HIMYM Review: Bedtime Stories

How I Met Your Mother 

'Bedtime Stories' Review

How I Met Your Mother has been somewhat experimental with a handful of its episodes, but Bedtime Stories takes the cake with an episode completely dedicated to rhyming throughout the entire 22 minute run through. But was enjoyable, or simply grating? For the most part it did a decent job but it didn't save it from the obvious fact that the story itself was pure filler.

The episode begins with Marshall desperately attempting to get his son Marvin to sleep on the bus journey back to Farhampton. Realising that he forgot the nursery rhymes book, Marshall decides to tell tales based on his three friends.

The first tale "Mosby at the Bat" recalls Ted making acquaintance with another college professor, Lisa by which he agrees to go out to a restaurant, but is unsure whether to call it a date or not. 

This little subplot was very much akin to the classic HIMYM style with Barney creating clues by which Ted could determine if he was on a date or not. Barneys use of a globe painted over with Date and Not a Date was very reminiscent of his hot/crazy scale which was a nice touch.  

Additionally there was a rather humorous moment at the end of that tale when the passenger commented about how crass Marshall's story was, which then jumped to future Ted apologizing to his kids.  

We then move onto the weaker tale of the three, Robin eating a whole wedding cake. It was good use of a flashback of Robin when times were hard, i'm guessing this occasion was when she broke up with Don as she let herself go, and the guest appearance by James Van Der Beek was a nice little surprise. But apart from that, the remainder of it was rather stupid. The only funny part in this segment was Marshall's fellow bus passenger doing a rap to aid Marshall who couldn't find a word to rhyme with Canada.

Finally on to Barney, his "Player King of New York City" was as equally silly with his mafia meeting with other players of the New York, all played by himself of course. But this sheer craziness is easily associated with Barney so it was a little more acceptable, although there was distinct lack of humour unfortunately. It was also nice that his and Ted's story both linked in with one another ever so loosely. 

As a whole the episode was generally OK, the whole episode rhyming actually worked fairly well as they used pretty simple rhyming verse. Some of the rhyming did falter in places, particularly with Lily during Robin's story, but the rest of the gang did it well.

Although rather silly, each little tale that Marshall told lighthearted and watchable. But the main issue was that this was the biggest filler episode. There was nothing linked to the wedding itself. Hopefully the next episode will reflect on what went on with the rest of the gang in Farhampton during Marshall's journey.

5.8/10