How I Met Yout Mother

I've spent the last couple weekends writing like a banshee, trying to finish this script I'm working on for a class that ends next week. In between writing sessions I've been rewarding myself by watching episodes of "How I Met Your Mother." I hadn't seen anything of this show until two weeks ago. I am now a season and a half through the show's two seasons. This show is Deee-lightful. It fills me with delight. In general I would say that the multi-camera sit-com is a dying art, but HIMYM really manages to breath new life into a hackneyed medium. It does a lot to play around with the form and in many ways feels more like a single camera show than a traditional sit-com. And, of course, the show has a strong soap opera element, and it is well established that I am a huge sucker for that stuff. The show has some really smart writing behind it. The episode about gay marriage is handled in a really clever way, both within the context of the show and meta-textually, as it ends up being the uber straight Barney, played by openly gay Neil Partick Harris, who objects to his brother's marriage, which also happens to be a gay marriage. Then the Christmas episode from the second season is an obtuse and extended "Christmas Story" reference focusing on the fallout from one character calling another character a cunt. It's network television so obviously they don't say "cunt," but the way they get around it is great.

Additionally, the cast is filled with folks I can't get enough of. God bless whoever had the idea of giving Alyison Hannigan and Jason Segal a weekly sitcom. Neil Patrick Harris is also solid gold. His character is essentially a prime-time-friendlier version of the caricature he played in "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle." Again, kudos to whoever had that idea. The show also gets bonus points for an admirable commitment to casting Joss Whedon show alumni in bit parts; Alexis Denisof, Amy Acker, Harry Groener, Tom Lenk, and Morena Baccarin all show up in various episodes, and having Michael Gross play Ted's dad is a great bit of meta-casting. So if you haven't seen this show, you should check it. I'll leave you with this YouTube clip from my favorite episode thus far: "Slap Bet."

The backstory: Ted's girlfriend, Robin, has a dark secret in her past that she doesn't want anyone to know about. Barney (NPH) has challenged Marshall (Jason Segal) to a "slap bet" that Robin’s secret is that she starred in porn films in her native Canada. As the clip begins, Barney has just discovered a video that may answer the question once and for all...