Gay TV Recap: The Riches and How I Met Your Mother

FX's The Riches has been one of television's most interesting dramas since it debuted a couple months ago. The series focuses on the family of Wayne and Dahlia Malloy, con artists who end up stealing the life of an affluent lawyer, taking over his identity and moving into his new mansion in a gated community. Since then, the Malloys have discovered the absurdities of their new peers' lifestyle -- their neighbor Nina introduces Dahlia to prescription pills, Wayne is pressured into buying a country club membership that costs more than his annual salary in order to look wealthy, and Wayne's boss, Hugh, barely has the cash to keep his business running even though he owns plenty of assets.

This week's episode included scenes where Wayne and Dahlia's youngest son, Sam, joins the dinner table dressed in girls' clothing, as well as the outing of Nina's husband, Jim. The Riches has been largely about people pretending to be something other than what they really are -- Wayne pretends to be a lawyer, Nina pretends to be a happy housewife, Hugh pretends to be even more wealthy than his bank balance would reveal -- in order to get the luxurious life the lead. In every case, we see the unhappiness caused by these lies, even though they've decided its a price they're willing to pay.

Interestingly, Jim was portrayed as equally unhappy as his wife -- he's just as much a victim of their pursuit of the American dream as she is. That's different from how closeted married men are frequently depicted. In this case, Nina's not being portrayed as a wronged woman tricked into being her husband's cover, but as a willing participant in his charade. I'm very interested to see where The Riches take these characters, especially young Sam Malone, who will continue to choose between being true to himself or pretending to be something else to get along as he matures.

Meanwhile, How I Met Your Mother delivered another solid episode -- this time focusing on the problems denying Marshal and Lily their ideal wedding ceremony. Family commitments force them to go with a larger ceremony than the wanted and to replace their acoustic guitar player with a pregnant harpist. On the day of the wedding, a guest arrives (played by Neil Patrick Harris' reported real-life boyfriend, David Burtka) asking when one should interrupt the ceremony with an objection, the first of many things to go wrong that day.

It was certainly fun to see Harris and Burtka share the screen, especially with each actor playing straight men in different storylines. Burtka was adorable as Lily's high school ex, hoping that reading the lyrics to "October Rain" will convince her to call off her wedding. Once again, Harris' Barney gives the show its best moments. I didn't care for the character when How I Met Your Mother debuted, he seemed too much like that same oddball character found in every mediocre sitcom. Since then, the character's really grown, partially due to his tendency for surprise revelations (for example, this week we learned he's licensed to officiate wedding ceremonies -- "It suddenly implants in the mind of every woman there that when I ask a question, you say 'I do.") that add strange new layers to the character.