How I Met Your Mother. This weeks episode of HIMYM was actually pretty good from a dramatic point of view. It focuses on Barney and his father. It is the episode that we no longer have to take Bob Barker for Barney's dad, because we find out he is actually a man named Jerome, played by John Lithgow. Lithgow was, as he seems to always be, phenomenal. There was a lot of emotion in the episode and it seemed to me that Lithgow was always spot on. And he was funny too at times. In fact, the times I actually laughed this episode were mostly from him. NPH was good as always. His character was the same trite, overly sexual, Barney as always. But we also saw the other side of him - the hurt kid who's dad ran out on him. The end scene with the two of them was touching and even hard to watch because it was really well done. So kudos to HIMYM for that.
BUT...this show is a sitcom. The entire episode, the jokes felt forced - and really, it's felt that way for a while now. But more than that, the show has completely gotten away from its roots. The topic of the show is right in the name: How I Met Your Mother. This is not a show about Barney and his search for his dad. Or Marshall and the death of his dad. Those are fine as side stories but entire episodes should not focus on them. It should be about Ted and the search for his future wife and the mother of his children. But, somewhere around the middle of the 5th season, that story line seemed to completely disappear.
I'm not sure what made the writers and producers think this was a good idea, but the show went away from its roots and has suffered since then. The reason Barney was such a good character is because he was a side character. His antics could be justified because he was not the main character and we didn't see another side of him, he was just gross, hilarious, sexual Barney.
Same with Marshall, et al. Think of your favorite sitcom. The main character is almost never your favorite. Very few people watched Seinfeld for Jerry. Everyone loved either George or Kramer. The same with Frasier - you had Niles and Marty to keep the humor going while Fraiser was the front man. Even in today's shows like The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon and Raj often have much funnier bits than Leonard. These characters work because they are not the focus of the show. They can be completely comic characters, almost caricatures of real people, and when used infrequently but well, they make a big impact.
At some point, the writers need to focus again on Ted's story, allowing the other characters to resume their side roles, or the show will not only continue in it's less-than-funny way, but also lose all meaning and focus. I can still remember the times we got so close to finding out who the mother was, those episodes were really exciting. Now I watch the show and forget that that is even a part of the story. And furthermore, why would the father even be telling all this stuff to his kids in the "how I met your mom" tale? He would be the worst storyteller ever. It just doesn't make sense.
I have liked this show for a long time. I hope it gets back into its original hilarious form soon. I am not sure that even a show with such a good reputation (mainly because of its fantastic first few seasons) can survive on stale jokes and without a focused storyline.
Until the next episode...
Chris
