How I Met Your Mother

The past 9 years I have heard about this "Hilarious" show called 'How I Met Your Mother'. This summer I stumbled upon it on Netflix and after talking with friends about it and watching the first episode, I was HOOKED! I decided to start watching the current season even though I hadn't finished all the seasons on Netflix.

DESCRIBE

(L to R) Ted, Lilly, Marshall,
Barney, and Robin

How I Met Your Mother is currently in its ninth and final season of the series. The sitcom show is on CBS Mondays at 8:00 PM and is a 30 minutes show that airs roughly 24 episodes a season. The show follows Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor,"Not Another Teen Movie"), After he moved to New York City with his friends Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel,"Forgetting Sarah Marshall") and Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan,"Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), after graduating college. In New York he met Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris,"Doogie Howser") and Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders,"The Avengers"). Marshall, Ted's best friend, is married to Lily. Robin and Barney are engaged and will tie the knot in Season 9. The story is a story within a story. If you have never seen HIMYM, the concept of the show in the year 2030, Ted sits down with his son and daughter to tell them the story of how he met their mother. Each episode is another story leading up to the moment he met their mother.

This particular episode is the sixth episode this season. In this episode entitled "Knight Vision" (Aired on Monday, October 21st, 2013) Ted attempts to find a date for the wedding. (Note: All of Season 9 is the 55 hour weekend leading up to Barney & Robin's wedding and the moment Ted meets "The Mother". So each episode covers 2ish hours.) Also Barney and Robin have a problem with the minister as he wants to hear how they met before he officiates them. They have a pretty messy story as to how they met so they steal Marshall and Lily's "how we met" story.

The Ads: From start to finish: I saw 9 CBS ads (Survivor, The Millers, Mom, Mike & Molly, 2 Broke Girls, Big Bang Theory, The Crazy Ones, and Two and a Half Men, and CBS Cares), 4 car ads (Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Infinity Hybrid, Buick/GMC, and Subaru), 4 tech ads (Windows Phone, Windows Tablet, AT&T/iPhone, and Century Link), 2 movie ads (Last Vegas Trailer, and Monsters University on DVD), 1 insurance ad (State Farm) and a Febreze, a Marshalls, a Bank of America Mobile app, Nivea body lotion, and a Cambells skillet sauces ad. All 25 ads packed into a 30 minute show. Based on the advertisements shown, it is clear the demographic that HIMYM is appealing to is family's. Most likely Middle class Moms who watch this show with their Teenage kids. Which is odd because most of the people I know that watch the show are males. However, the ads tailor to women because of ads like Febreze, Nivea body lotion, and Cambells skillet sauces. Those ads gear more toward females. If the show wanted to gear toward men, their would be more ads about trucks, viagra, and condoms. However due to the shows time slot (8:00pm) the ads have to stay more family friendly due to its prime time slot. 

ANALYZE
The show is filmed on set in Los Angeles. The "laugh track" is created when recording the audience as they watch the fully edited episode. A lot of people compare HIMYM to the show "Friends". They both are very similar. The big similarity is following a group of friends in New York which is exactly what "Friends" does. Also compared is the back and forth relationship of Barney and Robin or Ted and Robin is often compared to that of  the relationship between Ross and Rachel. I found this Image that has more similarity's listed between the two shows. However they are different from each other because "Friends" followed each character pretty much equally. HIMYM on the other hand only follows Ted's story.

INTERPRET
I think HIMYM has done a really great job not having HUGE stereotypical characters that most shows have. This show does have its stereotypes, but they not as obvious as other shows have. Marshal and Lily are the stereotypical couple. They are the couple all real life couples want to be like. Ted is the stereotypical single guy looking for "the one". Barney (before he met Robin) was a stereotypical "ladies man". He had a different girl every night. He was the king of one night stands. As I said before, Based on the advertisements shown, it is clear the demographic that HIMYM is appealing to is family's. Most likely middle class family's. If I was a visitor from outside the US the kind of picture of US culture this show shows is everyone gets along and having a great time. HIMYM shows US culture in a "good" light. It's just a show about 5 friends and their journey together.

EVALUATE
I think the show has a lot of strengths. It does depict a average group of friends and even though not all the situations and story lines seem like they could really happen it does accurately, for the most part, portray real life well. I love the flashback aspect of the show. You feel like your watching the show as they live their lives but your actually in flashback watching the stories that "already happened". I also love how the creators have been able to drag out the main part of the show...THE MOTHER...for 9 years. I don't like how the show is only a half hour long. Its a odd thing to not like about the show but I do wish it was a hour long. Also I find "good shows" have a moral to the story which is something not every episode of HIMYM has which, in my opinion, is disappointing. What makes the show memorable and worth talking with my friends about is the hilarious story lines and how each of us sees ourselfs in one of the characters. I was shocked when I googled HIMYM critics, that not a lot of "critics" like HIMYM. An article on Pluggedin.com says about HIMYM, "It gives writers an excuse to wrap funny in a soiled blanket. And with over-the-top jokers such as Barney of CBS' sitcom How I Met Your Mother, it's getting harder to ignore the stench." I completely disagree with this authors opinion of HIMYM. Sure, not every episode is gut busting funny but it almost every episode I find myself laughing, even if the jokes are over the top or cheesy. A blogger reviewed HIMYM and said "I think what makes HIMYM particularly relatable to me is that it’s about a bunch of 5 friends in the prime of their life, trying to get through love and life in the big city, which kinda sounds like what me and my friends are doing now, and a lot of the sentiment and situations seem very familiar – the search for true love, relationship woes, friends getting married, job issues…". Which is exactly why I love the show. I agree with this review of the show 100%. You feel almost as if you are the 6th member of their group.

ENGAGE
I engage with this show socially. I have a close friend that watches it and we pretty much talking in only HIMYM references. I do like HIMYM on Facebook and occasionally visit the CBS Website. Interesting Fact: There have currently only been four directors of the show's 184 episodes: Pamela Fryman directed the majority of them and Neil Patrick Harris (Barney) directed one episode. Also interesting fact that I didn't know until I went searching. Neil Patrick Harris makes $210,000 a episode, while the other 4 cast members only make $120,000.

CONCLUSION

As a huge fan of HIMYM already there wasn't much I learned. However, I guess I never realized until visiting various website how much of a cult there is for this show. I really didn't realize how many people love this show as much as I do. Heck, there is even a How I Met Your Mother Wiki site, an entire website devoted to random HIMYM information. After researching this show more, I'm even more devoted fan then before.

Oh and If you are a fan of HIMYM, you will enjoy this HILARIOUS clip I found on Youtube.

- Justin Williams