‘How I Met Your Mother’ recap: Out with the old, in with the new

Oh, “How I Met Your Mother,” you tease. Although the outcome of the Lily-and-Marshall (Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segel) story line was pretty obvious and I felt confident that Ted (Josh Radnor) would not get back together with Zoey (Jennifer Morrison), the show really did keep me guessing about Robin (Cobie Smulders) and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris). The two of them spent most of the episode trying to stop Ted’s and Zoey’s reconciliation, but their journey also led them to reexamine their own relationship. On the cab ride to Brooklyn, they mused over how horrible a couple Ted and Zoey were. “Almost as bad as us,” Barney said. “We were a mess,” Robin replied. She could see why Ted might want to go back to Zoey. “No matter how bad things go”  — a loaded pause — “Ted really did love Zoey there for a minute there, didn’t he?” Ted was clearly a substitute for Barney and Zoey was Robin, but it was still really wonderful to see such a vulnerable moment from Robin. Barney smiled before replying, “Yeah, he did. And she loved him too, didn’t she?” You bet she did.

That might have been one of my favorite Barney-and-Robin scenes. It was a nice acknowledgment of their relationship -– almost a validation -– and featured unusually soft and emotional interplay for the pair. It’s not often we get to see them discussing their feelings so openly (even if they didn’t use their own names) and simply. Remember how complicated it was when they dated? This was simple and lovely. I wish we’d seen more of this and less of the “mess.”

Alas, the foreshadowing didn’t bode well for Robin and Barney, whose new motto is, “New is always better.” When they finally tackled Ted to the ground, Robin tried to persuade him not to go into the coffee shop to meet Zoey. “The future is scary, but you can’t run back to the past because it’s familiar,” she said, but she was looking at Barney, who added, “It’s a mistake.” No, sometimes, it really isn’t, you guys! Get it together, please! But then Barney ran into Nora, who is also part of his past. So does that mean old is better? Or are they doomed if they get back together?

Read the rest of my recap at the L.A. Times Show Tracker blog.

‘How I Met Your Mother’ recap: Breaking up is hard to do

Photo Credit: Ron P. Jaffe / Fox

“We’re done here.” I think the word that was missing there as Zoey (Jennifer Morrison) and Ted (Josh Radnor) broke up on this week’s “How I Met Your Mother” was, “finally!” Like Robin (Cobie Smulders), we knew the relationship was doomed, but getting there has been a long, often frustrating journey. Zoey and Ted’s differences shadowed them like a black cloud to the point where you could see very few rays of hope. At this point, I can’t even remember what, besides a love of architecture and the Arcadian — which they can’t even agree on — they have in common. Is Zoey even a “Star Wars” fan? I’m pretty sure that’s a prerequisite for Ted’s future wife.

Ted didn’t share any of my qualms about the possible would-be Mrs. Mosby. When Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) accused him of switching sides for a girl and her “magic lady bits,” Ted only argued with him a little before admitting that he was doing it for the girl he’s in love with. “There’s a very good chance Zoey might be the mother of my children,” he said. Negative, Ted, but he didn’t know any better. Ted started to show concern for Barney when he found out Arthur would fire him and Barney if he stood up for the Arcadian. Working at GNB, doing stuff — “What does Barney do at GNB?” Lily (Alyson Hannigan) asked — is Barney’s dream job, so Ted paused. I had to wonder if this was all really worth ruining his friendship with Barney. Yes, he’s in love with Zoey, but she’s come between him and his first loves, his friends, in a pretty big away. Is losing them worth keeping her?

Read the rest of my recap at the L.A. Times Show Tracker blog.

‘How I Met Your Mother’ recap: The cockamouse returns

Photo Credit: Eric McCandless / Fox

There’s a random B-plot from the first season of “How I Met Your Mother” that makes me laugh like no other: The half cockroach, half mouse creature known as the cockamouse. A while back, CBS tweeted that a beloved character from Season 1 was returning. I’m pretty sure they were referring to the cockamouse’s appearance in this week’s episode. It all started with Zoey (Jennifer Morrison) hiring Marshall (Jason Segel) to save the Arcadian, thereby turning Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Marshall against each other, which is a surefire way to make an already difficult character even harder to like. You don’t mess with the group dynamic, Zoey.

After being harassed by Barney, Marshall declared war and began to sabotage his hookups. One example: Marshall posed as a doctor and alerted Barney to the fact that his crabs have super herpes in front of a girl! You know things have gone from playful to serious, though, when Marshall and Barney get into a physical fight, getting the entire group banned from their beloved McLarens. Robin (Cobie Smulders) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) hatch a plan to ply them with specific types of alcohol to elicit certain reactions. Gin gets them fighting instead of giving each other the silent treatment. Whiskey makes the subtext into text. Marshall explains how his dad’s death has made him interested in preservation. Barney points out his abandonment issues, which Marshall isn’t helping by leaving him for Zoey’s side. Then come the daiquiris, which makes them in love with how pretty they are, followed by tequila shots at McLarens, which makes them…I’m not exactly sure what. How about drunk out of their minds? But they patch it up over beer. Lily’s celebratory champagne the night before was one drink too many. They blacked out and forgot about their reconciliation.

Read the rest of my recap at the L.A. Times Show Tracker blog.

‘How I Met Your Mother’ recap: How Barney learned to stop partying and settle down

Photo Credit: Carin Baer / Fox

Despite the title of this week’s “How I Met Your Mother” – “Hopeless” – it seems things are not hopeless for Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), who has a real epiphany about his life. Barney decides to bust Jerry (John Lithgow) out of the suburbs and take him on a wild night out on the town. For the purposes of the evening, he’s constructed new, cooler identities for his friends. Lily (Alyson Hannigan) and Marshall (Jason Segel) now have an open marriage while Marshall is a womanizing playwright. Robin (Cobie Smulders) is a professional Scotch taster who’s dating Ted (Josh Radnor). “Oh man! Why?!” Robin whines. She, like viewers, must be getting tired of the show pulling out the Ted/Robin card every year just to mess with us. Barney explains that he can’t have any single female friends because then his dad will be like, “Why don’t you marry Robin? You guys were cut together. Deep down you know you were never happier than when you were with her.” Robin looks a little surprised, but the scene quickly moves on. Still, this little moment seems very loaded with possibility. Is that Barney’s subconscious speaking about his true feelings for Robin, the things he can’t even admit to himself? Is it foreshadowing that Robin and Barney are the ones getting married in the premiere wedding?

After a lengthy argument about where to go, filled with club names like Was, Lame, Open that really reminded me of the episode “Okay Awesome,” everyone ends up at Hopeless. Barney exclaims that he wants to hang out with Crazy Jerry, who told him to “never stop partying” when he was 6, not lame suburban Jerry. So Jerry downs a few shots and lets loose, but being a bit older, he does so in an incredibly embarrassing way that includes wearing his tie around his head and calling the club a disco. “This is awesome!” says Barney. “I finally know what it’s like to be embarrassed by my dad.” The two take the party to the streets, where Jerry rips a parking meter out of the ground, gets into an argument, and throws up on a police car. As Jerry and Barney sit on the curb in handcuffs, Jerry reveals that he’s not really drunk. It was all a sleight-of-hand aided by the fact that “a magician’s best friend is a drunk audience.” Jerry thought if he could show Barney what it’s like when you try to make the party go on forever, he’d realize he can’t do this forever.

Read the rest of my recap at the L.A. Times Show Tracker blog.

‘How I Met Your Mother’ recap: Screaming matches and meatball subs

As “How I Met Your Mother” nears the end of its season — there are just four episodes left!— the issues that have been lying dormant in Ted (Josh Radnor) and Zoey’s (Jennifer Morrison) relationship are starting to surface. Since becoming friends and then something more, the two have been getting along pretty well even though they were on opposite sides at the beginning of the season. Although future Ted confirmed their inevitable breakup, things had been going pretty smoothly for the couple. But executive producer Craig Thomas teased to me that their issues regarding the Arcadian would complicate their relationship. It was nice to finally see that brought up onscreen with this week’s episode.

But the Arcadian is not the only thing Ted and Zoey argue about. Lily (Alyson Hannigan) brings up their constant screaming matches, which Ted calls “growing matches.” They dispute everything: Sex moves, who should hang up first, even “Tommy Boy.” Not everybody can be “one hermaphroditic blob” like Lily and Marshall (Jason Segel). Lily’s response: “Marshall and I have been together for 15 years, and the only debate we’ve had about ‘Tommy Boy’ is whether it’s awesome or super awesome. That’s love, bitch.”

When Marshall finally quits his job and takes a nonpaid position saving the environment, Lily is completely supportive. Ted thinks her giant anime eyes give away the truth: She’s not OK with Marshall’s choice. Lily counters that his feminine mouth gives away his true feelings. It’s saying, “Zoey, why can’t I be on top just this once?” Lily mimics in a little-girl voice, which actually kind of sounds like an anime character. But they’re still friends, so she admits that even though Ted and Zoey’s relationship is different, that doesn’t mean it’s not right.

Read the rest of my recap at the L.A. Times Show Tracker blog.

‘How I Met Your Mother’: Executive producer Craig Thomas reflects on Ted’s many loves

Photo Credit: Monty Brinton / CBS

How many women does it take to get to the mother on “How I Met Your Mother”?

That’s the question on the mind of some eager-to-know fans of the CBS sitcom. By our count, it’s a lot and counting. Although a romantic at heart, Ted (Josh Radnor) has had a bevy of love interests. Some, like Robin (Cobie Smulders), Stella (Sarah Chalke) and current love Zoey (Jennifer Morrison), were serious girlfriends. Others were fleeting encounters or brief relationships. And then there’s the string of pop star, one-episode love interests: Katy Perry, Carrie Underwood, Britney Spears, Mandy Moore.

“If you start to count all the ladies that Ted’s been with, Ted starts to look like a bit of a man whore,” executive producer Craig Thomas tells Show Tracker.

We asked Thomas to look back at some of those ladies for a gallery featuring the women on Ted’s journey to the mother. But with so many ladies, we couldn’t include everyone. Still, we think of you fondly, Natalie (Anne Dudek), Cathy (Lindsay Price), Holli (Rebecca Budig), Blah Blah (Abigail Spencer), Margaret (Brooke D’Orsay), Vicky (Courtney Ford), Jen (Lindsay Sloane), Royce (Judy Greer), Becky (Laura Bell Bundy), mysterious Love Solutions match and many, many others.

Read the rest of my post and check out the photo gallery of Ted’s many love interests, featuring executive producer Craig Thomas’ thoughts, at the L.A. Times Show Tracker blog.

‘How I Met Your Mother’: Robin’s got a crush on Michael Trucco

Photo Credit: Alan Zenuk / USA Network.

Things are getting a little more romantically complicated on “How I Met Your Mother,” but it has nothing to do with the mother. Michael Trucco will appear as a potential love interest for Robin (Cobie Smulders) in an upcoming episode, CBS confirms.

Trucco will play Robin’s often discussed but never before seen crush from years earlier in the April 18 episode, TV Guide Magazine first reported. The character has the potential to come back next season despite the fact that Trucco is currently on USA Network’s “Fairly Legal.”

During a recent interview, Show Tracker asked executive producer Craig Thomas what’s in store for Robin next season. Earlier this month, executive producer Carter Bays told AOL TV that “there’s going to be a lot of Robin next season.”

“There were a bunch of huge, emotional arcs going on for the other characters in Season 6, so Robin’s stories were more light and funny,” Thomas replied. “Next season, we intend to dig into Robin’s emotional life more, while, hopefully, sacrificing none of the funny.”

Read the rest of my post at the L.A. Times Show Tracker blog.

‘How I Met Your Mother’ recap: ‘The mother of all fathers’

Photo Credit: Sonja Flemming / CBS

Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) finally met his father, Jerry (John Lithgow), on tonight’s “How I Met Your Mother,” but it didn’t go as Barney expected. In Barney’s imagination, his dad left him because he was living an awesome, legendary life of excess. That’s the only way Barney can justify his absence. But the person who shows up at Barney’s door is nothing like that. Barney lies to the gang and tells them Jerry is “the mother of all fathers.” He ordered the same drink as Barney, picked up a chick in five seconds – that’s still too long for Jerry though, who rips up the number, proclaiming, “Life’s too short for chatty chicks” – and travels the world with rock bands. He invites Barney along, who replies, “This is going to be the second most fun I’ve had on an Asian leg.” It’s legen – wait for it – daddy. Except that Jerry isn’t anything like that. In reality, he’s a skim milk drinking, acid reflux suffering driving instructor with a family in the suburbs. Props have to be given to Lithgow, who gave great comedic distinction to the two versions of Jerry.

Barney wants nothing to do with this lame version of Jerry and ignores his calls, forcing the gang to stage an intervention at Ted’s (Josh Radnor) house, which seems to be coming along nicely. Marshall (Jason Segel) lays on the “I’ll never talk to my dad again”guilt and convinces Barney to have dinner with Jerry and his family, who live just 10 minutes away. (So Ted and Barney’s dad will one day live in the same neighborhood? Random.)

Read the rest of my recap at the L.A. Times Show Tracker blog.

‘How I Met Your Mother’: Executive producer Craig Thomas previews Barney’s father

Photo Credit: Sonja Flemmming / CBS

Who’s your daddy? For Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) on “How I Met Your Mother,” it turns out to be John Lithgow! After years of thinking Bob Barker was his father and even refusing to believe Ben Vereen wasn’t his father, Barney will finally meet his dad in Monday night’s episode, appropriately titled “Legendaddy.” But papa Stinson might not be exactly what Barney imagines. Recently, the show’s executive producer, Craig Thomas, chatted with Showtracker about one of the show’s biggest mystery, casting the mysterious father figure and what meeting his father means for Barney’s future and his romantic relationships.

Marshall’s father dying has set off all these chain-reaction stories, one of which is Barney looking for his father on Monday’s episode. Is there like a particular reason why he seeks him out?

We sort of wanted to turn the tables a little bit and make it not that Barney was seeking him out in this episode but that Barney had a missile in the air in the form of a letter that he sent to his dad. He got his dad’s address. In the episode called “Oh Honey” this year, he says to Katy Perry in this scene that he sent a letter and never heard back from his dad. So we kind of planted that in Episode 15 of this season. There’s kind of this boomerang that Barney threw out there that’s going to come back to him in the form of John Lithgow in Monday night’s episode. It sort of comes out of nowhere and takes Barney by surprise. He’d started to give up on it a little. So it’s really not so much the hunt as it is … oh my God, my dad’s standing right in front of me. It’s kind of a great, shocking moment that kicks off the episode, and it takes off from there.

Read the rest of my interview with Craig Thomas at the L.A. Times Show Tracker blog.

‘How I Met Your Mother’ recap: On matters of the heart

Photo: Eric McCandless / FOX

How do you add depth to a ladies’ man like Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) on “How I Met Your Mother”? In this week’s episode, “A Change of Heart,” we saw a different, confused side of Barney, who’s struggling with his feelings for Nora (Nazanin Boniadi). In a lovely show of friendship, the gang all had their hearts checked out by a doctor, who made Barney wear a heart monitor for 24 hours. She noticed some spikes in his results, so he took her over the events of the previous day, which featured his second date with Nora. The heart monitor went crazy when Nora started talking about how she wants to get married and have children. It was straightforward, yes, but kind of skipping a few steps. This was only the second date. Barney lied and said he wanted the same things, including three kids —  “One of each,” he said — in order to get in her good graces and her pants. On the walk home, he admitted to lie and said he only told her those things to get to sleep with her. She slapped him, and the next day at the doctor’s, Lily (Alyson Hannigan) punched him in the gut for lying. But the lie was the lie. He wants those things, Lily insisted. At 8:30 p.m., the time of his date, his heart literally skipped a beat, the doctor said, when Nora walked into the restaurant. Barney went to meet Nora and her parents at a cafe and told her, “I want to be confused with you.” Except he was imagining himself telling her that. In reality, Barney stared through the glass door at Nora before walking away.

I’ve long wanted to see Barney grow and deepen as a character. I wanted to see him and Robin (Cobie Smulders) in a relationship, not the abbreviated, out-of-character hookup they had. But I’m having a few issues with this story line. First, Nora’s very ill-defined as a character while at the same time being a lighter version of Robin.

Read the rest of my recap at the L.A. Times Show Tracker blog.