How I Met Your Mother starts a couple of decades from now, as Ted decides to tell his teenage son and daughter how he met their mother. We go back to 2005, when Ted is hanging around with his best friends Lily (Alyson Hannigan) and Marshall (Jason Segel). He knows both of them from college and they are a couple. When Lily and Marshall get engaged, Ted (Josh Radnor) realizes that he might be ready for the long term commitment too. But his other good friend Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) has no intentions of settling down and he loves having Ted as a wingman and involves him in ridiculous situations to pick up girls. While his methods mostly work for Barney and his one night stands, Ted wants more. It is then he meets Robin (Cobie Smulders)- a Canadian news reporter who is currently living and working in the States. . He thinks it is pretty much love at first sight (and love after first date, to be exact) but Robin isn’t after anything serious.
The first episode ends by Ted (weirdly, Ted’s narrations aren’t done by Josh Radnor but Bob Saget); telling his kids that Robin isn’t the mother.
From then on, it is all about the adventures and mishaps of this group of 5 and Ted’s constant efforts in finding the woman of his dream while they hang at their favorite bar, crack jokes and analyze relationships .
I have to admit that had I been a producer, I’d never have thought this concept would catch up. The show first aired in 2005 and Ted has been telling the story ever since. The movie Definitely, Maybe has a somewhat similar concept, as Ryan Reynolds’ character tells his young daughter (Abigail Breslin) his romantic past, involving three different women – and one of them is her mother. I was frankly not that impressed with Definitely, Maybe as I found it a little slow, boring and not that interesting. While How I Met Your Mother is definitely funnier and more entertaining (and it was an instant hit among my Friends and Coupling-worshipping group of friends), I never quite got addicted to this show.
Now, don’t get me wrong. How I Met Your Mother has a great cast and the characters are not that hard to empathize with. But my problem is that the episodes aren’t quite as hilarious as I’d expect a sitcom to be. And the whole close friends dating thing has been done too many times. Oh, don’t give me that ”but you also love Friends (1994-2004) and Coupling (of course the UK version: 2000-2004)” look. I do. But you see, Friends characters had so much originality – with their characters occupations and back stories, jokes and use of the English language for cracking jokes, the characters’ eccentricities, guest appearances by your favorite actors (Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts, Tom Selleck, Sean Penn, Reese Witherspoon, Michael Vartan….) and the perfect sitcom combination of both funny one-liners, on-going inside jokes, hilarious events and wonderful use of physical comedy. Coupling had great original characters (Jane and Jeff), wonderful observations and shameless, original & hilarious jokes about sex (which wouldn’t disappear even at a funeral scene!) which was combined brilliantly by physical comedy (especially by characters Jeff and Steve).
And because those two were immensely hilarious, I overlooked the storylines that resembled all those soap operas (Dawson’s Creek, Grey’s Anatomy…) where friends dated all of their friends. I mean look at Friends: Ross dated Rachel and made out with Phoebe (one episode). Monica was his sister. Monica dated Chandler, but her “official” first choice was Joey. Rachel dated Ross and Joey. Thankfully Phoebe never exactly dated any of them. They all hung out together.
In Coupling: Susan slept with/dated Steve and Patrick – dated Jeff but couldn’t sleep with him because he got nervous. Jane dated Steve and attempted to sleep with Patrick and Jeff. Sally dated Patrick.
While as far as I know Lily never dated Ted or Barney, but Robin dated Ted and Barney. And then there is other thing getting old: the womanizer character who is certainly not all that good-looking and charming, but for some reason every girl on the show loved (doing) them. Friends had Joey, Coupling had Patrick and How I Met Your Mother has Barney.
Did I get too much into comparison mode? Whoops. Sorry about that. But if you look at the end dates of these two shows and the beginning of How I Met Your Mother, you see that it came out a time when two of the most hilarious sitcoms around ended. So I needed an instant substitute. While this show is might be a placebo, it really isn’t the real deal (pardon the metaphor). It is funny, but not constantly hilarious and it is not funny enough to send me to the floor laughing or cause me stomach pains. I realize that the part of the intended charm is that the characters are everyday people, but for me it is a turn off. I know a couple of Teds, Marshalls, Robins, Lilys and even Barneys (or who want to be Barneys or who kid themselves about being a Barney) in real life. So why should I follow events and characters I see on a regular basis?
When it is on TV and I am eating, it is a perfect show. But it is too ordinary to be addictive.
For Friends and Coupling (only the first three seasons), my vote is a 10/10.
How I Met Your Mother is a 7/10. I prefer Jason Segel’s movies for the time being.
Barney Stinson is the best character on the show, because it reflects the classic rich man who is satisfied with their appearance, work and himself, which is used to being in the spotlight, but because of that it’s hard for him to find friends, so he must impose himself on them.