HIMYM & The Class: In need of a switcheroo

Thoughts on the return of "How I Met Your Mother" and the debut of "The Class" comin' right up...

I am very, very pleased with the "HIMYM" writers right now. Ted and Robin are now an item, which takes advantage of Radnor and Smulders' chemistry, but they haven't taken over the show, ala Ross 'n Rachel. Loved Barney's despair at all their displays of schmoopiness, with seppuku being the best of his various suicide mimes. (Barney's pimped-out version of the Tom Joad "I'll be there" speech was another highlight.)

Meanwhile, Marshall takes over the soap opera quotient and manages to make it a whole lot funnier than Ted and Robin's UST ever was, particularly him pelting the happy couple at Yankees Stadium. I also liked the scene at the gun range; any effort to make Robin more than the hot girl is a wise move. And my buddy Joe Adalian gets Tucker-ized as the identity thief. Lucky bastige. I was told years ago that because there are so few andreikirilenkotattoos in the world (a little over a dozen total), it won't clear legally, so I can never receive such an honor. Sigh...

As I've mentioned in my various pilot review posts, "The Class" does not get off to a strong start. The good: I like Jason Ritter, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Heather Goldenhersh (and, for the record, she talks that way in real life, too) and Jon Bernthal. The bad: I hate every scene with the blonde anchorwoman and her flaming husband (not only did Crane tread similar ground with Ross' lesbian wife, but it makes one of the show's main characters into a bigger idiot than Joey Tribiani), and there are so many characters that the jokes wind up being really broad, obvious and not that funny.

I liked the next couple of episodes better, though some other critics I spoke to think the improvement is all in my head. We'll see. Either way, I'm baffled that CBS is making this the lead-off hitter instead of "HIMYM."

What did everybody else think about either show?