Tuesday, September 29, 2009

BETWEEN JOBS: DOT-COM BUST; BANKING COLLAPSE; VAGARIES OF ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY: Sepinwall mentioned in his post on HIMYM that it's always nice to see Lindsay Sloane (Jen from last night's episode), but I swear that I was already going to write an appreciation.

Sloane pretty much operates in H!ITG mode, occasionally pulling a third lead on a small romantic comedy or a doomed sitcom (like the brilliant Grosse Pointe), but more often popping in as a one-episode romantic foil. What she does, she does exceedingly well and improbably likably. Her voice is a little shrill, always threatening to muster into a shriek, but Sloane's natural inclination is to underplay that in favor of her dimples and her faintly conspiratorial eyes. She's pretty, but with an earnestness and a shoulders-forward eagerness that makes her seem believably nerdy. The fact that she could make the Tori Spelling role on Grosse Pointe the most engaging of that show's characters, or that she could sweetly and credibly play love interest to both Ted Mosby and Vincent Chase without making anybody ill, demonstrates that her appeal can be broader than the material she's given. I don't mean to suggest that she should be a big star. I guess I think that she's both well-used and underused.

Since we haven't had a HIMYM post this season, feel free to use the comments if you're getting that particular itching, burning sensation. And, as usual, to threadjack for Big Bang Theory.

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