How I Met Your Mother: Woooo!
By fred | November 18, 2008
(S04E08) Here’s the thing : this little show has been around for a few years now, and during that time we were lucky enough to enjoy so many stroke of brilliance with episodes filled with lots of creative plots and other unusual story-telling devices like flashbacks, flash-forwards and other, that I think in the end we might have gotten were much used to it.
Tuning in to How I Met Your Mother, we don’t expect to be watching just another sitcom, but something so different and unique – as well as hilarious - that when they “only” deliver a good episode — one that is good, and funny too, just not great, hilarious or so very unique as can be with the show — then we found ourselves a little disappointed.
A least I know I can be, as I was this week. And again, don’t get me wrong : it’s not that this episode was good or funny, it was both, but not in the way this show can be, not in the way we want this show to be, just in a very classic sitcom-esque way. And in all fairness, it wasn’t all that great, because you probably can’t achieve greatness when using old clichés of the genre and having stories incredibly predictable, and it happened this week.
Lily can be cute with a little fire hat on her head, but that whole plot about her not fitting in but wishing she could be, trying to only to fail miserably, was quite the sitcom move. And who didn’t know that if Ted didn’t get the job it was because of Barney, who despite his claim has a weak moment ?? That doesn’t mean I didn’t laugh during the SVEN presentation of their building, throwing fire and with a strip-club in the “N”, but still. (But, how could anyone really believe that such a design would really get a green light anywhere but in sitcom-world ??)
But then again, some things were pretty good and worked, the best of all probably being how writers kept having characters to talk in rhymes, that was really cool and I loved it. Here, just for the fun of it :
Lily: We saw you woo.
Robin: Saw who woo ?
Lily: Saw you woo.
Robin: I didn’t woo!
Lily: You did too.
Robin: That’s not true!
Lily: Your nose just grew.
Legendary. Other cool stuff included the conference call (I sure hope we’ll get to see Ted be a part of it later on…), Barney believing that Sweden is France, him being left on the roof alone, with pigeons rallying up to attack him, or how he left running out as soon as he heard Lily was out with a bunch of Woo girls — led by Jamie-Lynn Sigler, proving that sometimes when done right, this show can actually do very well with special guest-stars. If course, it also helps Sigler, unlike the Spears and other whoever, can actually act.
Another pretty cool line was the Mad Men reference :
Barney: We’re basically mad men !
Marshall: We are ! We’re such Mad Men !
Barney: I’m gonna go smack a secretary on the ass.
Marshall: That’s totally what they would do on that show.
Barney: What show ?
So Robin is alone and getting a little depressed on the side, seems like exactly the right place she needs to be for Barney to make his move. We all know he wants to, I mean I surely wasn’t the only one who noticed how he checked her out as she was walking in the bar and he, Ted and Marshall were leaving to go pee in some building (before Lily and Robin’s little rhyming chat quoted above), was I?
What did you think of this episode ? Was it too much of a regular sitcom for you, or you’re fine with it as long as it’s funny ? What was your favorite moment ?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: How I Met Your Mother
Not only did Barney check her out, she also seemed to be into him at some point, laughing at his jokes… Barney & Robin, sitting on a tree. Aw. So lovely.
I also found the plot to be weak, but most of the jokes were good (Sven were great!), so I liked this episode overall. I can forgive a weak plot if at least they can make me laugh (which isn’t happening very often this season). My favorite moment:
-And when “Brown eyed girl” played in the jukebox, all you would hear… would be silence. And “Brown eyed girl”. But who would woo, Lily? Who would woo? Would you?
Awesome.
Oh yes, Robin has been laughing at Barney’s jokes (and smiling at some of his crazy behaviors) for some time now, they just need to admit it!
And yeah, the “Brown eyed girl” line was awesome!