Two Beavers Are Better Than One...

...But three Robin Sparkles videos may be too many.

To begin with, I was wrong. Barney and Robin aren't getting married (this season), stupid Punchy is. LAME. No one cares about Punchy, the turnaround from him being a stupid jerk to being awesome was ridiculous, and did I mention that no one cares about Punchy?

Before I get to the main event, let me just say that this episode was one of the better ones this season (no Jennifer Morrison), but it still didn't live up to my high standards. There was so much shoved into one episode that the disparate storylines, even though they all had moments I enjoyed, felt stilted and forced. There wasn't enough room for the jokes to breathe or the plot to develop.

So, Glitter. Did the repeated use of Glitter make anyone think of Mariah Carey? Because when I hear Glitter as a name or a title, I think of Mariah Carey in an airbrushed shirt on TRL, making Carson Daly uncomfortable and handing out ice cream and generally having a mental breakdown in front of a live studio audience. I definitely don't think of a random girl with a terribly fake Canadian accent.

Let's go back a little. The original Robin Sparkles video, "Let's Go To The Mall", was hilarious in that it was actually a rather accurate parody of Tiffany and other similar pop stars. It was explained that "The 80's didn't come to Canada until 1992" and the song had great lines like "He's got hair like Gretzky and does jumps on his skateboard" and "I'm gonna rock your body 'til Canada Day". And, of course, "Let's Go To The Mall" originates the slap bet with its porniness.

The second Robin Sparkles video, "Sandcastles In The Sand", was yet another awesome reference to cheesy ballads in the vein of Heart and Belinda Carlisle. It stars fellow Canadian James Van Der Beek, and includes appearances from Alan Thicke and Tiffany herself. It obviously pokes fun at Canada ("In Canada summer only lasts for about a week and a half") and general teen angst (You're good at pull-ups and have radical hair/I hate my dad, he's so unfair"). "Sandcastles In The Sand" is a good follow-up to "Let's Go To The Mall", as it was clearly a failure. Oh, and the video was the impetus for Barney and Robin's first hookup.

I didn't really think they needed to do any more Robin Sparkles stuff, but then Alan Thicke made a reference to "Space Teens" and Barney dashed off and I knew that this was on the way. So now we come to "Glitter". After the monumental episodes that the first two videos made into classics, I was expecting something big - not just from the video, but in terms of advancing storyline as well. The writers painted themselves into a corner by making Robin Sparkles a one-hit wonder, so instead we got a TV show that didn't make any sense (um, Alan Thicke was on network TV in Growing Pains in the early 90's) and was really just a set-up for some painfully un-clever and sophomoric jokes. I get the whole "random low-budget psuedoeducational secretly-dirty kids show" thing, but something about it just didn't work as well as I'd hoped it would. And the storyline, of Robin feeling pushed away by Lily's baby obsession, was actually one that I would have liked to have seen explored more. But oh well, Hoser Hut, hugs, and The Beaver Song it is.

Maybe I'm too harsh, but it's just because I know how awesome the show can be. I actually really liked The Beaver Song! That part of the episode was totally the best, as everyone in the bar starts singing along...

...But then they had to ruin it with the "Everything Canadian" sight-gag, which was just unnecessary - it's like they felt that since they couldn't make a video, they had to cram everything in there at once. So ultimately, and unfortunately, "Space Teens" just didn't live up to the previous incarnations of Robin Sparkles...although The Beaver Song might just be my new ringtone.

Do better, HIMYM writers. I know you can! I've seen it done.