So How I Met Your Mother explains everything you need to know about the central story line in its title (making it easy for people like me who accidentally stumbled onto this while chanel surfing). Older-Ted, voiced by Bob Saget, is telling his children the epic tale of how he and their mother came to be. Younger-Ted, played by Josh Radnor, is a thirty-something architect living in New York who becomes almost obsessed with finding the love of his life after his best friend Marshall, portrayed by the ever popular Jason Segel, gets engaged to long time girlfriend Lily, played by Alyson Hannigan of Buffy fame. Also included in this group of friends are womanizing Barney, played by Neil Patrick Harris, and career driven and former love interest Robin, played by Cobie Smulders.
Now if I have to give a comparison to better help understand the show, I’d say that How I Met Your Mother is a more focused version of Friends. In the end, the majority of the story line is dedicated to the actions that brought Ted to his future wife, as opposed to the open-ended drama that Friends offered. However, Ted is Ross, prone to falling stupidly in love far too quickly and his Chandler is Marshall, who is far less snarky but still the best friend. Lily, despite being married to the Chandler-like character, is a mix Rachel and Phoebe: quirky, funny and always loving and matchmaking. Robin is Monica, if Monica worked in the broadcast news industry and was Canadian, but the same driven and neurotic attitude is there. Finally Barney is the obvious Joey of the group, with hundreds of pickup lines as opposed to Joey’s seemingly infallible one.
To be honest what got me into this show was the fan base. Whenever I’d be looking up info on one show I’d inevitably come across someone mentioning this show and the conversations that sparked from there seemed filled with endless inside jokes and theories (because 5 seasons in and viewers still have no clue who the mother is). Then suddenly I loved it for those same reasons. See HIMYM rewards people who have been with the show for the long haul, obscure references from events from the previous seasons send old fans into hysterics but don’t confuse new watchers.
Anyways this week the fifth season starts and I’ll be interested to see what’s happens as this is the first season that I’ll be watching from the beginning. And to reward readers for sticking around this long, here are some clips from Family Guy where How I Met Your Mother is spoofed. Enjoy!
December 7, 2009 at 6:51 am |
First off, thank you so much for your awesome blog title. The blue french horn is a great inside joke for us HIMYM fans. Anyways, I had never thought of the show as “Friends”esque. Now that I do, the likeness is crazy. Marshall and Chandler are so much alike and Monica and Robin are ridiculously close to being the same character, minus, as you said, her being Canadian. As I continue to watch reruns of both shows, I will look for similarities.