Sam's Review: HIMYM

As Fast as She Can
This week’s HIMYM gave me just about everything I normally like about the show. Well almost everything. The plot around this week’s show was that Stella returns to Ted’s life and Barney accepts another crazy challenge of trying to talk his way out of a speeding ticket.

Let’s first handle the less plot-y stuff with Barney’s storyline. I was more excited about this than the prospect of watching Ted and Stella but it turns out the opposite was true about which I’d enjoy more. This B-Story felt a bit too much like a stop gap between the Stella and Ted story. That’s not to say that Barney wasn’t, for lack of a better word, awesome. Neil Patrick Harris reminds us every week why he needs to have a shelf filled with Emmys. Just seeing Barney scream when a lady cop points a gun at him made me laugh out loud. Besides the exchange with the cop and Barney landing in the big house I thought this segment fell a bit flat, but by no means was it bad, just OK.

On the flip side of this episode was the Ted and Stella plot which I was a bit worried about. Those fears were quickly put to rest. Stella’s boyfriend Tony (played by the always funny Jason Jones) comes a knockin’ on Ted’s door to try to patch things up seeing as Tony took away Ted’s bride to be. Tony comes offering Ted a job at Columbia to be a professor and a series of designing jobs as a way to pay him back. This plan hilariously fails as Ted visits some creepy dude’s house to make a “laundry room” which is really a cover as a place to murder people. This makes for a big laugh as Ted tells this story to Marshall and Robin.

As the episode moved into its second half I was glad to see the direction this show was taking with Ted. Stella’s boyfriend Tony breaks up with her after Ted rambles about some shit with her leaving him at the altar. Stella later comes to Ted to ask him to talk to Tony and try to patch things up. After an argument outside of Ted’s apartment, he gets a call from the recently incarcerated Barney. Stella gives him a ride as a favor and it leads to really the most important part of tonight’s episode and maybe one of the most important parts of the season.

In a conversation in Stella’s car Ted talks about how he wants what Stella and Tony have. We’ve known this from the beginning of the run of HIMYM, but somehow Ted saying, “I want that” made me (someone who is not a big fan of Ted) feel for the guy and really let us into his character. The scene in the car is really what I love about this show. It is the show’s mixture of craziness (tonight’s Barney story) and sweetness (Ted wanting “that”). I think these types of moments are necessary for a show like this because it really makes us care about what happens to these characters. Tonight’s episode is not a classic HIMYM, but it gave me a few laughs and a reason to start liking (gasp!) Ted.

B+

Notes:

-Robin on Marshall’s accusation that she gets out of tickets because she is pretty, “That is outrageous… and factual” They really are giving Robin more and more funny stuff

-Funny as hell yelling moments from Marshall yelling, “Don’t Design the Murder House!” and Barney’s scream of fear with the cop is worth 4 fucking Emmys

-Who is that old lady from across the hall? Meh, I’m sure Jordan knows

-I thought Ted would start to date Stella but was relieved when Tony got back with her

-“She’s on her way Ted, she’s getting here as fast as she can.” Sigh.

-Can’t wait to revisit Tony’s movie “The Wedding Bride”-Hey look, Lilly’s back….wait….no come back, the show needs…eh I guess we’ve got to wait some more