Have you met "How I Met Your Mother"?

I only met this show half way through this, its first season. Well, that's not exactly true. I saw all the pre-season buzz and thought it looked terrific but never made the time to give it a chance—until recently.

When I did, I was hooked.

How I Met Your Mother is a comedy about a twenty-something tribe of friends that finds its bonds tested when Marshall, a law-school student, decides to propose to his long-time girlfriend, kindergarten teacher, Lily. This throws Ted for a loop and he begins to imagine that time is stalking him and that he better find "The One" soon or else he will die a bachelor. This love crusade doesn't sit well with Barney, Ted's other best friend, (Neil Patrick Harris who obliterates all remnants of his Doogie Howser persona as a delightful scoundrel and perpetually-suited womanizer he describes as part David Spade, part David Letterman and part Regis Philbin) who would like nothing better than to die a bachelor. When Ted meets Robin, he begins to imagine that she just might be his one true love and the mother of the children an older, narrator Ted carries on conversations with in each episode. Is she? You don't think the show would give that away in the first season, do you?

How I Met Your Mother is romantic and charming, blessed with a large heart and a heaping dose of sincerity. It's also ridiculously funny. I seem to giggle uncontrollably when watching it.

Try it out. CBS tonight (Monday), 8:30pm ET/PT, though you will, of course, have to tape it as it conflicts with the Olympics which I know you are watching religiously!