How I Met Your Mother: Ten Sessions
By fred | March 25, 2008
(S03E13) So, here we are, the famous episode that got everyone to talk about How I Met Your Mother for a couple of weeks now, because it would feature ex-popstar Britney Spears. Which isn’t something I was personally excited about, quite the contrary in fact : I was worried.
I really was, because although all the publicity the show can get is welcome of course, because CBS has to renew this awesome show for a few more years, and if Britney can get The Eye to do that I thank her for it. That said, I still think the show is better than that and didn’t had to do it, and I feared this would be a real mess. Now that I have seen this episode, I can say one thing for sure : it was a very special episode.
And let’s get this out of the way already : no, Britney didn’t ruined it. I don’t think she did, because luckily for us they did a good job at not giving her much to do or say, which was without a doubt a great idea, cause she can’t really act. I’m not saying it was terrible, but it was pretty bad, really. And again, we are watching How I Met Your Mother, that’s a sitcom, and there’s a certain level of quality expected there.
Had this been Saturday Night Live, it would have been fine. SNL is a live sketch show, and there aren’t the same expectations as a regular series. But for a sitcom, you don’t have some singer to guest-star unless he/she can act, we don’t want to see [insert name here] in the show, we want to see the show, a regular episode of the show, where one of the character just happens to be portrayed by someone famous.
Something Sarah Chalke did perfectly. She was stunning, great, funny, adorable and sweet. Not that it’s any surprise here, I love Scrubs and as any fan of the show will tell you, there are plenty reasons why we love her !
Chalke was the real guest of the episode, and what made this episode so special : it wasn’t your usual HIMYM episode, with a couple of stories for everyone. This time Robin and Lilly barely had anything to do here, except for a few chat at the bar. And Barney and Marshall didn’t really had that much more either, because it was all about Ted, Ted and his ten sessions to have his tattoo removed try to get a date with the lovely Stella.
And it was great, really. Sure, a few things were quite predictable, cliché even, like the whole bit with the book (who really belonged to Marshall!) or Ted bringing coffee to Stella’s assistant, but only if Stella can see it of course, but for the most part it worked. And I have to admit, I feel that even though he wasn’t that present this time, he still stole the show for me : Barney is the man !
That whole bit about getting Ted to grow a mustache only to win a bet he made one year ago, was absolutely fantastic. I loved it, pure freaking Barney genius! And what about him starting a story, only to stop in the middle of things to go to the bathroom !
And, of course, his magic fire ball, and Marshall’s reaction to it, were absolutely hilarious. And after he got sent to sit in the corner, Barney was still part of the conversation, and we still had a few hints that he and Robin will eventually end up together. Yes, sure, “it would mess up the dynamic of the group“… I’m actually even surprised no one noticed that Barney was admitting trying to get to date Robin, or to get her to sleep with him, because I thought this was supposed to be their secret, or had that already been said before and I completely forgot!?
This episode was definitely not the usual How I Met Your Mother episode, it was a Ted-centric one and maybe not their best one, but it was a really good one, a very funny one, and I have to say a (much) better one than last weeks. Again, Sarah Chalke was great, and that little 2-minute date was pretty sweet, even though a bit cheesy I guess, but I liked it.
I liked her, I liked Stella, and it almost had me wishing that she would be the “mother”. Of course she is not, though, I’m pretty sure of this, despite her little hint that her only night out was for a St. Patrick’s Day party – obvious reference to last week’s episode – because Saget’s voice as future Ted would then have said what I suspect might what will be the last words of the series finale, “and that, kids, is how I met your mother.”
I still hope we’ll see her in the future though, because she could obviously be the one who introduces Ted to the “mother”, as they both went to that infamous party together one week ago. On that note, I not sure if it was intended to scare us or not, but for a split second it sure freaked me out to see Britney’s character showing up in the end all in yellow, from the dress to the bag. Scary thing, even though there’s no way she could ever be the mother, of course - she’s way too dumb/mentally unstable.
Quick other things to mention about this great episode :
- In the theater : “Yeah, we all got it, Ted’s a schmuck!”
- Sure, Robin is Canadian, okay. And sometimes it’s cute, but that bit about Stairway To Heaven, I mean come-on, Who in the world doesn’t know this is Led Zeppelin ?
- So Marshall really knows way ahead of time what he’ll want to it, uh?
- Did I mention Barney’s fireball already ?
- “Doctor, are you alright ? I heard a woman screaming in here !”
- Of course, Ted growing a mustache was great, how Barney did it to win a bet (although he would have done it for free, too), and on top of that was Stella’s reaction when she first saw it !
- Barney calling Abby – the receptionist – and making her cry. That was good, the very last scene however, not so much.
“
- Abby is… ?
- My receptionist. You really made quite an impression on her, with the coffee the other day. I mean she’s really not stopped talking about you.
- Oh, Abby! I thought you said Alan.
- But, you said said “Abby is…” ?
- Right. I thought I said Alan.
- Who’s Alan ?
- Who’s Abby ?
- My receptionist.
- Exactly!
“
Posted in Reviews
Shows: How I Met Your Mother
