Death by Television: How I Met Your Mother (CBS)

How I Met Your Mother – CBS

Wither the sitcom. Really. The home to the great 4 camera shows of the golden age of TV is really the only place to see (semi) quality situation comedies anymore. And one of those is Two & a Half Men.

I have been watching and loving HIMYM for two years now. Took us a while to get into it. I loved the semi-meta aspect of the show. The episode where they all ate sandwiches as a euphemism for pot was hilarious. I even like the conceit that the lead is telling the story of the courtship to his kids. This conceit is a problem, however, since we all know that Sarah Chalke is NOT the titular mother. So, Ted’s relationship with her is doomed as we know it.
Okay, blah blah. This show was never about that. It was about these meta-characters as voices for the detached gen-yers. And that’s where the season premiere falls apart. Ted is desperate for his new girlfriend to love his favorite movie of all time. Otherwise, how could they spend the rest of their lives together?
Trouble is: Said movie is Star Wars. That’s the favorite movie of, say, my generation. (Yeah, I know this is a flimsy argument, but it’s my blog). I would then portend that the movie is either the fave of the creators or that they couldn’t think of a more geeked out, universally loved flick.
I agree with those points, after all, I made them. But understanding that didn’t make the episode any better.
It all seems to be going the Friends route of “split all the characters up and divide up the A,B & C stories.
It’s hard to care at this point.
Introduce the mother and get Barney and Sparkles together or you are looking at your last season.