How I Met Your Mother - "The Stinson Missile Crisis"

Season 7, Episode 4

The “eh” episode

“Nah, you’re more of a bro.

You’re a dude. You’re a man.”

-Barney

Well, over the past two weeks we’ve seen How I Met Your Mother has given us outings both frustrating and fantastic, so perhaps it was a bit fortunate, at least from an argumentative perspective, that here in the third week we got the third time of episode that exemplifies the show’s last era: the “eh” episode. As I made clear in my review of the premiere, I’m perhaps most interested in reviewing the show in the lights that it’s not as good as it used to be, and understanding the kind of offerings the show is capable of at this point in its run is crucial to that discussion.

Now, the problem with writing about eh episodes is that, much like the response they engender, they’re usually an almost ineffable quality to their mediocrity. It’s not that I can’t come up with things that I do and do not like about the episode (I can, and we’ll get to those), it’s that it’s hard to find a hook and flow to the review, and the thoughts end up sort of choppy and inert. While bad television can be written about in screed-like anger, and good television generally gives you themes to play around with or praises to pass around, eh television tends to evoke a very neutral response, if it evokes any response at all. And that’s the danger in eh episodes; good episodes keep viewers tuned in, and even bad episodes can hold on to a morbid audience, but eh episodes tend to bore people, and when an episodes boring, no one feels compelled to stick around.

If I were to pick the main thing that makes this episode so “eh” – and since I brought the topic up, I might as well follow it up – it’s that there’s too many good ideas crowded into one episode, and yet not enough time to execute them all. There were a few times tonight that I perked up and thought, “oh, that’s a good idea”, but not once did the show follow through and develop any of those ideas more fully. The episode’s main little trick, for instance, saw Robin take on the role of narrator instead of Future Ted, was an interesting twist to the old formula, but apart from some overly pointed jokes made by hey psychiatrist (played by Kal Penn), it never felt like the episode did enough to justify this formula change which ate up so much of the episodes time.

Likewise, this episode – or at least the parts that didn’t include Robin in therapy – were effectively split in two, with Robin and Barney (and ugh, Nora) in one story, and Ted, Marshall, and Lilly in the other, though each of these stories was really a pair. Barney’s plot about trying to shut down his BSD’s for Nora’s sake was smothered under the weight of Robin’s emotional distress, and Ted’s identity crisis vis-à-vis his relationship with MarshallandLilly, which should have been a sweet return of a familiar emotional beat, was instead underdeveloped due to the fairly inconsequential plot involving Marshall and Lilly fighting over what Lilly should and should not eat while pregnant.

Or perhaps it’s that the episode wasn’t all that funny. I’ve said in the past that I don’t require the episodes to be funny in order to find them successful, but I also said that the best episodes manage to truck along in such a manner that one becomes more interested in the story than the jokes. But when the story fails, we subconsciously expect the jokes to pick up the slack, and that didn’t happen here.

I follow a lot of TV critics on Twitter (surprise, surprise), and tonight one of, who apparently isn’t too familiar with the show, asked if the show was always this sexist. As a feminist myself, I’m usually fairly sensitive to such matters, and I was surprised when some replied to the tweet with a “yes”. I don’t want to get into this right now – that’s a much larger question for a later time – but I will admit that I found this episode to be a bit sexist at times.

Regardless of whether you find this to be morally wrong (again, at a later time), I think that we call all agree that relying on stereotypes makes for inherently lazy comedy. While the show has often portrayed Robin as a tough, smart, independent woman – and yes, often as quite dude-ish, in the best meaning of the word possible – tonight they effectively turned her into an overly-emotional, weepy woman-who-can’t-have-man stereotype. Though I get that the show is trying to soften Robin’s outer core through love, much like their doing with Barney, the end result doesn’t feel true to the strong character Robin has always been in the past.

And speaking of lazy comedy, that scene in which Ted and Marshall are forced to go through a birthing class together? That was just gay-panic, and that seems strangely regressive for a show that includes a prominently gay actor among the cast. But let’s not dwell on that. Let’s just say that this episode didn’t feel fully formed, and leave it at that.

Quotes, Etc:

Seriously, this episode is so eh, it took me over three hours to write this review, and I can usually do these things in about on. That’s how unmotivated I felt after watching it.

So apparently Marshall is going to be late for and/or miss the birth of his child. I’d say that I’d be more excited if such a revelation wasn’t so trite, but frankly I’m just tired of all these flash forward gags/hints.

If you thought you’d seen the last of Robin’s therapy sessions, fear not – or just, you know, fear. Kal Penn is contracted to appear in at least one more episode. It’s all part of his glorious return to acting, apparently (not counting the third Harold and Kumar movie).

Okay, I know this is a small complaint, but that title: It doesn't make any sense, right?

“NOBODY ASKED YOU PATRICE!”

“It’s fascinating how profoundly little I know about vaginas.”

“Come on, we’re a trio. We’ve always been a trio. We’re right up there with Batman & Robin & Alfred.”

“If you’re giant breasts have been wronged, I can handle them – it.”

“Who eats salt and peppers without cumin?”

“My next patient thinks he’s God, and on the off chance he’s right, I really don’t want to keep him waiting."