This was a weird episode. I have been very positive about the first three, but this one just wasn’t up there. It was good, but not great. I loved the moments with the past interventions, and Barney’s bits (what a shock there). However, it felt way too emotional, and to over-the-top. Especially the whole “Let’s all not move” and then the “ok, let’s all move” and then the sneak peak where it was obvious that they decided to go with the first idea. It got a really, really weird, strange vibe. It felt like an immature production even. Really not a great effort by the writer’s and the creators. I can’t blame the acting totally, mainly becuase it felt like they were being ordered and directed in the wrong direction. Every show is allowed a dud, a subpar episode every once in a while. Becuase of this, I still believe that the season as a whole has been very, very good.
What is amazing about this show though, is even since this was a bad episode by their standards, it isn’t that bad overall. I absolutely loved the flashback interventions. They haven’t done flashbacks that well in a while. The different variations on the Interventions were hilarious, especially Lily’s british accent one, which I can honestly say made her, in my mind, for the first time in the shows history, the second most attractive regular. I also liked the flashback with the Pretentious, Douche Ted, and his very douchy pronunciation of Encyclopaedia. That was really douchy, and really funny, especially Marshall’s “You have to paed for the damages.” There were some great lines, there really were, even in a less-than episode.
I’ll save a whole paragraph just for the whole Barney/Old Barney routine. That was hilarious. I like that for the second week in a row that they are trying new things with Barney, like picking up a lesbian and this one. Old Barney was hilarious. Neil Patrick Harris really is a good actor period. He was great, the make-up was great and the ditzy brunette was great as well. However, they didn’t do as much with it as they could, although they were able to get an anti-France joke in there, and anti-France jokes are always welcome in the great old US of A. I really believe that Bays and Thomas are on a mission to put down every funny place in the world. First Canada (which they did a great job of again today. “Tim Horton’s” and the “Canook.” Priceless!!), then New Jersey (the wounds are still healing in my home state), and now France. Bravo Carter and Craig. Here’s hoping California is next (you know they can make great jokes on the super-liberalism and the Gobernator).
Overall, it was, as I said above, to me, a mediocre episode. It had great lines, it had its moments and it had a great flash-forward (btw, check to see if Ted was wearing a ring, if you have TiVO), and answered, or opened up, some questions. Next week is the last of the new episodes before a break. It will have a wedding in it (not Ted’s), and it will be funny. I ahve no idea why I think this, other than the fact that they don’t do two less-tahn episodes in a row. Never. Ever. Flobbidy-jillion times never.
Daniel Menezes is a lifelong How I Met Your Mother viewer and fan. He started watching it right of the bat due to his love of all things Alyson Hannigan, and has grown to consider it the best true sitcom on TV today. It is a treat for him to be able to blog on all things How I Met Your Mother. Please enjoy, and comment!!
