Creators:
Carter Bays
Craig Thomas
Cast:
Josh Radnor ………. Ted Mosby
Neil Patrick Harris ………. Barney Stinson
Jason Segel ………. Marshall Eriksen
Alyson Hannigan ………. Lily Aldrin
Cobie Smulders ………. Robin Scherbatsky
Bob Saget ………. Older Ted Mosby/Narrator
The Show
Comedies can often avoid the dreaded sophomore slump. It’s far easier for a comedy to build on a great first season than it is for a drama. As long as the comedy keeps the comedy flowing and doesn’t start repeating jokes to death, they usually succeed in their second season. How I Met Your Mother was a great comedic addition to CBS’ Monday night lineup two years ago. Could they keep the comedy coming and actually make progress towards the ultimate ending?
The second season of this series once again follows the life of architect, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor). Ted has a best friend named Marshall (Jason Segel), who was engaged to Lily (Alyson Hannigan). However, as we found out in the season one finale, they have just broken up. Ted longs to find his true love and the mother of his future children. That woman may be named Robin (Cobie Smulders), who Ted starts dating at the end of the first season. This really disappoints Ted’s crazy friend, Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), who was Ted’s “wing man”. But that won’t stop Barney from being Barney.
The storylines of this second season almost turn things upside down. In the first season, Barney took Ted out to find his “true love.” Lily and Marshall were engaged, while Robin was the single girl. The second season starts off with Robin and Ted being in a relationship and Lily and Marshall being single. That means Barney gets to be Marshall’s “wing man” for the time being, while Lily is the single girl.
One of the reasons the first season was so good was the fact that Ted was always chasing after Robin. Usually once the chase is over, the love story isn’t that interesting. How I Met Your Mother actually does make the Robin/Ted relationship interesting. They are still their lovable selves as individuals. Together they seem like the “perfect couple”. We know that’s not true, though. We know that Robin and Ted don’t end up together from the very first episode. Still you can’t help but love them as a couple, and interesting to begin to see why they can’t be together during this second season.
Once again the relationships between the characters in this second season are fantastic. The actors have developed strong chemistry with each other. Often the sophomore season of a comedy is usually funnier than the freshman year, since we know who these characters are now and more time can be devoted to them being funny. The same can be said for the second season of How I Met Your Mother. Barney is still the funniest character on the show, but the group as a whole are just as funny.
There is very little decline in season two of How I Met Your Mother. In fact, I’d give the edge to this season as far as laughs go. If you enjoyed the first season, you will surely enjoy this season. How I Met Your Mother has a unique premise that is only helped by the funny and compelling characters, played by some great actors. It might not be watched by as many people, but How I Met Your Mother is every bit as funny as Friends. It’s no doubt one of the most underrated comedies on television today.
Episodes:
Disc One:
Episode 1 – Where Were We?
The gang tries to help Marshall get over Lily, especially when he finds a credit card bill that leads to a hotel in New York City where some of her charges are listed.
Episode 2 – The Scorpion and the Toad
Barney works with Marshall on his bachelor skills, which includes hitting on women. Lily is back from her venture. Robin helps her look for a new apartment but gets sick of hearing about San Francisco.
Episode 3 – Brunch
Ted’s parents visit New York for their anniversary and he learns a family secret. Robin worries that they won’t like her. Lily and Marshall try to adjust to the new format of their relationship now that they are no longer together.
Episode 4 – Ted Mosby: Architect
After Ted and Robin’s first big fight, Barney tries to convince Ted that being an architect is an easy in to picking up chicks. Lily and Robin start following his trail after discovering that Ted hit it off with a girl named Anna shortly afterward.
Episode 5 – World’s Greatest Couple
Marshall tries to get used to being single in a world that is very coupled-oriented. Barney intended one-night-stand won’t go away. Barney uses Lily to get out of his “horrifying” situation. Lily finds a place to stay.
Episode 6 – Aldrin Justice
Barney seduces Marshall’s law professor in hopes of getting her to grade more leniently. Lily takes a job at Ted’s office, where she promptly steals to teach Ted’s boss a lesson.
Episode 7 – Swarley
Marshall goes on his first real date post-breakup with Lily. Not only do Ted and Barney try to warn him that this girl has got the crazy eyes, but Lily decides to do everything she can to find out about this her and break them up. Also, Barney gets a new name.
Episode 8 – Atlantic City
Marshall and Lily drag the gang to Atlantic City to elope, and their quest to overcome the three-day wait for a marriage license crosses them with some Chinese gamblers, a ship captain, and a sexy novelty shirt.
Disc Two:
Episode 9 – Slap Bet
Ted and Barney discusses their viewpoints on knowing things about women. Barney thinks that the more you know the more likely you are to find a deal breaker. Ted wants to know the deal breakers right away, as Robin refuses to go to the mall to cover her secret.
Episode 10 – Single Stamina
Barney’s brother, James (Wayne Brady), visits and Robin, the only one in the group that has never met him, is surprised. But James has a surprise for Barney that he finds difficult to swallow.
Episode 11 – How Lily Stole Christmas
Ted almost ruins Christmas for everyone when, still carrying around anger toward Lily, he calls her a horribly disgusting name. Robin tends to Barney while he has a cold.
Episode 12 – First Time In New York
Robin wants to tell Ted that she loves him, but she can’t tell him. Meanwhile, her sister visits and brings her boyfriend, and Robin doesn’t know how to react when her sister says she’s ready to lose her virginity.
Episode 13 – Columns
When Ted is constantly insulted by his former boss, who is now working for him on a project, he is told to fire the man, but he finds that a hard thing to do. Meanwhile, Barney offers Lily a lot of money to paint a nude portrait of him.
Episode 14 – Monday Night Football
When a funeral conflicts with the Super Bowl, the gang vows to avoid hearing the score and watch it together on Monday. This proves difficult, as Marshall is threatened with the score by a boy in Lily’s class, while doing the news puts Robin in danger of finding out who won.
Episode 15 – Lucky Penny
Ted can’t seem to catch a flight to interview for his dream job and he and Robin contemplate why. The story unfolds backwards as they think about it they remember when Robin and Lily went hunting for a wedding dress and when Barney got stuck on the subway.
Episode 16 – Stuff
Lily gets asked to play in an off-off-off-off-Broadway play, and the gang shows up to support her. Ted and Robin get hung up on what each kept from their past relationships. Barney performs his own play to prove a point to Lily.
Disc Three:
Episode 17 – Arrivederci, Fiero
Marshall is all set to celebrate his beloved Fiero hitting the 200,000 mile mark but it stops. While the gang sits in the mechanic’s garage and waits to hear what will happen to the vehicle they think about times gone by that they have spent together in the car. We also get the story of how Ted met Marshall.
Episode 18 – Moving Day
Barney takes drastic measures to prevent Ted from moving into Robin’s apartment. Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily are discovering the ups and downs of having the apartment to themselves. Barney considers moving in with Marshall and Lily.
Episode 19 – Bachelor Party
Robin attends Lily’s bridal shower and finds the gift that she brought is out of place. Barney hires a stripper for Marshall’s bachelor party.
Episode 20 – Showdown
Thinking that Bob Barker may be his father, Barney is overjoyed to be a contestant on The Price is Right. Marshall and Lily try sleeping apart prior to the wedding.
Episode 21 – Something Borrowed
With everything going wrong on Lily and Marshall’s wedding day, to everyone’s surprise it’s confirmed bachelor Barney who tries to fix it all.
Episode 22 – Something Blue
It’s still Marshall and Lily’s big wedding day but now we’re at the reception. Robin tries to tell a story but keeps getting interrupted. Barney tries his hardest to figure out Ted and Robin’s secret.
The Video:
The video is given in widescreen color with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is enhanced for 16X9 TVs. Transfer is good with minimal distortion. Overall, the video quality is great. No complaints here.
The Audio:
The audio included is available in English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound. There are subtitles available in English, Spanish, and French as well. The dialogue comes out crisp and clear. The great thing about this show is that there are so many quotes that can be taken from it.
The Extras:
Cast and Crew Audio Commentaries –
There are commentaries from the cast and crew on select episodes of this season. Co-creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, along with the director Pam Fryman, comment on the “Where Were We?” episode. Writer/producer Greg Marlins, and cast member Alyson Hannigan comment on the “Swarley” episode. Co-creator Craig Thomas, writer Kourtney Kang, and cast member Cobie Smulders comment on the “Slap Bet” episode. Writer Kristin Newman and cast member Neil Patrick Harris comment on the “Single Stamina” episode.
Writer Chris Harris and cast member Jason Segel comment on the “Arrivederci Fiero” episode. Bays, Fryman, and cast members Bob Saget and Josh Radnor comment on the “Bachelor Party” episode. We then finish things off when the co-creators along with Pam Fryman get together again to comment on the “Showdown” episode. They decided to mix up the cast members and crew members together to do commentaries this time. Honestly, I like it when all of the cast members were together like last season’s DVD set. It’s an unique idea and they are all entertaining to listen to, but they are not as strong as the ones from last season.
“How We Make Your Mother” Featurette –
This is a 17 minute behind-the-scenes featurette. This takes you through the process of filming a single episode for this series. It starts with a script, continues with the read-through, and continues along until we get the final product. This is very intriguing. It gives you a taste of what an actor on a TV show has to go through on a weekly basis.
Gag Reel –
This contains all of the bloopers from this season, of course. It’s about 7 minutes long and all the usual funny mistakes are here once again.
Additional Scenes –
There are three scenes that were cut from the show when it originally aired. They come from three episodes. You get an extra scene from the “Moving Day” episode, the “Showdown” episode, and the “Bachelor Party” episode. Basically, all of these scenes have Barney going “too far” and/or being too racy for network television. These are all extremely funny and worth checking out for a change.
Robin Sparkles Music Video
On the “Slap Bet” episode, it was revealed that Robin was a 80’s Canadian pop star in the early 90’s. This is the full 3 minute music video for her hit song “Let’s Go To The Mall.” Pretty funny stuff.
“Hey Beautiful” Music Video
This song gets played over a montage of various scenes from the show. It’s actually a weird music video. But some of the scenes from the show are funny. Nothing too special, though.
Fans of this show will want to run out and get this DVD set. The second season is just as funny as the first season. The extras on this DVD set are even slightly better this time around as well. If you have never seen the show, you could still probably jump in with this season. So at least rent it.
