The Unfiltered Ramblings of a DVR Addict

I don’t know what it is about this season of How I Met Your Mother, but it’s just not doing it for me.  Monday nights used to be something I would really look forward to, and that was because of How I Met Your Mother.  As of now I still enjoy watching the show, but Monday nights is really all about The Big Bang Theory (which did have an off week in my opinion, but was better than HIMYM).  It think it all started with the Barney/Robin relationship and it hasn’t rebounded yet.

The premise of this week’s episode was that Robin is a smoker, and she ends up getting the whole gang to smoke.  Not by peer pressure, but by just being around them.  Has Robin always been a smoker?  I loved that she smoked while she was doing everything, even brushing her teeth.  Strange that it hasn’t come up before now.  When Marshall sees Robin smoking he bums one from her and smokes too.  He tries to hide it from Lilly, but she knows.  Lily uses the fact that Marshall is smoking to smoke herself.  Ted and Barney feeling left out decide to join the other three in smoking.

Marshall tries to quit, but keeps on smoking so that he can get in tight with his new boss, who was actually his old boss played again by Bob Odenkirk.  With his new boss firing everyone Marshall has to keep smoking just to spend time with the guy and save his job.  Robin is also working to save her career.  She has a new co-anchor, Don Frank who’s been the morning show anchor in over 30 different markets including Seattle, Cedar Rapids, and Beaverton.  Don is pretty jaded, and can’t even bother to put pants on to do his job.  He figures no one is watching so why should he care.  Robin hasn’t become jaded yet, and she’s convinced that she shouldn’t give up on her dreams of making it to the networks.

Meanwhile smoking is taking it’s effect on everyone.  Barney ruined a good tie.  Ted can barely make it up the stairs.  And Lily’s voice sounds like Peter Falk.  They all agree to give up smoking, but can’t seem to make it stick.  At the end they agree to have one last good-bye cigarette.  Ted in his voice over admits it wasn’t any of their last cigarettes and let’s us know when exactly each of them quit, although he’s vague about the dates when it comes to himself and Marshall and Lily.

My biggest problem with this episode was it wasn’t all that original.  It seemed like a direct rip-off of Friends.  There were two episodes in particular that came to mind as I was watching tonight’s show.  The first one was when Chandler was trying to quit smoking.  The second one was where Rachel starts smoking so that she can get in good with her boss.  Sure there is nothing new under the sun, but this one hit a little too close to the Friends mark.  It also seemed a little out of left field.  Never once in the history of this show has any of these characters been seen smoking, ok maybe Barney has, but I’m sure it was sex related.

Thoughts and Observations:

• Obviously in 2030 smoking is even more taboo than it is now.  Ted’s kids were shocked when he told them about the gang smoking.  Also, was that the first time we’ve ever heard them speak before?
• When Ted referenced when everyone quit smoking he talked about Lily trying to get pregnant and Marshall quitting when his first child was born.  My guess is this is a bit of foreshadowing for these two.  Obviously it is the next logical step for the couple.
• By the end of the episode the bit with Lily’s voice was a little played out.  It would have been funny in a small dose, but it went on too long.
• Ted also talked about Robin starting to date her co-host Don Frank in three months.  My guess is that we will see that sometime in the spring near the end of the season.
• It was nice seeing teen Marshall, and all the Marshall “last cigarette ever” flashbacks.  I love that pirate costume.
• Barney only smokes when it’s post-coital, pre-coital, pregnancy scares,and when the Mets are mathematically eliminated from contention.  When asked why he was smoking at that moment he explains that he’s always pre-coital.
• Marshall’s formula to hide the fact that he had been smoking included smoking in his underwear, showering, using some sort of loofa on his mouth and then spritzing cologne in there following.