How I Met Your Mother: Season 1 Review

Well after sleeping for 23 hours, bar taking about 6 valium I wasn’t going to be heading back to dreamland in awhile, so I decided to stay up and just watch all of How I Met Your Mother – season one.  The rest of this article contains massive storyline spoilers BTW, so if you haven’t watched it yet but are planning to, you should skip this.

So yeah – quite disappointing stuff, actually, mainly the Robin and Ted storyline.  When I first started watching the show, and Ted and Robin almost got it on then didn’t when Ted said he was falling in love with her, I figured aight, this is the Ross & Rachael for this show.  However the great thing about Ross and Rachael is it was never pushed down your throat, it was always a slow burn leading to huge drama etc and always worked out well.  More importantly, at least in the earlier seasons, the viewer wanted them to get together.  Ross was created very sympathetic, and the way they handled it all was perfect.

Not Ted and Robin.

Ted and Robin have been pushed down our throats from the very beginning.  Ted comes across as an ass a lot of the time, and someone who makes a lot of dumb decisions.  While that may be more realistic, it’s still a sitcom, and at the end of the day the people on screen should be likeable.  However Ted and Robin together just have no chemistry, yet the whole thing has been on fast forward since the beginning, and every time I see them on camera together it is just nauseating.

At the end of season 1 I was actually yelling at the TV “DON’T KISS” but alas it had to be, and they kissed.  I really hope this was just first season jitters or something, because if the whole show focuses around those two then I’m not going to be watching anymore.

The thing with Robin is that she isn’t really that likeable yet.  You don’t see her hanging out as much with the other 4 – she still really comes off as an outsider.  Also, why are they investing so much time into this relationship when, at the beginning of the show, Ted said that Robin wasn’t the kids mother.  Of course it’s a sitcom and continuity is rare, but still – why should I care about a relationship when it just isn’t going to work out?  Especially one with two people who just don’t belong together?

Really – it just makes for frustrating TV, especially when they rip off Friends in horrible fashion.  Like when Ted and Robin are going to the wedding, and Robin gets the call saying they want her to be anchor and Ted told her to go?  Doesn’t even hold a candle to the moment on Friends when Ross was going to be on TV, but cancelled that to take Rachael to the hospital.

Also one things sitcoms have to be careful of is couples, that’s why so many sitcoms feature single people.  However Marsh and Lily are fucking PERFECT together, have been so great, and then out of nowhere they break them up just to end the finale in a cliffhanger note?  Oh come on.  And so now this great couple are broken up, while Ted and fucking Robin are together?  Yeah….I’m not looking forward to putting in my season 2 discs.

Not that I don’t like the show.  I think it is very enjoyable for the most part, season 1 I just got sick of the whole Ted and Robin storyline.  You want to know how much I hate them getting together?  I’d rather JD and Elliott on Scrubs getting together!!!  Seriously, that’s how much I don’t like those two together.

But even though the show has it’s negatives, every episode is singlehandedly saved by Barney, aka Neil Patrick Harris, who is just absolutely phenomenal.  He is the highlight of the show every time, and my favourite episode was when he got Ted the hooker, but dun dun dun….final twist of the evening…she isn’t a hooker!  I woke my wife up screaming at the TV “YOU FUCKING CUNT!” in between laughter.

So yeah – good show, but the Ted & Robin shit really has to stop.