How I Met Your Mother: ‘Lobster Crawl’

“I’m getting too old for this shit.” It’s the line Barney played off of for a joke in the episode but it also rings true for the series as a whole (*). I get the impression from watching this season that just about everyone has gotten “too old” for the show and the actors and writers would really like to move on from the well that has been dried out for quite some time now.

(*) Not to mention the fact that they devoted an entire episode to this quote earlier on HIMYM’s run when Ted and Barney debated over the Murtaugh list and whether or not they were too old to be doing certain things.

The stories weren’t actually that horrible. It’s nice to watch Barney come to realizations of what he wants in life by having an actual real date with Patrice. And Lily and Marshall realizing their friend has a hole in his life now that he completed one of his major life goals. But the way that they go about setting up the climaxes to the endings of the stories has become so annoying that the payoffs fall flat time and time again. And I’m pretty sure this is at least the third time Barney has had this life changing epiphany; can it please just stick this time?

If I’m wrong about this, and people on the show do actually want to try and turn things around, then they need to stop selling out their characters and rely less on sight gags and more on wit and charm that made this show so great back in the day. The “cut to” jokes are getting way too much like Family Guy would do. Robin blowing up from her refusal to accept her allergies to lobster was just so bad. Also, they have to tone the characters down, especially Lily. Louder does not equal funnier.

Favorite moments:

• In the background of a flashback, college freshman Ted is trying to explain to Marshall that you need to smell the wine before drinking it was pretty funny.
• Barney didn’t have a dog as his wingman.

What did everyone else think? Comments are always welcome.