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How I Met Your Mother: Sorry Bro

By fred | March 10, 2009

(S04E16) This season, I don’t think I’m the only one who, at times, felt disappointed by this show. It wasn’t necessarily that episodes were bad (though some were…) but simply that they were not to the level of what we’ve come to expect from How I Met Your Mother. Because this show has proven to be able of such quality and hilarity, because it set the bar so high in the past, our expectations might be harder to meet.

But it’s not impossible, they can do it. Last week I don’t think they really tried, venturing into the old standards of the classic sitcoms. This week was different, this week it was exactly why this show is so different than the rest, what sets it apart, and – simply put – this week was brilliant. Awesome episode, one of the best ones we got to see this season, I’m thinking the best one of 2009, I was laughing out loud the entire time.

And by that, I don’t mean the half-hour of the episode, since I actually had to pause the episode a few times, because I was laughing too hard I couldn’t keep up, and didn’t want to miss anything. Oh yeah, because roll on the floor for a couple of seconds and you’re missing things, that’s how freaking awesome this episode was!

Yet, in pure HIMYM tradition, nothing happened. What I mean is, this episode was just the whole group sitting at the bar and chatting, nothing else, and that might be when the show is at its best. Meaning that we had the classic ways of telling a story that this show is so fund of, throwing different flashbacks and perspectives on past events, mixing many stories at once, all with jokes being said at the table of course.

It was exactly the kind of episode that defines this show, and it was packed with awesomeness. I don’t just mean Barney, but it almost feels like, based on previous episodes, you could have imagine one episode fully dedicated to the “pants story” and Barney playing the trick on Marshall, or to Ted’s old girlfriend Karen, or Robin having a though time adapting to her new schedule, or… but here, it was all there, all jammed into this single episode, and that’s how I like it.

Cut what’s not needed and only keep the very best, use the full potential of this show. So many great lines, so awesome to go back to college or see Marshall & Lily, the always adorable and loving cutie couple, share their disgust and hate over someone for a change, and getting angry at Ted for falling back into the same trap he did back in the days, and of course you always have those “little details” one could not spot if not paying attention, but that pleases the fans each time.

For instance, I’m sure you noticed how Lily’s ex boyfriend, the one who swore to become the best waiter ever because that’s allegedly what she wanted, did it : he actually became one, he was Ted & Karen’s waiter ! Or how when asked why Lily was painting Marshall nude, she told he ate her fruit basket. And a couple of flashbacks before that, when Karen was bragging about not watching TV, what was Marshall doing on the bed?? That’s right, eating his lover’s fruit basket!

And while both the Karen and the Pants stories were good, there’s no doubt that they were both made ten times more hilarious than they would have otherwise been, because they were not told linearly or independently. To constantly be going from one story to the other, from the recent past to the college days, and of course to have Barney oversold it brilliantly, turned the entire thing into something funnier than it could have ever been otherwise, in any traditional sitcom (format).

Plus, we even had some great moments at the bar, from Barney falling off laughing too hard over a story no one thought as funny as he did, to his list of reasons why you’d want to have dinner with an ex, illustrated by flashbacks of different people, Marshall even still holding a grudge over his girlfriend in fourth grade! Barney insulting Ted and his wardrobe, and forgetting what he was supposed to be saying before that, not able to decide whether he or Marshall should tell the story…

And what might have been the funniest one of all, or for some reason (one of?) the one that made me laugh the most : Robin and her chimpanzee with two tuxedos on. As Marshall said, there’s nothing funnier than that, and I don’t know why, but to see her laughing by herself like she did – “Did he forgot he put the first one on? Stupid monkey!” – that just killed me.

(Unrelated note: You know how at the end of every episode of Robot Chiken, during the logo of Stoopid Monkey (production company of Seth Green and Matthew Senreich) ? Was there ever one, and if not I’d love to see one in the future, where he’s trying to wear a second tuxedo? When Robin said “Stupid monkey!” I instantly thought of that!)

So sure, you might say it’d odd Ted managed to hide that Karen was back and he was dating her for some time now, and that none of his friends knew ro suspected anything about it, or that neither him nor Lily seems to care that Barney is in love, or that you don’t really want to see Karen back, because Laura Prepon was great (though she’d look better as a redhead again… just saying) but that’s not the character we want to see any more than for this one episode, plus seeing how she is and how she turns Ted into even more of a jerk, there’s no way this relationship can possibly go anywhere.

But the fact and the matter remains, this was one of the best episode of the season, causing non-stop hilarity from beginning to end, I loved it, I didn’t even miss the goat for one second! This is How I Met Your Mother at its best, and I couldn’t say anything bad about it — except that it’s over and I want more!

What did everybody else think?

Posted in Reviews
Shows: How I Met Your Mother