Friday, 19 April 2013

HIMYM Review: The Over-Correction"


How I Met Your Mother 
'The Over-Correction' Review

It might be time to throw in the towel

So there we have it folks. The writers have excelled in creating a worse episode than Splitsville and The Burning Beekeeper, the worst in the history of the show. The state of How I Met Your Mother has hit an all time low with this feeble attempt of an episode, which bore no interesting storyline, nor created, at any stretch some form of smart humour. 

Once again Barney's new found weird behaviour, which we witnessed in last weeks episode makes a displeasing return. The problem is that it's simply not believable. Fair enough to change small aspects of a character after a dilemma. But to completely overhaul it, which also remains to be completely distant, thus not allowing for the audience to empathise is just absurd. I am praying that this is an extremely elaborate playbook routine, because at this moment, it is a situation that is beyond caring. The chemistry just does not exist. If it is supposed to be genuine, they really need to crank it up a more than a few notches in quality, in order for some reassurance.

The storyline surrounding this whole Barney scenario was poorly delivered too. The build up to this was fairly passable but it seemed that the single set piece of Barney's apartment was only used as a means to cut costs and the story was haphazardly placed in between this. there was a lack of cohesion overall, and the concluding moment was a bit odd with its cut off point. A poorly executed way to drag fans into watching next weeks episode.
The side story was also incredibly lacklustre and extremely rushed. Yet again it was another tale that I did not care for. It felt forced that it had to tie into the main story a little, yet was still unable to improve the arc in any way. 

Furthermore, the direction by Pam Fryman (who is usually good) was awful. There were strange jumps in time in between the story without any clear identification of this. It was a little bit jarring and affected the continuity of scenes. This was evident in both the main and side story. Additionally a few of the transitions were particularly amateur and old school, making the show look rather low budget.  

I honestly have no idea what has happened to this show. Yes it was somewhat nice to see some references to older episodes, with a few sight gags including Ted's red cowboy boots. But it is not enough to satisfy us fans anymore.
Like in the first few series, we expect exceptionally well drawn out character development with smart, witty humour that remains on a grounded level. Instead, in this "so called" final season, we are left with one dimensional caricatures, who resort to pathetically dumbed down slapstick humour.
It breaks my heart to see this show turn into a joke of its former self. Creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas need to go back to the drawing boards and fix this travesty if they want their beloved show end on a high note like sitcoms of past such as Friends and Scrubs.

2.5/10  

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