Spoilers for the "How I Met Your Mother" season four premiere coming up just as soon as I force my wife to watch "Hoosiers" again...Ah, my beloved "HIMYM" is back, and even a B+ episode like "Do I Know You?" was simply de... wait for it... lightful!
The Ted and Stella story had its moments, particularly anything involving Marshall being creepy (hiding behind the couch was a good gag) or Ted's various interactions with 15-Year-Old Ted (high-fiving himself, imagining the high school quarterback ganking his proposal with a "What's up, turd?"), which continued the series' motif of "Ted Mosby is unstuck in time." And I can certainly relate to the existential dilemma of wanting the woman I love to love the same stuff I love (see above "Hoosiers" reference, or my semi-successful attempt to get her to read "Astro City").
Overall, though, it ran into a couple of problems. First, Josh Radnor is always in danger of pushing Ted's neediness into unpleasant territory, and he came right up to the line several times here. Second, there's that matter of whether or not Stella is The Mother. I like Sarah Chalke a lot, and think she and Radnor work well together, but the way the show is structured makes it harder and harder to play the Is She Or Isn't She? game with Ted's girlfriends, particularly one where he's in this deep. I spend too much time trying to parse Future Ted's narration and not enough on just engaging with the story.
But any episode with Barney swooning over a woman while still retaining his essential Barney-ness is a keeper, regardless of the A-story. Every time I feared that they were making him soft, another hot babe would wander through his apartment while he was whining about feelings to Lily, culminiating in the brilliant, rom-com-spoofing "Bimbos make me want to be a better man" monologue. Neil Patrick Harris had a lot of great moments throughout, whether it was him swaying his legs around the kitchen like a lovestruck 12-year-old girl or his high-pitched, indecipherable voicemail message to Robin. ("You left a voice, but it wasn't male.")
So here's the question: where do you want this story to go? NPH and Cobie Smulders have great chemistry, and I think the writers have shown here that they can stay true to Barney while placing him in a more sincere storyline, but how does this all work from Robin's end? How does Robin get with Barney without hating herself or looking like a fool?
Some other thoughts on "Do I Know You?":
• Outside of the running gags about Canada and her love of guns, the writers don't always know what to do to make Robin funny, but her increasing dismay at those awful news teases ("Stay tuned for the full... scoop... Really?!?") was hilarious.
• Craig Thomas lied to me. No full frontal nudity for Jason Segel, and no crotch-grabbing for Alyson Hannigan. Sigh...
• They may have been neither nude nor gender-bending, but Segel and Hannigan did some good work in support of the others, before getting the final punchline of the episode, with Lily swapping out "rhinoceros" for "chimichanga" for her "We must have sex right now" code word. And speaking of which, Barney's explanation of the time-to-word ratio necessary to place booty call was the most quintessentially "HIMYM" moment of the whole episode.
• Is the Carter the Great poster in Barney's apartment new? I know we haven't been there very often, but I don't remember seeing it before. I'd like to think that Barney was a fan of Glen David Gold's wonderful novel "Carter Beats the Devil," but my guess is it's just a production design hat tip to Carter Bays.
What did everybody else think?
It's the season four premier.
ReplyDeleteYou would think I would know that, what with me creating a new (season 4) tag and all. D'oheth.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, this episode felt a little short. Also, there weren't really any scenes with the whole gang (aside from the very short bits at McLaren's). That said, I thought the Barney stuff (and Jason Segel's delivery of "We have to go")was hilarious. I'm also liking Ted and Stella a little bit better, although I'm still not completely sold on her as the mother. Mostly, though, I'm just glad to have my show back.
ReplyDeleteAstro City AND Carter Beats the Devil! You're killing me...
ReplyDeleteMy wife does indeed think Astro City is cool, which is why she's the mother of my children. I'm trying to convince her that she needs to read Soon I Will Be Invincible.
As to the show, you're right, it's hard to step inside the story--as opposed to outside of the story--and pay attention without parsing every line and nuance for clues to the mother. One of many reasons why I usually enjoy everyone else's stories much more than Ted's.
I was so glad to see that Barney Stinson (who is now always partly Dr. Horrible to me) can be both in love *and* awesome.
ReplyDeleteAnd root beer floats are delicious.
I thought it was great and that they hit the right notes on both storylines. All the actors managed to keep it from going too far in either direction, and thus, we're left with a great HIMYM premiere.
ReplyDeleteTop five favorite moments, in no particular order:
- Stella's impression
- Stella and Marshall's conversation ending in "I do" (only this show could pull that off)
- Barney and Robin's entire dinner
- Barney staring at the TV screen at the end
- Marshall jumping out from behind the couch, causing Stella to throw her popcorn and Ted to run out of the room.
I like to think that the rising music during Barney's "bimbos make me a better person" speech was a deliberate Dr. Horrible nod, leading us to hope that he'd break into song.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Barney had the Carter poster in previous seasons--
ReplyDeleteI was reading the book around the time I saw the episode...
I'm a huge Carter Beats the Devil fan, so I zeroed in on that poster immediately. I never noticed it before.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the episode, which kept making me laugh out loud. NPH wuz robbed at the Emmys.
Wasn't it "Bimbos make me want to pretend to be a better man"? It was the "pretend" part that stuck out for me because it's in keeping with his character.
ReplyDelete"Tell them to bring their mitts. They'll be in foul ball country!"
It's not until I watch this show (as well as some Scrubs or Office episodes) that I really realize how rarely TV can make me laugh out loud. This show gets me every time. Great to have it back.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that this might be one of my favorite eps ever...not in the sense that the story of this particular ep was so great (a la Slap Bet), but I found myself laughing uncontrollably out loud multiple times throughout the episode. So many of the gags & punchlines were perfect. Maybe it is just the desert we have been walking through from the writers' strike, but this was a fantastic way to spend 1/2 hour of my time.
ReplyDeleteI found the prospect of Stella lying to Ted about liking something he cares about for the rest of her life a lot less awesome than Marshall did.
ReplyDeleteWho says that Robin and Barney don't end up together?
ReplyDeleteI know that old Ted refers to them as "Aunt Robin" and "Uncle Barney"
I've said it before (last year) and I'll say it again. NPH was robbed!!! He is so good, how could he not get the Emmy?
I was slightly freaked out by the Boba Fett figure in Barney's living area. I'm fairly certain he's always had it, but it's like having another person watching your every move. I wonder if any of Barney's girls are ever put-out by it.
ReplyDeleteAs for Barney and Robin, I do want them to end together. Just not in the same capacity as say Lily and Marshall. Maybe an open-relationship, where they sometimes function as the others wingman?
They want us to believe that Ted has been dating this woman for months and doesn't know she has a near-fatal peanut allergy.
ReplyDeleteBWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Funniest thing in the whole episode.
Well, funniest part for me because that's when I changed the channel.
The Big Bang Theory was funny as well. (overall, a fun hour, while i was missing Worst Week)
ReplyDelete(meanwhile Alan Shore screams at the tobacco industry for 45 minutes (when not mooning over yet another "lost past love") and then goes out for a cigar, as usual.)
why would someone tell your it's the season 4 premiere?
I was rather disappointed, actually. I just started watching HIMYM last summer and really enjoyed it. I was looking forward to the premiere, and hyped the show to my roommate who had never seen it. He thinks it's lame and not funny. This was obviously not the episode to start on.
ReplyDeleteI'm still am not a fan of Stella. She just annoys me. The character is inconsistent. Why does she suddenly have so much time to hang out when last year she was sooo busy with work and her kid? Where is her kid?
ReplyDeleteI don't feel like she has any chemistry with Ted. The relationship seems forced and unnatural. I for one, am hoping she isn't the one."
Barney, Marshall, Lilly and Robin are all so much more interesting than Stella.
Stella isn't helped by the fact that she's being played by Sarah Chalke, who has the most enormous and buttery face on television and at least 58 teeth.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this episode wasn't that great. I think I only watch this show anymore because I want to know what happens and occasionally they have an episode that is awesome (Slapsgiving).
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Big Bang Theory was gut-bustingly hilarious last night.
There were a lot of Classic ™ moments in this episode and I wish I hadn't deleted it from the DVR (especially after watching the awful Heroes) so I could go back and revisit it.
ReplyDelete@Lizbeth, you beat me to the comment I came here to make. I am not as lost in the 'who is the mother' story line any more, because these are still young people and you can never trust a Ted relationship will work out....but what does bug me on the Stella story is.....where is the baby!!! Why isn't Ted just at her house? Especially when she was there two nights in a row...that's what I am having trouble buying, and what a couple lines of dialogue would clear up for me.
Laughed out loud the whole 22 minutes.
I'm still am not a fan of Stella. She just annoys me. The character is inconsistent. Why does she suddenly have so much time to hang out when last year she was sooo busy with work and her kid? Where is her kid?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I've always thought her whole "I'm too busy" thing was more of an excuse to keep guys away - dating is probably a bit tricky with the kid, but not too much of a barrier. She can afford a sitter. Ted just convinced her, with the two-minute date, that he's worth the effort.
Not going to be one of the show's the series is remembered for, but even average HIMYM has some brilliantly funny moments.
Although, while I don't have the same relationship with Star Wars that Ted has (in fact, I don't think I have that relationship with any movie), I do know Star Wars enough to be pleased that (a) they were actually using the real Star Wars soundtrack in the scene where they watched the movie (most shows, when referencing real movie, seem to use a fake soundtrack that bears no resemblance to the actual film), and (b) they didn't just go with one of the most recognisable Star Wars themes. That said, I was bothered when I recognised the music when they were on the couch together as being the trash compactor scene. However much later it was, with Ted and Marshall peeking out of Ted's room, they said that she was only just up to the trash compactor scene. This left me yelling at the screen "She was up to there ten minutes ago!"
Matthew L: you don't have the same relationship with the movie as Ted, but you can identify the music to the trash compactor scene?
ReplyDeleteI think the funniest part of the episode was my husband's reaction to my reaction to the "never seen Star Wars" storyline. On the otherhand I'm a perfectly normal woman in my mid-30s and professional job in a large company, who owns a Sharper Image lightsaber.
ReplyDeleteShut up.
As for the Barney & Robin storyline, I can totally see them working out eventually. I'm tremendously bummed we still have to seen Robin giving Lily the run-down of that night (Lily was interested and it is absolutely the type of thing women talk about)and I can see Robin falling apart again over something and Barney coming to her rescue again and them having a secret on-again/off-again relationship for a while until it just kind of develops into a relationship. They are both unconventional regarding what they want from life. As long as he can stop sleeping with Bimbos I can see it working out.
On the other hand I am very please that Barney doesn't seem ready to take that step.
Astro City is awesome!
ReplyDeleteIn related news, was I the only one who could tell which scene from Star Wars they were watching just from the music?
I liked the episode but agree it was ridiculous that Stella, the doctor, would not tell her boyfriend about having a severe peanut allergy for months. That bit was still somewhat funny via being well-edited, though, similar to the cork gags of the past.
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one who's going to (gently, I hope) point out to Webeh that that was NOT a Boba Fett outfit in Barney's apartment? I am knee deep in all things Star Wars these days (all three of us in this household are now major fans, and there are daily lightsaber fights).
ReplyDeleteMy guess is, it's a Clone Trooper.
http://tinyurl.com/notboba
I'm also not totally down with Stella pretending to like Ted's favorite movie. I thought the idea behind that story line -- wanting your significant other to like a book/movie/tv show you TOTALLY LOVE -- was a great and totally HIMYM story to do.
Might be interesting to revisit this in the future and have her say that she didn't actually love it. Wouldn't Ted demonstrate true love by not letting that get in the way of his love for her?
But wait. I just thought of a wacky scenario: what if my husband didn't love Mad Men and FNL? Fortunately we've always agreed on that stuff (in fact, if anything, he's introduced me to way more great shows than vice versa. Believe it or not, back before I wrote about TV, I was a Buffy scoffer til he got me into it in Season 2).
anyway, a solid ep all around, I thought, with some classic HIMYM gags. NPH is a comic genius.
Given that Robin is as committmentphobic as Ted, I think they'll find a way to play out that string for quite some time before it gets old. I look forward to that, it's giving NPH a LOT of great stuff to do.
Barney's apartment had the "Carter Beats the Devil" poster, and to me it looked like they've changed it. I think it could be in part a tip to Carter Bays, but mostly a tip to NPH's real life magic skills, since Charles Carter was a real magician.
ReplyDeleteAll nerds say it with me: an adult who has not been on a desert island who has managed to never see Star Wars is NOT going to like it, in part because that person will have had to go out of their way to avoid seeing it. If it is important to you that your significant other like the same things as you, keep this in mind. It indicates a whole mindset about geeky things.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is not the kind of thing it is ever OK to lie about. Sure, on a first date, imply that you like stuff like Star Wars. But these people are *engaged*. This seems like a harmless lie, but it is not. I think this is where we found out for sure that Stella is not the mother.
Another first date thing you talk about? Food allergies that give you anaphalactic shock--I have them, I know. Certainly before you let someone else MAKE FOOD for you. This is an over-the top indication, too.
I can see someone in their late 20s not having seen the new trilogy, but the old trilogy was played on television so much in the 1980s that to not have seen Star Wars is clearly the sign of someone who is anti sci-fi. I also can't buy that someone in that age range who grew up in North America would not know about a Wookie. Star Wars was a phenomenon and it makes her look like a bit of an idiot.
ReplyDeleteI understand what they were going for, but perhaps they should have gone for a movie like Say Anything or Swingers or even Star Trek.
So I too would support that Stella is not the mother.
Not that anyone should be at all concerned about the show's future (at least not until upfronts time), but the premiere did quite well, building a bit on the Big Bang Theory lead-in and was up more than 1.5 million viewers from last year's premiere. Seems like a good percentage of the new viewers who came with Britney stayed.
ReplyDelete(CBS actually won the night in 18-49, despite the three-hour Heroes "event" and the Dancing with the Stars premiere.)
The chemistry between Robin and Barney, and the sense of anticipation that it prompts, highlights the total lack of those two elements from the Stella/Ted relationship. Really, Ted has always been the least interesting character in this show.
ReplyDeleteDuh. I meant to say, "Given that Robin is as committment-phobic as Barney..."
ReplyDeleteTed's never had a problem with committment, obviously.
As much as second-Becky bugs me as Stella, I'll defend her here. TheWife's never seen Star Wars either (although she did gamely suffer through Phantom Menace in a theater with me.) While she's not much of a fan of geek culture, she's not completely adverse to all its aspects. She just has no interest in Star Wars.
ReplyDeleteHaving seen the prequel trilogy, I'd say she was just ahead of her time in not caring what George Lucas has to say.
And I don't think there's anything particularly notable about missing out on particular movies. I've never seen E.T. and have no interest in ever doing so, despite being a geek.
Was anyone else having weird sound issues during the CBS line-up on Monday? The laugh track was very loud but the dialogue was very quiet during Big Bang and HIMYM.
ReplyDeleteStar Trek wouldn't worh either. All my friends who *are* into it have immersed me in it to the pointthat I actually *did* go out of my way to avoid it from the time my ex left me to the day they signed Scott Bakula and I started watching Voyager to look for promos for Enterprise.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a Monty Python fixation would have been better. Or that movie with "thanks for all the fish."
Star Trek and Star Wars are ubiquitous. Perhaps Buffy. I avoided that for longer than Mo, and probably for the same reasons.
Fot the record I've seen the first movie (ep 4?) 1 time. I've seen thetwo that followed (eventually). Possibly the (one?) with Ewoks more than once. I've never seen any one the LOTR (the Hobbit, in 4th grade, was the first book I ever didn't finish) and only one Harry Potter, as it was on ABC and my brother was here wanting to see it (for FOUR hours).
Might be interesting to revisit this in the future and have her say that she didn't actually love it
Like Marshall and Lily and the ...olives? was it olives? (one hates them, one likes them, so it works out?)
I've had some odd sound issues, but I'm not sure whether it was last night.
ReplyDeleteI've been concerned that network TV is being "mixed for"? people who have 5 speakers, when I only have two. That was a problem with my DVD player (the songs-and everything else- in Enchanted were not loud enough to sing along to)
not sure if this was a media issue, a hardware issue, a setup issue or something else.
I may also be having problems with Jeopardy.
Where's an A/V geek when you need one?
My brother fixed the setup in my DVD player to the center? speakers (or maybe left/right?) and suddently it was hearable.
Also yesterday, a camera darted back and forth - I thought my DVR was dying again - turned out, it was only the little person Bethany having made one of her signature undetectable exits. (on Boston Legal - which is only a spoiler if anyone thought she was dead. she *has* been missing for a while)
and speaking of Boston Legal - why wasn't Henry Gibson in the Laugh In section of the Emmys? he's obviously still alive (I'm betting Goldie Hawn is too)
big difference between Laugh In 68 and now? Now I know what Gay means. (my elementary school was on Gay Street. The school name has changed - the street name has not)
I can't believe no one has mentioned the quick cut to Marshall and Ted, transfixed, satisifed and happy in front of the tv with the caption "121 Awesome Minutes Later". I loved that. And Marshall answering the question before it even got out of Ted's mouth... "Wanna watch it again?" "Oh, yes."
ReplyDeleteAlan and all fellow HIMYM fans-
ReplyDeleteWe can stop worrying about ratings and renewals for this show. It's been sold into syndication (for hundreds of millions of dollars) with a 110-episode guarantee, which means it will be on the air through the 2009-2010 season (Season 5), and probably a ways after that. I have dibs on bitching about how it never was funny after Season 7.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117992173.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&query=met+your+mother
THANK YOU!
ReplyDeleteI think that link got cut,
ReplyDeleteLink to the syndication story.
Sleepyhead, your link still doesn't work, but I am SO De - - - Lighted! If your are right!!!!
ReplyDelete@Kate says: All nerds say it with me: an adult who has not been on a desert island who has managed to never see Star Wars is NOT going to like it, in part because that person will have had to go out of their way to avoid seeing it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the first part of that sentence, but not with the latter. I think it might be tough for an adult who had never seen Star Wars but had still been to the movies and, you know, ALIVE to get the passion of the earliest Star Wars devotees, just because the movie came out of nowhere. NOWHERE.
We're so inundated nowadays with the sorts of characters and plots and SFX that Star Wars introduced that it's hard to imagine exactly what sort of impression it made. I was just finishing my freshman year in college when it came out, and my friends and I were BLOWN AWAY by it. I think I still have my commemorative souvenir booklet that they were selling in the theatre lobbies (long before fast food cross-promotions). My college boyfriend spent MONTHS after that, creating a Darth Vader costume for Halloween 1977. Geek culture wasn't that developed back then.
Nothing explodes that way these days. Sure, we have blockbusters that everyone has to go see, but not because no one has ever seen anything remotely like it before.
So, Ted's youthful exposure to the film created a bond that an adult, already saturated with similar films, could never replicate.
can't access that article (again) but did find this one, about Sarah, HIMYM, and Scrubs
ReplyDeletethe first article
ReplyDeleteokay, having succeeded at that, let me note that if your are signing in to post with a gmail address (and maybe some others?) you can get emails of all the replies, which is you I got Sleepyhead's link, in its entirety, in my email (where it didn't break).
ReplyDeleteOf course this does lead to lots of mail (and in my case at least, the name of the post the comment is *to* tends to slide off the side of my webmail, unseen) but...
I loved Robin out-Barneying Barney.
ReplyDeleteThat said, anyone else get the impression that this Barney-in-luv thing has now been brushed under the table, at least for a while? Slightly disappointing if that's true, I would like to see him on the teeter-totter between the two some more.
Also, Robin with a new job sounds ominous, especially if it's a foreign-country job (and we know she eventually travels all the countries).
As for Ted and Stella...well, I think she has Robin snark potential, and maybe she can be a sixth banana after Scrubs ends.
Ted: yeah, still annoying, but he always kinda is.
I'd like to know how you avoid watching Star Wars. If my MOTHER has seen it and she hates sci-fi, how do you avoid it?
@jennifer, you just don't watch it.
ReplyDeleteI saw it in a theater in 1977 or 78, after my mother and brother promised me there was no "scary stuff" in it. I believe i was scared by the gorn or Star Trek - and yes, I'm not fond of SciFi (but what i really hate is Fantasy. I ccaught Buffy from season 1 on *FX* - the only ep I saw before that was The Body (BAD choice) and I caught the desire from reading a fan fiction - which made me laugh so much I had to know if the show itself was this good (it was) - the previous summer (of 01)
ReplyDeleteselected text from said fanfic:
"She was lying on a newly dug grave, Buffy realized (which beat lying in a new grave, but not by much). The rain had turned the earth to a sea of mud and she could feel it plastering her body, coating her like... well, like mud." )
Also, Robin with a new job sounds ominous, especially if it's a foreign-country job (and we know she eventually travels all the countries).
ReplyDeleteWell, we know she'll still be in New York this year, as she and Ted will be roommates by the time of Ted's next birthday.
Alan, you are assuming that Ted doesn't move out.
ReplyDeleteThere could be a "Friends" apartment hopping/swapping situation.
Anna, to quote the Craig Thomas linked to above:
ReplyDeleteYou will see Robin moving in with Ted and you will see another arrangement happening.
Of course, he did lie about Segel and Alyson's crotches, so...
I don't know how we can ever trust a man who'd lie about people's junk like that.
ReplyDeleteOh, ok. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI never read anything from the writers/directors/producers/actors about what's coming up on a show. I like to be surprised.
I was basing my comment on the Older Ted's revelation in "The Goat" that Robin was living there on his 31st birthday.
Matthew L: you don't have the same relationship with the movie as Ted, but you can identify the music to the trash compactor scene?
ReplyDeleteI don't have that "comfort food" love of Star Wars, where it's something that I go back to again and again - in fact, it's been a few years since I watched it.
That said, I did grow up watching the film over and over again, and I enjoy the John Williams music, which I have on my iPod. And the trash compactor music is a very distinctive cue that is only used in the one scene in the series, and so is fairly easy to recognise. Most other cues I would struggle to link to a specific scene, but not that one.
I don't know how we can ever trust a man who'd lie about people's junk like that.
ReplyDeleteFor real!
Alan, comment on this!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.variety.com/article/VR1117992173.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&query=met+your+mother
This is HUGE.
1) Anon: my husband recognized every Star Wars musical cue in tonight's episode. We have a friend who is OCD for Star Wars so if he watched I know he recognized them all, too!
ReplyDelete2) I really do not think it's fair to say such ugly things about Sarah Chalke's outward appearance. That 58 teeth comment just seems so mean. Mean is unnecessary here or at least I thought it was.
3) NPH was robbed to the high heavens on Emmy night!
4) I have actually thought since the first ep of the show that Barney and Robin would become a couple. I don't know why; just a gut feeling. I'm all for them being a full-fledged couple. I think they're very right for each other in a future sort of way. Baggage and bimbos be gone....
I think Sarah looks lovely and doesn't have half the amount of teeth that Katherine Heigl has. (and didn't used to have - I guess that orthodonture really worked!)
ReplyDeleteAlso it's nice to see someone whose head actually appears to fit on her body, a thought similar to one I had at one of last years awards shows, comparing her to other actresses who look as if someone should have a concert to raise money to get them fed. (that said, I weighed 33 lbs when I was 8 and someone would have wanted to stage a concert for me as well. worry not, I've gained a hundred pounds since then. but hey, maybe I should have been a child star!)
Not that anyone should be at all concerned about the show's future (at least not until upfronts time), but the premiere did quite well, building a bit on the Big Bang Theory lead-in and was up more than 1.5 million viewers from last year's premiere. Seems like a good percentage of the new viewers who came with Britney stayed.
ReplyDeleteActually Alan I think Dr Horrible probably brought in a few of those.
I'm sure some whedonites watched the show from the start 'cause of Alyson, but I figure there are several who became enamoured of NPH and decided to check out his show.
I'm sure some whedonites watched the show from the start 'cause of Alyson
ReplyDeletethat's why I watched it (from the start)
and tonight "Penny" was on House.
I love Joss, think he's awesome, but he's so into the genre stuff... and I'm just... not.
But yeah, I watched for Alyson. I watched for Alexis. And if there was anyone else from the Buffyverse who I forget dropping in, them too.
Dr Horrible was... dull, then funny, musical, and poignant. (and Marti looked awesome, and I missed David totally). But I came here for Aly and I stayed cause the show was good.
And let's not forget NPH's awesome Doogie Old Spice pretend doctor ads!
They were awesome in the bar, without audio and even better on youtube, with monologue, when I got home.
Cheers to Old Spice for putting it on other front page. (and there's also a print ad). Cheers to NPH for doing it.
I just watched this British series called "Spaced" on DVD so it's fresh on my mind, but that scene of Ted and Marshall with the "121 Awesome Minutes Later" seems a direct steal or homage from an episode of Spaced where Tim (played by Simon Pegg) shows the entire trilogy to his new downstairs neighbor. I don't remember the exact wording but it's pretty close. Something like One Awesome Trilogy later and a shot of them sitting on the couch.
ReplyDeleteThe "Carter" poster in Barney's condo has always been there. I also assume it's a reference to Carter Bays, but here's something else: Carter Bays and Craig Thomas are Wesleyan alums (the same as Joss Whedon) and there is a very direct (albeit obscure) reference to Wesleyan (and the Star and Crescent Eating Club at Alpha Delta Phi in particular) in the novel "Carter Beats the Devil.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I kind of hated this episode. It was just incredibly stupid that Ted and Marshall would be that unwilling to overlook the fact that she might not like the movie. Are they in their mid to late twenties, or their (early) teens? I mean, really.
Too many posts to go back and read em all, so these points may have been addressed already - sorry if I'm repeating the same thing, especially if someone's discredited this already...
ReplyDeleteStella can't be the mother, unless they want to ignore the glaring omission of her daughter in all of Old Ted's flashbacks. Stella's daughter is not the daughter we see in the future, her age is too close to the boy's and I think Stella's daughter was blonde (I might be wrong on that, I don't remember). So if she exists and isn't one of those kids, it seems like having an older step-daughter would have come up at some point during his story by now. Also, seems like the yellow umbrella would have come into play long before they got engaged if it's really pivotal to how he met their mother...
Travis, Stella's daughter would be a grown woman by the time of the Future Ted scenes. If she's the Mother, then the girl there is Stella's second daughter, and first child with Ted.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I laughed out loud at Stella's imitation of Chewbacca's sound, immediately followed by, "That's a good point, bear, let's try that."
ReplyDeleteWe decided that was Sarah Chalke's best line ever and watched it at least 3 times so as to commit it to memory.
If Stella turns out to be the mother, I will not forgive Carter and Craig, because the moment she appeared with her daughter, FutureTed's kids would have known she was the mother. They would know they have an older half-sister that age, and they would know it was the mother. Story and Show Over.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.variety.com/article/VR1117992173.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&query=met+your+mother
ReplyDelete