How I Met Your Mother: ‘Slapsgiving 3: Slappapointment in Slapmarra’

Picture of Segel regretting signing on for a ninth season.

There were more than a few slaps going around in ‘Slapsgiving 3: Slappapointment in Slapmarra.’ Unfortunately, though, several of them were inflicted on myself as the front of my hand kept finding itself raising up towards my eyes and covering them in a facepalm-esque manner. This was a truly painful episode to watch, from a complete lack of plot and character usage to utter lack of execution of a gag that once had so much promise.

As far as the latter goes, I’m really disappointed by the way the writers have gone about Marshall giving the slaps ever since the third one. What made the first slap so great was this ridiculous premise of making a bet that kept escalating until it ended with Barney taking his first slap of five that could be dealt out any place, at any time. My personal favorite was the second slap because it was so unexpected, and deserving, and set the table for what I thought the future slaps will be like.

After the first “Slapsgiving” the gag started seeing diminishing returns, especially since they tried to make every one a spectacle and base an entire episode around it. As cool as it was to see Boyz II Men perform a cover of ‘You Just Got Slapped’ I thought the whole buildup was far too childish to be funny and I wish they had stuck to the original premise where Marshall would catch Barney, and the viewer, off guard. Maybe they can salvage the final slap by making it be a flash-forward where Marshall has built an elaborate “slap room” with his hand prints painted on the wall. With lights flickering Barney wakes up not knowing where he is, shaking and traumatized. Finally, Marshall appears behind him, slowly creeping up to him as the light bounces from his face to Barney’s. He raises up and one final the slap of justice comes down upon Barney’s face. Or, ya know, something like that.

But seriously, last season I would always post in my “other moments of note” section that “at least Barney didn’t have a dog as his wingman,” a point I considered an all-time low for the series. While parts of this episode, like a tree slapping Marshall, came close to this, it was able to avoid the complete stinker label. Hopefully, although I highly doubt it, this will be the last awful episode of the season.

Other moments of note:

• Was it just me or is Jason Segel looking really skinny?
• When was the last time we saw Carl the bartender? I feel like it’s been a while.
• At least Barney didn’t have a dog as his wingman. 

How I Met Your Mother: ‘The Broken Code’

We’re 51 hours away from the wedding, and more importantly 51 hours away from putting this old dog of a show out of its misery. At this point we’re not doing good ol’ HIMYM any favors but letting it linger around, we’re selfishly keeping it by our side because we grew so fond of what it was in its prime and, despite better judgment, we’re hoping against hope that we can see one last trick, one last sparkle in its eye before it passes on. But the waiting is getting very, very painful.

The glaring problem is obviously the lack of Jason Segel. I’m assuming pat of his agreement to return for this final ninth season entailed an agreement that would allow for him to shoot movies, reminisce about Freaks and Geeks, or just try and detach his name as much as possible from this sinking ship of a show. But in the latter years here he’s often been the only source of laughter and it’s made the show that much worse to relegate to this awful road trip plot that absolutely no one asked for or wants to see. It would almost be better at this point if they didn’t give him any screen time until he can “arrive” at the wedding and just give us some more of ‘The Mother’ interacting with Ted in flash forwards.

What was especially annoying about ‘The Broken Code’ in particular is how rehashed both stories seemed. In the plot of Ted/Barney/Robin love triangle it’s literally been repeated time and time again and I’m not even sure if we’ve seen the last of it since it was alluded to early on that Ted went to visit Stella in Los Angeles to retrieve the missing locket. I just don’t understand what the writers think they can milk out of this. How many times can Ted come to the realization that Robin isn’t the right woman from him? And especially now that we have an actual visual image of ‘The Mother’ how do they expect to feel any real tension here? The whole thing comes off as total filler and a waste of time.

The other story involving Robin and her lack of female friends other than Lily was simply uninspired. We’ve seen lots of other sitcom characters and groups of friends talk about how very few friends they have outside of the main characters (which has more to do with actual practicality of keeping the cast small) so there was nothing new or groundbreaking here. The humor in Lily essentially being a crazy person which makes up for the Robin’s quantity of acquaintances was lost on me so we’ll just move on and chalk this up to a wasted episode as we head down the Mom stretch.

Other moments of note:

• Is Lily really one to critique Robin on her lack of other female friends? She’s not exactly a social butterfly either.
• Are they seriously going run this “thank you Linus” joke that far beneath the ground? Considering these episodes are taking place over several hours she has to be close to blacking out.
• Billy Zabka and Tim Gunn had fairly fun cameos at the poker table but I’m skeptical of the dubious ending which implies we haven’t seen the end of Zabka. Also, since when has the gang become so casual about running into celebrities like Tim Gunn? Ted doesn’t even bat an eye about him being there.
• I’m glad they kept the continuity of Marshall always winning at games, even in pillow form.

How I Met Your Mother: ‘Splitsville’

Remember when we would have considered this to be the worst episode of How I Met Your Mother ever made as opposed to saying "well at least Barney didn't have a dog for wing-man?" Those were the days. What ticked me off the most about this episode is that not only was it lacking humor, but I was just plain out annoyed by the resolutions we got here as the set ups to them basically either made me dislike the characters or cringe at their wants and desires.

Obviously the biggest problem was the main story where we come to find out that Robin is in a purely sexual relationship with Nick who also is apparently one of the dumbest people on Earth (*). And Robin developing conflicting opinions on whether or not to dump him leads to Barney being required to step in and do the deed by finally declaring to Robin the love he really feels for her. Well, sort of. This has gotten to the point where it’s just down right insulting to the fans of the show. Even if we didn’t know, which by the way they have made it very clear to us that WE KNOW, Robin and Barney are going to end up together, I would still absolutely hate this on again off again story between the two of them. Get it over with, get them together, and let us and them get on with our lives.

(*) Now, if I’m not mistaken, nothing in previews episodes hinted at Nick being unintelligent so this was kind of out blue. I actually thought there was some humor in it, but I wish we had gotten before his final episode.

Oh and over on the Ted, Marshall, and Lily side of things? Well I could see this being a pretty decent side story of an iCarly episode. I mean come on. Radnor, Segel, and Hannigan are all good actors and once upon a time they were casted perfectly for their roles in HIMYM. But they don’t do what some of these recent storylines call for, basically turning them into cartoon characters.

Other favorite moments:

• One. There was only one thing that qualified for my “favorite moments” section and it had nothing to do with a part of the story or a joke. But watching Neil Patrick Harris pretend to eat his Chinese food at the beginning was amazing. And one point he accidentally dropped some chicken from his chopsticks and stared at them like they were defective.

What did everyone else think? Comments are always welcome.

Reviews: How I Met Your Mother and Partners

The Emmys are over and even though there are so many fantastic shows that now exist outside of the four major networks, and some shows have already started their yearly runs, the 2012 television officially starts tonight and this guy is certainly excited.

How I Met Your Mother

Leading off my viewing season is the eight year veteran How I Met Your Mother. For a show that was a perennial all star for its first 5 seasons(*) it has really been a shell of its former self during the last two years. From what Jason Segel and Neil Patrick Harris are saying, it sure sounds like this is indeed going to be the final season of HIMYM so hopefully the writers have one more great run in them to get us to a satisfying conclusion.

(*)Including HIMYM’s second season which is one of the all-time greats. In that season we got introduced to the Robin Sparkles single: “Let’s Go to the Mall,” a certain slap bet, Swarly, and Barney meeting his “father” Bob Barker on The Price is Right.

With that being said, tonight was far from being one of HIMYM’s finer outings. For a show that’s supposed to be a comedy, there were close to zero comedic moments in tonight’s episode. I’m not saying I have to be rolling on the floor laughing for 21 straight minutes, but there just wasn’t anything to even chuckle at; unless of course you find Barney and the current future but not really future Mrs. Stinson kinda sorta cheating on each other fresh off their engagement as comedic gold. Also, Marshall and Lily in their haze wasn’t especially funny the first time they used a Windows 97’ screensaver to represent their sleep deprivation, so I didn’t think it was necessary to try that flop over and over again. I did, however, enjoy Thomas Lennon as Victoria's fiance Klaus as well as the episodes' ending being scored with the fantastic Band of Horses song "The Funeral."

When I look back on this episode at the end of the season, hopefully it will fit better into the season as a whole. It’s entirely possible that the writers were less worried about comedy and much more concerned on setting up exactly how Barney and Robin will end up back together and how Ted will come to the realization (like we haven’t had this bulky idea shoved in our faces 50 times during the run of the series) that he just needs to wait for Mrs. Perfect.

I’ve seen every episode of HIMYM, most more than once, so I’m definitely not going to give up on it now and I’ll have a review of each episode throughout the season. Mrs. Mosby better be worth the wait!

Partners

Oh man. This new CBS show centers around two best friends, one who’s straight and who’s gay. So in typical CBS fashion for comedy they were able to make all of their characters ridiculously unfunny stereotypes and if you were to remove the laugh track it would be a show that’s borderline offensive to everyone. Humanity, as a whole, should be offended that this show makes it onto television. I just don’t understand why these CBS sitcoms get so many viewers while shows like Parks and Recreation and Community are lucky to scrape together enough viewers to field 5 on 5 basketball game.

The pilot for Partners wasn’t just bad because of its attempt to exploit stereotypes, but everything about it was totally unimaginative. The show is a blatant Will and Grace rip-off, with the exception of Grace being replaced by a straight guy and the extraction of anything humor related. The storylines of proposing and getting closer in their romantic relationships may have been okay 12 or 13 episodes into the series, but they expected us to automatically care about these characters and their love lives before we even really knew their names.

No second chance for Partners next week and unless I’m hearing a ton of internet buzz about the show in the future, I hope to never have to view this crap again.

Two Broke Girls & Mike and Molly

Didn't watch these shows considering I knew I'd get more laughs from listening to the ineptitude of John Gruden during Monday Night Football then I would from them.

Well I was kind of harsh tonight, usually I’m much more of a fanboy for television and I’m sure that will show in the future. Monday is kind of down night for television so HIMYM might be the only episode I blog about going forward for this day of the week. I still have to give Revolution a chance though as well as Mob Doctor(**). Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing the new Fox comedy block which includes two new episodes of New Girl (Yes!), and the two new shows Ben & Kate and The Mindy Project.

(**) Although, I do not like Mob’s prospects of me liking it considering: a) The name of show, come on FOX. And b) It stars Michael Rappaport. I’m not sure if that’s the correct spelling of his name, but considering he’s the worst actor person in the world, it’s not worth my time to look it up.

Comments are certainly welcome, whether they are for agreement, disagreement, or indifference.