How I Met Your Mother, Passed in My Man Card, and Took Way Too Long to Post, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Sitcom

All right, I'm back after an extended hiatus -I know, I never take a break, it's impossible to believe I could now! I also never type in bold italics for emphasis, or dream of building a robot. Regardless! Here's my Tuesday morning promise to you: I will write a blog about How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory every Tuesday morning. Now that I've made that promise: I didn't watch Big Bang Theory. But the blog continues!

Here's the deal. I grew up on the sitcom. The Cosby Show, Cheers, Family Ties, Perfect Strangers, Growing Pains, etc... this is where my love for TV comes from. So when I come across the sitcom done well, it touches me in a place so deep, if the prosecutor were to ask me to show on the doll where the sitcom touched me, I'd have to tear it at the seams and point to the stuffing that had sprung from inside. Sitcoms reside in a place so deep within me, it's can't physically exist. A place that would be dark and cold had my parents denied me 8:00 TV on weeknights and made me read.

I'm sure you're asking your imaginary representation of me at this point "But imaginary representation of Mike, you always write about reality TV, and now you're professing your love for the sitcom, what gives?!"
See, I love reality TV, and I've spent a fair amount of time here demonstrating that, but if you were to look closely at the glowing reflection in my tears, you would not see confessionals, producer manipulated drama, and ignored camera crews. You would see a single camera, no more than three sets on an average night, broadly drawn characters, and people behaving in ways outside the realm of normalcy. Fair enough, the last two cross the board, but my point is that I love sitcoms. And because I love sitcoms, I love the fall, which brings with it a vast array of TV joy; new shows, new episodes of my favorite shows, football -and therefore guaranteed Sundays on the couch, and so on and so forth.

But I'm way off topic. This blog's topic is How I Met Your Mother, and how much I love How I Met Your Mother. If Big Bang Theory is sitcom by-the-books, then HIMYM is sitcom within throwing distance of the books -my 94 year old grandmother's throwing distance of the books (which is still quite impressive for being 94). For one, there's a story line, and it's comprehension is necessary for complete appreciation of the show. I found myself explaining to The Girlfriend the back story in preparation for the show, because I realized how much of it wouldn't make sense if she didn't know -she's never watched. The Cosby Show, Cheers, any of the classic "sitcoms" that wouldn't have to happen. You could jump in at any episode, and receive at least 75% of the full appreciation. Big Bang Theory falls under that definition, also Better off Ted -which misses other classic sitcom qualities, but is a fantastic show. HIMYM does not.

The Girlfriend pointed out the re-use of a phrase throughout the show as vaguely Seinfeldian (yup, actual term used -and, to my knowledge, coined- by The Girlfriend). She's right, and it's done often in HIMYM. Last night was reference to "The Talk". "The Talk" being the talk in which two people who have previously just been -as the kids say- "hooking up" decide what kind of relationship they want to have with each other.

Which brings us to the plot of last night's HIMYM; Barney and Robin (Neal Patrick Harris and some lady who deserves for me to know her name) have spent the summer hooking up, but have refused to define their relationship. Every time they begin to have "the talk" they just end up sleeping together instead. The rest of the cast, except wet blanket and narrator Ted (who spends the show teaching his first Architecture 101 class... kinda) urge NPH and LWDFMTKHN to define their relationship, to the point of locking them in their bedroom until they come up with a suitable definition. That essentially the plot, any more than that would ruin the outcome.

HIMYM seems to have discarded some of Barney's (NPH) standards; I didn't see any high-fives, he never uttered the word "Legendary", and I think they did it at the perfect time. Legendary had traveled as far as it could being repeated to the extent that it was, having it show up occasionally is the only way to go now. The important thing -for the show- is that they manage to do do this and stay true to his character: Early on we see Ted and Barney in the Irish pub downstairs from Ted's apartment wearing tuxedos -Marshal: "Why don't I ever get invited to Tuxedo night?!"- and Barney is explaining to Ted how to keep a girl from becoming your girlfriend using the rules for keeping Mogwai from turning into Gremlins -Follow up question from Ted: "How do you choose a tie?" Barney: "Simple. Do you remember Terminator?"

Some more highlights from the show: the status of Robin and Barney's relationship is tested when she goes to a hockey game with the bartender of their local watering hole. It's a great part of the episode; Robin yells incomprehensibly at the hockey players -Robin's character is and over-the-top Canadian stereotype-, Bartender man is only too happy to have "The Talk" which for him starts out with "I was born a little different", and Barney -in a fit of jealousy- punches Bartender, and promptly falls to the floor crying something along the lines of "We've been fighting all night, let's give this a rest and declare a truce". Also, the hockey scene reveals that home ice for the New York Rangers has only 5 rows of bleachers (The Girlfriend in response to this observation: "Yeah, it's a sitcom").

I see this as being the last season of HIMYM, I'm not sure how they can stretch it much farther (if you're following the plot line, you know that the titular "Mother" is in the class that Ted mistakenly taught architecture 101 to). It's off to a good start, definitely worth watching.

That's all I've got for today, likely nothing tomorrow as I'll being watching Pearl Jam tonight instead of TV. But I'll be back Thursday after Wednesday's Mammoth Night of TV.