How I Met Your Mother Losing its Appeal
CBS Primetime TV Show is Unimpressive This Season
Many fans of How I Met Your Mother began watching the CBS show because of its engaging storyline, like-able characters and funny jokes. However, as Ted, Robin, Barney, Marshall, and Lily move into their fifth season, some are left wondering when the show became Friends.
Where is the Barney Comedy?
Frankly, since Barney decided that he was in love with Robin, the show has lost a lot of its humour. His womanizing ways and outlandish behaviour have served to anchor the show and save it from the more schmaltzy aspects, such as Ted's romantic gestures or Marshall and Lily's impossibly perfect relationship. The lasertag scenes and Barney's revolving door of women, among his many other antics, provide much needed comic relief and entertainment.
From "Legen - wait for it...dary!" to "Suit up!," we haven't heard a good Barney-ism in a while. He spends most of his time on screen "pretending" to date Robin (and we all know that they are going to eventually end up dating for real) and sounding rather un-Barney with his more thoughtful demeanor. When he does make a joke, it seems a little lame.
Barney and Robin's Relationship
The audience is supposed to believe that Barney is a changed (or at least changing) man, but it just doesn't work with his character. The creators of How I Met Your Mother created such an outlandish persona, that it will take a very long time and a lot of careful character development to take him from a womanizer to one-woman man. Thus far, his character's evolution into a man in love seems under-developed and unbelievable.
Furthermore, Robin and Barney have no chemistry. Really, we can tell that in real-life, the actors who play Barney and Robin have no interest in each other whatsoever. There is no spark that can transfer into the characters, and they can't even fake the spark. Watching them interact on screen is like watching two best buds, not two people in love.
Hopefully, for the sake of the show, these missteps with Barney and Robin are all intentional - part of the plan to ensure that Barney remains a bachelor and Robin ends up with someone else.
Where is the Mother???
Understandably, the creators have to drag out the Mother of Ted's children storyline, or else there would be no TV show. However, it is getting a little old. We have been duped with so many near-encounters that the jig is getting a little stale. Furthermore, the near-misses are getting less clever and less exciting.
There are rumors floating around that former OC star Rachel Bilson has signed on to guest star in How I Met Your Mother's 100th episode, as the mother! However, when discussing the episode, creator Carter Bays says, "Ted will also get as close to meeting the mom as he's ever before. I don't want to give it away, but he gets so tantalizingly close, it's ridiculous." As in, he still doesn't meet her.
Regaining How I Met Your Mother's spark
The writers need to bring back the original formula: hilarious jokes, realistic representations of the life of singletons living in New York, and...oh yeah...some plot developments. It feels like nothing has really happened. The season opened with Ted moving into teaching architecture, how come we haven't seen more on that? What is happening with Marshall and Lily? Throw them a curve ball. And please, figure out how to make Barney and Robin believable or abandon ship.
How I Met Your Mother airs at 8/7c on Mondays on CBS.
Alyson Hannigan as Lily Alderin
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