A Man. And His Blog.

Now that the writers have already finished the Ted/Robin couple, the show suddenly grew into the standard-y storytelling. Now all the characters have a story to tell, which will be forgotten in the next episode, and which won’t be important very much for the characters.

I wanted to like Barney’s (Neil Patrick Harris) and Ted’s (Josh Radnor) sudden and casual trip to Philadelphia, but somehow it felt completely forced. The situation with the cops at the airport, Sascha’s (Carla Toutz) ’party’, the thing with licking the Liberty Bell… With the exception of teasing that Ted might be Barney’s only friend, which is why the two hang out, the story basically had nothing to offer. And I was really expecting a drama moment in the cab, when Barney was telling Ted, why he was hanging out with him. Sadly the “You’re my only friend” didn’t come and it was just the boring “You’re my best friend”. But I can’t believe that Ted is the only one, who is actually doing crazy things with him in the past, but in this episode Ted didn’t want to do anything and just go home. I don’t know, I would call that inconsistency, but since it’s only the third episode so far.

Lily’s (Alyson Hannigan) story was cool though. I loved how she wanted to be flirted at, and I loved how she failed, even when she took the ring off. And it was actually sweet to see her fail, while Robin (Cobie Smulders) got all the guys minutes ago. But somehow even this little story went into nowhere after a while, and I don’t really think that the last scene with the gay guy and Marshall (Jason Segel) was funny – after I stopped thinking about how fast Marshall returned to the bar, even though he was already halfway to Philadelphia… Whatever.

What I was criticizing in last episode’s review was Barney not getting any depth. This episode, he suddenly got depth – very surprising. Other than that it was just an average episode, soon forgotten from my mind. 6/10

Attention. Attention! Danger. Danger!

Lily is ready for some male juice

And this episode was already much better than the pilot. The love story between Robin (Cobie Smulders) and Ted (Josh Radnor) looked more sincere this time, and the surprise is that it ended in this episode; the dialog was much better; the acting was much better; and I almost had the feeling that the writers wanted to tell a 21st Century FRIENDS, but still wanted to have their own thing – in this episode all of it worked so much better than in the pilot.

The three parties were good enough to be included in a funny storyline, and I liked how casual Ted wanted to be: when he was answering the phone, when he told his plan to his friends – only Barney’s (Neil Patrick Harris) ”involvement” in this ‘daydream’ was a bit out of place, since I can’t begin anything with his character at the moment. He only looks like the funny/stupid sidekick, who has nothing else to do than comment on the situations of his friends, without having an own story. And even though the whole deal with Works-with-Carlos girl (Beth Riesgraf) and Carlos (Jon Bernthal, damn what was I damaging my brain, thinking about why I know this guy) at the end could be defined as a story for Barney, I still see him as the character, who could be spared for another one, who actually gets a story and a bit of character development.

Other than that, the rest of the group is working better. Ted got a bit more depth in the wonderful roof scene with Robin (so early in the series the best example that HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER wants to tell stories, instead of lining one joke after another), Robin of course got a whole bunch of depth at the end, when she was dropping the “Have you met Ted”. Only Lily (Alyson Hannigan) and Marshall (Jason Segel) seem to stand still at the moment. Right now, they look like they belong in PERFECT COUPLES, rather than in a FRIENDS copy, but I can live with that.

All in all, definitely much more interesting now. As if the pilot was shot real fast without working at the script, and this time the writers actually looked at what they wanted to tell. That’s how I will like this show. 7.5/10

Is there eny coming from Robin?

The roof is gonna be busy tonight

I already know the first season already, but figuring that the series could be the FRIENDS of the 21st Century, I started to rewatch the first episodes, so that I can catch up with the show until the series finale… sometimes in two, three years.

And I was surprised to see that I was remembering the pilot much better. Watching it now let me realize that the dialog was pretty flat, the performances were really weak, especially Josh Radnor‘s. The story itself seems intriguing at first, and though the twist with Robin (Cobie Smulders) not being the mother, instead the aunt, is nice, but it already lets shine through, how the series will look like. I already know what will go o during the later seasons, but I don’t really know if I’m interested in seeing basically nothing for six straight seasons, except some character-based storylines. But then on the other hand, I just have to think of another title of the show, and it could work.

The characters were actually alright for the pilot. The cast got their pictures of how to perform their characters, and some moments were even funny. I can understand why Neil Patrick Harris might be a bit overrated in this show, because his “Suit up” is already annoying me, as well as his kickass-attitude, which seems so out of place for the group of friends he is in, and I’m almost keen to say that Radnor was the weakest link in the series, which is a complete no-go, since his character is the center of the series. So I hope my fading memories of the first season aren’t gone, because I didn’t like what I saw.

Unfortunately, multicams aren’t really funny anymore, but I was happy that the pilot had at least some nice moments. For example the second-base-sentence Lily (Alyson Hannigan) gave, or the kiss between Barney and Marshall (Jason Segel). But the rest was practically lame. Especially Ranjit (Marshall Manesh), who absolutely didn’t fit into the series. He can be the cab driver, I don’t care, but his little second with the group at the end… eyesroll-moment deluxe.

So, all in all, it was not really a great pilot. Sometimes bad acting, sometimes bad dialog, not funny at all times. I wonder why I even watched the first season years ago… 4.5/10

Some kindergarten child got to second base with a witch

There's an awkward moment here