How I Met Your Mother: "Oh, Honey"

Once I figure out whether or not anybody has been named Zoeseph, I will be able to give you a review of tonight's episode, after the jump...


When it comes to any individual episode that is dealing with a continuing storyline that I don't particularly like/agree with, I try to be fair and view the storyline on the terms of that (half) hour. Is a boring storyline suddenly interesting? If it's been lifeless, does it suddenly bring a healthy dose of drama? If it's stupid, does it suddenly result in a great twist? This rarely redeems any given “bad” storyline for me, but it has stopped me from hating individual outings.

I bring this up in relation to the Ted/Zoey storyline. At first, I just found the romantic tension to be overly forced. Then, when they eased backed on this and Ted & Zoey just became “friends” their scenes together were far more enjoyable, but I was still waiting for that metaphorical shoe to drop. And now that they've gone all past that, and Ted and Zoey have kissed (which of course marks the start of all traditional television relationships), past of me is just waiting for it to be over, so we can move on to the next state in Ted's life. Ted & Zoey is, in my mind, like Ted & Stella 2: Electric Boogaloo; as fun as the relationship might be to watch, it's near impossible to be invested in, since we know she won't be the titular mother (who will appear in the season finale, at Punchy's wedding, if I am reading the show's not-too-subtle signs correctly).

And yet there is that other part of me, that part which really enjoyed all of tonight's episode (minus one plot contrivance), even the parts with Ted & Zoey. This is mostly due to the quality acting of both Josh Radnor and Jennifer Morrison, who played both the flirtatious and emotional aspects well. I finally bought that these two have real chemistry, and my heart did that thing is does when it experiences a well made “the couple gets together” scene, much like it did at the end of season one.

But of course, that was the only aspect of tonight's episode, and thank God the other parts were handled well too, because they really could have thrown the show off the rails. At the end of the last episode, I was afraid that the show was going to quickly shift gears from Marshall dealing with his father's death, to Barney trying to contact his own, which would shortchange Marshall on an emotional level. Thankfully, this episode opened with Marshal still at his mother's house, which is not only an action I buy, but something that allows us to recognize that Marshall is still in pain (see how he uses these phone calls to escape the presumably melancholy mood of his childhood home). And the show brought it up a notch by bringing in both Marshall's mother and brother, which let's us know that he is whether this storm both for and with his family, just another detail to bring this subtle emotional point home. And that the show eventually brought Marshall into the main action by having him call Zoey and Ted meant that a) he wasn't just a passive character in tonight's episode, b) that the show wasn't just using a silly narrative device so that the actor could appear, and c) that Marshall isn't so far gone that he can't connect with his friends back in New York (which would be a very dark place for the show to go.)

Which brings us to Katy Perry, and to some extent, Barney. I of course had some fears about what Perry's presence might mean for the episode, but thankfully the show only asked Perry to play dumb, which is both an easy thing to do and something Perry has done before in this SNL sketch:



I will of course have to re-watch this episode, but I will preliminarily say that Perry is the best singer-turned-special-guest-star the the show has had.

But what really made this plot worthwhile (beyond the solid jokes) was the slight Barney moment is provided. While I was worried about the severe emotional shift Barney's arc might bring, I was a bit disappointed to learn this episode wasn't going to deal with this, as it is a plot I am genuinely interested in. And we got that moment, with Barney and “Honey” where he broke down about his continued estrangement from his father. Neil Patrick Harris has always played those child-like moments well, and here he nailed it again, keeping things funny while also expressing emotional honesty. And kudos to the show for keeping its emotional honesty by giving us this glimpse of how another character is feeling without it overpowering the main plot.

This was a great half-hour of the show, and it served as a reminder of why I still watch it. Whether the rest of the Ted & Zoe storyline can be this interesting, well, we'll have to see.

What did everybody else think?


Additional Thoughts:

So I have this college friend who, for his senior project, wrote and directed a not-quite-feature-length romantic comedy film that also involved a ketchup-related incident between the two lovebirds. Just thought I'd bring that up.

Oh yeah, that plot contrivance: Zoey getting divorced from The Captain. I could have sworn it was established that those two were going to stay married, so it kind of seemed to come out of nowhere.

“Long story shot...I'm going to be on Lost!”

“I'd say hump her brains out, but someone obviously already has.”

“HE'S GAY!”

“I'm up on burners, playa.”

“He bored the pants very much on her.”

“And then just hand stuff in the morning, so...”

“We hate Ted now. Get on board, or the sexting stops.”

“Zoey's married to Colonel Mustard, I mean, The Captain.”

There was a poster for the Loch Ness monster in Marshall's room. Have we seen that before?

So Cobie Smulders has a new fancy movie opportunity for herself. Hope that doesn't affect her shooting schedule for the show.