The unofficial logline for How I Met Your Mother’s fourth episode — titled “Best. Night. Ever.” — just landed on my desk and it’s predictably hilarious-sounding…
Marshall and Lily want to hook up with Barney and Robin for double-dating and fun, but their desperate eagerness to please is a huge turn-off. Meanwhile, when a succession of girls come to his apartment and immediately fall asleep, Ted is bummed to learn he is a “Sexless Innkeeper” whose “dates” are only interested in a comfy place to crash.
Sept. 21 (a.k.a. HIMYM’s premiere date) can’t come soon enough.
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I am now obsessed with that expression. “Sexless Innkeeper.” Amazing.
This is the show I’m most looking forward to returning this fall! Can’t wait for more hilarity with the gang.
Yay! I love HIMYM. Can’t wait for the hilarity to resume!
I tried to watch this show for the first time last night. Embarrassingly unfunny. Like ‘Two and a Half Men’ type bad. Excruciating.
No. No. No.
Two and a Half Men is indeed Trash. Don’t lump in HIMYM with it. Its a serial show. You NEED to watch it from the beginning to get it. They have whats called “Good Writers” working on the show, something most television studios know nothing about.
Do yourself a favor: Turn off the mindless reality shows you tune into each week and start watching HIMYM from the beginning. You would be hurting only yourself if you disregarded this suggestion.
Dude, if a guy watches this show and uses the word “excruciating” – odds are he ain’t EVER going to see the same hillarious show you do.
To start, you have no concept of my tv watching habits/preferences.
This show is as unfunny as ‘Two and 1/2 Men’. Lowest common denominator. Not to my taste. Forced and with a very passe laugh track on overdrive. It’s painful to watch Doogie Houser working so hard to grind laughs out of such a pablum script.
Do yourself a favor and watch something truly funny: ‘30 Rock’.
@Tim
And you have no idea of my viewing habits. I watch and enjoy the Office and 30 Rock. However, you admitted yourself that you watched one episode of HIMYM, from a random season and base an entire series on it. It is not in the same breath as 2 1/2 Men (which we both agree is garbage).
HIMYM is an anomily in the sense of comidies, in that it is a progressive storyline with many episodes entirely based around previous episodes. “Slapsgiving” for example. You wouldn’t understand half of how really funny it is without the build up of several previous episodes. This isn’t a show like “Friends”, for example, with a main story losely connecting several episodes. Its something you need to watch from the beginning to really enjoy fully.
I had no problem jumping into season 2 of 30 Rock to start enjoying it because it’s largly a unique episode every time, with only a few guest characters popping in for a 2-3 episode arch (John Hamm, Selma Hayek, etc…) that modifies the typical storyline. The cast and characters have largly remained the same. Liz, Jack, Kenneth and Tracy (et al)have all been mostly the same characters which (don’t get me wrong i love them) have undergone little character growth and change over the past 3 seasons.
Here’s a better example. If you started watching Season 3, episode 12 of Lost, would you have any real idea of whats going on, and if its a good show? You do a disservice to yourself and the show for just trying it out this far into its existence and making a blanket statement about the quality of the show as a whole. I’m just saying, if you’re going to give something a chance, try the beginning, not the middle.
But at the end of the day, you’re still going to hate it, I’m still going to love it, so lets just agree to disagree about HIMYM, and agree that 2 1/2 Men is terrible.
Fair enough, though I’d argue that ‘30 Rock’ is far more serialized than you describe. (I think you also underplay the evolution of the characters you list, particularly the leads Fey and Baldwin.) ‘The Office’ is probably the most serialized sitcom I’ve witnessed. ‘Friends’ I can’t speak to, I’ve only ever seen one episode and found it to be unfunny – serialized or not. ‘Lost’ – if inscrutable is consistently intriguing and engaging whether you’ve watched one season or all seasons.
I get your opinion regarding ‘Mother’, but ultimately it’s a 30 minute sitcom. I would still expect actual jokes to come through. I found none. The same way I find ‘2 1/2 Men’. I was really surprised at how grating the Doogie Howser performance was. The man was sweating bullets for the laugh, the laugh track was roaring and no one at my house was laughing.
Perhaps it’s the omnipresent laugh track? Makes the whole thing very forced and feel very old fashioned. It’s almost like an insurance policy, as if the producers don’t think the show is funny enough so they force the laughter cues on the audience. I also find the laugh track distracting on ‘Old Christine’ – which I think is a solidly funny, terrifically performed show. Perhaps we’d agree that CBS could put the laugh track out to pasture?
His name is Neil Patrick Harris not Doogie Howser. He has gone on to do much better things with his career for you to marginalize him with a role that he did when he was 12. You clearly have no idea what good acting is because he is amazing. That’s not just my opinion either as he has been nominated for 3 Emmy’s. Also if you haven’t seen Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Video Blog you haven’t seen the best of NPH.
It is befuddling to me that someone could like 30 Rock and not HIMYM. I, personally, find the humor in these 2 shows to be very similar.
To Ian – sorry, didn’t mean to offend your icon. I couldn’t recall the gent’s name. No offense meant. Is there a reason he should be ‘marginalized’ by his most notable role to date, his actual introduction to the industry? No? Then why are you so offended?
Kelly – Again, perhaps it’s just not to my taste, but I found this ‘Mother’ show very similar to ‘2 1/2 Men’. What I saw had none of the intelligence, insight of ‘30 Rock’. What I saw was really desperate acting – nowhere near the level of an Alec Baldwin. Sorry, just my impression.
You don’t have to apoligize… I was just expressing my opinion that if you find 30 Rock to be intelligent comedy (as do I) then you will probably feel the same way about HIMYM if you were to try a different episode. That’s all I meant to say, you’re certainly welcome to disagree, I’m just pointing out that you probably just saw a dud show and would probably like it upon further review. I think we all can agree that not every episode of all good shows are a home-run, there have been some episodes not to my taste either, but that’s true of every show that I like.
Lost is Intriguing? Funny. I think the show is so mind-numbingly and painfully horrible that I couldn’t dare watch it. I thought that, having come into the middle of the series. So I gave it a shot and watched the first episode: HORRIBLE.
But anyway, ’tis true, you must watch How I Met Your Mother from the beginning. The storylines do not make sense without it, like, you’ll never understand why the yellow umbrella is so important. Or when Marshall slaps Barney again, or … mostly anything, really.
If the mother dooesn’t show up by the end of season 5. Fans should revolt.
the sooner mother shows up the sooner the show ends. it’s the best comedy on network tv right now. don’t wish it’s death.
Why would you want it to end? Duh!
YAY! This means they really become a couple…please keep it going! I also refuse to give them a cute pet name by putting their two names together.
Good call re: resisting the urge to give R & B a shipper name. (…Although I might have accidentally just done so. Whoops.) There’s so much comedy to be mined from seeing these two commitmentphobes in a relationship. It’d be a mistake to break them up too soon. Plus, well… I heart them.
I thought this was discussed last season and it was determined the name would be “Swarkles”?
If you don’t get the mash up, you aren’t a fan. And no, I didn’t come up with it, not taking credit for it, and i won’t explain it for those of you who dont get it. Just watch season 3.
Swarkles is a perfect name!
Actually, I think their couple name is BRotp, because Barney and Robin are bros and a one true pairing. Swarkles is cute though.
Swarkles is AWESOME!
All of the spoilers I’ve read pretty much focus on one thing – Barney and Robin. NEWSFLASH: They, especially Barney (who is pretty much the only thing the writers seem to care about anymore) are not the whole show. It’s one thing to give them more stories, but it’s really becoming the Barney Show, and that’s not a good thing. If that’s what they want, they need to change the show’s title. I have yet to read a spoiler for this season that didn’t sound horrible. Shame since it was so brilliant in the first two seasons…
Terms like “the Sexless Innkeeper” are what make this show. Love it, love the show, can’t wait for the season to start!
SWARKLES- Genious!! I find HIMYM more funny than 30Rock, but I also found FRIENDS a great show…
@ Tim and No- I’d suggest watching the first few episodes, as that is how I got into HIMYM, I Netflix’d the first season, and was hooked after the end of the first disk.
Slapsgiving was the first episode I caught a glimpse of- I found it hysterical even though I had not seen it before.
That’s funny a sexless innkeeper!! And of course Ted = Sexless Innkeeper – funny as heck!!
What about Brobin ?
Barney + Robin + bro … ?
Or ‘Brobin Swarkles’ haha
Come on everyone – it’s gotta be Swarkles. That’s the most awesome shipper name i’ve ever heard!