Wow, what a lousy title. Anyway, to deconstruct the bad title: “How I Met Your Mother,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” in one post. Why? Because they have something in common: gradual quality. One gets worse with every episode, one better and one stays at the same boring level all the freaking time.

“How I Met Your Mother” is the one who gets worse with every episode. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sort-of a fan of the CBS show. It has nice laughs, a relaxed timing and it’s fairly easy-to-watch because almost every episode has the same structure. Sure, I hate the main character Ted Mosby (played by Josh Radnor, whom I also hate), but it gives me a good feeling to hate a character once in a while. Back to what I was trying to say, the writing seems to get worse with every episode.

An example: episode nineteen, season three, “Everything Must Go” featuring Britney Spears. There is a reason I’m using that episode as example. I love Britney, am glad she has recovered from her mental breakdown that lasted several freaking years. Yet, I acknowledge the fact that she can’t really act and that her comedic timing isn’t all-that. Hey, she’s no actress, so why would she? Which gets me to this: when Britney Spears plays the best and funniest character in your episode, you’re probably in trouble.

“Desperate Housewives” just had its season four two-hour finale on ABC. A finale which showed that Marc Cherry still knows how to manage his show. A perfect mix of comedy, drama and soap drama in one episode — actually two episodes, but okay. All characters have brilliant character descriptions and stick with it. The long-term writing, the underlying plot, stays strong too. I’m not getting into what exactly happened in the episode, but believe me.

The really, really good… great piece of adjective writing here, rewind — the best part of the finale was the ending. After four seasons of being in the same time-schedule, the show suddenly extends five years into the future. Why is that brilliant? It automatically gives season five a whole lot of intrigue and excitement. What happened in those five years? Why is Susan not with Mike anymore? (Sorry, little plot detail there.) What, how, why, aaahhh!

Suddenly “Desperate Housewives” has become a whole new show, with “different” characters and a new plot line. I wish more shows would do that. Like “Grey’s Anatomy.” It’s one of the best drama series on television nowadays, but somehow season four doesn’t want to be “the best.” The story line stays the same all the time, somehow the characters don’t seem to get over their issues, and don’t even get me started on character development. (Okay, do. Is it impossible for these characters to grow from problems and obstacles they’ve had? God.)

Shonda Rhimes is a brilliant woman, with a great view on subliminal-comedic drama. Now, maybe she should go to lunch with Marc Cherry sometime and talk about keeping-up intrigue. Craig Thomas and Carter Bays (creators of “Mother”) can join them, but they need to sit at the kiddy table, because Rhimes and Cherry are going to talk just a little bit above Thomas and Bays’ level.

That’s all I wanted to say.