I’m even more excited for the finale after reading that interview and another with Craig Thomas! I have not been this enamored with a tv show since I discovered Freaks and Geeks.

I wish I could give both Bays and Thomas a huge hug!

Bays mentions in this interview with the Chicago Tribune, that they had alternate plans for what would be the remainder of episodes for the season (warning, there are spoilers near the bottom of the article. I stopped reading where it says “exit here” lol!):

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2008/05/should-sarah-ch.html

So there was a strike. I don’t think much would have changed if there hadn’t been a strike, except for the fact that the writers would have had a few extra episodes to write.

Yes they would have had some extra time to take us from the first episode of the season, to the last, but how do we know they wouldn’t have delivered the exact same episodes as we got? We don’t.

I respect everyone’s point of view here and their personal feeling’s about the show. I am not unhappy with where the show has gone – yet.

Now if the last episode of the season were to be a real stinker, I might be disappointed.

…..maybe The Goat’s the mother!

I’ll admit some of my annoyance with the yellow umbrella was that I fell for it and assumed we’d see the mother in season 3 (don’t ask why, I’m pathetic). Perhaps it’s a reactionary thing. There was no reason to actually think this was the season.

I concede the ‘mother’ issue, and I’ll also say one of my favourite jokes was when they were ‘smoking the sandwich’ in the future where they went back to the class reunion, and Ted goes “Where’s my wife?” (have no idea why, but it cracked me up).

I also agree on secondary characters. I love the Canada, Minnesota, Lily baby shower things that shows what made the characters what they are.

My point on the season was there were some good episodes that stood on their own. I agree Slapsgiving was one, and I’d add Spoiler Alert, The Chain of Screaming, No Tomorrow, and the The Platinum Rule (could’ve missed one or two others). As episodes, I thought they were quite good. Very funny. But I didn’t think the plot movement was significant in any of them.

Argh! Wait, I forgot, Slapsgiving was where Robin and Ted come to terms of being friends. I stand corrected. The season’s plot in my mind ended there.

Back to my point, as I said earlier, something more should come next season. I mean, Ted’s relationship with Stella has gotten some steam, but they haven’t explored it yet enough. Robin and Barney have reverted to the sidekicks (apart from banging one another, which hasn’t gotten a proper plot yet). Marshall and Lily are a sweet couple, and I love that, but the only plot they’ve had was an apartment.

Not one character has something that’s driving the season forward. Last season, we had two parallel plots defining the show, the Ted/Robin relationship and then eventual break-up, and the Marshall/Lily make-up and marriage.

Tbh, I can’t think of something new with these characters alone. And I”m worried. I mean, Barney’s Barney and is the classic character that isn’t going to change. Marshall and Lily will be together forever. Robin seems destined to have flings and then travel.

Ted’s the only character left I can see a development in. I wonder what the show will come to next season. The writers have done an amazing work, especially on the first two seasons, and as such I’ll trust that they have some things up their sleeve.

One slight caveat to your argument: No Tomorrow was (mostly) written before the strike. It was originally going to be a New Years episode. That might explain its quality.

You pretty much had me up until those last 2 paragraphs (though I will add to this that despite your assessment, “Slapsgiving” was, is, and will be one of the better and more crucial episodes in the entire run of the series).

I agree that, as with many shows, something (that something being a continuity of thought in the writers’ minds) was lost when the strike came about.

However, working with what they had, I can’t fault them for where the show has gone. I think it took a bit of a dip, but it’s not quite as dramatic as perhaps you are making it out to be. In fact, I think that the St. Patty’s Day episode is one of the more well crafted episodes in the series. Nada Surf’s “Beautiful Beat” mixed with Ted’s sudden realization that he is becoming something that he doesn’t want to be is an incredibly poignant moment in the over arc of the show. That song, alongside Jaymay’s “Sea Green, See Blue” and Rachel Yamagata’s “Quiet” are perhaps the most fitting in all of the series. In any case, to get back to the point, without that umbrella Ted’s character doesn’t seemingly have a reason to turn things around. Without that umbrella, there is a void.

Point being, we need those little clues to provide some sort of hope of continuity….or crap, at least I do. With the first season we had the hope balled up in Ted needing to be with Robin. In the second season we didn’t really have to worry, as Robin and Ted were together…even though we had already heard “Aunt Robin” long long beforehand. But this season was different. It started off with a bridge over the gap via “-dary” and again there wasn’t really any need for that mother to be present other than a very momentary view of the umbrella….as Ted was more concerned about his bro-hood at that point. But with LAME being married now, a friendship seriously forged between Robin and Ted, and Barney being Barney…there’s not an incredible amount of room for plot development…so one would think that the writers are simply attempting to throw some mystery into play.

I’m all for exploring secondary characters. I love hearing Robin’s Canada stories, and i would REALLY love to hear more about Marshall back in Minnesota (as I’m from Minnesota), but the title of the show bears an answer to your statement/question…”I fail to see the point of showing a yellow frickin umbrella unless something will happen in the same season the umbrella is shown.” Purely hypothetical, but say you sat your future or current children down and told them the story of how you met your eventual paramour. Would you want the story to be full of stories of the women you met before your mother, leading up to an eventual dropoff sentence like “so there I was one day, eating a bagel at the diner…I turned right, and there was your mother. end of story.” Or would you want there to be some mystery.

If my story was full of narrow misses that all lead to the eventuality of me finding the love of my life, I certainly wouldn’t leave out the narrow misses.

And by the way. We found out about The Goat in the first season and they didn’t bring that back until 2 seasons later, and even then there was no real resolution as of yet, it was still successful in it’s ploy to get everyone interested about a seemingly menial injection. Mystery, suspense and being teased are a part of watching TV. And as far as I’m concerned, HIMYM teases in much more creative and tasteful way than 99% of what’s on TV presently.

Just some thoughts.

Jason

I fail to see the complaints that this episode hasn’t moved the plot.

The moment we had Robin and Ted resolve their post-break-up issues, the story hasn’t moved forward much at all. What really is different about this episode.

Ted and Barney having issues hasn’t even become a plot yet, it’s still a bunch of jokes thrown together. We haven’t seen the potential of such a plot realised. And guess what?! The season is ending, so when are they going to find the time to build it up?

I’m sorry, but the writer’s strike has thrown a monkey wrench on the plot-writing of this show.

I will concede the show has remained funny, and I laugh alot. But the specialness of this show to me, from the very first episode (it didn’t hide the fact) that this show was a blend of story and humour.

This episode is no different from a large number of episodes that go back before the writer’s strike. Plot-wise, this season has been finished by episode 7 (Dowisetrepla). Since then, we’ve been given single episodes to gain a chuckle and that’s it (except for the few points with Stella, but they’ve been far too thin with that, and I don’t see near the magic of Ted-Victoria, but episode 18 did do a bit I’ll give).

I think Britney Spears’ presence merely draws more venom. She was on the level of a ‘meh’ *shrug*. Have no use for her character and hope it’s the last we see her. But she wasn’t terrible, I’ll say. And she certainly wasn’t the main problem.

With one more episode, I don’t want no cliffhangers. Seasons 1 and 2 ended with some of the most magnificient episodes of the entire show, with cliffhangers. I’m not even going to try to hope for anything like it.

Because seasons 1 and 2 slowly built up the finale of the seasons, episode after episode, with an end in sight. Season 3? Nada.

I will give some leeway for the strike, but still, it’s been haphazard and almost like they gave up.

Don’t get me wrong. It is still funny. Really funny. But that wasn’t what HIMYM was all about.

But, I repeat, plot-wise, this season in my mind ended in episode 7, with Stella being a small portion of plot spread far too thin over 13 episodes which came later on.

This summer, I want the writers to sit down and plan an over-all arc of the plot for the entire fourth season, before writing ANY episodes. Then, they work their way through the episodes with the goals in mind, with humour thrown in.

And enough with the subtle hints about the ‘mother’ (the yellow umbrella, being in the same party)! Enough, enough, enough! I’m sick of them, and they were only clever the first time.

Either we see the mother in front of us, in that oddly rectangular box called the TV, or don’t refer to the mother at all, (perhaps once or twice in the narrator’s talks to the children. But that’s it!). Make a decision, either Ted will meet the mother soon, or he won’t. I fail to see the point of showing a yellow frickin umbrella unless something will happen in the same season the umbrella is shown. That was such a tease!

Plus everybody does stupid things that may not be in their character, especially when it means they get something they want.

The core difference between the Robin-relationship and the current situation is that one is Barney-less. When Ted was with Robin, Barney and Ted were friends and he could at least pawn off some sort of Barney escapade every now and again. Now, Barney isn’t part of the picture. Barney, from the sense that I got last night views as Ted and Stella’s relationship as a wall that blocks him from being friends with Ted.

Jason

Why would he break up Ted and Stella, a girl Ted likes alot, and then somehow be welcomed back into the fold of the group? That’s betrayal.

It may not be visibly relevant to the situation as it stands right now, but it may be fairly pertinent to the writers/creators of the show. When Britney and NPH showed up in the cab together (10 pts. for Barney’s flop onto the cab btw) I immediately shouted “Oh my god, they’re going to conspire to break-up Ted and Stella!!”. Yes, that’s obvious, but it also provides the writers with a number of avenues to go down….not only that but at the time it was written it provides a convenient way out for Sarah Chalke, who will be coming back to Scrubs for an 8th season.

The break-up would also A) conceivably allow Barney back into the group’s fold. B) give them an “in”, if need or want be, to bring Robin and Ted back together. C) let Barney see why relationships can be good as seen from the POV of the person who needs help, thus enabling him to see why he and Robin are so good together.

I don’t know. I lost my train of thought, but there it is. I haven’t read any of the spoilers, so I don’t know if any of this makes sense, or if it’s just complete BS.

Jason

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (5.4/08, 8.93m), featuring a second guest appearance by Britney Spears, was first in adults 18-34 (3.1/09), second in adults 25-54 (4.5/11) and adults 18-49 (3.8/10). Compared to last week, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER was up 6% in both households (from 5.1/08) and adults 18-49 (from 3.6/10), 10% in adults 25-54 (from 4.1/10), 7% in adults 18-34 (from 2.9/09) and added 570,000 viewers (from 8.36m, 7%). This is HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER’s best delivery in households and viewers since March 31, 2008.

God, do not compare this show to the Office. I used to love Office, but now I can’t stand it.

You can fight with other people in the comments, but my readers who choose to subscribe via email don’t need to see 2343124 back and forth comments while I help you trouble shoot your code

Yes that is little 6 year old Robin She will be on next weeks show!

Not little real life Cobie Smulders.

I would much rather fight in the comments!!!

Also, if you used a real email address I could email you about your issue and wouldn’t have to do it here Use a real email! It’s not published.

HTML does not work damn it!!!

Robin

Best Week Ever Holiday Special – Doug Benson s Top 5 Movies of 2006

*Edit* in adults 18-49