Strong arguments could be made for both of the following: the great part about TV is the way it lets you experience new things. The great part about TV is that is brings you familiarity.

In a week where the internet exploded in a debate over the importance of a decades-standing timeslot and two very different ways of handling it, it’s clear to see that those strong arguments still come out in full force.

We’re not going to decide this week. While some us here at SPJ (ok, mostly me) are sticking with writing about the comfort of known shows, others are branching out into the unknown this week. The beauty of the medium is that you never have to decide one or the other.

So here’s what we thought–tell us what you thought in the comments.

Dennis

How I Met Your Mother: “Girls Vs Suits”
Both Rachel Bilson and Stacy Keibler showed up for the100th episode of HIMYM and – surprise! – neither of them are the mom. There are some who watch this show for the comedic antics of everyone (or everyone but our straight man protagonist Ted), but I’ve always been more invested in the search for the titular mother. Lately though I’m sadly starting to realize that maybe the show’s writers lack similar values. Whereas I used to say How I Met Your Mother was the comedy equivalent of Lost, there is a key difference: Lost had a game-changer awhile back when the people actually got off the island. I think it’s about time for Mother to do something similar. They need to give us something more substantial than the “reveal” that Rachel Bilson (who we may never see again anyway) is the roommate of Ted’s still-not-seen soulmate.  Can’t they just show us the mother? Ted doesn’t have to see her, but then at least we’ll have something to look for besides that stupid yellow umbrella.

Blue Mountain State: “It’s Called Hazing, Look It Up” and “Promise Ring”
Spike TV is again trying to get into the scripted um, game with this college football-themed show. Can something be somewhat detestable and at the same time altogether watch-able? All those people who enjoyed The Hangover would probably say yes, and this show certainly subscribes to the same school of thought. This show has many of the dude comedy staples: salty language, recreational cocaine use, a nagging harpy of a girlfriend, threesomes, masturbation, a predatory cougar, barely veiled homoeroticism, hot foreign chicks, strippers, and after two episodes it looks like this list ain’t ending anytime soon. Still, I’d strangely still watch more of this show, mostly due to the show’s likable leading men: Days of Our Lives’ Darin Brooks, and Smallville alumni Sam Jones III and Alan “Aquaman” Ritchson. It’s the anti-Friday Night Lights, but it’ll help bide my time until that show returns to my non-Direct TV-less TV in April.

Better Off Ted: “Impertence of Communicationizing” and “The Long and Winding High Road”
Not much to say this week that I haven’t already said this month in previous roundtables. I love this show, it’s probably getting cancelled, here’s another two episodes ABC’s burned off, bla bla bla. I didn’t actually find the first episode that aired (“Impertence”) as funny as I normally do but that could be because the superior, too hot for TV outtakes made it to YouTube beforehand.

Community: “Investigative Journalism”
I’m often lamenting that this show hasn’t gotten as much attention this season as Modern Family, but for once I agreed with the consensus. I liked Modern Family and its dog butler more than this Community episode… and it’s all Jack Black’s fault (with a cameo assist from Owen Wilson). Community proved with Anthony Michael Hall earlier in the season that it can properly use guest stars, but maybe it should be a little more careful. His character was supposed to be annoying, but Black was more distracting than anything. He burst into song (ugh, multiple times), he dropped his pants, the usual Jack Black shtick that hasn’t been funny in his films in years, and wasn’t funny here.

The Rotten Tomatoes Show: “Daybreakers, Leap Year & Youth in Revolt”
I discovered this show while surfing the interwebs over the barren TV wasteland that was late December, and I’ve found myself watching episodes of it whenever I notice new ones on Hulu. (I assume internet-inventor Al Gore would be less disappointed than most that I’m watching his shows online than on his Current TV network). Based on his ridiculously expressive eyebrows alone, I liken the show’s co-host Brett Erlich to a smaller version of John Krasinski. My favorite Erlich soundbite this week comes from his review of Leap Year: “Guys this is not a good date movie because it reminds your lady that she secretly wants to bone some way more interesting Irish guy.” I don’t remember Ebert ever having lines like that.

Ellen

Punching Up ABC Comedy Wednesday
Network executives are besotted with the theme night in which like programming meets like, but it’s rare that I sit down and watch an entire block of shows on any channel. But this week I pretended to live in a pre-remote, pre-Hulu world and watched 4/5ths of ABC Comedy Wednesday — new-to-me The Middle, Modern Family, Cougar Town and recent joiner Ugly Betty. (Sorry, no one can make me watch Hank.) I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch The Middle again, but it was a decent lead-in to Modern Family with the slight zaniness of “The Interview.” And after all these years, Neil Flynn is getting the screen time dangled out of reach on Scrubs. Cougar Town briefly had me with “Scare Easy”‘s inversion of the classic commitment phobe plot, but lost me again when I was reminded of how much more I wanted to see everyone beside Courteney Cox. With “Not In My House,” Modern Family paired a classic sitcom-family conundrum — kid getting into dirty pictures (or not?) — with a subplot so sublime, in which Jay’s prized Vegas dog butler statue drives Gloria into a fit, that I wished I had watched 22 minutes of that show. (Cameron’s ending monologue for Barkley was glorious.) As for Ugly Betty, it jumps into Eastwick’s old seat from Friday nights where its fourth-season demise was predicted, oh, about every week or so. The show has fallen from season one, when it was one of my must-watches, but tonally it’s a pretty good fit between the pratfalls and Marc’s snarky asides about how he can conduct Wilhelmina Slater’s marriage but not marry himself. “Back In Her Place” reminded me what I both liked and was driven insane by regarding Betty — that its soap-operatic swells force the writers to rush through intriguing moments to return the world to rights in 43 minutes — but there’s no question with the move that ABC wants to save the show, and I’d like to see it saved.

Zoe

How I Met Your Mother: “Girls Vs Suits”
While HIMYM hasn’t had a huge decline, it’s petering out into mediocrity bums me out. Rewatching a bunch of it during a recent bout of strep, I got to be reminded about how enjoyable it once was. And while it’s still fun, as this episode shows, there’s a lot to be desired. Maybe it’s because I miss Marshall and Lilly plots, rather than background noise. Maybe it’s that I miss continuity jokes not being such a huge part of the shows identity. Maybe it’s because, yes, I was peeved when they broke up Barney and Robin. Whatever it is, the show is still solid. But after spending so much recent one with it at it’s best, I’m underwhelmed. Still. Suit based musical number. I’ll stick around.

Friday Night Lights: “The Lights of Carroll Park”
I swore I was going to write about this show less, but this week forced me to say two things. One, while appreciate that they are going for a more nuanced approach this time, the pregnancy well is dry, FNL writers. Please find more compelling story lines for your female characters than who they’re banging. Two, my crossover heart is full of so much happiness right now, guys. I might have squeaked in delight when that new character was revealed.

Robert

Castle: “A Rose for Everafter”
After a month-long break, Castle and Beckett are back on the beat when one of Castle’s old flames Kyra (guest star Alyssa Milano) comes into the picture and puts the both of them on edge—for decidedly different reasons, of course. It’s the first time we’ve seen Castle have his mischievous, frisky attention genuinely diverted away from Beckett and unlike last season’s visit from his “eccentric” ex-wife, this time it’s with good reason. With the show doing well and ABC already hinting at the likelihood of a third season, I’m happy to see the show back without missing a beat and even amping up the tension between it’s two leads, and thanks to the promo for this week, a promise of big developments with the long-running mystery about Beckett’s past.

Human Target: Pilot
I’ve kept Human Target at a distance during the leadup to Sunday’s premiere. The last time McG brought us a show with so much bravado (2003′s Fastlane), it only lasted for a single season and left me disappointed when it was cancelled because it was so damn expensive. Even though the cast of Human Target brandishes a unique cast—including Mark Valley, Jackie Earle Haley, the indelible Chi McBride and a host of celebrity guest stars—the show needs to make good on its promise of interesting stories and big, BIG action. If the pilot is any indication, not only will it play to geek cred (Number Six? Doc Cottle?) when necessary, but it’s having fun with some common action movie tropes (awesome no-holds-barred fight in a cramped ventilation shaft much?) as well. I’m not versed in the comic/graphic novel history of Christopher Chance or Human Target, but on its own, the show doesn’t quite feel all there yet. Still, I have hope for the series to really dazzle in coming episodes. I just hope Fox does too.

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien
Seriously, we’re only three weeks into the the year and this has been some of the best reality TV I’ve seen in a while. Starting with last Sunday’s announcement that The Jay Leno Show would end its run on February 12, this had to be the best and worst week NBC could have ever imagined. As the week progressed, volleys were aimed squarely at NBC and Leno from all sides. Conan first issues a statement damning NBC for its management of the show and its intent to push him around, Letterman and Ferguson whip their own brands of biting commentary towards NBC Jeff Zucker and “Big Jaw”, and in a moment of surprising aplomb, Jimmy Kimmel gives Leno a good what-for on Leno’s own show during an inexplicably-planned Q&A segment. The best part? There’s more to come! Leno’s Friday night parting shot at Letterman’s recent infidelity scandal is sure to whip up Dave’s ire again and all told, this could be Conan’s last week on the air, so I expect even more sparks to fly.

Scott

24: “4:00pm – 5:00pm”/”5:00pm – 6:00pm”
There was a time when 24 seemed like the most dangerous show on TV, and not just because its pilot featured a terrorist blowing up a commercial airliner two months after 9/11. At a time when most entertainment was dilly-dallying about whether to digitally erase the Twin Towers from footage shot before the attacks, 24 drew its season-long arcs from American’s paranoid nightmares, an exploitative but brutally effective strategy that yielded a brilliant first two seasons. After that, though, the series quickly devolved into irrelevancy, killing off all its strongest characters and failing to replace them with new ones (with the exception of the impeccably weasely Charles Logan) and settling into mind-numbing formula (innocents threatened/new CTU team/improbable personal connections/day saved). Season 8 doesn’t change that at all, casting Freddie Fucking Prinze Jr. as the obligatory New Jack and so far wasting Katee Sackhoff as the obligatory New Chloe, albeit with strange asymmetrical hair and a DARK PAST! Out of last night’s two hours, I only got enjoyment out of hearing Doug Hutchison’s insane Boris Badenov-esque evil Russian accent (Hutchison’s a great presence elsewhere, hopefully he’ll be used to greater effect in the coming weeks). Other critics who have seen tonight’s installment say it gets markedly better; if it doesn’t, I’ll probably check out this year.