TV Review: How I Met Your Mother - Season Finale

The line between comedy and drama can often be a hard one for television shows to navigate. As they get older, many sitcoms, having already mined tons of material from humorous events, turn to more serious issues and problems, only invoking humor every once in a while. It is an awkward switch for comedies to make and not always a successful one.

Happily, CBS’s brilliant How I Met Your Mother will never have to contend with this problem. From the very beginning, this show has blended humor and heart seamlessly, and the upcoming finale for the show’s second season is no different.

The entire season has been moving steadily towards the impending wedding of Lily (Alyson Hannigan) and Marshall (Jason Segel), two of the show’s main (but not narrating) characters and the season finale’s two episodes bring about the culmination of that storyline. Of course, everything does not go smoothly, and it’s from there that How I Met Your Mother is able to mine the vast majority of the humor in these two episodes. Predictably, when there’s funny to be had at a wedding it’s because the entire thing goes horribly, horribly wrong.

The show often delivers out-of-the-blue funny moments, and the season finale is no exception. I do not wish to give away any of the more humorous moments of the episode, but some of the Marshall stuff is hysterical. It was actually necessary for me to pause the DVD after I literally fell to floor laughing.

The secondary plotline in the second of the two episodes deals with the main character, Ted (Josh Radnor) and his girlfriend Robin (Cobie Smulders) and them recounting a tale of a dinner they recently had to Barney (Neil Patrick Harris, in a role deserving of Emmy consideration).

Barney is the outlier in the show. He is the single friend on the prowl, who constantly comes out with insane stories, catchphrases, and ideas. Wisely, though Barney is a jokester and can be an ass, he also has a heart (albeit a hidden one). He’s the guy that’s always there for his friends, even if it is with some crazy idea of what kind of party will make them feel better.

Article Author: Josh Lasser

Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. …

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