Alyson Hannigan

Monday Night: On Monday night, CBS deviates from its "crime show formula" and hosts four sitcoms from the 8-10pm period, closing the night out with a "CSI" show. I only watch one show on Monday on CBS, and that’s the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother." I’ve watched the show since it started last season (it debuted after the great "King of Queens," which is supposed to be coming back for its final season soon) and have seen dang near every episode broadcast. The show started off a bit weird, but it slowly started to figure itself out and it has made peace with its weird sense of humor. The show is essentially one long flashback, with an older Ted Mosby (the voice of Bob Saget) telling his children the story of how he met their mother. In the stories, Ted is played by Josh Radnor, and he’s joined by his friends Robin (the yummy Cobie Smulders), Marshall and Lily (Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segal), and uber macho douchebag Barney (the recently outed flaming homosexual Neil Patrick Harris). The chemistry of the group is amazing, and everything is held together by the deft direction of Pamela Fryman (who has directed every episode so far). You have to watch the show to understand how it all works and holds together. Besides "Monday Night Raw," it’s the only show I religiously watch on Mondays.

Tuesday Night: This is a big night for CBS. It features the great "NCIS," with Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the head of a NCIS unit. "NCIS" stands for "Naval Criminal Investigation Service," and they investigate the Navy and Marine Corps (lots of murders on this show). At 9pm is David Mamet’s "The Unit," a great special forces military show about, well, the Unit, both the soldiers who go out on missions and the families the soldiers leave behind. As I said in my first "What?!! This Column!??" way back here, the show has issues, none of which have been addressed (not they’re likely to be addressed by someone anyway). The best part of the show is often the actual mission, with the Unit members off fighting and whatnot. The wives and girlfriends part isn’t as interesting. It just isn’t. Although the recent episode that featured a flashback to Bob’s (Scott Foley) Unit "try out" was both one of the best episodes produced and one of the most confusing. It was supposed to fill in some gaps as to what exactly the Unit is. It didn’t. It was never explained why Delta Force members, already special forces guys, often don’t make it in the Unit. I still don’t get exactly why the Unit is so dang special. It does have the great Dennis Haysbert as the Unit team leader, Jonas Blaine, so it’s always going to have that going for it. New to Tuesday nights, at 10, is the medical drama "3lbs.", a show about brain surgeons. It stars Stanley Tucci as a "House" type surgeon who is forced to team with a more feeling free spirit played by Mark Feurgerson. It’s only been on for three weeks (as of this writing), so it’s still figuring itself out. Tucci is good, and he seems to be the center of the show (what’s the deal with the flashbacks he keeps having? Has that been explained and I haven’t noticed it?).

Wednesday Night: At first, I wasn’t too enthused with "Jericho," a show about a town in Colorado cut off from the rest of the world after an apparent nuclear war. The mere premise of the show seemed "cancelled after the first episode." It just sounded too complicated, almost a low rent attempt to duplicate the success of ABC’s "Lost." Then I watched the first episode. Holy hooey what a great show. It stars Skeet Ulrich as a man with a checkered past blasting through town on his way to California when the "bombs" drop. Ulrich’s family runs the town (the great Gerald McRaney is the town mayor) and Ulrich’s Jake Green is a noted badboy. No one knows if he can be trusted, and no one knows what the heck he was doing while he was gone. Lennie James’ mysterious character is also a matter of discussion. What the heck does he know (I mean really, really, really know?) and why isn’t he telling the townspeople what he knows? And, overall, what the heck really did happen? Why was there a nuclear war? When the show comes back in a few weeks, maybe, finally, we’ll get some answers. Watch this show. It’s great. And watch out for James "Gans, Albert Gans" Remar as the survivalist gang punk leader.

At 9pm is "Criminal Minds," a show about FBI criminal profilers starring Mandy Patinkin and Thomas Gibson as the head of the profiler team. They fly around the country, helping local authorities and whatnot figure out "who did it" (whatever it happens to be). The whole cast, from Patinkin’s Jason Gideon to Gibson’s Hotchner to Shemar Moore and Mathew Gray Gubler and all the rest, immediately came together in the first episode and hasn’t stopped being interesting. Yes, the show’s situations are relatively routine, and the characters are rather morose and sullen and serious, but somehow it all works. "Entertainment Weekly" recently lambasted the show for just those reasons. "CM" has been gaining on "Lost," even beating it a time or two. Why does "CM" work? I’d say the overall reason is it’s a TV show, as opposed to the more epic "movies for TV" feel of "Lost" and even ABC’S new "Daybreak." "Criminal Minds" is just a TV show, and sometimes that’s all you need to be.

Thursday Night: I’m willing to admit that I watch "Survivor." I watch it, but I don’t really pay attention to it. I can’t tell you any of the conestant names, nor can I tell you who got voted off the last episode, etc. The show has gotten "tired" over the last while, although I don’t know how the network could improve the show. I’m not going to say the show is perfect, but it has probably reached a point where, unless things are radically altered, it’s not going to go any further than it has. At 9pm is the big CBS show, the original "CSI." I was never a big fan of the show until this past season. Much like my "arrival" at becoming an "ER" nerd a few years ago, I just sort of started watching "CSI" more carefully this season and became hooked. I want to know who or what the heck the "miniature killer" is.

Friday Night: "Close to Home" is the only show I watch on Friday nights. More on that later.

Saturday Night: CBS airs reruns on this night. Just like the other networks. You’d think every network would try to get something going on Saturday nights, either with shows designed for Saturday nights or use it as a place to give dying shows both a second chance and a chance to finish themselves off so fans aren’t left in limbo. NBC should have kept "Kidnapped" on Saturday nights to burn off the rest of the storyline. I mean, they’re going to finish off the show, produce thriteen episodes, and since they claim they’re not all that worried about Saturday night rating anyway, why not just put original programming on?

Sunday Night: I start the evening off with "60 Minutes," still the best news magazine on television. It hasn’t yet gone the way of "Dateline" and started doing wall to wall computer pedophiles, but it still does those annoying celebrity interviews. I’ve made my peace with them, but I still don’t like them. Although, if they were to do a "To Catch a Predator" type show, I’d love to see Mike Wallace do Chris Hanson and watch the faces on the pervs as they find out what the heck is going on. I skip over "The Amazing Race" at 8 and wait for "Cold Case" at 9. This is probably the most formulaic show on television, just in terms of how and when the case is solved. And I don’t think I’m going out on much of a limb in saying that the show wouldn’t survive without its soundtrack. It really is all about the music.