How I Met Your Mother returns and answers no questions

I have decided that, in order to enjoy watching any serialized television, you really have to suspend belief. I don’t mean suspending disbelief, like allowing yourself to believe in a mystical tropical island with magical powers and a polar bear; I’m talking about suspending the belief that it is your right as an audience member to get answers to questions on your schedule. Believe it not, I’m not even sure that I am being critical when I say that. We as fans get so invested in a story (while we as critics are equally invested, but often for different reasons), and we want to know where the story is going.

In How I Met Your Mother’s case, the overriding question has always been: who is the titular mother? If you’ve been invested in that story for six years, it has got to be frustrating to have experienced so many dead ends and unanswered clues. For me, I’m actually more invested in whether or not Barney and Robin end up together. What really bothers me, though, is reading interviews with the writers hinting at the idea that answers are coming. It feels like we’ve read those same interviews summer after summer, only to have Lucy pull the proverbial football out from in front of us at the last possible second. If you’ve been reading my coverage of HIMYM for anything length of time, that analogy might sound familiar. Rightly so, considering I used it in last season’s premiere (I blame Brett, because the analogy is often on my mind the night Castle and How I Met Your Mother premiere). That being said, I don’t like beating this particular dead horse any more than you like reading it. So, my goal is to let it be for the next twenty or so episodes. If I have the same opinion come the finale, I might bring it up then.

Now that that is out of my way, I still really liked these two episodes.

There’s something about the way the dialogue works on HIMYM. The back and forth, the pitch-perfect timing by the actors … to me, this is one of the best-written sitcoms, from a dialogue perspective, I’ve ever experienced. This, and the non-linear storytelling, is the thing that has kept me coming back week after week.

A quick touch on where each of the characters are now that we’ve rejoined them:

Ted: The vigor is returning to him after Zoey, considering he’s a New Yorker that is featured on the cover of the New York Magazine. Plus, one of my all time favorites from the rogues gallery that make up his ex-girlfriends, Victoria, is back in the picture. There’s no way she’s the mother, but Ashley Williams is awesome, and it will be great to have her back, even for a short time period.

Barney: About to get married in a future timeline, and chasing Nora with a full head of steam in the present. Keith pointed out the oddness of how Lily told Ted that “the Bride” needed him in the flashforward (Wouldn’t Lily say Robin’s name?), but at the same time it was curious why the hypothetical Nora-bride would need to talk to Ted before the wedding.

Robin: Pining, rightfully so, after Barney. If you don’t get that these two are supposed to be together, then I’m not sure we watch the same show.

Lily/Marshall: It’s sad that it has taken this long for the writers to give Lily another ongoing storyline (What’s it been, since her Season One breakup with Marshall?). But Lily and Marshall as expectant parents should be comedic gold.

I’m really looking forward to what could happen on this season of How I Met Your Mother. Hopefully, we saw our last football at Punchy’s wedding.

Notes & Quotes

• “Kids, if there’s one big theme to this story — and I swear we’re totally, almost, not really all that close to the end — it’s timing. Timing is everything.” – Narrator Ted
• “[Ted walks in the room] What do you think of this tie?” – Barney
  “Oh, thank God. Barney Stinson needs you right before his wedding you assume there’s at least one dead stripper in the closet [fake laughs while he checks the closet]”
• “Who wants hot wings?” – Robin
  “I’m in. Or, maybe we should just pour hot sauce on Barney since he’s a total chicken.” – Lily
• Only How I Met Your Mother can make Marshall licking Lily’s stomach cute and not creepy
• “Get ready, Cleveland. The last man to screw you this hard then disappear was Lebron James [Mimics Lebron James chalk cloud maneuver].
• “….because the only person on Earth who loves Ted Mosby more than Marshall Eriksen, is Drunk Marshall Eriksen!” – Drunk Marshall Eriksen
• “Look, Ted … Deep in your heart you know that you kind of like one more than the other … Trust me, take the other.” – Robin
• “There’s babies everywhere. It’s like a minefield of cuteness. Look at this bastard!” — Marshall

Clacked by Ivey West
on Sep 19, 2011 @ 22:03 EST5EDT