The nine reasons How I Met Your Mother’s Barney and Robin worked tonight
“That must be that tantric bagpiping that Sting is into … shut the bagpipes up.” – Ted to Robin, about the noisy “bagpiping” neighbors upstairs
What? A How I Met Your Mother episode that was centered around Robin and Barney being a couple, and Marshall and Lily’s domestic issues? I guess that’s not so weird this season, but what is weird is that I actually liked the way both situations were handled, and I laughed.
I’ve been lukewarm about Barney and Robin being together this season. At first, I was really open-minded and on-board, trusting the writers. But then, as they became just a typical couple, I felt disappointed, let down by Bays and Thomas and the entire writing team that I trust to deliver such greatness as “Slap Bet” and “Naked Man.”
Tonight, it worked. I enjoyed Robin and Barney together on several levels, and here’s why it worked:
Ratings Clack – Smallville continues to defy the odds
We do often get caught up in the big numbers from the big networks. It is, after all, hard to overlook the fact that NCIS is still growing its audience in the 7th season. There are still some very interesting stories happening on the little network, CW. When it was announced that Vampire Diaries would be paired with Supernatural, while Smallville was shuffled off to Friday, many people expected that was the end.
The show wouldn’t be able to come back from a year grinding away on Friday nights. After a few weeks looking at the numbers though, that’s not the case at all. Clark and the gang can celebrate good times, despite taking a hit from the move. In fact, this week Smallville topped new episodes of One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, 90210, and Melrose Place. It’s far from done. Elsewhere, we had our first sizable crop of repeats this week, which brought some interesting results. Read the rest of this entry »
Quotation Marks – Ascots, belly buttons, and Crocs
This week’s column is a tribute to the new sitcoms network television has given us this season. Sure, we’ve still got some hour-longs in there (because you know I’m not going to let one of these posts go up with out some Glee love), but we’re mainly highlighting the the half hour comedies this time around.
Modern Family
“Why is she dressed like the Hamburglar?” — Mitchell, about his baby Lily
“I’ll tell you what’s weird. Our son is not weird. What’s weird is that her kid wears aftershave and dresses like a count.” — Claire, about Manny
“It’s not just the game. It’s the bands, and the drama and the pageantry.” — Mitchell
“Don’t forget about the team mascots.” — Cameron
“They wear ascots?” — Mitchell
“No, mascots, with an ‘m.’ That could have been very embarrassing.” — Cameron
“Claire likes to say you can be part of the problem or part of the solution. I happen to believe that you can be both.” — Phil
How I Met Your Mother – Canadian jokes won’t save them all
I really didn’t think it was possible to screw up an episode that should have sailed along on Canadian jokes alone. But somehow, How I Met Your Mother stole all of the funny (well, most of it anyway) out of that situation.
Really, who wrote this?
Because I guess I should thank you for the few funny things, along with the connections to past episodes that made me smile. But making the Canadian citizen story lackluster, and pairing it with an annoying Marshall and Lily adventure made for the worst HIMYM so far this season.
Ratings Clack – Where is FlashForward headed?
FlashForward is one of the more interesting shows of the new season where ratings are concerned. On the one hand, so far it has been a huge upgrade for the 8-9 spot on ABC. And while it has been surpassed by Survivor, it does continue to hold off Bones in the demo. On the other hand, the ratings don’t seem to be settled yet, which makes each week a new adventure. This week, the yo-yo headed back up. What will next week bring? One can only guess. I continue to think that it will eventually be passed up by the fiercely loyal Bones audience at some point, finding its place as the number 3 show in the hour. Elsewhere this week, there was good news for Dancing With The Stars, NCIS, Law & Order, So You Think You Can Dance, and Smallville. The news wasn’t so good for Hank, Parks & Recreation, Three Rivers, or Melrose Place.
Quotation Marks – Dockers, Tab-booty calls, and the letter R
Glee
[while hugging]
“I will destroy you.” – Will
“I’m about to vomit down your back.” – Coach Sylvestser
“It’s on.” – Will
“The independent polling company in my Dockers has confirmed that you’re the hottest girl in this school.” – Jacob
Community
“The only difference between Senor Chang and Stalin is that I know who Senor Chang is.” – Troy
Read the rest of this entry »
How I Met Your Mother – Poems, songs and photo montages
How I Met Your Mother, oh how you made me laugh tonight. Yes, Marshall and Lily were annoyingly cute (but Barney and Robin were back to their snarky selves) and I got really sick of gouda jokes, but you made up for it in infinite ways.
For instance, I didn’t know just how funny tweed was:
“Ah, tweed, textile of the eunuch.” – Barney to Ted, on his new professor duds
And you milked it throughout the episode, in true Bays and Thomas fashion: just enough to stay funny but not crossing that line (which you may have crossed with the Gouda).
But the sexless innkeeper is where you brought it home tonight, and you can be sure I’ve transcribed Barney’s and Ted’s “Sexless Innkeeper” poems after the jump….
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