Happy Hour

Okay, I realize that the show literally just ended, but I'm a little excited about now having one more on-the-air sitcom to enjoy and LOL to.

Happy Hour premiered tonight (Thursday) on Fox at 8:30pm. It's pretty standard really, as far as sitcoms go: 3 guys and 3 girls for the cast, all of them pretty much just starting out in life it seems. So, you might be thinking it's like Friends and maybe it is a bit, but really it's not. Actually, it's probably more like How I Met Your Mother.

Henry (HH's version of HIMYM's Ted) just moved to Chicago from Missouri with his girlfriend, Heather, who dumps him soon after the move because she's "blossoming," she's a "butterfly coming out of its cocoon" and she thinks he's holding her back from "flying." He sees a flyer on the building's bulletin board: someone living upstairs needs a roommate. Henry meets Larry (Barney), the swingingest bachelor around who advocates the return of the golden age when men were half-drunk at sunset. Enter a broken Brad (an even more whipped Marshall), Larry's last roommate, and his breaker fiance Tina (Lily... but evil). Tina found out from Brad's mom -- much to Brad's chagrin, "Tina and [his] mom are friends now" -- that Larry's TV is actually Brad's TV. She takes it, without forgetting to rub it in Larry's face that she won Brad. With Brad and Tina gone, Larry learns that Henry has no job, as the job he had lined up was with ex-girlfriend Heather's uncle. Larry vows to not let what happened to Brad happen to Henry; he will not let the girlfriends defeat these once strong and virile men. He lines up an interview for Henry with his friend Amanda. Henry gets the job, despite unfortunately and accidentally showing Amanda his balls. So now we know all the characters.

Later, at 4pm, happy hour begins. One can only assume that happy hour occurs in Larry's apartment instead of out at a bar because, quite frankly, as far as tv stars go, these people aren't really that attractive, but I digress. Over martinis and an entire deep dish pizza (eaten only by Amanda), they decide to throw a skank-tastic party to commemorate Henry's re-entry into single life. At the party, Amanda complains about men: "All they want to do is talk and show me their new Blackberry." And Henry tries hitting on a girl by talking about tractors and cupholders. When Henry starts talking about "the One," Larry responds, "'The One' is when somebody a little better than who you think you can get likes you back." Brad arrives with Tina, who comes just to make sure Larry doesn't spend all night talking about how she's controlling him. With Brad and Tina at the party, Henry suggests that Larry go up to their apartment (and now we know they all, except Amanda... she'll lift right out... live in the same building... how convenient) and take the tv back, "burgle them." Once Larry returns with TV in tow, Henry needs to distract Brad and Tina. What better way to do so than to make out with the evil fiance. During the lip-lock, Brad says, "Duuuude!" Afterwards, Tina turns to Brad, exclaiming his name with the expectation that he'd do something to retalliate against the kiss and defend his love's honor. He says, "What? I said.. Duuude!" Tina decides to take matters into her own hands, or fists actually. She clocks Henry. Black out.

Henry wakes up... in bed with Amanda. Heather walks in on them. Larry follows, proud of his letting Heather in unannounced. Heather's jealous. The End... Well then there was the epilogue, where another happy hour is starting and we get to hear the lesson Henry's learned: "On the one hand, I lost the love of my life; on the other hand, I started drinking during the day."

And that's my synopsis. Imagine how much better I'd do with a DVR/TiVo! Now, THAT would've been the best birthday present ever... ahem.

All in all, I'd say this is my kind of show: it's funny, relatable, promising and it advocates that happy hour start at 4pm.