I can't hate HIMYM, but this episode made it really hard not to. I have watched every episode of this show at least 4 times, and I know it back to front; to see such blatant and, to be frank, lame moralizing was disheartening. The third season has been rocky thus far, which is difficult for me to say as I truly love this show. I wanted to chalk up the slower pace and less-funny moments to the pre-strike crippling that happened to pretty much every show just before the WGA went dark, but it's becoming clearer that it is more the fault of the writers of this show, not the greater writer woes of late 2007.
Why do this episode? Why denigrate Barney so much? Why make it just so damned depressing to watch Ted? Does this mean that because of the AMPTP/WGA spat we're going to miss out on this larger transition for Ted? Is it time already for him to meet "our mother?" From the first scene, everything was off. Barney, usually a favorite character of mine, was unusually hateful in this one. Just the inflection on NPH's voice as he delivered the lines "Fine, I don't need you...you make me physically ill!" and "Open your brain-tank, bra, cause here comes some premium 91 octane knowledge" makes him seem like a pathetic and annoying clone of Dane Cook. Was this just NPH's off day? Was this a conscious decision? Is this how he's going to be from now on? A sad little man waking up in the trash? I expected differently from Pamela Fryman, by far the greatest comedy director working TV today.
I know that the creators/EPs probably don't monitor these episode comments very much or even at all for that matter, but as someone who loves these characters and enjoys the time I spend with all of them (and especially Barney), I'm dismayed that these questions are cropping up now, when the move back into episodics is still rather shaky.
Everything about it was just...crooked. The time-warping effects that usually make the show twist and turn in ways I haven't seen on any other felt lazy and tacked-on.
I hope I can look forward to better Barney in the future, and that Ted will at least have a little more fun before he, to quote, "takes fun Ted about behind the barn and shoots him."
Why do this episode? Why denigrate Barney so much? Why make it just so damned depressing to watch Ted? Does this mean that because of the AMPTP/WGA spat we're going to miss out on this larger transition for Ted? Is it time already for him to meet "our mother?" From the first scene, everything was off. Barney, usually a favorite character of mine, was unusually hateful in this one. Just the inflection on NPH's voice as he delivered the lines "Fine, I don't need you...you make me physically ill!" and "Open your brain-tank, bra, cause here comes some premium 91 octane knowledge" makes him seem like a pathetic and annoying clone of Dane Cook. Was this just NPH's off day? Was this a conscious decision? Is this how he's going to be from now on? A sad little man waking up in the trash? I expected differently from Pamela Fryman, by far the greatest comedy director working TV today.
I know that the creators/EPs probably don't monitor these episode comments very much or even at all for that matter, but as someone who loves these characters and enjoys the time I spend with all of them (and especially Barney), I'm dismayed that these questions are cropping up now, when the move back into episodics is still rather shaky.
Everything about it was just...crooked. The time-warping effects that usually make the show twist and turn in ways I haven't seen on any other felt lazy and tacked-on.
I hope I can look forward to better Barney in the future, and that Ted will at least have a little more fun before he, to quote, "takes fun Ted about behind the barn and shoots him."