oh SHOW

[jlh]

Was that a classic episode or what?

So much to love I really should draw a map.

• I love it when Ted is a moron. Misreading Stella's sarcasm about Manhattan, not picking up on Marshall's growing fascination with the Jerz, and yet, happily reading a bedtime story. While I've always said I didn't think Stella was the mother (within the conceit of the show, why would the kids hang around for this part of the story? either they have an older half-sister or they don't) it's the first time I felt that Ted/Stella was doomed.
  
• Robin hating her job. Robin riding a little girl's bicycle down the aisle of an NJ Transit train. Robin going back to her job and then discarding it again. And as dollsome noted, her dance of joy looking a lot like a Robin Sparkles routine.
  
• Marshall feeling like he's too big for Manhattan--picking up on last week's theme of Marshall taking a long time to get used to the city, and wandering the earth for the perfect hamburger. Marshall loving the Costco where everything is BIG. Marshall wanting a dog shirt.
  
• Lily being a total snob. Lily encouraging Barney to act like a goddamned human being. Lily-Barney in general; one of the most brilliant things this show has done is have Lily live with Barney briefly when she and Marshall were on that break and using it to drive a real intimate friendship between the two of them, because Lily knows things about Barney that no one else does.
  
• Barney trying to get a bump and a high-five. Barney losing his touch ever-so-slightly. Barney continuing to be in Robin's corner about her career. Barney seeing "that look" on Ted's face. The look on Barney's face when Robin said she was moving to Japan.

I love, love, love the continuity of characters in this show, even down to rollerblade guy on the train. I love how tiny things become big things.

But more impressive is how well the show handles all these relationships of Ted's that aren't the Mother. Even though Ted got together with Victoria after Robin decided she was interested, and even though we were rooting for Ted and Robin to finally get together, I still liked Victoria a lot. And even though we knew that Ted and Robin were doomed, and the show did a great job of showing us why, I still enjoyed the time that Ted and Robin spent together. I feel the same about Stella. I wasn't that enthusiastic about her at first, but the show has really made me like her (though I am a fan of Sarah Chalke anyway). And even though the show is giving us "Ted and Stella are doomed" messages, I still like her effect on Ted. He can be a very impractical guy, after all.

So, thoughts?

Comments

[strawberrytatoo.livejournal.com]

This episode just showed all of the reasons why I love this show so so much. (Although I wasn't really into last weeks ep)

I agree with you about all of Ted´s relationships. It is amazing to me how likable every character is on the show, it´s something I´ve never seen before in a scripted show.

And Barney´s FACE when Robin said she was leaving, it just broke my little heart. Gahhh.

♥

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I agree about last week being just okay. Though compared to the "non plot" episodes of last season last week was pretty strong, the "non plot" episodes are never as interesting as the plotty ones. Also, was there even a b-plot last week other than that bad recurring joke about Robin not getting to eat until the end? That said, Marshall and Barney working near each other again is certain to prove comedy gold as it did last time.

OMG Barney's FACE. OMG.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

I missed the beginning of the ep but I loved what I did manage to see. So now we know (spoilery, highlight to see) . I think I agree that Ted/Stella is doomed. And I actually felt a tad sad for Barney last night, between the bump thing and Robin moving to Japan.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Yes, we totally know that, and from flash forwards we also know that Marshall and Lily stay together basically forever. Barney was trying so hard last night, poor man!

[ali-wildgoose.livejournal.com]

JAPAN D:

I will have to discuss this at length in person, but 1) oh man, Jersey, so many mixed feelings, 2) I really hope this pushes Barney to DO something instead of continuing to stall and pretend he doesn't care.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I really hope he does, and I wonder what will happen? The show, it makes me wonder! And yet I'm excited to see what they will come up with!

[misscake]

Lily and Barney's dynamic is one of my absolute most favorite things about this show.

Okay, now I'm off to read your B/R Yuletide fic...

[jlh.livejournal.com]

The friendships on this show are truly as important and as satisfying as the relationship stuff. Also: aww, thanks!

[shakespearechic.livejournal.com]

I really did like this episode - I think it's my favorite of the new season so far. It had the perfect amount of plot and character growth and seemingly random but cool details!

[jlh.livejournal.com]

That's such a good summary of what's awesome about the show, esp the random but cool details, like the guy on the rollerblades on the train.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Barney's ending face just said it all--and yeah, I feel the doom for Ted and Stella. Which doesn't bother me, but will be sad for the kid. I cringe so much when Ted starts being a dick about New York--I hope he's humiliated about that later in life!

But luckily that led to the high point of the episode for me, which was Marshall's speech about being too big for New York, like some giant monster that destroyed bodegas. Even I feel that way sometimes in New York and I'm a lot smaller than Marshall.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I will totally be sad for the kid, and so will Stella, and that breakup won't be happy, so I'm not sure about Stella's supposed connection to the yellow umbrella, which of course Ted now has.

Someone said that they adored Marshall's speeches and I concur! He's a great speechifyer!

[scrabble.livejournal.com]

I agree about Stella and the kid, which seems like something that many people have forgotten in the "Is Stella the mother?" debate. It would be way too ridiculous to try and write it as though, if Stella were the mother, the kids would not have obviously realised it at this point. I mean, apart from the half-sister thing, you'd have to assume Ted has been using a fake name for Stella this whole time which would be some absurd backpedaling. Granted, I understand they are no longer shooting new scenes with the kids, but there's also the fact that the show is doing better than ever, which means they're pretty likely to get a fifth season. Two whole seasons after meeting the mother seems unlikely. I suspect that with the worry of not getting a season four last year, the intention may have been, "Well, if necessary we can make her the mother."

I'd been considering the possibility of Stella's sister being the mother since she was at that bar with her on St Patrick's Day, although now I'm not hopeful about that because the actress they cast for her was in Harold and Kumar 2 and I didn't care for her very much.

I think Robin is actually going to move to Japan, as I just watched the Ted and Robin break-up episode the other night and that's one of the places where Ted says Robin went on to live.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I did heavy research on that episode for the fic I wrote, so when I heard Japan I knew she was moving. I wonder how the show will handle that as clearly she comes back and will still be connected and all that.

You make great points about the ratings/seasons/who's the mother. Not many scripted shows are up after the WGA-strike-shortened season. (Those ABC Wednesday dramas are doing very badly, as is Heroes.) I agree that we won't get two seasons after the mother, probably just a solid one season of absurd wedding planning or the like. (He does refer to her as "my wife" in that flash forward to the reunion where he's sitting around getting high with Marshall and Lily, right?) So it depends on whether they see the show as a 5 or 7-season arc, now that they're in a better position with the network, especially as Worst Week is doing a very bad job of holding onto its Two and a Half Men lead-in

[emsariel.livejournal.com]

Okay, so ali_wildgoose is now probably living in fear that I will prove parallel to Marshall in this, as in so many other things. I am not too big for New York, but city life has come dearly.

And, yeah. I love the continuity of the characters, and all the details... every little character moment is just right for each character, often not in ways that I'd expect or write myself. They're so *believeable*, and I have no idea what is coming next, even when it's foreshadowed.

[honestys-easy.livejournal.com]

I just watched the episode now, and omg. This was certainly the episode that I needed to watch. Fighting over The Apple versus the Jerz! Big stores with cupholders! Massive amounts of time on the train! It was exactly what I needed right now. It is true, though, that there is something to be said about a New Yorker's loyalty to the city: we can badmouth it as much as we like but that doesn't mean we don't love it or that you can badmouth it, too. Poor Marshall though is the opposite side of the coin, being in the city for Lily yet hating being this huge man in the tiny city, lol.

Lily and Barney have this great friends dynamic that I love about the show because it gives Lily an edge I think she was missing since she came back from California, and it encourages Barney to be more in touch with his human side. It's something they really couldn't do with Barney and any other character, the relations wouldn't be the same.

(OT, but why is my neighbor playing mariachi music? That's not the part of the city that I wish followed me here.)

Now what I need is an icon of the first time Ted showed his hatred for New Jersey, in that episode where he and Barney were going after two girls and pretending to be tourists, and he had an epic tirade about New Jersey. It still might be my favorite part of the whole series.