Brief spoilers for "How I Met Your Mother" coming up just as soon as I find my framed Reggie Jackson photo...A pretty good episode, I thought. Not great, and kind of all over the place, but enough funny moments and distinctly "HIMYM"-y elements that I enjoyed it.
I worried that the stunt-casted supermodels would derail the show, but fortunately, their appearances were brief and mostly an excuse for Barney to make a fool of himself. (And was it just me, or did it sound like Heidi Klum's dialogue was being looped in reverse whenever she uttered the German phrase for "yips"?) I liked insecure, yippy Barney, but the genuine article is still funnier; the scene where he explained his "investments" ("I foresee agressive growth in my future!") was probably the best thing in the episode.
I loved the mocking of Robin's gym look ("Oh, hey, lesbian prison guard," Barney mistaking her for a man) and actually wish there had been more of that. The gang playing Top That Insult is one of this show's most reliable weapons, and usually the target is either Ted or Barney. Still, Ted and Robin each losing their attraction for the other once and for all was a welcome, funny touch.
Wayne Brady was funnier in his previous appearance; "closeted gay guy tries to act like girls aren't gross" is a pretty played-out joke. (Plus, the meta part kept getting in the way, given the sexual orientations of the two actors and how convincingly Neil Patrick Harris plays a ladies man.) On the other hand, I thought Stephanie Faracy was well-cast as Rhonda the Man-Maker, and I liked the montage of Rhonda coming up with one-liners to describe her conquests, only to fall short because the last one just happened.
What did everybody else think?
16 comments:
I don't know, I think A-game Barney is infinitely more entertaining than when they try to make him seem like a loser. Does no one remember how awesome he was when he took Marshall under his wing?
I thought Stephanie Faracy was fine, but I think if they had gotten Kirstie Alley (who passed) or Brett Butler (who quit after 1 day of filming), it would've been legen... wait for it...
Recall, though, that for all Barney's legendary Ladies Man skills, he is, as Ted sagely observed shortly after he first met Barney, he is kind of a jackass.
And wouldn't Barney know enough about his models to know that Heidi is married?
Why did Brett Butler quit?
Would Barney really care that Heidi was married?
I found it boring and predictable, and was waiting for the last-minute reveal that Ted paid her off too. Barney's yips weren't funny enough, and the gym stuff bored me.
Still: minimal Ted and Robin this week, which was a good thing, and I did like Barney's earlier look.
^Of course not :-)
Barney getting the yips made the whole ep, although it would have been a touch funnier if he'd gone "yip yip yip" like that one alien Muppet. Just a touch.
My "of course not" of course referring to Barney not caring about Heidi's marital status, not Adam's opinion of the ep (damn your speedier fingers, Adam!).
I think we've had more than enough now of "Barney's not as Barney as he could be," between his fear of threesomes and the loss of his mojo. The original flashback to sensitive longhaired Barney was funny because of the contrast, but the more callbacks we have to it, the closer it comes to being just another "hey Monica used to be fat" joke. And this is only the third season!
I don't need episodes where we find out Kramer's not as off-kilter as we thought he was, you know? I don't need every hooker to have a heart of gold. Barney was already just as humanized as we need him to be, his one-dimensionality redeemed not only by minor touches here and there but by the fact that his off-the-cuff relationship analysis is almost always right.
The character worked really well, and Neil Patrick Harris is great. I just don't want any more of the demythologizing we got last night. It's unnecessary, and it's no longer rare enough to be a change of pace.
Always nice to see Stephanie Faracy.
I'm not sure about Barney not caring that Heidi is married--Barney seems to have some respect for marriage and/or long-term relationships. He finds it distasteful for himself, but he's never hit on Lily, for instance, and even, as he put it, "aided and abetted" that marriage.
Also, was Megan Mullaly that expensive that they couldn't get her to do a couple of lines as BarneyMom?
(Not that I was trying to notice this, but ...)
Did you catch how 23-year-old Barney had chest hair, while older Barney was bronzed and smooth. More great continuity on this show.
Applause for Bill for saying what I couldn't. What makes Barney is episodes like "The Sweet Taste of Liberty," ("We are very important businessmen"), "The Scorpion and the Toad," "Do you like magic?" "World's Greatest Couple," "Swarley," "Slap Bet" ("Are you gonna cry?"), and my Harris' Emmy submission of last year, "Showdown."
Butler quit after a day because she says she didn't get the material. I still say she or Alley would've killed. God knows why Alley turned it down.
I thought Barney's brother just went straight for a time in college, as per Barney's wedding toast. Obviously Barney new his brother was gay before, during, and after college. So the adult and closeted James is a pretty glaring continuity issue, right?
I'm not sure about Barney not caring that Heidi is married--Barney seems to have some respect for marriage and/or long-term relationships. He finds it distasteful for himself, but he's never hit on Lily, for instance, and even, as he put it, "aided and abetted" that marriage.
But is it only reserved for people he knows, or is it respect for marriage in general? Also, he could have been hitting on her simply to get his mojo back instead of actually wanting to sleep with her. Just knowing that she would be with him may have been enough to restore his confidence, though we'll never know since he yipped his way out of it :-)
I was waiting for terrible cameos too, but I thought Heidi Klum was actually great. "Little hamburgers! Oh, I love little hamburgers."
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