t give us a full-ensemble…

I’m completely on board with two of the four (well, three-and-a-half) premises for tonight’s episode. Generalized to…

News flash, everybody! When your friends have a baby, they don’t hang out with you anymore. You might even feel like…

The Operative: You willing to die for that belief?
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: I am. ‘Course, that ain’t exactly Plan A.

Modern Family only barely managed to get premièred before the presidential debate knocked it off the air last week,…

Allow me to express a heretical opinion: Ted is still the linchpin of How I Met Your Mother. It’s not just that the…

“Objects In Space” (season one, episode 14; originally aired 12/13/02)

Last week, Modern Family made a bold move. After dangling a number of cliffhangers in the season finale, its première

“Heart Of Gold” (season one, episode 13; unaired)

Welcome to the TV Roundtable, where some of TV Club’s writers tackle episodes that all deal with a central theme.…