CraigThomas-related stories
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 11:04AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E06) The thing that always amazes me about this show is that how Old Ted is perfectly content to tell his kids about all the tawdry things he or Barney did back in those heady days of the mid-to-late-'00s, but every so often he realizes who he's talking to and substitutes a clean term for a dirty term. I'd imagine this inconsistency is done on purpose by Bays/Thomas and their writers; why have Old Ted pull back on his stories unless there's a laugh to be had?
This is how we got the references to "sandwiches," for instance. And this is how we got the running joke about bagpipes tonight. I liked how it was just a joke in the background and didn't really reference any major story. The major stories, though, were both pretty funny this week.
Continue reading Review: How I Met Your Mother - Bagpipes
Posted Oct 19th 2009 11:58PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews
(S05E05) Sometimes an episode of
HIMYM is full of "mythology" advancement. Sometimes it explores the romantic relationships between the characters. Sometimes there's a goofy website or video to accompany the episode. But sometimes,
HIMYM just tells one or two semi-isolated stories. Last year, many of those episodes weren't all that great. But this season is different; everything's been funny, including the mostly silly episode we got tonight.
Which reminds me... I have to figure out where to get a hold of some Tantrum. That stuff is more powerful than 12-Hour Sudafed.
Continue reading Review: How I Met Your Mother - Duel Citizenship
Posted Oct 13th 2009 12:07AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E04) Let's get this notion out of the way right here: Couples "dating" other couples isn't exactly a new idea in the sitcom world. Countless comedies have had the episode where the lead couple is blown off by another couple they really like, and they go through the same process that a someone goes through when he or she is jilted after a first or second date. This week we saw all of that.
But, it was done with some funny touches, not the least of which is a photo montage,
website, and music video (embedded after the jump) that gave the tired story a unique spin. And there was enough other fun stuff packed into this episode to make you forget that the main plot has been done since at least the days of Sam and Diane.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: The Sexless Innkeeper
Posted Sep 28th 2009 11:36PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E02) If there was ever an episode that demonstrated how creative Bays and Thomas and their writing staff can be, it's this one. Not only did we bend time and space -- Ted even had an alternate universe-ish goatee -- but we got a doppelganger and an elaborate fantasy about hiccup disease thrown in for good measure.
What's interesting about it is, the bending-time-and-space A story, while fun to watch, turned out to be not much different than what we may have seen in the past. The B story was much more entertaining, and it gave us some insight to how the two currently active
HIMYM relationships are going to run for the time being.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Double Date
Posted Sep 21st 2009 8:33PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E01) Fans of
How I Met Your Mother had reason to worry that, with last season's ratings success, the funny little show that they'd been watching for four years would get away from what made it fun.
Fungible timelines, comedic head fakes, the burgeoning relationship between Barney and Robin, and Ted's eternal search for The One were all there last year, but the show's syndication-friendly embrace of more self-contained stories forced a lot of that into "subtle reference" territory. But
the fourth season finale reassured fans that Bays and Thomas are going to continue to explore these issues, even as the show approaches its 100th episode and beyond.
The fifth season premiere does a good job of reinforcing this. Everything's there, including Indiana Jones' bullwhip. And it's funny, to boot. And as Bays and Thomas assured me,
the location of the Mother revealed in the finale is reinforced... sorta.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Definitions (season premiere)
Posted Aug 4th 2009 11:57AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: How I Met Your Mother, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free
During last night's CBS party at the Huntington Library, I spoke to
How I Met Your Mother honchos Carter Bays and Craig Thomas about the upcoming season. They wouldn't reveal much -- besides the fact that Carter is the only single person left on the staff ... he's available, ladies! -- but what they did tell me was that we'll see the mythical "mother" on the first episode of the season.
We already knew from the season finale that Ted's designated "one and only" took the Columbia University architecture class that he started teaching. But we didn't know when she'd be in that class. Bays clarified it for me: "Oh, she'll be there, in the first scene of the first episode back is Ted and the mom in the same room together."
Of course, that could mean anything, since Ted teaches in a huge lecture hall. Bays wouldn't clarify more than that; all he would say was that "we've narrowed the field tremendously. Up until this point, this woman was somewhere out there in the greater New York metropolitan area. Now, she's in a fifteen-block radius."
Continue reading HIMYM scoop: The Mother will be in the first episode... somewhere - TCA Report
Posted May 18th 2009 10:12PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E24) It's been an interesting season for
How I Met Your Mother, hasn't it? The ratings for the show have never been better, but longtime fans (me included) have been concerned about its inconsistency this season. Episodes that would be considered in the pantheon of
Mother classics -- ones that mess with timelines and talk about the "mother mythology" and the stories of the rest of the Scooby gang -- were mixed in with standalone plots that were sometimes funny but other times were contrived and sitcommy.
I knew that the standalones would be more prevalent this season -- Carter Bays has told me and others as much -- but as I watched this season, I wondered why they were trying to make the show more accessible. Now that I've seen the fourth season finale, I completely understand why the show is going in that direction. And I'm not sure how I feel about it.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: The Leap (season finale)
Posted May 12th 2009 12:45AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E23) Earlier today, I received a rough-cut copy of
HIMYM's season finale. I was all giddy and wanted to pop it in the DVD player right away, but I wanted to wait until I saw tonight's episode first, figuring it would set up the finale, as it did in past seasons. This episode does so, at least a little bit. But the most important part of the story -- the results of Ted's chance meeting with Stella on that street corner -- was at once disappointing and refreshing.
Confused? Well journey with me after the jump and I'll tell you why.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: As Fast As She Can
Posted May 5th 2009 9:15AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E22) Carter Bays and Craig Thomas are a couple of clever guys, aren't they?
They're not only good at playing with time and space in their show -- something they did exceptionally well in this episode -- but they're also pretty good at tweaking the wording of an episode to make the audience feel like they're getting somewhere in the story when in fact things have only inched forward.
Just think about the words they used to describe the monumental outcome of Ted's day. Did they say everything you thought they said? Ruminate on it a second before you rejoin me after the jump.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Right Place Right Time
Posted Apr 20th 2009 12:28PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Music and Variety, Interviews
If you tell Doug Benson that you loved him on VH1's
I Love the XX's shows, he'll gladly accept the compliment, even though he's never appeared on any of them.
"When people say to me on the street, 'I Love the 90's!', I go, 'I do too!' I don't give them a lecture about how no, I'm on
Best Week Ever," he told me a few weeks ago., "because it does all blend together. And as long as they're remembering me, and they have a positive attitude about it, you know, there's no reason for me to be a dick."
Benson's not just the "VH1 guy," though. The veteran stand-up reached the finals of season six of
Last Comic Standing, after some notoriously unsuccessful attempts. He also made a documentary,
Super High Me, which makes its TV debut today (
4/20... get it?) on G4 at 10 PM ET. In the movie, Benson makes like Morgan Spurlock, but he substitutes pot for Quarter Pounders.
We talked about the movie, if the whole 420 thing is over, and his run-in with Ant on season five of
Last Comic Standing.Continue reading Doug Benson on Super High Me and his battles with Ant
Posted Mar 24th 2009 12:26AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E18) Here's why I sometimes wish I was a sitcom writer: While breaking down a story to use for an upcoming episode, someone brings up the idea of names for Canadian sex acts. Then what occurs is what I would imagine to be one of the all-time funniest brainstorming sessions, where the table of writers just blurts out names like "Musty Goaltender," "Squatting Eskimo," and "Old King Clancy."
Then someone comes up with the idea of having Barney find those phrases
on a cheesy website, so more hilarity ensues as the website gets created, with the added joke that clicking each phrase generates a picture of an angry Alan Thicke explaining that the site is out of order (My favorite: "
Thicke mad. Thicke smash!")
I mean, the cascading jokes on that website alone (see what happens when you right-click on Alan Thicke or click on the words "crack a brown pop," for instance) made this a silly but funny episode, where we find out how funky Canadian sex acts are and also find out how Ted might be able to use his douchery for good.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Old King Clancy
Posted Mar 17th 2009 12:47AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E17) This episode proves that Bays and Thomas can do silly, sitcommy things in an episode and still take their loyal audience on an emotional ride with the characters they've grown to love.
Because of that, this was a fun one. We not only got a glimpse of what four of the gang might look like when they're seniors (Ted somehow looks 20 years younger than Marshall, even though they're the same age) but we got to find out about the joy of nightshirts and a morning broadcast that would make Al Roker jealous.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: The Front Porch
Posted Mar 10th 2009 1:23AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E16) One of the biggest issues that has eaten at fans of
HIMYM since the show's inception is the fact that the character the show is supposed to revolve around, Ted, is probably the most boring out of the entire Scooby gang. Because of this, stories about his quest for his soulmate -- the elusive "mother," of course -- have as equal a chance of working as they have of falling flat. It just seems like there have been very few Ted-centric romances that fans have gotten behind and rooted for. There was Robin, naturally, and Victoria the cupcake lady. The rest? All of them have had about as much chemistry and excitement as toe fungus (and, yes, Stella is in the toe fungus group).
Ted's new romance, with his super-douchey college girlfriend Karen, seems like it's another one that's destined to fail. And not because she brings out all the stupid college-kid pretentiousness that Ted barely has the strength to squash as he enters his thirties. It may be that we've kind of stopped caring about Ted's quest, haven't we?
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Sorry Bro
Posted Feb 2nd 2009 11:48PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Web, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E14) This week we got a bit of a stealthy episode. There were two overt storylines -- Robin's efforts to get a job and stay in the country and why three of the gang still have "weak-ass crap" on their resumes -- but the
real storyline was simmering just underneath.
It all had to do with Barney and his feelings for Robin. And the fun of Barney's video resume is only a small part of what you
really saw, if you looked hard enough.
Oh, and we got two new websites out of Bays and Thomas this week. But you know that with those two guys at the helm of a show, anything is possimpible ...
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: The Possimpible
Posted Jan 19th 2009 11:17PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E13) Something that's been missing for most of this season of
HIMYM is the unique Bays-Thomas method of storytelling. If you're a fan of the show, you know what I'm talking about: you think the story is going one way, you even think that you're keeping up with the time-shifting and story fragments. Then, when the guys finally reveal where they were going with the story, you get a surprising but funnier or more emotional impact. This year, we saw a lot of the time shifting, but not many stories where everything came together at the last minute to make you smile.
Until this week, that is. We got the kind of episode that
HIMYM die-hards have been craving all year. I just wish the stories that all came together at the end were just a skosh stronger.
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Three Days of Snow
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