Wasn't thrilled about the episode, the ending did pack an emotional punch (and Jason Segel played it well) but it didn't feel earned...just kind of a sudden kick in the guts with no real buildup.

1/4/2011 2:00:02 PM

Dammit, I thought they were still on the Holidays rerun cycle.



[Edited on January 4, 2011 at 2:20 PM. Reason : Thanks for ruining it for me a-holes.]

1/4/2011 2:20:47 PM

I dunno, Lily/Marshall have always been the more serious of the group so it didn't seem completely out of place for something bad to happen to them as they've been the ones to tackle the really serious issues. He's the only one with a really strong connection to his parents/family and there aren't any secondary characters to have something tragic happen to them. I honestly didn't have a problem with it - my wife didn't like it at all for some reason.

The show's been trending towards that anyways: they stopped the Bob Barker's my dad joke for Barney seriously wondering about his dad, Robin's moving out of slapstick jobs into a serious position, Ted's finally figuring out his career, and Lily/Marshall have the whole pregnancy thing.

but yeah, like Sepinwall's review, it's an okay move for me if they actually go somewhere with it

1/4/2011 2:21:46 PM

I don't have a problem with them tackling serious issues at all, but I thought the execution was lacking in this instance...plus the rest of the episode was pretty weak and unfunny.

1/4/2011 2:29:47 PM

so it would have made more sense in a gut-busting hilarious episode?

It was an average episode with a powerful ending, I don't see why that's a bad thing.

1/4/2011 2:33:03 PM

Quote :

"so it would have made more sense in a gut-busting hilarious episode?"

I don't care if it would make more or less sense, they were trying to be funny for 95% of the episode and it wasn't working (at least for me)...the emotional payoff at the end doesn't excuse it for failing to make me laugh for the vast majority of the episode.

1/4/2011 2:43:49 PM

The jokes weren't hilarious but it wasn't cringe worthy stuff like "where's the poop"


I just don't get the "earned" thing. Did it break some kind of rule that comedy sitcoms aren't allowed to have people die? I mean, I could be wrong and they were just doing it for a "oh shit" moment but I don't think the writers would kill off such an important secondary character just because they ran out of ideas and wanted a reaction

1/4/2011 2:58:47 PM

I really don't have a problem with them tackling serious issues, in fact some of the best episodes are ones that take the characters' emotions seriously (the museum ep with Barney's father for example)...I just felt like the subplot with Marshall's parents was forced and rushed (it made zero sense for them to fly to New York in the first place). And it wouldn't have mattered as much if the rest of the episode was hilarious, but it wasn't.

1/4/2011 3:12:29 PM

I lolled when Barney had the fake beard on and he tried to prescribe Marshall a "light-gun based cardio activity, possibly with a good friend".

1/4/2011 3:31:22 PM

Marshall trying to "concentrate" while his parents dropped innuendos left and right was pretty funny though.

1/4/2011 3:48:59 PM

The countdown was significant. The name of the episode was "Bad News", so anyone watching the show knew that the countdown was to the bad news that would ultimately befall someone in the group.

Quote :

".I just felt like the subplot with Marshall's parents was forced and rushed (it made zero sense for them to fly to New York in the first place)."

I couldn't agree with you less. It is almost as if you aren't even watching the same show. While I do agree that it made no sense for marshall's parents to fly to NYC, it makes equally little sense to play go fish over the phone or for a goat to be in the living room. That being said, the visit from Marshall's parents was important because it provided the words he needed to hear from his dad; marshall needed to hear that he didn't need to live up to his brothers or dad to make them all happy. The writers spelled this out for us when future ted commented that Lilly was about to say something that Marshall would be thankful for the rest of his life.


I do agree that this episode wasn't the funniest, but that wasn't the aim. The aim here was to show us how the group is progressing in their life and to have us further identify with a group and their experiences as they live their early thirties.

1/4/2011 3:59:31 PM

good post

I forgot about the "thankful for the rest of his life" line, I think I'm going to re-watch this episode tonight

[Edited on January 4, 2011 at 4:07 PM. Reason : .]

1/4/2011 4:06:51 PM

Quote :

"While I do agree that it made no sense for marshall's parents to fly to NYC, it makes equally little sense to play go fish over the phone"

So because they sometimes do nonsensical stuff for the sake of a laugh they never have to justify anything they characters do? Pretty weak argument.

Quote :

"the visit from Marshall's parents was important because it provided the words he needed to hear from his dad"

aka it was a rushed setup for killing the dad off

Quote :

"I do agree that this episode wasn't the funniest, but that wasn't the aim. The aim here was to show us how the group is progressing in their life"

Actually it was the aim, that's why 95% of the episode was wacky hijinks (Ted doing karate, Barney's doppleganger, robin sparkles stuff, etc), none of which progressed any of the characters (except Marshall) even remotely.

[Edited on January 4, 2011 at 4:10 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on January 4, 2011 at 4:13 PM. Reason : .]

1/4/2011 4:09:21 PM

Ted's karate was dumb but the other two were standard himym call backs

- the last real doppleganger was a key element in the decision to have kids, karma, etc. so it was crucial to the episode
- robin sparkles stuff wasn't the main focus, it was just on a list of embarrassing things to happen to Robin and how she needed to just man up and admit them all to feel more comfortable in her job.

1/4/2011 4:19:40 PM

I don't think either of those elements progressed the characters at all, they were call backs sure but I didn't think they were done well. Here's a snippet from a review that I thought was interesting:

Quote :

"I was blindsided by the real bad news at the end of “Bad News,” and I’m not at all sure this was well handled. Distracted by collecting the numbers, was it likely we would stay with the themes and feel the connections of the episode? The meta-gag takes us out of the show’s world in a way that makes the final twist feel like an aggressive bomb thrown at us and the characters, a punishment imposed by the same hands that dropped those numbers all over the place, not a real event. Leaving Marshall crying out to the universe that he’s not ready to go it alone without his dad, after playing games with us for 20 minutes? It just seems cruel."

http://www.avclub.com/articles/bad-news,49511/

[Edited on January 4, 2011 at 4:29 PM. Reason : .]

1/4/2011 4:28:33 PM

see, I noticed the numbers from the beginning but it got annoying so I just tuned them out and watched the episode. I knew there was a countdown and I figured there'd be something at the end. It didn't really distract me at all.

I'm not arguing that it was an awesome episode or anything, I just think a lot of people didn't like the fact something so serious was brought into what's usually a light show so it's clouding their opinion on everything else. And I still don't get the "earned" thing but whatever, I'm not trying to be a critic or anything so I'll just drop it

1/4/2011 4:48:09 PM

c'mon guys

this isn't LOST

1/4/2011 4:53:20 PM

Personally I thought this was a great overall episode. The thing I've always loved about HIMYM is that you could relate to things that occur in this show left and right. Normally it's with Ted that I can most see myself in, but other characters as well.

People have trouble having kids all the time, people could relate to that. Some people are close to their parents and some aren't. But when they are taken unexpectedly like Marshall's Dad was, it hits them really hard and Jason Segel played that perfectly as well as Alyson Hannigan. You felt sad for Marshall because you could put yourself in their situation and would probably feel similarly, because you weren't ready for that good bye.

In the back of my mind when Lily said you don't mess with the universe, I knew something not so good would happen. I just didn't think it would be Marshall's father, who in my opinion was a great secondary character.

tl;dr - Can relate to characters, well acted, karma.

1/4/2011 6:18:53 PM

Quote :

"So because they sometimes do nonsensical stuff for the sake of a laugh they never have to justify anything they characters do? Pretty weak argument. "

That would be a weak argument and isn't what I insinuated at all. Never is a strong word and an absolute that I didn't use. My intent was to establish a pattern of behavior between marshall and his family. They do slightly bizarre things all the time, why should this be any different?

Quote :

"aka it was a rushed setup for killing the dad off"

Not at all. I am interested in learning how you equate important to rushed.

Quote :

"Actually it was the aim, that's why 95% of the episode was wacky hijinks "

wacky hijinks? Which episode were you watching. Wacky hijinks is when they race around the city, glee-style sing about suits in downtown new york, or dedicate an episode to slapsgiving. In this episode they spotted a doppleganger for Barney that symoblized time to move on with life and Robin learned to accept her past and even laugh at it so that she can progress and have a prominent future in her new career.

Quote :

"Distracted by collecting the numbers"

This isn't exactly a high level show, so I can't see how anyone would be distracted by the numbers so much that they missed the meat of the show- especially since all the numbers were very very obvious.

1/4/2011 6:23:06 PM

I don't really have the time or energy to respond to everything you posted right now, think I've made my thoughts on the episode relatively clear but I do want to address this

Quote :

"In this episode they spotted a doppleganger for Barney that symoblized time to move on with life and Robin learned to accept her past and even laugh at it so that she can progress and have a prominent future in her new career. "

It seems like some people are attributing way too much significance to the doppleganger thing, it doesn't really resonate with me beyond the diminishing returns of it's comedic value. Maybe that would have had an impact had they not been telling the SAME trite stories about Marshall and Lilly trying to become parents since some time in season 4.

As far as the Robin storyline, it was entirely disposable and could have been inserted at almost any point in the series with a slightly different clip reel and nobody would have noticed. I didn't think either of them had even a hint of profundity, which is fine if the jokes are working but they weren't.

1/4/2011 7:13:15 PM

******SPOILERS maybe*****

Quote :

"I just don't get the "earned" thing. Did it break some kind of rule that comedy sitcoms aren't allowed to have people die? I mean, I could be wrong and they were just doing it for a "oh shit" moment but I don't think the writers would kill off such an important secondary character just because they ran out of ideas and wanted a reaction"

For what it's worth, I read an interview with exec producer and he said that it was THE central theme of the season for the start and will have an impact on the entire group. I think it was pretty well done and I think Marshall is the best character to pick in the group to have it happen (do we even really know, aside from barney, anyone else's parents?).

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a senseless gut punch, but man it was sad... Not afraid to admit that, as someone whose parents are getting up close to their 60's, I came close to shedding a tear. It was really well acted by both of them.

[Edited on January 4, 2011 at 10:48 PM. Reason : x]

1/4/2011 10:47:49 PM

"Sudden kick in the gut" describes a good ten percent of my life...

I thought the ep reflected that reality quite well.

1/4/2011 11:10:06 PM

Some of you are ready to give him an emmy

That scene was maybe 20 seconds long

1/4/2011 11:37:40 PM

Numbers:

1/4/2011 11:49:41 PM

^I had no idea that was going on throughout the episode. Wow.

1/4/2011 11:56:21 PM

me neither but i don't care

1/5/2011 12:02:16 AM

You guys over analyze this shit

1/5/2011 1:01:23 AM

Watched it last night.

Sad shit.

That is all.

1/5/2011 7:49:07 AM

god dammit - earned it? set it up?

sometimes people just die. shit happens unexpectedly all the time

would it have been any different if at the end of a show with nothing about the parents he got a call that said his dad died? shit happens all the time. my grandfather? just keeled over by the side of the road. no health issues. in his 60's. bam - dead. phone call.

it was one of the most realistic things about the whole damn show. someone died when no one expected it. it wasn't meant to be set up. it's how life actually works.

1/5/2011 10:11:24 AM

^ed zachary. It was really sad, and probably struck a lot of people just like me: late 20's or early 30's, close relationship with parents, babies coming or recently born, exciting time of life when everything is going well, then BAM.

Someone mentioned that Jason Segal is a great actor. After re-watching last night, I couldn't agree more. He did a fantastic job, and when he said, "I'm not ready for this," it echoed what I would expect my exact response would be to that news at this point in my life. Really sad, not fun to watch, but did exact some reality into the lives of the characters. well done, IMO.

[Edited on January 5, 2011 at 11:10 AM. Reason : stRuck]

1/5/2011 11:08:58 AM

Quote :

"sometimes people just die. shit happens unexpectedly all the time"

sure they do, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to use it as a plot device on a sitcom though...obviously the ending struck a chord with many of you, it didn't for me but my primary problem was the other 90% of the episode. I think if you take away the ending it's just another mediocre episode, and the ending didn't do enough for me to change my opinion on it.

Quote :

"would it have been any different if at the end of a show with nothing about the parents he got a call that said his dad died?"

I don't think anyone had a problem with how he found out.

1/5/2011 11:57:21 AM

So your original issue was there was no real buildup, it was rushed, and that moment didn't feel "earned" and that's what everybody's responding to. And then it changed to well who cares about the ending because the rest of it wasn't funny.

Quote :

"sure they do, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to use it as a plot device on a sitcom though"

so was it the execution that bothered you? or that they used the plot device in the first place?


I don't think anybody's claiming it was all-time classic either. Even though I do think you're underrating it a bit (maybe you were one of those distracted by the countdown or something) I agree that it didn't knock anything out of the park. But I'm pleased they're trying something different with this angle and maybe it'll freshen up the show a little bit because it has become a little too reliant on the same call backs.

[Edited on January 5, 2011 at 12:29 PM. Reason : .]

1/5/2011 12:26:38 PM

Quote :

"And then it changed to well who cares about the ending because the rest of it wasn't funny. "

It didn't really change, I'm just saying that even if you really liked the ending I don't think it absolves the rest of the episode of being weak. I expect sitcoms to be funny first, and if they do pack an emotional punch that's icing on the cake.

Quote :

"so was it the execution that bothered you? or that they used the plot device in the first place? "

A little of column A, a little of column B


And I certainly could be underrating it, if the rest of the season ends up being really strong then I think my assessment of this episode will change somewhat.

1/5/2011 1:25:11 PM

I honestly don't think that Marshall's parents visiting is that much of a stretch in the history of the show. I mean it shows Marshall calling him for damn near everything, 2-3 missed phone calls, they prolly got worried and came to NYC

1/5/2011 1:27:33 PM

Quote :

"Perhaps hoping to rekindle that Britney Spears magic, "How I Met Your Mother" has landed Katy Perry for a guest-starring turn this spring. CBS announced on Thursday (Jan. 6) that Perry will appear in the episode titled "Oh Honey," which will be broadcast later this season, playing the beautiful, naive cousin of Jennifer Morrison's Zoey."

http://www.hitfix.com/articles/katy-perry-meets-how-i-met-your-mother

I'm not a fan of stunt casting, but I do like Katy Perry cleavage...

1/6/2011 2:53:39 PM

Quote :

"I'm not a fan of stunt casting, but I do like Katy Perry cleavage..."

1/6/2011 2:55:21 PM

I, too, am a fan of her breasts.

1/6/2011 4:38:52 PM

Pretty uneven episode overall (Ted/Barney stuff was terrible, Robin becoming Morgan Freeman in Shawshank was funny), but there were some good character moments with Marshall and Lily.

1/17/2011 8:41:57 PM

it was okay, I guess

the bully storyline/joke was the only really bad part to me

1/17/2011 10:29:55 PM

^ Only because they just kind of left it there. Could've been better.

It was average. Crocodile Dundee 3.

1/18/2011 7:20:13 AM

Too many pointless things with no resolution. The bully and the make Marshall laugh thing had no pay off.

1/18/2011 7:41:04 AM

meh.

1/18/2011 9:32:04 AM

I don't like Ted and Zoe, but that was a fantastic episode. Funniest of the season for me...

[Edited on February 7, 2011 at 8:47 PM. Reason : also. Tits.]

2/7/2011 8:46:52 PM

Agreed. Freaking hilarious. And I dont know what it is about Katy Perry, but she has a weird look. However, her boobs looked as good as always.

[Edited on February 7, 2011 at 9:44 PM. Reason : she's not a he]

2/7/2011 9:44:00 PM

I loved it!! Plus the end with Ted and Zoe ... AAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

2/7/2011 9:50:37 PM

Great, great episode.

2/7/2011 9:59:24 PM

Quote :

"I dont know what it is about Katy Perry, but she has a weird look. However, her boobs looked as good as always."

yeah, it all depends on her hairstyle. her face looked really square or something with the way she had her hair in this episode

but the boobs always get a A++


I thought the episode was pretty good but I wanna say I've laughed more at some others this season (can't think of them off the top of my head though)

[Edited on February 7, 2011 at 10:00 PM. Reason : .]

2/7/2011 10:00:29 PM

I, too, thought this episode was great. I kept thinking that Marshall's mother and brother cutting in on the phone conversations would get old but I lolled every time.

2/8/2011 9:19:17 AM

I'm "eh" on Ted falling in love w/ another girl who's not the mother....BUT...fantastic way to pull it off. Great episode.

2/8/2011 9:31:42 AM

How do you know for sure she's not the mother? Because they didn't say right away that she was the mother?

2/8/2011 9:57:37 AM