How I Met Your Mother - Season 1

The hub of the likable cast is Josh Radnor, who keeps Ted (a single guy ready to settle down) from being annoying, despite his neuroses and perfectionism. Cobie Smulders gives Robin (the girl Ted thinks might be the one, but who doesn't want to settle down) enough goofy, tomboyish charm that she feels like a person and not an idealized love interest. Jason Segel (Freaks and Geeks) and Alyson Hannigan (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, American Pie), plays Ted's soon-to-be-married best friends Marshall and Lily with enough lingering doubt in their engaged happiness to keep them from becoming too comfortable. And rounding out the cast is Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, M.D.), shedding his good-guy image as Barney, a crass, lecherous cad who, nonetheless, comes through for his friends. Episode plots are pretty straightforward (Ted signs up with matchmaking agency; Marshall takes a well-paying job he doesn't like; when Ted gets a girlfriend, Robin realizes she has feelings for him after all; and Lily has second thoughts about getting married), but the show maintains a nice balance of single-episodes stories and a season-long arc--and as you grown attached to the characters, even fairly routine stories are made to feel fresh. This is good comfort television: Smart but not snotty, earnest but not cloying, oddball without being forced or wacky. Check it out. --Bret Fetzer