A couple of episodes ago, How I Met Your Mother tried something different with its “The Burning Beekeeper” episode. At the time I thought it was successful, then I watched it again and realized exactly how unfunny it was. “Trilogy Time” wasn’t nearly the departure from “normal television” that that “Beekeeper” was, but it leaned more on the history and techniques that the show has been using for years, and was much more successful for it.
HIMYM can never go wrong with leaning on the trilogy. Hopefully I don’t have to define which trilogy to you – in fact, I greatly appreciated that they didn’t take any unnecessary potshots at Episodes I-III. There’s something about shared cultural experiences that speaks to me as a viewer, and since I am also a Star Wars guy, this specific idea speaks to me. That there are things that we connect to personally that can (and obviously do) become part of a group dynamic and shared history is pretty cool in my view.
I specifically appreciated how the flash-forwards and subsequent flashbacks helped contrast where the guys saw their lives heading with where their lives tracked “for real.” Not specifically that Ted migrated into super-douche territory or Marshall had a mustache or Barney had whatever random woman he wanted at the time, but they were defining their happiness in specific – albeit hyper-realized – ways. In the short term, things rarely worked out the way any of the characters expected – save for Barney. When the future finally caught up to Barney, he had realized that the consistent future he’d always imagined was not something he still wished for himself.
I’d like to say that Barney’s journey is near complete, but that obviously discounts whatever continued growth he’ll see in the future; but compare this Barney with the one that we met seven years ago. Would you expect the Barney Stinson of “The Bracket” and The Bro Code to commit so fully to a woman? Sure, in many way’s he is still the same person he has always been, but the ways that he is different are immeasurable.
But the Robin/Barney shipper in me just hopes that he gets smarter before he says the words “I do.”
Notes & Quotes
Barney attempting to hide his ring finger bothered me a lot too! Of course, with HD and cable boxes that record, you can go through it frame by frame at 20:32 and see that there is no ring on his finger.
Wouldn’t that make the wedding that this entire season has been about moot?!
THANK YOU! I noticed the ring finger thing to, they were DEFINITELY hiding it! It was very deliberate. You have to wonder about that…