How I Met Your Mother

HIMYM ends with one of the most confounding series finales in recent memory.

HIMYM’s penultimate hour hits its stride in the final minutes, a promising sign heading into the final hour.

With four episodes remaining, How I Met Your Mother pauses to say farewell to a number of old friends.

How I Met Your Mother Season 9, Episode 20 “Daisy” Written by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas Directed by Pamela Fryman Airs Monday nights at 8pm ET on CBS   Much like the entirety of How I Met Your Mother‘s final season, “Daisy” gets off to a slow start, and an unfortunate one; save for a few …

Heading into the home stretch, HIMYM doesn’t appear to be done with the emotional twists – but should it be?

How I Met Your Mother kicks off its final run of episodes with a callback-filled half hour of hilarity.

How I Met Your Mother Season 9, Episode 17 “Sunrise” Written by Carter Bays & Craig Thomas Directed by Pamela Fryman Airs Monday nights at 8pm ET on CBS   Letting go is never easy. It doesn’t matter what it is: something as silly as a favorite pair of ratty shoes gone ratty, or something as …

It took 13 episodes, but How I Met Your Mother’s final season finally finds its voice in a poignant episode about hope.

How I Met Your Mother takes one of its most beloved institutions – the Slap Bet – and delivers one of the show’s most disappointing episodes.

Can we get to The Mother already? The longer How I Met Your Mother holds out on its central story, the more it undermines its main characters with over-the-top antics and horribly written subplots that bring out the absolute worst in everybody. Although “No Questions Asked” doesn’t quite stoop quite that low to get laughs, it’s attempts at humor are sloppy and random, gleaning a half hour of ‘comedy’ out of the titular joke – a joke that’s run its course by its second appearance, ten minutes into the episode. More so, it just feels like a complete waste of time, ending the episode without budging the plot forward an inch, leaving its two main couples dangling in the same awkward, uncomfortably contradictory positions they’ve been in all season.

How I Met Your Mother Season 9, Episode 6 “Knight Vision” Written by Chris Harris Directed by Pamela Fryman Airs Monday nights at 8pm ET on CBS In recent weeks, How I Met Your Mother has struggled to fill the void of The Mother while her story line sits on the sidelines (her next appearance will …

With an episode so full of new running gags and old returning jokes (and so many wigs), it’s no surprise that “The Poker Game” stumbles into its climatic moments: it’s clear the focus was on slapstick over emotional resolution in the construction of this particular segment of season nine’s puzzle. It’s a funny episode, but another one that works against its own characters, creating unnecessary, petty tension in the core friendship of the show – and in the other corner, throws Barney (the character who has grown the most over the series) under the bus for a quick laugh, and another plot line To Be Continued at a later date (and one nobody is interested in, to boot).

How I Met Your Mother Season 9, Episode 4 “The Broken Code” Written by Matthew Kuhn Directed by Pamela Fryman Airs Monday nights at 8pm ET on CBS   “The Broken Code” is really a precursor of episodes to come: it foreshadows three big season nine story lines to come, but fails at making them intriguing …

How I Met Your Mother Season 9, Episode 3 ‘Last Time In New York’ Written by Craig Gerard & Matthew Zinman Directed by Pamela Fryman Airs Monday nights at 8pm ET on CBS   Like the opening episodes of the season, ‘Last Time In New York’ is at its best when the recurring jokes are put to …

How I Met Your Mother Season 9, Episodes 1 & 2 ‘The Locket’/’Coming Back’ Written by Carter Bays & Craig Thomas Directed by Pamela Fryman Airs Monday nights at 8pm ET on CBS   Comedy or drama, long-running shows always look to go big in their final seasons (or when contracts run out, change completely): the …

5-American Horror Story If you’ve yet to tune in to Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck’s show American Horror Story, now’s your chance to catch up before the newest season kicks off this upcoming October. One of the more unique shows currently on air, each season acts as a new story. A new era, new location, …

When starting a new television show, the thing I look forward to the most is the title sequence, so it only felt right to devise this list when I heard the theme was favourite television shows this month. In early television there wasn’t a huge focus on title sequences; their only purpose was to present the …

It’s officially the Holiday Season, that latter part of every year when Americans, perhaps in a bid to combat the increasingly chilly weather, draw together with friends and family to celebrate whichever holidays are most important to them, usually starting with Thanksgiving. It’s at this time of year, right as kids start getting time off …

Last week I did a piece on how early syndication of movies to TV provided a culturally unifying base for Baby Boomers.  Most of us, however, probably think of syndication as being less about movies and more about recycling old TV shows.  And, in time, so it became. TV writer/producer/director Bill Persky remembers syndication being …