How I Met Your Mother … and Barney’s back!
“If you fall for that one, my heart breaks for you, but I’m sorry, you’re a Smoron.” – Robin about Barney’s SNASA playbook entry
Last weeks episode of How I met Your Mother ended with a simple, two-word promise: “Daddy’s home.” And home he is, because tonight, Barney’s back. I won’t say he’s better than ever, because I don’t actually have any quotable lines from this episode, but he’s ripe with the Barneyisms we all love and Barney’s in full form — no pesky Robin scars to make him a changed man.
I couldn’t have been happier with the way this episode unfolded. We had the Bays-Thomas non-linear storytelling, a Barney-centric episode and more catch-phrases than you could fit into, well … a playbook.
How I Met Your Mother’s friends get back together
“It was called the Death Star, baby — they knew what they were getting into.” – Marshall to Lily when she realizes that Stormtroopers are people, not robots
It’s funny that this episode about how Robin and Barney just aren’t working as a couple comes on the heels of one of the few episodes that I thought did work with Barney and Robin as a couple. I wonder if the writers read my reviews from this season and changed their minds about the match-up, or if this was the plan all along.
There have been inklings along the way about not knowing who Barney is anymore, seeing Barney and Robin fight, Barney and Robin not understanding the relationship stuff that keeps Lily and Marshall together. And tonight, when Ted says, “It’s the end of Barney Stinson as we know him,” it was definitely bringing those past pieces back around and defining that there is a problem with Barney being in a relationship.
Either way, we got some ridiculous funny out of it. This was probably the most absurd episode since “The Goat,” with random things just coming together for the good of the funny. One of my favorite things about HIMYM is when they bring back great moments from old episodes and further them, and they did tons of that tonight.
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:
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.
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….
How I Met Your Mother’s Barney and Robin: just a typical couple
“Yes, totally. Only thing, I like my testicles attached to my body rather than rolling around next to some eyeliner in Robin’s purse.” – Barney to Ted, about changing to be a better boyfriend to Robin
I said a few weeks ago in my post about the premiere that I loved the way they were handling the Robin / Barney pairing. Yeah, they blew that tonight. After Robin becoming the typical girlfriend last week, jealous over Barney frequenting a strip club, “Robin 101″ gave us a run-of-the-mill typical relationship angst episode. All that we love about Barney and Robin has died, withered like the plant on my mantle.
Sure, we got the Bays-Thomas non-linear storytelling, we got some funny quotes and we even got some catch-phrases, but the overarching problem of this episode just kept nagging at me. Man, I think I sound like Aryeh, don’t I? I don’t mean to be negative, really I don’t, but I didn’t laugh out loud tonight, and I really, really want that from How I Met Your Mother.
HIMYM – The origin of Chewbacca exhibit is in Albuquerque, of course
“I once fantasized about that silhouette chick you see on a truck’s mudflaps. It took me less than a mile.” – Barney
Does this one even need a setup?
If you were looking for some forward movement on the “mother” story, you were probably sorely disappointed with this episode. What you got instead, though, was some classic Bays / Thomas non-linear storytelling, an actual Marshall / Lily story that was funny and a date with Ted that was only mildly annoying.
What might have disappointed you (read: me) was Robin turning into the typical girlfriend….
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