There are two things that never turn out to be good in any series.
First is the overarching plot line or mystery or similar, that spans many seasons or the entirety of a show. Every show that tries to do that inevitably loses its way after some time and you are left with a confusing mess that the writers (sometimes) try to fix by slapping retcons like band aids on a severed limb.
Second is the sudden change of tone or style of a show. Be it for an episode, or longer.
Sadly, this show does both of these things, and, as expected, fails both times.
The whole ongoing theme of "this is your mother, no wait it isn't; this is how i met her, no wait it isn't; this is what lead to us meeting, but actually it will happen sometime in the future" got old during season 2. And in this and the previous episode, the writers, for some reason, decided to jam the death of Marshall's father down viewers' throats.
The problem is that this show is not a serious drama, never was, and obviously the writers are not skillful enough to pull that off. Therefore, the whole deep and serious tone feels fake and hollow and is just an attempt to score some cheap "feelz" from the viewers by trying to appeal to an automatic reaction - someone's father died, so you should feel sad; also, we write about sad stuff, so it means that it is deep and meaningful writing. Another problem is that, despite attempts to make it look that way, Marshall's supposedly strong connection to his father was never truly established nor present. And finally, the whole change of tone is so sudden that it just feels awkward and out of place. Yes, such sudden bad things do happen in real life, but here it was just done poorly. Also, anybody trying to argue that this show is an accurate representation of real life is fighting a battle that just can't be won.
The whole "we're going serious" thing was a failed experiment. Hopefully they won't try that again.
First is the overarching plot line or mystery or similar, that spans many seasons or the entirety of a show. Every show that tries to do that inevitably loses its way after some time and you are left with a confusing mess that the writers (sometimes) try to fix by slapping retcons like band aids on a severed limb.
Second is the sudden change of tone or style of a show. Be it for an episode, or longer.
Sadly, this show does both of these things, and, as expected, fails both times.
The whole ongoing theme of "this is your mother, no wait it isn't; this is how i met her, no wait it isn't; this is what lead to us meeting, but actually it will happen sometime in the future" got old during season 2. And in this and the previous episode, the writers, for some reason, decided to jam the death of Marshall's father down viewers' throats.
The problem is that this show is not a serious drama, never was, and obviously the writers are not skillful enough to pull that off. Therefore, the whole deep and serious tone feels fake and hollow and is just an attempt to score some cheap "feelz" from the viewers by trying to appeal to an automatic reaction - someone's father died, so you should feel sad; also, we write about sad stuff, so it means that it is deep and meaningful writing. Another problem is that, despite attempts to make it look that way, Marshall's supposedly strong connection to his father was never truly established nor present. And finally, the whole change of tone is so sudden that it just feels awkward and out of place. Yes, such sudden bad things do happen in real life, but here it was just done poorly. Also, anybody trying to argue that this show is an accurate representation of real life is fighting a battle that just can't be won.
The whole "we're going serious" thing was a failed experiment. Hopefully they won't try that again.