Why Everyone Should Love How I Met Your Mother
A Much-Loved Sitcom That Deserves More Recognition
CBS show How I Met Your Mother has risen rapidly to popularity since its inception in 2005, and as with all successful sitcoms, it has many characteristics that give it its own distinct identity. Starring Josh Radnor, Cobie Smulders, former Buffy: The Vampire Slayer regular Alyson Hannigan, Hollywood upstart Jason Segel, and one-time child star of Doogie Howser: MD, Neil Patrick Harris, the show's popularity continues to rise as it nears the end of its fourth season. Here's a few reasons why everyone can enjoy this future classic.
A Unique Storytelling Format
The show's premise - a man named Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), in the year 2030, recounts to his children the story of how he met their mother, with the mother's name withheld so as to keep the audience guessing - is a genuinely innovative one. Most episodes are one lengthy flashback, framed occasionally by a scene featuring the unseen narrator talking to his children, and sporadically interrupted by other flashbacks and flashforwards. These instances fill in the gaps in the characters' histories between the 'past' - anywhere from the mid-1980s, through to the mid-2000s, where the bulk of the story takes place as Ted searches for a potential wife.
The flashbacks help develop a familiarity between the characters and the audience, and add realism to the show. Every character has past embarrassments they try to hide from the others - notably Robin (Cobie Smulders), whose teenage years as a Canadian pop star are frequently referenced for considerable comic effect, and Ted, whose past as a pretentious but socially awkward college radio DJ is well-known to everyone in the group.
The Awesomeness Of Barney Stinson
Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) is one of television's most complex comic characters. A seemingly amoral womaniser who always wears a suit and often concocts outrageous lies in order to get women into bed, Barney is also charming, intelligent, and above all, hilariously funny. His catchphrases, such as "Suit up!", and "This is going to be legen...wait for it...dary!" provide numerous feelgood moments, and Harris does a fantastic job of making him lovable despite his exaggerated flaws.
The episodes that focus on Barney's character are often among the funniest in the series - one Season Three highlight sees Barney stalked by a mysterious wronged woman, and resorting to college basketball bracketology to determine which of the women he's wronged it could possibly be. He also shows a more human side, however - his main story arc in Season Four has focused on his developing love for Robin, which many are expecting to come to fruition by the time the season finale rolls around, and Harris has done a great job of maintaining an air of realistic humanity and emotion to a character whose primary function is as comic relief.
Real Characters, Real Issues
While Barney's character is as exaggerated a personality as you'll see on TV these days, the other characters are deeply realistic. Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) are one of those couples everyone knows - the ones who met really young and stayed together all the way through (we'll ignore their breakup at the end of Season One - everyone knew they'd get back together anyway). They deal with real problems - agonising over marriage planning and living arrangements, struggling with detatchment from their friends, battling each other's families, and later wondering about whether they're ready for kids.
Ted, a hopeless romantic whose search for his future wife forms the crux of the show's narrative, is frequently unlucky in love, and struggles with his burgeoning career as an architect as the other members of the group settle down. Robin, his on-off girlfriend who is confirmed not to be his future wife early in the series, is a career-driven TV journalist with a realistic approach to relationships that makes her ultimately incompatible with Ted, and looks set to lead her inexorably towards Barney. These struggles are a reminder to the audience that, as with any good sitcom, the characters they're watching are people too.
Attention To Detail
Finally, How I Met Your Mother's writers have a remarkable eye for detail. This includes not only the use of various appropriate cultural references in dialogue, which help to place the show in a 'real world' environment, but also many back-references to past episodes and past tendencies among the characters. The writers never forget that Ted's favourite film is Star Wars, and that he and Marshall have a shared love of videogames; they never forget that Robin is Canadian, and that the others in the group love to tease her about it; they never forget that Lily was a "black-haired Goth chick", to quote Marshall, until she left college.
One running gag in particular produces many a superb set-piece - Marshall and Barney's 'Slap Bet'. In one Season Two episode, Marshall wins the right to slap Barney in the face five times, whenever he wants. The first occurs almost immediately; the second occurs seven episodes later; the third comes in Season Three, after a 'countdown' initiated by Marshall and lasting several episodes.
A Bright Future
It is humour such as this, and a remarkable knack for wit and character development, that contribute largely to the success of How I Met Your Mother as a sitcom. What makes it work the most, however, is the believability of the actors' performances - these are real characters facing real situations, but the responsibility for making them as real as possible lies squarely at the feet of the actors. Radnor, Segel, Harris, Smulders and Hannigan surely represent one of the most talented ensemble casts in television today, and for as long as they are together, one can be sure that an already popular show will only continue to grow.
The How I Met Your Mother cast
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