Neil Patrick Harris delivers a performance that is what? Legendary. I see a lot of complaining that there aren’t any shows for people who don’t cream over the “fat stupid guy, hot snarky wife,” formula.
I hate the shit out of fat stupid guy, hot snarky wife shows. Let me tell you, this one is safe to watch. The main character is a bit whiny for my taste, but he interacts very well with the veritable drill sergeant of debauchery that Neil Patrick Harris plays. The red haired girl from American Pie and Willow from Buffy, Allison Hannigan, and the big dude from Freaks and Geeks also turn in pretty good performances as a couple that are stupid for each other.
I started to watch the first episode of this, but the first 60 seconds with the kids and the godawful rejected-from-Friends jokes and the overbearing laugh track drove me to mash the delete button as quickly as possible.
You really should give it another shot. NPH really makes the show watchable, as he’s basically playing himself from “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle”.
It’s watchable, but barely. Hannigan and b/f work well I think, but the lead is unimpressive. NPH has his moments, but it verges into cartoon territory sometimes. (I knew a guy like this in college, though, so it’s not totally unbelieveable.)
My concern is that the whole set-up will be weary very soon. The story-telling format is done better by many other shows, the “talking to the kids” angle sets up the title but little else and doofus leading man is uninspiring to say the least.
I watched the first few weeks, tired quickly, and will now watch when I’m not attracted by shinier objects on my PC. Amusing, but not appointment television.
I like the show. It has some interesting moments, actually. But yes, the lead character is boring as hell and overly whiny and self-absorbed. Still, the other characters boost the show a lot.
I think that someone has to balance out the Neil Patrick Harris character, and if the main were Neil Patrick Harris, then people would really go off on the uselessness of the non-Neil Patrick Harris character. Neil Patrick Harris, Neil Patrick Harris, Neil Patrick Harris.
This is because, in every male drinking trio, you must have the Insane/All-in guy, the reluctant guy, and guy who is just down for whatever. The roles can change as members are swapped in and out of the drinking team, but that’s beside the point. Any other combination and you have a recipe for spending your nights in shitty bars.
The “how I met your mother talk to the kids” parts are pretty few and far between, and seem to occur less and less each episode.
Also, again about the whiny lead, I think we all know a guy like that, and if it’s you, fucking tuck it.
Resurrecting this thread on a not-hip sitcom to say that I now really like most of this show. The cast is engaging - even sad-sack Ted - and Willow, er…Lily, has great comedic timing. Doogie/Barry is now a breakout character, still he doesn’t overshadow everyone else.
But…
This Ted/Robin thing is getting very annoying. We already know it is doomed from the first episode. If they are trying to get a Ross/Rachel thing on the show, I’d rather they didn’t. Fortunately, last night’s episode ended with best friend Marshall going off on Ted about how stupid he is to keep pursuing this girl - friends sometimes know best.
It is a very conventional sitcom, and very mature for an 8:30 time slot. And stuck between King of Queens and Charlie Sheen, I’m not sure how it’s doing ratings wise. Dragging out this shaggy dog story could be a big mistake. I’m having fun so far.
The show is utterly derivative, brings nothing new whatsoever to a tired and worn out genre…
…and I find it absolutely engaging as all hell. I will happily admit that if a show has a strong music bias that I become totally prejudiced towards liking it, but having said that other than Gilmore Girls, there’s no better music in a TV show than on HIMYM.
Take for instance my favorite episode of this season, “The Pineapple Incident”. We have Ted, drunk, punching up “Voices” by Cheap Trick and singing it (while standing on a table in a bar) to Robin over his cellphone. That’s pretty damn cool, because Cheap Trick is pretty damn cool, and “Voices” is a pretty damn great song (and not nearly the cliche that a few other cuts from their catalogue would’ve been.) That would be enough to spark my interest…but then at the end of the episode they do something amazing: they reprise “Voices” as a music bed in the background, but this time it isn’t Cheap Trick’s version. Nope, it’s Jon Brion’s, (MAGNOLIA, I whatever HUCKABEES, PUNCH DRUNK LOVE, Aimee Mann/Fiona Apple producer, music god) from his only solo album from 6 years ago which is/was only available through direct mail from Brion’s website. and which went out of print almost immediately (although shortly before the episode aired, Brion had the foresight to make it available again.) Somebody there knows their shiznit, in other words.
Other musics from the show include an old Ted Leo track, Pavement’s “Spit On A Stranger”, etc. etc. That’s pretty much a You Had Me At Hello moment. Thankfully, Barney makes it all worthwhile.
How fucking great was it to hear, in absolutely perfect context, “Mother Of Pearl” by Roxy Music in this week’s episode? I like this show way more than I should.
Anybody know what song that was at the end of the last episode? It sounds kind of familiar, and the vocals sound kind of like Bloc Party. The credits are cut off in the torrent I got.
I love this show. It’s no longer my favorite on the air right now, but I do think that in the end it will end up having been my favorite real ensemble sitcom since Seinfeld. I know it’s fashionable to hate Friends, but I was a pretty big fan of Friends and definitely saw the ‘Friends for the 00s’ vibe they seemed to be going for in the beginning, but I think that HIMYM has really risen above that, with a cast of lovable, hateable characters.
Where they really shine over a show like Friends is the Muppetization of their cast. Where Muppetization refers to the way that almost every Muppet is a failure of some sort. Kermit wants to run a great show, but it’s always a disaster. Piggy wants to be a star, but she’s a punchline. Fozzie wants to tell a joke, but he is one instead. The same goes for the HIMYM cast. Where Ross was exactly what he wanted to be (dinosaur expert), Rachel, despite having no education or experience, ends up a bigwig at Calvin Klein, Chandler gives up his job on a lark to get into advertising and is a success, Monica is a big time chef and even Joey ends up back on Days of Our Lives by the end of the show’s run, everyone on HIMYM fails to live up to their dreams. Ted has settled for teaching architecture rather than being an architect. Marshall is a lawyer for a big, inhuman corporation rather than doing the eco-law he really wanted to do. Lily utterly failed at being an artist and now teaches kids. And Robin’s always one step away from her dream working as a real news anchor.
I have a feeling that by the time the show ends some or most or all will finally achieve their dreams, if only because it’s a sitcom on a major network and major network show runners tend to want happy endings. But for now, despite the often cartoonish jokes and the show’s trademark reliance on flashbacks in flashbacks, the show is probably the best tackling of ‘a bunch of Friends living in a big city’ on TV right now and it treats its characters like real people, even if that means happy endings are hard to come by.
Also, Jennifer Morrison should stop bleaching her hair.
I get a ton of entertainment out of this show, and it’s definitely on the must-see list. But I’m a little worn out by Ted’s romances. We know Zoey isn’t the mother, and we know we’re going to meet her at his friend’s wedding. But we knew they were going to end up together at the end of the show last night anyway. Why should I care about any of it? They need to switch the focus to Barney’s search for his dad, and let Ted nail his random floozies off screen.
