Monsters of Television

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t make it work.”

I’ve been having problems with HIMYM this season. The Barney/Robin debacle was not an major issue for me in regards to how the show’s writers dealt with the break-up (though they did handle it fairly poorly). Indeed, the Barney/Robin issue was only a symptom of a larger issue that has been be plaguing this season: Where the hell is Ted?

I understand the need to highlight other stories, and I do enjoy them, but for someone telling a story about himself, Future Ted sure is happy to ignore his own story for the sake of his friends’ stories (in which he may only tangentially involved). HIMYM excels at delaying their narrative (Bays and Thomas should’ve been writing for Lost) in any number of ways, but still rewarding the audience (be it a goat, how clothes got dirty, etc.). The story of meeting the mother, however, has been less successful, I think, in large part, because we can’t properly formalize an idea behind who she will be or when she and Ted will actually meet.

Yes, we’ve gotten the yellow umbrella and the fact that she was in the economics class Ted thought was his architecture class (among a couple of more, I think), but there’s not enough to fully engage in, nothing that gives me a reason to become invested again. I understand that, like Lost, HIMYM is at the disposal of a network that isn’t particular interested in letting a successful show end (again, like Lost, HIMYM would benefit immensely from an announced end date). So, needless to say, I was excited about this, the 100th episode of the show. The musical number is something to be excited about it, but I was more eager about  the “serious mother action” promised by Craig Thomas.

And it was largely more of the same.

I’ll delay my Ted considerations and instead focus on Barney and his quest to bed the new hot bartender who loathes men in suits. Barney’s list of women he’s slept with was amusing (“Yes, we’re in the rhyming portion now.”), though it again calls attention to the fact that Barney’s reverted back to his womanizing ways again and that Robin doesn’t seem to care, but missing from that list is The Hot Bartender (I find it odd that Barney had yet to sleep with a hot bartender). As luck would have it, MacLaren’s has hired such a them, it, woman in Karina (Stacy Keibler). Sadly for Barney, Karina’s been burned on Wall Street suits and treats Barney in a very hostile manner.

So begins another fun bit for  Barney, who decides to dress casual to land Karina (though I did miss Barney saying “Challenge accepted!” upon learning he’d have to dress in a tee-shirt and jeans to woo a woman). The sequence is amusing enough, though I might’ve enjoyed a few more scenes of Barney going through suit withdrawals (Harris’ inspired and committed rubbing, kissing, and cuddling with a suit worn by Segel’s Marshall was a highlight). Barney keeping a suit in the men’s stall was also amusing, and his ripping of the jacket (something I think Barney would be far too careful to do) leads him to run the suit to his emergency tailor played by a more than game Tim Gunn.

The entire story, however, leads up to the musical number of “Nothing Suits Me Like  A Suit.” The lyrics and music are nice enough, but nothing’s particularly caught in my head (Alyson Hannigan does sing!). While the number is a fun celebration of the show, it really calls attention to two things. The first is that the number is clearly Emmy bait. Do any of the other normal nominees (Piven, Wilson, Cryer, and Dillon) sing and dance as well as Harris? The show throws down the gauntlet, daring Emmy voters not to vote for Harris this time around (and should Harris be denied again, I’ll probably stop watching the Emmys…provided they’re still aired in the first place…).

Second, and now I return to Ted, is that Ted’s part in his journey is really second fiddle to the B-plot (again). Barney’s plot is significantly funnier and more honed than Ted’s, and that hampers any particular “serious mother action” that the episode might’ve delivered, but ultimately does little more than tease us. Again.

Ted finds a charming PhD student in Cindy (Rachel Bilson) and the two decide to go out. Ted meets Cindy up at her apartment and one thing became, immediately apparent: the apartment was far too nice for a PhD student (later revealed to be on scholarship) to be having alone. Lo and behold, it’s immediately revealed that Cindy’s roommate is the mother! Huzzah! We know now that the mother does weird robot watercolor paintings, performs showtunes using breakfast foods, likes an indie (I’m assuming indie) band, and plays bass in a band. What a relief. Now maybe Ted will be smart and stalk the poor girl, but I doubt we’ll be that lucky. Instead, we’ll just get more narrative delay.

I like Ted. I always have (Full disclosure: I’ve often been told to stop Tedding Out by a few people), and I find Josh Radnor to be very watchable, especially with whatever woman the shows may pair him with that week. In a relationship, Ted’s terrific (as he rightly points out in the first episode). When Ted’s single, the show just doesn’t know what exactly to do with him, and instead make him seem like a semi-desperate sap (as he also points out in the first episode). But I’d like to see Ted starting to come on and take a leap.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• One thing I have always loved about the show is how it sounds like people you might know. Marshall and Lily’s conversation about Karina’s hottness (Lily insisting that Karina is hotter than she, and Marshall thinking otherwise), is a conversation I’ve seen my best friend and his wife have numerous times. It’s funnier on TV.
• Now that the show’s done a musical number, can they please stage a version of Harris and Segel performing “Confrontation” from Les Misérables? I would love that.