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April 14, 2006
tv show review: how i met your mother
This is my current favorite show to watch. Its not because I miss the good ol days of Friends (and by that, I mean *old* because Friends had lost it for a long time) but there's something very sweet and genuine about the show. On some level it has to do with how the main character, Ted, is written. He's just a good-hearted fellow, looking for Ms. Right. He's earnest, a bit whiny, and of course he has that tv show sense of humor that most people wish they had. (Tangent: a lot of people aspire to having a quippy sense of humor, but forget that tv shows have writers who actually sit around and come up with these lines and zingers).
Naturally, Ted is written in such a way that guys identify with him, and girls would like to date a nice guy like him. At the same time, they've set up (for now, at least) the "Will they won't they" dynamic with Robin, who is Ted's dream girl. The twist the show started out with is that this story, told in flashback to Ted's kids 25 years later, refers to her as "Aunt Robin", implying that she does not end up being the one. The show's creators proudly point to this as making their show different, but during this first season of character development, its largely a MacGuffin. Robin and Ted are still dancing around each other, one having feelings when the other does not, and then the two switching positions. Fans of the show are still speculating on how the two might still somehow end up together in spite of the initial "Aunt Robin" reference. (Are the kids adopted? Are the kids from a first marriage?, etc.) Amusing, and yet indicative of how strong the pull of a "Will they won't they" relationship is on television.
The cast is rounded out by Ted's best friends, engaged couple Lily and Marshall, played by Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segal, and Doogie Howser, I mean Barney, played by Neil Patrick Harris. I'm a big fan of Alyson from her role on Buffy, and she's got good range. Jason Segal's Marshall isn't very developed so far, except to serve as Ted's best friend going back to college. He's a big guy who is used for a lot of the "socially awkward" jokes that occur on the show (country kid from Minnesota in the big city, etc). Barney is an interesting character, at least how he's written so far. He is a sharp-dressing womanizer (who, in a later episode reveal was originally sensitive, granola-eating, and Peace Corps-ready before he was dumped for a sharp-dressing womanizer at the time, cueing his transformation) who is somehow dorky and has game at the same time. I'll make a Friends reference here and say that it seems like that the creators wanted a quippy character like Chandler from Friends, but they tried really hard to distinguish this character as being different from Chandler, who in his initial Friends incarnation was a lovable loser who was not good with the ladies.
How I met your Mother
Mondays @ 8:30pm on CBS
Posted by spoof747 at April 14, 2006 02:10 PM