Review of How I Met Your Mother
Neil Patrick Harris Nominated for Emmy after American Sit-Com
How I Met Your Mother is an American sit-com that premiered in September 2005. The show centres around Ted (Josh Radnor) and his search to meet the perfect woman, the mother of his children. The unique ‘hook’ of the show is that Ted narrates it in the year 2030, telling his kids the story of how he finally met and married the woman who was to be their mother.
Along with Ted there features his two best friends from college, Marshall and Lily, who become engaged in the first episode (sparking off Ted’s own quest for love); Barney, the womaniser who needs Ted to stay single and remain his wingman; and Robin, the Canadian reporter with whom Ted first falls in love.
Without Radnor’s narration and the presence of Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), HIMYM would merely be another run of the mill American sit-com. However, with these two elements the show overcomes the annoyance of its laughter track and the overly cheesy scenes to become an enjoyable and witty programme. The character of Barney is the writers’ greatest success, as it is Neil Patrick Harris who overshadows the rest of the cast, emphasized by his 2007 and 2008 Emmy Nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. The other characters, of whom former Buffy actress Alyson Hannigan is the most famous, present a solid stage on which Harris can shine.
Why How I Met Your Mother Stands Out
As opposed to the presence of an omniscient narrator, Ted’s narration lends the sit-com an aspect that allows it to stand out amongst its kind. However, this comes with its own problems. Creator Craig Thomas has explicitly commented on how Ted is an ‘unreliable narrator’, whether this is how the character was intended to be written or merely a solution to cover the occasional plot holes is a hard question to answer. What is certain is that HIMYM’s form of narration has its own problems.
A theme seen often in American sit-coms is that of the characters learning valuable moral lessons. This allows the creators of the show to emphasise their commitment to ‘family values’ and so win credit with audiences and network executives. Whilst How I Met Your Mother can be excused for this, as Ted uses examples from his own life to teach his kids, it can have its downsides.
How I Met Your Mother has Great Cast, Unconventional Narration
Ted’s group of young, wealthy and sexually active New Yorkers get into a series of misadventures, based on the lives of writers Craig Thomas and Carter Bays. However, whenever Ted is in an ethically dubious situation, the watching audience knows that he will never end up morally compromised, due to his need for his children to respect him. Thus any possible tension is sucked out of these scenes, leaving just the evidence of a missed opportunity to make the show a deeper, more challenging, production.
How I Met Your Mother had the potential to be an outstanding show. With its unconventional narration and strong cast, HIMYM could have dominated both American and British televisions in the same manner as Friends, a show it has been compared to on a number of occasions. However, slack writing and an over-reliance on clichés and cheesy sentimentality prevents this, and leaves HIMYM left in the pack of sit-coms attempting to fill the vacuum left by Friends. It’s good, but it could have been so much better.
Josh Radnor (Ted)
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