Monsters of Television

“Let’s take a little stroll down Shank Lane.”

Tonight’s HIMYM is one of those episodes where the group, prompted by an outsider joining their ranks for an evening, waxes nostalgic about earlier times. These episodes are the show’s bread and butter. The tradition started back in season 1 with “Game Night.” The crew, motivated by learning more about Victoria (I miss her), organized a game night around embarrassing stories that culminated in a lot of great Barney material set before his Awesome era, including his Muppet walk and giving of High Twos.

Episodes like “Game Night” enhance our understanding of the characters and their pasts as both individuals and as a group. “Say Cheese” should achieve the same thing, but it’s a less enjoyable achievement than others in this vein since it wants to interrogate what happens to friendships when things aren’t all rosy. It’s a decent enough episode, and a good variation on the premise the show often visits, but I just feel it didn’t go enough in that variation to be totally successful.

“Say Cheese” is bogged down by a common occurrence within the show and that’s Douchey Ted. I like Ted, but the guy’s a jerk sometimes (as Future Ted often acknowledges). Bringing a date to a function like Lily’s birthday clearly isn’t something one should do, and that Ted keeps doing it is problematic for the group. (That an intervention hadn’t occurred earlier is surprising to me.)

But the episode also has Grinch Lily (and I do mean grinch, not the other word…). She essentially takes Ted and the group on a trip through Ted’s failed relationships and brief girlfriend experiences. This sojourn through Ted’s relationship ups and downs is motivated by the the so-called Shanks appearing in various group photos that Lily has taken over the years, and how their very presence taints the memory event (though. It’s not a great move to do, especially the context of how Lily does it (“Name that bitch.”). It demeans both Ted’s choice in women and the women themselves.

However, that show uses this tension between Lily and Ted (and two do have a fairly consistent tension, something I’ve always appreciated about the show) to explore what it means to be friends in times both good and bad. We have things we don’t like about our friends and we often bottle up those things until they burst at the worst possible moment. It feels naturally motivated, given the history that is then provided (and this is a key narrative strategy of the show in creating its universe) on top of how Lily perceives her birthday but also in how Ted views each woman as a potential spouse.

And that’s what is really at stake in the episode, and what I would’ve liked to see the show push more: the impact of Ted’s search for the Mother on the rest of the group. The show hasn’t addressed these issues in any substantial, extended way (that comes to mind in my very tired state) is a gap in the show’s narrative, one that could have been very easily remedied in this episode. Frustratingly, the show hints at it between Lily’s annoyance at their constant presence to Marshall having to clean up after Ted (Barney probably just sleeps with them on the rebound) but an episode devoted to them explaining this to Ted, and Ted dealing with the ramifications of his actions.

Ted’s quest is one that impacts all of his friends, but the resolution of the events in this episode return things back to normal (as is often the case of any sitcom). I feel like none of the members in this conflict, Lily, Ted, and Marshall, come away with anything really big about themselves or their relationship with one another.  That it gets fixed by remembering their first group photo is a nice enough sentiment, but one that I don’t feel the conflict totally deserved.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• For other examples of these kinds of episodes, check out “First Time in New York” (S2Ep14) and “How I Met Everyone Else” (S3Ep5). The former is actually one of my favorite episodes of the show.
• I also bring up “Game Night” because Marshall’s new game for the group reeked of Marshgammon, and I wish we had seen more of it.
• First: Who brings a date to a funeral? Second: Who does a group photo at a funeral?
• I call continuity fail on Anne Dudek’s scene. While I’m always happy to see her, that she would be in Ted’s apartment crying is just silly. She Krava Maga’d Ted’s ass in the restaurant. Why go back to his place to cry?
• Disheartening: Ted, in a year, doesn’t seem to be with the Mother. Egads!
• I honestly think it was the removal of the suit jacket that ruined Barney’s photo magic, not the allergies.