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Why I Love...How I Met Your Mother

The cast of How I Met Your Mother
  • Posted at 2:44pm
  • 22 February 2007
  • by JackSeale-RT
  • 13 comments

Yes, it's a cosy US sitcom with a cacophonous laugh track. Yes, it's about unfeasibly jolly New Yorkers living in unfeasibly nice apartments. Yes, it's obviously been conceived as a replacement for Friends. And having purchased the rights, BBC2 lost its nerve and buried it in obscure Sunday-night slots.

But How I Met Your Mother became a sleeper hit last year in the States, where it's just returned for series two. Quite right: it's a little bundle of joy.

Just like Friends, it concerns a group of 20-something pals who have formed an "urban family". Lovable lunk Marshall (Jason Segel) and his nice-as-apple-pie fiancée Lily (Alyson Hannigan) have the sort of perfect relationship that their friend Ted (Josh Radnor) craves. So we follow Ted as he dates half of New York in search of his kids' future mom, making that fateful step from single gadabout to settled adult.

Lifelong pals struggling through universal rites of passage was the pitch for Friends, but it got lost somewhere among the sharp one-liners and million-dollar salaries. HIMYM holds onto that warm feeling. The show's hook - each episode starts with Ted in 2030, telling stories to his kids about 2005 - adds to the feeling of nostalgia for precious days gone by.

And while it comes with a small spoonful of saccharine, Ted's quest for that elusive perfect romance is genuinely affecting. As co-creator Carter Bays, on whom Ted is based, puts it: "How do you go about searching for what's essentially divine intervention?"

No need to have a sick-bucket handy, though. Brutally puncturing the schmaltz is Neil Patrick Harris's storming turn as Barney, Ted's other friend, who thinks a steady relationship is slightly less appealing than death. He's an almost sociopathic woman-chaser who, although we never actually see him succeed, does nothing but advise Ted on how to be a sleek, ruthless lothario. Like Seinfeld's Cosmo Kramer, Barney's the crazy guy who has all the best gags ("You can't take a date to a wedding! That's like taking a deer carcass to a hunt!").

Harris is best known as Doogie Howser MD, the punchably precocious teen surgeon from the early-90s show of the same name. Now, as he nails line after line, you can see the flint-eyed determination of a man who knows this is his last chance to avoid people shouting "Hey, Doogie!" at him in the street for eternity.

Throw in some cute observations and neat storylines (the girl who suggests to Ted that they only have one perfect date, during which they don't kiss or even exchange names; the drunken night that Ted has to piece together the next day via a series of interviews) and you've got a great example of the archetypal mainstream US sitcom. It does nothing we've not seen before, but it consistently does it well. Before you know it, 25 minutes have glided past and you're in a sunnier mood than you were before.

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Comments

  • Posted on 29 September 2009
  • at 1:18pm
  • by HelenHackworthy-RT

FAO Paul - we've been assured that series three will air later this year…

  • Posted on 29 September 2009
  • at 1:18pm
  • by HelenHackworthy-RT

FAO Paul - we've been assured that series three will air later this year…

  • Posted on 29 September 2009
  • at 1:18pm
  • by adam

we're on series 5 in usa, and it only gets better!!

  • Posted on 27 September 2009
  • at 4:40pm
  • by Paul

I love this show but only seen seasons one & two have been shown in the UK. Has any more of it appeared on UK tv and I missed it? Or can anyone tell us when/if season three will be shown in the UK?

  • Posted on 17 September 2009
  • at 12:41am
  • by yszi

i completely agree... i hate that E4 is comparing it to friends because its so different! yes you can try and say how similar the characters are but they are ruining it! its more about the comedy than friends which is also focused on the personal stories.

i also want to say that if you're going to compare it to friends then at least get the comparisons right! ted is so ross rather than chandler!

  • Posted on 15 September 2009
  • at 11:47pm
  • by Miranda

Oh and it isn't a laugh track - the DVD shows how they record it all then show a select group of friends and family and record their laughter live watching it.

  • Posted on 15 September 2009
  • at 11:45pm
  • by Miranda

I LOVE this program - I have had to buy the region 1 box sets or just watch it all online until now. I hate the fact E4 are trying to compare it to Friends as it's far more clever than Friends. I can quite easily loose a couple of days wtaching back to back box sets of this program and the brilliant thing is how the seasons link together - things may get hintted about in one season than not explained until a later one as the whole story is already thought out a la Lost rather than a normal sitcom with a pool of writers.

Awesome!

  • Posted on 07 September 2009
  • at 4:02am
  • by Karakia

Well, I guess I'm a bit of a newbie to the show. Saw it advertised in the Radio Times last week and decided to watch it. Missed the first episode because I was working and for some reason have no means of recording TV (grumble), and then by happenstance found the DVD of the first series on sale at the weekend. Took a chance. Bought it. Watched it. Loved it. Am now increasingly depressed at the prospect of having to import the other seasons (though the depression goes away anytime I see Barney =]). Whyyyy isn't there a region 2 DVD???

*sighs* Anyway the purpose of this comment is really to say Thank You!!! to E4 for showing it and also to Radio Times for advertising it and encouraging me to get off my ass and buy it. So Thank you!!! And somebody please make CBS do a region 2 DVD!

  • Posted on 04 September 2009
  • at 6:12pm
  • by M. R.

It was great, but the last series has been underwhelming, to say the least. People in the UK shouldn't feel too bad about the bad scheduling as fans of the series in the US have also had to face similar problems.

  • Posted on 04 September 2009
  • at 11:39am
  • by Glen

I love this show. The BBC lost a ratings winner burying it in the early hours on BBC2. Luckily I then caught the 2nd series on Trouble but thought all was lost after that. I've been reading about how it's gone from strength to strength in the states but with not even a sign of a DVD release over here I thought that was it. All I can say is well done E4!

  • Posted on 03 September 2009
  • at 11:53pm
  • by Lando

As far as I can see, E4 will be showing Season 1 (starting with The Pilot episode on Friday the 4th).

I got into the show when it was on BBC2 and caught the 2nd season on some obscure cable channel.

Like the first poster, I also bought the first season on DVD and imported the 2nd and 3rd season DVDs and have watched the 4th season online…just waiting for the 5th to start in a few weeks!

  • Posted on 03 September 2009
  • at 3:55pm
  • by Lez

What which season, exactly, is to be shown starting next week on E4?

  • Posted on 28 August 2009
  • at 7:18pm
  • by Meimi132

I LOVE IT!! And I'm soooooooooooooo glad that E4 decided to show it! I saw it first on BBC2 in those bad evening slots all those years ago, then again in 2007 late night, when I prompty bought the DVD boxset out of love for the series. And then I imported season 2, and then season 3, and yes, I admit, watched season 4 via net, out of desperation, as I never thought the UK would ever catch onto its charm!! Am awaiting the season 4 DVD release in the USA at the moment, and for season 5!!! The final ep of season 4 'The Leap' made me squeal soooo much!!!! I loved it! So happy *something* finally happened!!! I might actually love it more than I love LOST! lol.

And once again YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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