filmfun

I just finished watching the first three seasons of How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) and realized it is one of the best sitcoms on television right now and deserves more attention than it is being given. When I first heard about the sitcom in September 2005 I was interested because of its great cast, but since I was in college I never really had time to be dedicated to a show every week so I started the trend of watching full series through DVDs and the internet. Recently, I decided to give my attention to catching up with a series that is still on the air.

The cast was definitely a hook with Alyson Hannigan, since I was a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’ve become a huge fan of Jason Segel because of his performances in Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, and his recent feature film writing debut and starring role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. And Neil Patrick Harris (NPH) has become a new favorite because of Harold and Kumar, which I thought he was the best part of the film, so I couldn’t wait to see more of his comedic talents. And in watching the show my appreciation for these actors has only grown with their portrayal of their new characters, especially NPH. Jaime J. Weinman pointed out in an article that Neil Patrick Harris’s character of Barney on HIMYM is that of Henry Wrinkler’s character of Fonzie on Happy Days. This is an accurate observation in that NPH has stolen the show with his catchphrases and his humorous womanizer ways. No wonder he’s nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in this year’s Emmys.

Besides a great cast the structure of the show is what gives it such an original and fresh spin from other sitcoms. Since the show is told from the future and it’s all leading up to the moment when Ted meets the mother of his children, there is already an overall arc and goal to the show which builds our anticipation. Each girl he meets we wonder ‘is this going to be their mother’ and ‘if not how will she factor in to the overall picture?’ This makes one element of the sitcom more complicated than other sitcoms: Ted’s love interest and relationship with Robin. The love interest set up in the typical sitcom, such as on Friends, causes us to always want Ross and Rachel to be together and throughout the entire series we follow them through their romantic relationships, break ups, ‘break’, friendship, until the show ends with their eventual romantic relationship which we assume will be a happily ever after. In HIMYM we know in the year 2030 Ted refers to Robin as his children’s Aunt Robin indicating that she’s not the mother, making our desire for Ted and Robin to be together conflict with what we know, that they will not be together.

The first two seasons play out their relationship as a Ross and Rachel relationship would be played out. It takes the entire first season for them to get together and we are rooting for it the whole way through. We see moments when we know that they are both in love with each other but don’t admit it to one another. Then during the obstacles in their relationship we still want them to be together and we are heartbroken just as they are when they make their decision to break up. But then we remember Robin isn’t the mother of his children in the year 2030 so we must move on from this relationship in order to find the mystery girl.

There is a great use of multiple flashbacks within the show that takes a lot of skill to pull off to avoid confusion. The entire show is actually set in flashback since it is being told from the year 2030. Then within the flashback that is the episode the characters discuss past memories through flashbacks revealing more about their characters. Such as Barney’s flashbacks of him as a child watching the Price Is Right, believing his father to be Bob Barker because his mother told him so. Or the flashbacks Barney transforming from the virgin hippie he was to the suited womanizer he now is. Also, Ted’s flashbacks to his days as pretentious college student and roommate to Marshall. And of course Robin’s flashbacks as a teen pop-star decked out in 80s attire, because “the 80s didn’t make it to Canada until like 1993.”

Another interesting technique used is when characters refer to the future we are able to witness flash forwards which show us whether their predictions come true or not, but with always preventing us from seeing the mother of course. Such as in the episode “How I Met Everyone Else” of season 3 when it is revealed that Ted believes that his first meeting with Lily was as drunk make-out buddies at their college orientation party. But Marshall was at the party as well and says he saw Ted making out with a different girl. At this moment in 2007 Ted doesn’t believe Marshall but allows Marshall and Lily to believe it because it’s better for everyone. But with a flash forward to their college reunion it is confirmed that he did indeed make out with the other girl and not Lily.

There are also flash forwards to the near future that will be shown within the series; this must be done cleverly in order to follow continuity. An example of this is when Ted is trying to write his best man speech for Marshall and Lily’s wedding. At the end of the episode Ted finally knows what to say and there is a flash forward to a week later at the wedding reception in which we witness Ted’s speech without witnessing the rest of the wedding day. In this one scene we see Lily in her wedding dress for the first time rather than it being a big surprise in the wedding episode. Also we notice Marshall is wearing a hat, which in the actual wedding episode the reason becomes clear as Marshall goes crazy and shaves a line down the middle of his head and must wear a hat in order to look presentable. There are several other times throughout the series where we are allowed extra information like this because of the structure of the show and it’s a clever use of the advantages of this particular storytelling technique.

This third season was not as satisfying as the past two seasons, an avid fan can easily tell, besides the fact of less viewers than the past two seasons. Some reasons for this could be the exhausting use of guest stars such as Britney Spears, among others. The show is already a quality show, it doesn’t need to use tricks as these to draw in audiences. These tricks actually hurt the show because it takes away from possible development of the main five characters. But season four seems promising with the questions we are left with at the end of season three. Is Barney in love with Robin and what will come of this? Will Stella accept Ted’s proposal and is she the mother? When will Marshall slap Barney for his last two slaps? Finally what happens on Ted’s 31^st birthday that a goat ends up in his bathroom and why is Robin living with him at the time?

           If you can’t wait until Septemeber 22^nd, the season four premier of HIMYM, for another dose of NPH, you can check out Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog , an online three part musical miniseries starring Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible and Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer. After viewing it myself I’ll let you know what I think.

-Shavon Keller

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