The How I Met Your Mother Blog

The invitation came without solicitation. Well, that’s not entirely true. I had added Carter Bays and Charlene Amoia as friends on Facebook and, to my surprise, they not only confirmed but Charlene sent me a nice note thanking me for the site. I wrote her back and in a fit of confidence offered to buy her a beer the next time she was in New York. Proving how legendary she really is she did me one better: “How would you like to attend a party in New York tomorrow with Carter Bays, Pam Fryman, and the cast?” I would like that very much I told her.

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First, you guys are awesome for holding back about this in the main episode recap. I really wanted to know everyone’s opinions on the finale in general so I appreciate it. I’ll have to watch it again tonight but all your positivity has made me realize I was perhaps too harsh. That being said…

What was up with the long lingering stare from Barney to Robin? I know they’ve made little references here and there, but that was a big, flashing-light signal. I have to say, I loved it.

All season Robin’s been in the background. She really only dated three guys that we saw, and none of them were anything serious. She’s been relegated to the occasional goofy Canada joke and laying down the razor’s edge wit that makes her so damn hot. But look again: slowly all season she’s been looking better and better (I’m amazed each week they trump the previous episode.) It’s almost as if we the viewers are falling for her in real time as Barney does. She’s the girl in the group that was always one of the guys until you realize you’re comparing every other woman to her. This slow burn has earned the creators the right to use this plot shift. And I thought it was all build up to the end of Sandcastles in the Sand. I think RoBarn has only just begun.

I’ve said many times before that I wouldn’t like to see Barney in a relationship; that the best part about his character is the balance of a despicable Lothario with a heart of gold. Seeing him as a foil for both Marshall and Ted made each character richer. For all those reasons I felt like anything between him and another girl would seem awkward and something between him and Robin might seem forced, something for her to do since she’s no longer with Ted. In short, I wasn’t a fan.

Now I’m coming around. Consider the following:

• Neil Patrick Harris kicks ass. We know that in real life NPH is not Barney. I think the sly wit is there, as well as the charm, but he’s much more of a kinder, gentler person. He’s also a phenomenal actor. I have utter faith in him as a performer that any new development would serve only to add depth and breadth to the character, not to cheapen it. In dramatic shows, characters are expected to change and grow. HIMYM has already proved a sitcom can be much more than the stereotype, why wouldn’t it also prove that real character growth is possible in the half-hour format?
• The writers love Cobie Smulders as much as we do. When was the show firing on all its cylinders the best? Whenever they were writing a story that had Ted and Robin falling in love. Smulders seems to be their muse, and all of the best moments have involved her and Ted. If it’s her and Barney, that gives the writers an opportunity to do it all again, but this time with wit and sarcasm where once there was sappy romance. In other words, we could possibly see another long courtship that is as awesome as the night of broing out in Zip, Zip, Zip.
• Robin is a different person. We’ve seen her character change the most from the beginning of the series. She’s now more sensitive, forthcoming with her feelings, and she seems to have gotten over a lot of her issues in the past that held her back. I think she’s ready for this plot just as much as Barney is.

All that being said, I don’t expect Barney and Robin to turn into LAME. I think they’ll have their own hilarious issues and if they do date, they’ll be the couple that always seems to make the most jokes at the other’s expense.

On the other hand, they could not get together at all. They could have a really casual on-again, off-again thing happening. I think it’s safe to assume the only thing we won’t see is a repeat of season one where Barney suddenly turns into Ted trying to win Robin’s heart. All the other possibilites seem plausible, and awesome.

What do you think?

That’s a title I never thought I’d write, although I’m quite excited to be sharing this with you. This again breaks my “three posts in one day” rule but I’m tired of Britney taking up my entire homepage so I bring it to you anyway.

Neil Patrick Harris will star as Dr. Horrible in Joss Whedon’s online musical mini-series “DOCTOR HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG”. What is it? Why is it happening? Who knows, but I bet it’s going to be awesome.

Whedon recently posted this on his fan site:

So…..The bag is catless.

During the strike I started writing a musical intended as a limited internet series, 3 episodes of approximately 10 minutes each. Writing with me was my brother Jed, his fiancee Maurissa, and my other brother Zack. To my shock and surprise, we finished it. To my greater shock and surprise, we managed (with the help of many people I’ll be praising at length soon) to drag it into preproduction (yes, just as DOLLHOUSE was given a start date two months away and all my comics were due.) And today, after a grueling week of writing everything ever while trying to be a producer, I got to start shooting. A musical.

This much I will say: It’s the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to. And I’m having the time of my life.

“DOCTOR HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG”

Neil Patrick Harris…..as Dr. Horrible
Nathan Fillion……….as Captain Hammer
Felicia Day………….as Penny

And a cast of Dozens!

Coming soon.

Source

This is kind of awesome. It’s like a fanboy (or girl)’s dream come true. I get a little reticent whenever a writer talks about what they were doing during the break but the works produced involving other HIMYM cast members were good, so I think this will be too. What do you think?

The first reports are coming back from the set where Britney is currently filming her episodes. Alyson Hannigan was pleased:

“I have been quite impressed by Britney’s performance. The character she is playing is very sweet and endearing, which seems to come naturally to her. Not to mention, she has good comedic timing, which helps, given we’re a sitcom.”

As per usual, Neil Patrick Harris had more to say. Full Q&A here but here are some highlights.

It looks like security was tight on set:

They have different wristbands every day, and it’s like the ultimate after-party. I wasn’t given a wristband, because I’m on the show, but then they swapped out security people and they wouldn’t let me on the stage because I didn’t have the proper wristband.

This is good to hear, and makes me feel better:

…it should be clear, and I hope you state this, Britney’s camp came entirely to us with the idea of it, and in fact, we all thought it was a joke. It wasn’t like CBS or How I Met Your Mother is trying to get ratings, and said who can we star-cast to get attention.

We were literally just filming last week and told, “You’re not going to believe who just called and said they wanted to be on the show.” That’s sort of how it all went down. My only reservation about her being on the show at all is that it appears that we are desperate for ratings, and that’s not the case, we’re sort of in a good comedy groove. So, my only concern is one of appearance.

I knew it! This confirms what I was saying about the show being intellectual:

Sarah [Chalke]‘s the perfect fit for the show. Josh Radnor has a real intellectual sensibility to his acting, and I think Sarah matches him step for step and beat for beat, so when we started our run-through yesterday, or started rehearsing, rather, it was like she’d never not been on the show. I hope and my fingers are crossed that Sarah manages to do more than one episode with us because she’s just terrific.

This all makes me feel much better. It also seems to suggest that the show might not be in as much trouble as it has seemed. I can’t wait for Monday to see how much momentum will be gained with new episodes finally airing.

There’s also some quotes from Britney about working on the show that I didn’t think were terribly interesting.

Thirdly (is that a word?) there is a nice short bio on Josh Radnor. Turns out he’s Jewish, intellectual, and awesome (we already knew all that right?)

Neil Patrick Harris filled in for Regis Philbin on the day Ryan Reynolds was visiting. Friends in real life, the interview had a great give-and-take rhythm. I’m a huge fan of Reynolds, unabashedly so. I saw Definitely, Maybe and it’s actually very good.

Kudos to reader Misha who had some very nice things to say about the site, the show, and recommended I check out this clip. Thanks Misha!

PS. Who’s that annoying trophy wife sitting to NPH’s left? She reminds me of the woman at the bar who always follows up the funny thing someone says with the most boring statement you’ve ever heard and is met with only silence.

PPS. Reynolds is rumored to have been cast as Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I’m all a twitter about the film since it also stars will.i.am, Liev Schreiber, and Taylor Kitsch (Gambit!!) It’s also directed by Gavin Hood (who’s been all artsy up till now making films like Tsotsi.) Hoo-ray!

PPPS. I wish there was a clip with better audio than this. At first, I thought maybe there was just a loud A.C. running in the background but it’s almost rhythmic which makes me think it’s actually some evil German techno beat.