I checked out the series premiere of CBS's new half-hour comedy 'Mad Love' the other night. Two things are for certain: CBS loves the 'How I Met Your Mother' format, and Stella is most certainly not the mother ... or is she?



Look at that picture above. Looks a hell of a lot like HIMYM’s MacLaren’s, right? Throw in one more male character and you might think Jason Biggs and Tyler Labine are doing some sort of HIMYM parody show. The fact is, CBS’s Mad Love is going to have one hell of a time trying not to come off as a How I Met Your Mother clone; the question is, do they even want to?

Right from the first minute of the premiere episode (which airs February 14th, Valentine’s Day), if you’re even a little familiar with HIMYM’s format, you’re going to draw comparisons. Instead of future Ted (Bob Saget) performing voiceovers, you have Tyler Labine’s Larry Munsch. I loved Labine in Reaper. I do wonder, though, if he cares that he’s 100% typecast as the fat, uncouth sidekick in everything he does. Munsch, along with pal Ben Parr, is supposed to be a lawyer, yet outside his work suit he dresses like a slob and comes across like somewhat-unemployed Ron Snuffkin from Sons of Tucson. Basically Larry Munsch is Mad Love‘s answer to HIMYM’s Barney, Marshall and future Ted all rolled into one character.

Then there’s Ted … I mean Ben Parr (Jason Biggs). Seriously, the guy even looks and sounds like Ted Mosby. Parr/Mosby is a guy out looking for his soulmate, while Munsch/Stinson provides the bulk of the comedic elements in each episode. Honestly, I almost did a double-take when he appeared on-screen during Munsch’s voiceover, because I thought I was watching some Bizarro World episode of — you guessed it — How I Met Your Mother.

The tip of the iceberg comes when the source of Ben Parr’s affection is introduced: It’s Stella! Actually, her name is Kate Swanson, played by Sarah Chalke; you remember, the one a lot of people thought might play the role of the “mother” to Ted Mosby’s kids? She appears to be — for all intents and purposes — the same woman.

At this point, the only thing missing to make this show appear as a right-out sequel to HIMYM is a yellow umbrella … except this show’s answer to that is a red cellphone.

Although I guess I’ve ripped this show apart with my harsh criticism on its copycatness, the show’s not bad. The premiere doesn’t hit it out of the park, but it has some decent moments. It’s well acted all around, and there’s definite promise evident. After all, I do like HIMYM, so having more of that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I do wonder, though, if I’d have a lot more positives to say about the show than negatives, had I not been able to keep drawing comparisons to that other show.

The existence of Mad Love tells me one thing about CBS: Either they love How I Met Your Mother so much that they want more of it, or they’re prepping for Mother’s cancellation and want a replacement that’s juuuuust a little different. One thing is for certain: People are going to compare this show to HIMYM, for better of for worse, and there’s just no getting around it. It’ll be interesting to see how that pans out for the network and both shows.

Mad Love premieres on CBS — the same network How I Met Your Mother airs on — on February 14th ad 8:30 EST.

Photo Credit: Sonja Flemming/CBS