Ted Mosby's the center-piece of the How I Met Your Mother puzzle. Ted's destined to meet the mother at Barney's wedding in the far off future. I wouldn't mind watching the weekly antics if the creative juices in the writer's room hadn't dried up or if the characters were compelling to watch. The 7th season seems poised to produce the same kind of episodes that were produced for the previous six seasons. As always, I wonder if the writers seriously thought about their story as well as how much time was invested in developing each of their five major character arcs. I wonder what the purpose of the story is besides sizable paychecks for many people involved in the show. The series is coasting, folks, and it's bad television.
"The Best Man" told the story of Punchy's wedding. The story unfolded from a memory future Ted had at Barney's wedding that was narrated by future Ted with two children. As best man, Ted had to give a toast to the assembled guests. We learned that Ted has a terrible history with best speeches because he invariably breaks down in tears because he's miserable about something that happened to him. It seems Ted's list of friends extends far beyond the McClaren's crew because he's been a best man thrice in the last year. Apparently, he's close enough with his high school buddies to be the best man at each of their weddings. I'm not surprised Bays and Thomas forced that piece of back story into Ted's character because they've clearly stopped trying to tell any sort of decent story. Anyway, the wedding's remembered because Marshall ruined the reception for the bride and groom at some point. Marshall drank too much because Lilly refused to tell anyone about the baby so she wouldn't jinx the pregnancy. Ted delivered the speech tearfully and his friends laughed until Marshall rose to defend his buddy in a drunken stupor, referred to a pregnant woman, and Punchy's wife rose to yell that no one should've known about her pregnancy. The fathers of the bride and groom yell because neither considered the possibility of a married couple having a child at some point. The payoff to the Marshall build-up's as lazy as the entire series has been the last two years.
The episode's not about the Punchy nonsense--it's about Ted's own feelings of hopelessness about his future, a feeling sparked as Ted's surrounded by his high school friends and their families. Ted's disappointed in himself because he's failed in every relationship and the only thing he's accomplished is making the cover of a New York Magazine because he's the architect for the next New York skyscraper. We're supposed to feel sympathy and empathy for Ted because he's unlucky in the love department but that magazine cover and skyscraper business complicates those empathetic and sympathetic feelings his confession to Robin's supposed to provoke from within our emotional depths. I understand the arc, though: a man's nothing without the love a woman.
Marshall and Lilly eventually tell their friends about the future baby because they can't repress their joy any longer. The news sends Ted into joyful tears during his speech and injects him with newfound energy to find his counterpart. Elsewhere, Lilly and Robin ponder the possibility a romantic reunion between Barney and Robin. Robin admits to retaining feelings for her former boyfriend while I struggled to remember the tertiary male character Future Ted teased as an important person in Robin's love life. Robin nearly kisses Barney after a sultry and choreographed dance. She holds his head and nearly kisses his lips but Nora's phone call demolishes the moment and her chances. Barney begs Robin for her assistance during the phone call, so Robin uses the opportunity to tell him how she feels, but Barney's oblivious.
"The Naked Truth" is a natural continuation of the "The Best Man." The series abandons the Barney wedding but the episode begins the day after Punchy's wedding. The episode centers on Marshall and Ted respectively. For Marshall, it's a culmination of his arc from the sixth season in which he experienced major professional. For Ted, it's another venture into the dating scene where he's experienced disappointment time and time again.
Marshall questions his ability to be a father and a responsible adult in his story. His dream company calls him to confirm their interest in him. If he passes a drug test and Google search, he's good to go. Of course, an old video of a streaking Marshall exists so he finds the uploader and requests that it be removed. Unfortunately, Marshall films another streaking video that's worse than the one from college. He regrets it, worries about not getting the job, confesses his insecurities about fatherhood, calms down after Lilly talks to him, lands the job, and vows to never drink again (only for the next scene to tease a future drunken casino adventure). I'm glad the Marshall arc concluded because his neurosis was tiresome during "The Naked Truth." Another episode of it would be insufferable.
Ted's story was more annoying. Ted used his magazine cover to meet girls. He began dating two of them, liked them both, and needed to make a decision on who to take to an Architect's Ball. The sitcomy reactions by the gang to Ted needing a legal pad and colored chart to measure the potential of each girl annoyed me, especially Future Ted's clarification of the cheering and chanting. Barney's story with Nora, in which he tried to convince her to date him, connected with Ted's after he learned about his friend's all-nighter in the diner to show Nora how much he cared for her. Ted decided that he wouldn't settle for anything less than head-over-heels love for a woman. At the Ball, he ran into an old flame from a season I barely watched, offering the promise of yet another waste-of-time relationship because that's what HIMYM does best.
The season's going to be about Barney's journey towards his wedding day, the pregnancy, and hopefully a meaningful arc for Ted. As always, I anticipate goofy, gimmicky episodes along with serious episodes that have mostly fallen flat in recent seasons. The two-part premiere wasn't encouraging but I liked Colby Smulder's hairstyle.
THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK
1 comment:
Barney is funny but pathetic also which is what everyone else thinks too. I’m honestly still waiting for the laughs but since so many people watch this show I must be missing something. Obviously they’re setting us up for wanting Robin and Barney to get together which is typical. It’s what keeps the show going. I started watching “How I Met Your Mother” when I discovered it when I logged into my employee account on dishonline.com. I love that it helps me get my TV watching done when I have time to kill rather than taking time away from my family when I get home because it’s always there waiting for me when I have time to watch.
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