How I Met Your Mother - "Trilogy Time"

Season 7, Episode 20

There are sometimes when I don’t really have a lot to say about How I Met Your Mother, times which are usually brought on by frustration with whatever the show decided to do on a particular week. This is one of those times.

How I Met Your Mother - "The Broath"

Season 7, Episode 19 

How I Met Your Mother has had a particularly bumpy ride over the past few months, as emotional twist after emotional twist has left me exhausted, and without anything to show for it. In it's prime, the show was able to deliver the some of the best emotional beats that I have ever seen on a four-cam, and it seems like the show has been trying to recapture it as of late. Yet while last season was able to up the pathos and deliver some of the strongest beats in the show's entire run, it seems like this season is trying to push that even further and its become to much, and each successive twist leaves me colder and colder. So it was quit surprising tonight when the show was able to take some of the more recent questionable story twists and deliver an emotionally resonant half hour. 

How I Met Your Mother - "No Pressure"/"Karma"

Season 7, Episodes 17-18 

“I swear to God, if they're are any other surprises, I'm going to hit someone.” 

After practically rage-quitting the show two weeks ago, I had honestly meant to review last week's episode, but as is increasingly the case this semester, school got in the way, and I was forced to shift this review into a double post that couples it with tonight's episode. Well, the television criticism gods must have been looking down on me, because while I wasn't entirely sure what to say about last week's episode, when I look at this pair I can't help but wonder and worry about the way that the show seems to be rolling out its story plots this season.

How I Met Your Mother - "The Drunk Train"

Season 7, Episode 16 

The main lesson that was learned out of season six, by both the audience and the writers, was that How I Met Your Mother could handle emotional beats that were far more affecting than most people would have ever consider possible on contemporary four-camera sitcoms. (I realize that HIMYM isn't produced or edited like a traditional four-cam, but it still is, in style, comedic rhythms, and tone.) Thus season seven as leaned hard on this approach a lot, and while I appreciate this move in theory (I love shows that can deftly mix humor and pathos), I'm beginning to wonder if the show is doing this a bit too much, because things are getting a bit ridiculous. 

How I Met Your Mother - "46 Minutes"/"The Burning Beekeeper"

Season 7, Episode 14-15 

I know, I know, I skipped reviewing the last episode of How I Met Your Mother. I'm sorry. “46 Minutes" was the sort of episode that I enjoyed, even if I couldn't find a whole lot to say about it. But considering that both that episode and tonight's centered around Marshall and Lilly's new home, I think as a pair they serve as an important reminder of the new avenues that this locale will open up, as well as the limitations.

How I Met Your Mother - "Tailgate"

Season 7, Episode 13

Say, did you know that there was a new episode of How I Met Your Mother this week, just a day after New Years? No, well you can thank CBS for the inability to advertise for it properly and/or to stick to a more traditional television schedule. (I have this same problem with ABC starting new programming on Wednesday, but that’s neither here nor there.) If I were feeling more cynical tonight, I might think that CBS did this on purpose, to bury a lower quality episode in a timeslot where maybe a many people might not have seen it. Which is a shame, because as unaffecting as the episode was, it held a lot of importance for the season as a whole.

How I Met Your Mother - "Symphony of Illumination"

Season 7, Episode 12

Last week’s episode ended with a cliffhanger, one that left me very skeptical of the show’s next step, convinced as I was that this was a twist done out of desperation, and not organic storytelling. I conceded that the perhaps the show could actually make said twist successful, but in the light of “Symphony of Illumination”, I guess it doesn’t really matter. And that pisses me off so much that it becomes hard to focus on the good of the episode.

How I Met Your Mother - "The Rebound Girl"

Season 7, Episode 11

Look, not everybody liked last week’s episode. I find it kind of hard to believe, since I found it to be one of the strongest episodes that the show has produced in quite a while, but it’s true. A large reason for that appears to be that some people didn’t like the ending, whether because they saw it as a stall tactic or because they felt it represented the show putting up just one more unnecessary road block. Tonight’s episode had a similar twist ending, and considering that fan reaction will be just as divided (if not more negative) as it was last week, it seems like a bold move for the show to pull. But it also got me thinking about how the show does a lot of things in pairs, and how maybe that’s worth taking under consideration.

How I Met Your Mother - "Tick, Tick, Tick"

Season 7, Episode 10

“What if it’s actually the story of how we got back together?”

Last night’s How I Met Your Mother proved to be a very divisive one, with critics either upsetthat the show threw up yet another roadblock, or instead enjoying the emotional journey that the show is taking us to get to the point of Robin and Barney’s reunion. Me, I fall into the latter camp, and it appears that I have one more to add to the list of shows that I love. Sure, I may be more critical of HIMYM than the other shows on that list, but when the show is firing on all emotional cylinders, all of my rational criticisms seem to just melt away.

How I Met Your Mother - "Disaster Averted"

Season 7, Episode 9

“True Story.”

What is it about tragedy that affects us so, that makes us want to tell our story to those who weren’t there to witness it first hand? More specifically, what is it with comedy writers who are making such a big deal out of Hurricane Irene? Okay, so it was a big deal, but it’s pretty impossible not to notice that where as Hurricane Katrina gave us Treme and When the Levees Broke, but Irene inspired episodes of both How I Met Your Mother and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But, when you place put aside the fact that a comedy is making light of a situation that most people turn into serious drama, “Disaster Averted” is actually a pretty great episode.

How I Met Your Mother - "The Slutty Pumpkin Returns"

Season 7, Episode 8

The thing about expectations is that they almost always lead to disappointing outcomes. As much as the idea of a second episode that features The Slutty Pumpkin sounds cool, the truth is that it’s probably not going to live up to the original episode – especially when the Pumpkin in question is played by Katie Holmes.

How I Met Your Mother - "Noretta"

Season 7, Episode 7

Freud just ruins everything, doesn’t he?

How I Met Your Mother - "Mystery vs. History"

Season 7, Episode 6

A sweet, solid episode – that’s also a rip-off

How I Met Your Mother - "Field Trip"

Season 7, Episode 5

How to properly induce happiness

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

Season 7, Episode 4

The “eh” episode

How I Met Your Mother - "The Ducky Tie"

Season 7, Episode 3

One of those episodes that makes you stick around

How I Met Your Mother: "The Best Man"/"The Naked Truth"

Season 7, Episodes 1 & 2

Clearly we’re just padding out time here

How I Met Your Mother: "Challenge Accepted"

Season 6, Episode 24

A season finale that decides to fuck with us

How I Met Your Mother: "Landmarks"

Season 6, Episode 23

A frustrating end to a frustrating character

How I Met Your Mother: "The Perfect Cocktail"

Season 6, Episode 22

The perils of a serialized comedy series