How I Met Your Mother - Season 5 (US) [**Spoilers**]

Jazzy

Mr E wrote: »

Jazzy: Did you watch from the start of season 1, or just jump in at the start of season 5?

Its a very well made show where the characters have tons of depth if you've been with it since the start. If you jumping in to a show that's 5 seasons in, you're going to find it hard to connect. Lots of in-jokes, character traits, relationship history etc. form the basis for alot of the humour, and will cloud your opinion of the show if you're new to it. What's funny to a long term fan might just seem stupid to you if you "don't get it".

nope. it has no depth. i watched what i think was the end of series 3 or something, the main guy was marrying elliot from scrubs. its an extremely transparent show with extremely little going on. the gags seem to be in line with this new style of 1-up writing which was started with buffy and is getting polished off now. you'd see a lot of it in the later series of friends too and is predominant in series 4 onward of scrubs. its a pandering thoughtless style of storytelling and jokemaking where the program only seems like a series of statements and if you think about the plot then it doesnt fit at all.

i saw one joke which was just plain weird, the main guy makes a joke about the hot girls yeast infection.... your kinda like, "um hang on a minute mate. what the hell are you talking about?" but then i think the psychic from starship troopers comes in and makes a joke about wanting to have sex with girls or something.......

another hole i saw was the hot one changing jobs and going to japan to be a foreign correspondent.... then in the very next episode she isnt a correspondent at all but is just a news presenter again in japan and of course she comes back and you are made forget very quickly, meaning that all the emotion and forward progression of the character is for nought. lazy & under realised writing. rachel in friends had to toil away in the coffee house and then when she did get her break it ruined her relationship with ross, sacrifice & priorities and that kinda thing... ya know, depth.


barney (i think thats his name, the psychic from starship troopers?) is simply joey and chandler mashed into one person. never has a more obvious and depth-less character been so popular and 'respected'. hes up for an emmy or something too isnt he? hes the exact sort of character you would find in "when the whistle blows" (the piss take of piss poor sitcoms in extras). thats the standard of tv comedy now though, the piss take has become reality.

at the end of the day, its a crap show and is just the poor mans friends. same mould, same angles, same characters (albeit twisted and worse off for it). no depth, poor gags and lame, smug writing. i know this might offend sensibilities but its the truth of the matter, its a time waster and if you really want to get into any sort of smart comedy or heck, even become a funnier person then you are far better off not watching this sh1t machine.

amacachi wrote:

Look who isn't using capital letters. See? I can be petty as well.
Also; Ooh! Burn!

glad to know that you didnt like me pwning you so badly when you made your initial crap joke . crap joke + crap joke != good joke fyi

Ivan

Jazzy wrote: »

nope. it has no depth. i watched what i think was the end of series 3 or something, the main guy was marrying elliot from scrubs. its an extremely transparent show with extremely little going on. the gags seem to be in line with this new style of 1-up writing which was started with buffy and is getting polished off now. you'd see a lot of it in the later series of friends too and is predominant in series 4 onward of scrubs. its a pandering thoughtless style of storytelling and jokemaking where the program only seems like a series of statements and if you think about the plot then it doesnt fit at all.

i saw one joke which was just plain weird, the main guy makes a joke about the hot girls yeast infection.... your kinda like, "um hang on a minute mate. what the hell are you talking about?" but then i think the psychic from starship troopers comes in and makes a joke about wanting to have sex with girls or something.......

another hole i saw was the hot one changing jobs and going to japan to be a foreign correspondent.... then in the very next episode she isnt a correspondent at all but is just a news presenter again in japan and of course she comes back and you are made forget very quickly, meaning that all the emotion and forward progression of the character is for nought. lazy & under realised writing. rachel in friends had to toil away in the coffee house and then when she did get her break it ruined her relationship with ross, sacrifice & priorities and that kinda thing... ya know, depth.


barney (i think thats his name, the psychic from starship troopers?) is simply joey and chandler mashed into one person. never has a more obvious and depth-less character been so popular and 'respected'. hes up for an emmy or something too isnt he? hes the exact sort of character you would find in "when the whistle blows" (the piss take of piss poor sitcoms in extras). thats the standard of tv comedy now though, the piss take has become reality.

at the end of the day, its a crap show and is just the poor mans friends. same mould, same angles, same characters (albeit twisted and worse off for it). no depth, poor gags and lame, smug writing. i know this might offend sensibilities but its the truth of the matter, its a time waster and if you really want to get into any sort of smart comedy or heck, even become a funnier person then you are far better off not watching this sh1t machine.



glad to know that you didnt like me pwning you so badly when you made your initial crap joke . crap joke + crap joke != good joke fyi

I disagree Jazzy. When Robin moves to Japan it is a pretty hard decision for her, but ultimately she was glad that she took the opportunity. What she didn't realise was that what she thought was a job as a news correspondant, was actually just a low-brow Japanese comedy style news show.

That and the loss of her friends (and Ted's imminent marriage) made her travel back home for the wedding, whereby she realised she missed her friends and New York.

The back-story is there, the character development is there and overall; I think it is one of the best comedies around. This latest series has taken a bit of a nose dive in quality; the musical number, while being awesome, was simultaneously a bad omen to me.

I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, and see how things end up - but it has earned enough points with me that I am quite glad it has lasted this long.

Jazzy

Ivan wrote: »

I disagree Jazzy. When Robin moves to Japan it is a pretty hard decision for her, but ultimately she was glad that she took the opportunity. What she didn't realise was that what she thought was a job as a news correspondant, was actually just a low-brow Japanese comedy style news show.

That and the loss of her friends (and Ted's imminent marriage) made her travel back home for the wedding, whereby she realised she missed her friends and New York.

it was a hard decision for like 1 episode. from what i could tell there was nothing leading up to that before hand. and she wasnt mislead, they stated it pretty clearly that she was going to be a serious news correspondent. in the next episode then this just goes out the window and shes on some sh1tty japanese news channel. and isnt that all obvious growth right there? you move to a country that doesnt speak the same language and is seperated by the largest ocean in the world from your home and of course you will miss it. ultimately there is nothing there that pushes her forward, she remains flat and devoid of any potential depth in a vague effort to 'shake things up' and then keep the status quo.

this stuff seems to just be churned out by a factory rather then any creative process being brought into it. they have picked and plucked aspects from other tv shows and rammed them into this frankensteins monstor of a comedy show and yup, it doesnt work... "but what of the high ratings jazzy!!" i hear you cry. well, its time proven that people watch sh1t ass tv, expecially nowadays or is X-Factor gone?

iguana

Jazzy wrote: »

and she wasnt mislead, they stated it pretty clearly that she was going to be a serious news correspondent. in the next episode then this just goes out the window and shes on some sh1tty japanese news channel. you move to a country that doesnt speak the same language and is seperated by the largest ocean in the world from your home and of course you will miss it.

But Robin has a history of hearing what she wants to hear when it comes to her career advancement. Also she isn't American and has had a deep desire to live in other countries, including Japan, which is why she and Ted broke up. To her moving to Japan was just the next place on her list of places to live after New York. She didn't think she would miss New York so much as New york and America weren't her home to begin with.

But then she moved to Japan liked she always wanted to, discovered that it didn't mean as much to her as her relationship with Ted and wondered if she had made the wrong decision. The depth is all there if you know the history, if you don't, it doesn't really mean much at all.

You mentioned Rachel's job in Bloomingdales being a career advancement which resulted in the end of her relationship with Ross. But if you just watched a few episodes of series 3 Friends you'll just see Rachel start a job, Ross get jealous and they argue a lot and their relationship end. You won't know her history with Barry, Ross' long-term love of her and how he has an ex-wife who cheated on him, the years she spent as a waitress or all the turmoil Ross and Rachel went through before getting together. You just see a weird asshole who is annoyed that his girlfriend is working long hours with a man. The two of them argue a lot, he sleeps with someone else and they split up. But it doesn't mean much. Both Friends and HIMYM are serial, the story is ongoing, if you don't know the history it's hard to understand.

I liked Friends, at least for the first few years, it wasn't groundbreaking but it was pretty funny. And I really, disliked HIMYM originally but HIMYM is far, far smarter than most comedies and it has a history of laying plot-lines in advance which don't become important for quite a long time. It's not possible to 'get' it if you don't watch it in sequence.

expectationlost

anyone watching the repeats of the early series on e4 , boy robin has put on some weight in the later series.

iguana

expectationlost wrote: »

anyone watching the repeats of the early series on e4 , boy robin has put on some weight in the later series.

She was pregnant. She had her baby last summer.

Zero-Cool

Hated the first half of season 1 but then the writing became very clever imo. The way a joke in one episode will be an in-joke of something that happened 2 seasons ago is class (I love the Slap Bet!) Love this show now. Marshal and Lilly are getting kinda annoying now though.

Has anyone tried The Naked Man?

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Gots to get me a Teacup Pig...

evil_seed

can i borrow it after lol

waltersobchak

Great episode last night, the scenes with Barney describing the evolution of women's jobs was bloody immense:pac:

Professey Chin

sheehy83 wrote: »

Has anyone tried The Naked Man?

Dont be ridiculous.............
>_>
<_<
O_O

TheIrishGrover

Thought it was only OK. Thought the history of hot women's jobs was very funny though.


Isn't Scooter NPH's boyfriend?

Basq

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

Isn't Scooter NPH's boyfriend?

So it seems!

pickarooney

Life-vests for HIMYM. Celebrity guest stars can't hide the complete lack of imagination in the lastest series. No stopping the downward spiral at this stage, I fear.

Keano

pickarooney wrote: »

Life-vests for HIMYM. Celebrity guest stars can't hide the complete lack of imagination in the lastest series. No stopping the downward spiral at this stage, I fear.

EP16 wasn't that bad but the singing is becoming more frequent. :rolleyes:

waltersobchak

All these celebs are the first step to jumping the shark for sure

Zero-Cool

Last few episodes were not funny at all. Singing is just cringing! Sad state of affairs when J-LO was funnier then the rest. Really hope it picks up.

FreudianSlippers

I was never really into this show that much, but I've been catching up on season 5 and I'm really enjoying it now. I find it very funny and easy to watch.

Otacon

I spent the last week watching all five seasons and I am hooked.

The latest episode was quite good. I am wondering whether this means Robin will be gone until next season?

Basq

Haven't watched any since the J-Lo episode as that was goddamn horrific!

Keano

Otacon wrote: »

I spent the last week watching all five seasons and I am hooked.

The latest episode was quite good. I am wondering whether this means Robin will be gone until next season?

The first few seasons were great but sadly the latest is lacking and as others have mentioned the singing and celebrity episodes just are poor.

Otacon

Keano A Legend wrote: »

The first few seasons were great but sadly the latest is lacking

This happens to most TV shows when they go passed two or three seasons. Especially sit-coms as they need to try something different but it has all been done before.

I don't mind it though. I like the characters and have gotten to know them now. You get the in-jokes and references so it adds more to the experience when you watch a new episode and catch one of these.

One thing I am missing this season, is the way episodes reference older ones directly, like

the episode where Ted and Robin show up to the apartment covered in food. This is not explained until the season finale when you find out they broke up secretly that night.

Keano A Legend wrote: »

...and as others have mentioned the singing and celebrity episodes just are poor.

Only two celebrities have really grated: Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears. After that, they were all really funny.

Otacon

Liked last night's episode.

But is it just me or are they not really building up to a season finale?

I realise that this is more for syndication than anything but I can't see yet where the season will leave us.

ScrubsfanChris

I'm a big fan of the show, but's its now really starting to get on my nerve's.

There is no greater plot to speak of beside the just the one in each episode.
the earlier season's were much better.

Jazzy

basquille wrote: »

Haven't watched any since the J-Lo episode as that was goddamn horrific!

oh lol. one can imagine.



poor mans friends, like it or not

opr

Last two episodes are written by the shows creators Bays and Thomas so hopefully they can send a pretty bad season out on a high.

Opr

amacachi

Good episode this week, I'd advise anyone who's given up on it to check it out.

opr

God I thought it was awful and the only time I laughed was at Barney's outburst about the boots in the cinema.

Opr

Zero-Cool

damn it, will still download to have a look but how did they lose such a good thing. Can't believe it got the okay for another season. They probably promised the network that they will reveal who the real mother is like Robin or something aaaawwwwwww

FreudianSlippers

Wait, isn't Robin supposed to be gone?!

cian1500ww

OisinT wrote: »

Wait, isn't Robin supposed to be gone?!

Nope, they made up at the end of the last episode IIRC.