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How I Met Your Mother

February 21, 2012 by · Comments Off on How I Met Your Mother 

How I Met Your Mother, After Ted told Robin he loves her in last week’s episode I think we all groaned out loud in fear that How I Met Your Mother was going down that path again. But then I reminded everyone that the show needed to confront the Ted-Robin-Barney love triangle. It could have taken weeks for the writers to get around to the three of them figuring out who loves whom. Or…they could have jumped right into it.

“No Pressure” starts immediately after Ted tells Robin he loves her, but she has to head to Russia immediately, and everything seems like it’s going to work out. No one really wants to see them together anymore except a small fraction of fans and Marshall, and even we all know they won’t and can’t end up together. Luckily, the episode doesn’t go down that rabbit hole and provides a poignant closing of the Ted and Robin saga.

Even though it is such a heavy topic in HIMYM-lore, the episode surprisingly splits the saga up with the revelation that Marshall and Lily have been making bets on the rest of the gang for a decade. A lot of them are witty and allow for flashbacks to memorable episodes, and some of them even deal with the future of Ted and Robin.

I’m not a fan of all of the bets they made—particularly the most important one regarding whether or not Ted and Robin will get married. It’s beautiful to see Marshall staying by Ted’s side even though he knows in his heart of hearts that it most likely will never happen. But Lily’s bet against them made her look really bad. We know she sort of broke them up when she planted the “where do you see yourself in five years” question in their heads, but to see her adamantly against them and even trying to sabotage Ted was pathetic. Hopefully she’ll rebound and make up for her lack of compassion soon.

The weight of the subject matter, as serious as it can be in a romantic comedy, is weaved in and out of the episode and doesn’t turn into a bummerfest. It’s something the writers have done so well over the years, and it’s pleasant to see that they still have the ability to pull our emotional strings and offset them with someone, primarily Barney, doing something ridiculous enough to remind us about the humor in life.

While it would have been easy to focus on the love triangle head on, the episode’s roundabout way allowed for Barney to search for something he’s always wanted to find: Marshall and Lily’s sex tape. His obsession leads to a lot of the revelations in this episode. Regardless that he was used as a living plot device, his silliness gave the story much needed breathing room. It was also great seeing Conan O’Brien in his much-anticipated non-speaking, only in the background cameo at MacLaren’s.

How I Met Your Mother

December 6, 2011 by · Comments Off on How I Met Your Mother 

How I Met Your Mother, Proving once again that How I Met Your Mother can be as much a drama as it is a comedy, the episode tackled Robin’s views on pregnancy and ended up turning into a story about how life can sometimes be a kick in the face.

Just a couple of weeks back, I was griping about the overuse of surprise pregnancies and “who’s the father” mysteries in TV shows, using How I Met Your Mother as an example, as it was recently revealed that Robin was (or might be) pregnant, and there were two options for the father in the equation, Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and her boyfriend Kevin (Kal Penn). The series proved me wrong last night when it was not only revealed that Barney would have most definitely been the father, as Robin had not slept with Kevin yet, but that Robin was not actually pregnant. The news that she wasn’t carrying Barney’s child came after Robin panicked at the thought of giving up her independence in exchange for becoming a mother. And then she found out, not only was she not pregnant, but she’s unlikely to be able to have children at all.

As all of this is playing out, Robin was narrating the story to her own children, much in the way that Ted does each episode as part of the “How I Met Your Mother” format. Following the reveal of Robin’s infertility, her imaginary children disappear and the rest of the episode rides out on Robin’s quiet disappointment.

At its core, How I Met Your Mother is a show about friendship. This is why I tune in. I’m more or less indifferent over how Ted met his kids’ mother, though I expect the story will inevitably be resolved some day.

Given how close Robin is with her friends, we might have expected her to explain her situation and the resulting surprising disappointment that came with it, to Ted, Marshall, Lily and Barney, but she didn’t. Instead, she made up a story about learning she’d never be an Olympic pole-vaulter to justify her bad mood. When faced with a onesie with a red Canadian maple leaf, she could barely keep from crying. Neither could I, frankly. It’s hard enough that she’s facing the reality that bearing children is never going to be an option for her, but factor in the fact that two of her closest friends are celebrating the impending arrival of their own child and her sadness is certainly understandable.

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