HIMYM Review: Mom and Dad

How I Met Your Mother

'Mom and Dad' Review

We were welcomed last week with an episode of HIMYM that was on full form, blending the best of comedy with some very well done underlying drama. Unfortunately this week threw away much of the drama and instead opted for pure slapstick. It worked in places but for the most part it was rather stale.

As the title suggests, the episode focused on Mom and Dad, in this case the return of John Lithgow as Jerome, James' vicar father and Loretta. 

The plot between the Stinson family ran very thin regards to its premise as a whole and the events that followed were, for the most part, equally lacklustre. 

Barney was once more his immature self with his head in the clouds, completely ignorant of any contradictory statement made about his mother and fathers relationship. Fortunately Neil Patrick Harris does it well enough though to still make it enjoyable, It was also nice to see James become a child too and squabble with Barney about the situation. 

What made it a shame was that John Lithgow's performance was incredibly limited. After some fairly tense moments in season 6 between he and Barney it would have been nicer to have had a bit more grounded sincerity between the two.   

All issues aside, there was a fantastic musical number with the whole Stinson family set in a cliched 1950's suburban backdrop. Of course Barney and James were the best of the bunch. It was like watching NPH at the Tony awards with his cheesy lyrics battling it out in song with Wayne Brady. 

On to Ted, he was once more enlisted with best man duties, on this occasion to keep hidden a signed picture of Wayne Gretzky from Robin. 

After later finding it damaged in his room, the plot turned into a detective mystery story and was typically ridiculous with its cheesy 'whodunit' approach of which the three subjects convicted was a poor listing: from a random concierge to Robins estranged cousin and of course The Karate Kid's Billy Zabka.

Admittedly it was funny to watch Ted get fully invested in the situation and go into full on detective mode (although surprisingly no references to The Mosby Boys was made), but the return of the "conflict" between Billy Zabka and himself was simply satisfactory. There was no actual sense of mystery with the proceedings at all. It was clearly pointed out in The Poker Game that Billy wanted to exact his revenge.

Finally we move on to Marshall and Daphne. Aside from some poor gags for the reasoning behind Daphne's abrupt anger it was actually a nice heartfelt short tale. We have come to learn from the previous episodes that Daphne is a big wig in the oil drilling community and has missed out on much of her child's life because of this, but it was never really developed, until now. The story ended with a nice resolution for Marshall and Daphne with them parting ways on friendly terms. 

Granted it was a nice way to end the two's journey together but it was rather pleasing that this arc had come to a close. Now it is time for Marshall to be more invested in the shenanigans between the whole gang.

Overall Moms and Dads was a satisfactory effort which tried a little too hard with the slapstick humour.

 It was a little surprising seeing as this script was written by Carter Bays & Craig Thomas themselves who are usually more akin to writing the more serious episodes. It was also disappointing how flat and one dimensional the characters were portrayed. Although they made small appearances, the lack of Robin and Lily in this episode was also a bit of a downer.

Onwards and upwards they say. Let's hope so for next weeks HIMYM

5/10