Sometimes I wait so long to post not because I have nothing to say, but because I'm not sure how to say it. Or because I keep waiting to get inspired by a show that has ceased to be inspiring. This post is full of a bunch of things that've been rattling around in my brain and have finally reached the point where they need to be forced out.
Oh, How I Met Your Mother. I have been meaning for months to write a post about how this season of HIMYM has been markedly better from last season (or, as I call it, The Jennifer Morrison Tragedy), but have been waiting for an exemplary episode to really bring it all together. That episode never came. After "The Ducky Tie" early on, so full of promises and hope and boobs, HIMYM has sort of evened out to a mostly enjoyable, mostly mediocre sitcom. The performances of the actors continue to give the show life and spirit, but the writing just isn't as fresh. If you go back to an episode from seasons 2, 3, or 4, you'll find it has an edge that these days, has been blunted.
I attribute the decline in quality to a metamorphosizing writing staff, but mostly to the fate of all CBS sitcoms to be crappy and lame, regardless of how they start out. When HIMYM debuted, it was not a hit. It took a cult following and a good 3-4 years before it truly gained cultural relevance. During this time, CBS's usual audience wasn't watching the show. Then, suddenly, it really did become popular with all the bros and dumbasses who could care less about the smart dialogue and who just wanted to see Barney be a horrible womanizer telling fat jokes (I could probably do a statistical analysis of the increase of fat jokes correlating to the decrease in overall quality of the show). This is around the same time that Parks & Recreation and Community rose in popularity, siphoning off some of HIMYM's smart, young audience. Once all the LCD viewers had been sucked in, CBS started paying attention. Gone were the clever masturbation jokes, the one-man show...just the utter weirdness of it all. In its place were a bunch of boring, aging adults.
How I Met Your Mother has been compared to Friends since its inception, and for good reason, but it never managed to live up to the pure hilarity of Friends' remarkably endearing characters, and HIMYM definitely never figured out how to segue its version of late-twentysomethings into adulthood. On Friends, it was effortless. They're turning 30/getting older! Their careers are advancing/failing/evolving! Someone has a baby! None of these events changed the way I felt about the characters or the show. And think back, if you can. Do you remember when Rachel had her baby and what a big deal that was? And now, I suppose, Lily is in labor and I could CARE LESS. I know, one might argue that it's hard for ANY sitcom these days to match the cultural relevancy that Friends had...but I counter and say that we loved Friends, despite its whiteness, because they were our friends, too. We wanted to be as funny as Chandler, as unique as Phoebe, as desired as Rachel, as innocent as Joey, and as in-control as Monica (we did not want to be Ross, but we loved him any way, especially after The One With The Leather Pants). We wanted (and still do, more people fall in love with Friends every day) to hang out with them.
It used to be that way with HIMYM. I used to want to be Robin, sleep with Barney, and be BFFs with Marshall and Lily (Ted is The Worst). These days, Robin is a mess, Barney is a weird mess with motives that change from episode to episode, Marshall is literally a crazy person, and Lily is just plain annoying. I don't want to hang out with them anymore! My (real-life) friends and I were having a discussion about this the other day, discussing which shows did an excellent job of ending before they got shitty (Dawson's Creek, Seinfeld, Six Feet Under). Friends was near the top of the list, and it immediately shifted to a discussion of How I Met Your Mother - how meeting The Mother is long past overdue, and how CBS is definitely going to wring every last dollar out of this show until it's an empty, withered husk of its original self. And what a travesty! Because what I hope people remember while they read this, and get all angry and think, "But I still enjoy HIMYM!", is that I DO, TOO. Much like The Office, there are still moments in most episodes that make me laugh or smile - if there weren't, I wouldn't still be watching - but it's not the same show I fell in love with. I don't think you're dumb or terrible if you still like the characters or the show or anything. But my point is that it started as one thing - Friends-lite with a mostly-untenable hook - before quickly growing into another, much more wonderful and original thing, thanks to the outstanding cast and some clever writing. Unfortunately, the show has not managed to come out of the popularity gamut unscathed, and the next stage of HIMYM's evolution, the current one, is oftentimes indistinguishable from any other awful Chuck Lorre/CBS sitcom. And that, my friends, makes me sad.
So while I'll keep watching (and will be very happy if they decide to LISTEN TO AMERICA and finally marry off Barney & Robin), I can't pretend that I love this show like I used to. There's a reason that Friends ended just as Monica and Chandler had babies - because we didn't really want to watch them being parents. There's a difference between Rachel navigating the world as a hot single mom and watching Chandler talk baby talk and change diapers in the suburbs (I am very concerned about what is going to happen to Marshall (AKA Chandler-Lite) with a baby). At some point, we don't want our characters to grow up any more. Just like with real-life friendships, sometimes when you grow up, you grow apart. And I've realized that How I Met Your Mother and I might just be too different to be friends these days.
All of that being said, I have really been loving the callback to the Last Cigarette episode over the season, they planned that one out nicely. And there is something about watching Jason Segal smoking that just does it for me in a special way. But again (sorry, it can't be helped), Friends already did that, and did it better.
Images via girlglowsgreen, ListOff
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