'How I Met' CBS's Funniest Comedy

I know I'm late to this "Britney on How I Met Your Mother" party. In fact, I'm late to the entire How I Met Your Mother party. I started watching it during the strike, and fell in love with this charming little comedy. Since the characters are around my age, I find myself relating to most of the stories and antics. I enjoyed watching the strike-induced reruns so much; I decided that this show would be my first DVD-only series (Dexter has recently become the second since I don't get Showtime). I know other people have been watching comedies and dramas exclusively on DVD for several years, but I'm officially throwing my hat into that ring. I just rented the first season, and I plan to rent the second over the summer when the TV pickings are slim (save for the excellent Closer, Psych, My Boys, So You Think You Can Dance and a few others). There are a lot of things that make this comedy stand out. First, it's funny -- very funny. Second, it manages to use the traditional sitcom format and make it work, which has become an increasingly difficult thing to do with the modern television landscape. It's like Friends, but more relatable and, in my opinion, better (I enjoyed Friends, but I was never a die-hard). Most of all, though, this show has heart. You can't help but fall in love with these characters or to get wrapped up in their lives. In fact, the show is as adorable as they are.

Back to the aforementioned Britney episode, which for the record, was something that I wasn't too thrilled about watching and planned to see when it landed on the season 3 DVD (but the damn hype surrounding it drew me in). Two things surprised me about this episode: 1) It was excellent (one of my favorites so far) and 2) Britney was funny! I think we all remember her dreadful appearance on Will & Grace a few years back, but this guest spot was actually good. Her acting was decent! I swear, I'm not making this up. She had some great lines, she sold the character, and I found myself enjoying her presence and the way her character related to Ted's plight to win his dermatologist's heart (played adorably by Scrubs' Sarah Chalke). Even if the pop star had sunk the episode, I would still have enjoyed it because the Ted story was too charming to hate. I just loved the "2-minute date" at the end, and it caused me to wish that this dermatologist was the woman Ted ended up marrying. And that's saying a lot for a viewer who had her heart set on Robin.

How I Met Your Mother airs Monday nights on CBS. You can watch this hilarious outing for free at cbs.com.

Photos courtesy cbs.com