HIMYM Review: Lobster Crawl

How I Met Your Mother

"Lobster Crawl" Review

 It looked like the writers had learnt from their mistakes when they produced two good episodes within the last fortnight. But yet again it seems that they have lost their way a little bit.

   

Firstly with the positive aspect. This episode had a fairly nice storyline between Ted, Marshall and Lily. It was great to see them retain their roles as a trio (Marshall and Lily as the concerned parents and Ted as the helpless child) as they have done in the older seasons. The reiteration of the group dynamic between the three, still at this stage in their lives was great. It was also nice to see Ted reprise his role as a wannabe "Dad" with his behaviour towards baby Marvin, the same way we hope to see him be towards his own children. 

Additionally the way in which the story tied in with Ted's career worked favourably. His major accomplishment in building a skyscraper was almost completely forgotten about in season 7 and it was great that it resurfaced. 

Finally, the end result for the trio has the potential for progression of Ted's character, although more so with his career than anything related to the mother.

Moving onto Robin and Barney, it was strange to say the least. Their characters changed and it did not work well.  

Although Robin looked even more gorgeous than usual, It did not hide the fact that she was annoying with her initial shrill and dumbed down, "flirty cheerleader" behaviour. Luckily it was somewhat of short lived experience and eventually toned down, but it was still so unlike her. 

As for Barney, he was his usual self with his typical gags surrounding suits and ties which settled on the right amount of stupidity. But during the second half he became an empty shell, hollow and unobservant. Although some may say it makes sense, I did not think so, purely based on his behaviour towards Robin in the previous episodes. Neither persona's suited either character. Eventually it amounted to an ending between the two which was downright strange and did not work at all.. 

Although there was a nice little side story for the trio, Barney and Robins mediocre main arc completely overshadowed it and to an extent ruined the episode because of this. Thankfully it was nowhere near as bad as "Splitsville" but it was unfortunate that the story took a turn for the weird. It blind-sided and confused me a little and I really don't see how the writers are going to reach the inevitable end if they continue this way. 

6/10