I wanted to like last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother. I should have liked it. Yet…I can’t say I really liked it.
Maybe it’s because I missed the first couple seconds of the episode (thanks for simulcasting, Canadian TV – ruining my life since 1986!) and I never understood why Marshall and Lily’s house was filled with bees. (Apparently Lily’s dad was breeding them in the basement. What? Why?) Or maybe because the five minutes HIMYM showed us over and over again, from various vantage points, never really seemed worth focusing on. It should have been wacky and fun, but instead it just felt tiresome.
Housewarming Hot Mess
As I said, the episode showed us five minutes from a few different perspectives. It was the five minutes it took for Lily and Marshall’s housewarming party to become an utter disaster, and we saw it play out three times – in the living room, the dining room and the kitchen.
Marshall’s boss Mr. Cootes (played by Martin Short, who I find very funny in this role) was freaking out because someone had eaten all the vegan spring rolls. He thought it was Ted, but it was actually Barney. Ted wouldn’t back down from the argument because he was in the middle of a disagreement with Robin over the merits of being aggressive vs. a pushover.
Meanwhile, Lily dropped a giant wheel of gouda cheese on the floor and it was immediately covered in mice, which they have, Barney agreed to a hot hookup with their terrifying neighbor, and Marshall quit his job because Mr. Cootes demanded they leave the party to work.
Lily’s dad suggested Cootes take up a hobby like beekeeping, and next thing you knew he was donning the beekeeping suit…which was on fire, because – oh hell, if you saw the episode you know. And if you didn’t, reading about it won’t help you – it has to be watched. Frankly, I found the whole thing exhausting.
Mysteries Revealed
It was a little fun to watch things come together piece by piece, but I just didn’t care enough about any of the storylines to really want to know why things were happening. HIMYM usually knocks episodes like this out of the park, much more so than almost any other show (save for Community) can. But this one was a dud, and my theory is that it’s because nothing was accomplished. When the episode was over, we hadn’t learned any important or exciting information. Marshall still had his job, Ted and Robin were still Ted and Robin, Barney had made a bad decision. What else is new? It felt like the episode was written cleverly just for the sake of being clever, not as a cool way to introduce a plot development.
So what did you guys think of the episode? Were you hoping for more, or did the unraveling of little mysteries delight you?
