Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Season Wrap-Up: How I Met Your Mother, Season 5

I am sort of on the fence for this season of MIMYM. I might be biased having watched seasons 1-4 and half of season 5 in a row, but this season was very haphazard in how it handled the characters and their interactions.


I am Christophe... Doppelganger.


Let's get the finale out of the way first. There was a lot of charming moments, but also a lot of awkward ones too. The episode felt longer than it was and I was worried that Marshal and Lily were going to put off having a kid for even longer. But in the end, Barney and Ted are still where they are. Robin choosing to stay in New York was an advancement of her character, but a predictable one. And let's face it, "put a baby in my belly" is a very awkward line to deliver in anything. Probably even a porno. But they did it twice.

Despite my complaints it was really funny. Barney's attempt at being his own doppelganger was great, as was his plan to have sex with everyone from every country. The episode was light on callbacks, the only one I can remember off-hand is Ted thinking he can pull off being a blonde (much like the boots). And wow does he look terrible as one. I'm glad someone in the show finally advanced their lives, and Ted's speech about how the gang became their own doppelgangers was sweet, and the fake-out soon after made me laugh but also want to slap the writers for tricking me so well.

I guess I had two major things that didn't sit right with me: I can understand that Lily is seeing what she wants to see cause she's ready to have a child, but at the same time, isn't it kind of cruel to lie and indulge her in seeing Barney's doppelganger? If the situation was that she kept seeing Barney everywhere, then I could sympathize with the rest of the group, but four months? Wouldn't it be more of the right thing to do to admit the doppelganger promise was just silly? It really seems out of character for everyone to lie to Lily, especially Marshal. And about something she has to spend 9 months carrying, moreso when it's an Eriksen kid.

Second thing ties into the rest of the season: Nothing happened. Robin had her ups and downs but ended up single and living with Ted. Ted bought a house but the only mention of it died in the same episode it started. There was a lot of one-shot episodes this season where everyone tried something different, then settled back to usual. Robin was the only one with a dynamic change to her character, but it didn't get a lot of screentime so she still felt like her issues were in the background. Torturing Barney in Slapsgiving 2 was great, but has Lily's father been back or mentioned since? It's a random thought but when I look over this season I keep seeing episodes where something happened, and it was never mentioned again. Nothing was added to these characters.

I think the continued success and seasons of the show might start to kill it. It's still extremely funny, but it doesn't need to constantly reset it self and essentially stalling. Every time Ted meets someone, it's always a different person every episode. He hasn't had a consistent girlfriend and it's easy to forget that the show is all about Ted. I was hoping Judy Greer would be Ted's girlfriend for a while after the end of The Wedding Bride (that and in the hopes of a future breakup episode with the line, "Say goodbye to THESE!"), and yes one episode isn't enough to tell that, but throw me a bone here.

Over the summer I will probably watch through the series or at least this season again just to get a better judgement call on the whole thing. I just don't want to see this show fall to the wayside after 4 strong seasons and one really funny but roundabout season. It's too early to pan it, or to make that decision until season 6. I'm probably being greedy, but I wanted something more, and with the show's namesake, that's not much to ask.

1 comment:

  1. Also there was the episode where he dated the mother's roomate, but never met her. I wish that was at least touched on again. I agree there were some funny episodes this season but it did NOT progress as much as I would have liked.

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