How I Met Your Mother, Season 1: A Mostly Refreshing Comedy

I began hear a lot about How I Met Your Mother from classmates, but my family had never actually watched the show. I caught a few reruns (from 2011 I think) and really liked how flashbacks and other visual techniques (such as showing how the characters saw what happened, rather than what actually happened), and my family and I began watching it from the beginning on Netflix. We just finished Season 1, and I have some things to say, but certainly not enough to go episode-by-episode.

I can't say I'm too familiar with comedies, especially newer ones, but I have seen all of Seinfeld and How I Met Your Mother appears to be in that tradition. Set in New York City, a cast of best friends who hang out in one place (the diner, the pub); two main characters who dated at the beginning but have broken up and remain friends (Jerry and Elaine, Ted and Robin); and a quirky guy who no one is sure what he does for a living (Kramer, Barney). That's not to say there's a ripoff going on here; the characters and their dynamics are only the same in the ways I pointed out. And while the HIMYM cast is less quirky than Seinfeld, I actually think they are an improvement. The Seinfeld quartet were never meant to be role models (remember the finale?) and were never big on committing, often breaking up with the girlfriend or boyfriend of the week because they just couldn't stand one strange habit. How I Met Your Mother gives us more believable characters, and even Barney's playboy antics receives criticism from the rest of the characters and some girls he hits on (the lemon law), showing that they have a choice in the matter too.

I also really enjoy how there is a permanent couple on the show, too, and how it brings up how they still can have problems, jitters, and had to willingly sacrifice dreams to be together. The suggestion that they broke up at the end of the season finale bummed me out, but I'm hoping there's more to this than meets the eye and I know they get back together anyway. In the tradition of Elaine, Lily (Alyson Hannigan, who I'm already a fan of from Buffy) makes it clear that she enjoys sex, but unlike her Seinfeld counterpart she also wishes to stay in one relationship.

I am enjoying the dynamic between Ted (the hopeless romantic who wants to get married) and Robin (who wouldn't mind a relationship but doesn't want to commit), but the "will they or won't they" is getting quite tiresome because the end of the pilot implied they would not be together. If that line hadn't been there, I would enjoy it much more. Still, I really liked how Robin acknowledged the complexities of what love means and committing to another person. And what happened to Ted's "soul mate" that the computer found, but whom he never met because he had to fix Lily's flat tire?

Like all comedies, How I Met Your Mother does best when it has a crazy plot, and there were certainty plenty of them. I did become weary during the extended Victoria arc, partially because I knew it wasn't going to work and it didn't end when it should have, but more because of the stereotypical ways it allowed the other characters to act when she wasn't around. Ted gets to complain to his guy friends about he secretly hats not being able to have sex with her for a month because she wanted to wait, and even though Lily subverts the "girls like long distance because it's all talking and no sex" idea, it was all quite disappointing. These stereotypical discussions make young women worried about what their boyfriends are really saying about them, when in reality that might not happen, and relationships should be based on good communication between the two partners anyway. It's even more frustrating considering HIMYM does attempt elsewhere to point out that girls enjoy sex and even hint that there's more to a relationship.

I might sound harsh, but these were the only few things that bugged me. The show is very fun and has a lot of potential, and I know it will get there because I've seen some of the inventive stuff it does in 2011. It does have a real heart and attempts to tackle complexities in relationships. And I can be awfully critical on relationships after knowing what the blueprint is for a good one, but I'm aware I may just be one of very many blueprints. (Still, Marshall and Lily, get back together now.)

Geek comment: Is this a secret Joss Whedon show? Because in addition to Alyson Hannigan, Alexis Densiof (Hannigan's husband and Wesley on Buffy and Angel) appears as Sandy Rivers, and Amy Acker (Fred on Angel) appears as Penelope in the season finale. [Update: and Neil Patrick Harris was in Dr. Horrible. And Cobie Smulders was apparently in The Avengers.]