HIMYM – Bro parents activate!

I’d be remiss if I didn’t start by thanking Julia for covering last week’s How I Met Your Mother while I was in Orlando rubbing elbows with Mickey and all of his friends. Actually, I’m quite happy I didn’t have to review that episode; if I had things in my hotel room to throw at the television, the trip could have gotten considerably more expensive than originally budgeted. Fortunately I have had a week to get past my frustration at Robin acting exactly how she should have: messed up. Doesn’t mean that I have to like it, and the events of this week’s episode have certainly moved the story to a completely different place than it was just a week ago.

First, let’s dispense with the hilarity that was the idea of a Ted/Barney Bro-parent synergy explosion. It isn’t exactly groundbreaking television to have two characters spurned by relationships, turning to each other as their biological clocks tick away. Usually, though, it is a male and a female, or even two gay characters; but it’s not often that it is a Bro-to-Bro parent dynamic. The scene where Ted and Barney tried to work out the details of their parenthood – who would quit their job, where they would raise their kid, who had dibs on the nanny (or the second nanny … or the third) – was hilarious. I have talked about how I was interested in how HIMYM would avoid sitcom cliché with the Lily and Marshall storyline; shuffling the cliché to Ted and Barney was certainly a way of making it fresh.

Now, to the elephant in the room. Since when did HIMYM become the expert at kickass cliffhangers? From last year’s countdown episode to Barney and Robin hooking up in the car, they have been parroting Alias quite a bit lately. There are two ways that Robin’s pregnancy could play out. The baby could be Kevin’s. That would be rather … well … boring, especially considering that the Kevin/Robin relationship has shelf life.

That leaves the probability — no, the near-certainty — that Robin is carrying Barney’s child. Let’s think about that for a second: Barney Stinson … a father? That’s a little crazy, no? Considering I’m solidly behind the theory that Robin and Barney will get married this season, their having a baby together is a solid step in that direction. I’m sure there will be plenty of time over the winter hiatus to deconstruct whether or not they’d work as parents, and continue to the argument on whether or not they should be together in the first place. But, I’ll spend the next couple of weeks in the happy contentment of believing that the storyline that I’m so excited to see play out is well on its way.

Notes & Quotes

• “The relator staged the place with fake furniture and she wants us to check it out before the open house.” – Marshall
  “Alright … can we at least do it on the fake bed?” – Lily
  “I’m embarrassed you had to ask.” – Marshall
• “You just went through a break up. That’s usually when people do something crazy. If you were a girl, you’d have cut bangs and be dating you by now.” – Ted
  “Bro, for what it’s worth: If we were both gay, you’d be my first call.” – Ted
  “Would you mind calling Marshall, and telling him that, because….” – Barney
  “No, this is only a scenario where just you and I are gay, not Marshall.” – Ted
  “But if all three of us are gay, you’d pick me over Marshall, right?” – Barney
  “If all three of us were gay? Girlfriend, all three of us would have some fun.” – Ted
• “You could go it alone, like Mr. Drummond on Diff’rent Strokes.” – Ted
  “Yeah, but that was the ’80s, when you could just swing by any inner city playground in your limo and scoop up some kids.” – Barney
• Just like Julia last week, I appreciate how HIMYM keeps its long-standing gags running … this week, it was Lily’s not-so-secret fantasies of Robin.
• I blinked and missed the ambulance, but is it bad that I got the Ghostbusters reference on the firehouse alone?
• “Do you have a baby guy? Did Guy the guy guy get you a baby guy?” – Ted
• Did Neil Patrick Harris’ kid(s) play Hurricane/Sadie?

Clacked by Ivey West
on Nov 21, 2011 @ 21:17 EST5EDT