How I Met Your Mother s06e14 review

How I Met Your Mothers back! They've taken some massive gaps recently, which is weird 'cause there's some serious shit going down. Baby's and death and such.

The show, I've found, is a love it or hate it kind of deal. Some people can't get behind it, saying its just another sitcom that's not that funny, others love it. People who love it seem to think the same as me, which is that is a great show with an awful main character. Does anyone really care about Ted? I really don't care about his life at all. People have said the show should be called 'How I Know Barney Stinson', but I love Marshall and Lilly just as much. Just not Ted. Fuck Ted.

The shows strength lies in knowing what modern friendships are like. There are pop culture references, but not too many. The group has a lot of in-jokes which come up time and time again, which is so true to life. The way the characters interact with each other seem real to me.

This episode showcases the shows strengths brilliantly. At the end of the last episode we found out Marshalls dad has just died. This episode is at the funeral. Firstly, I love it when comedy shows have a serious episode. The juxtaposition between the serious subject manner and the shows usual comedic tone make the tragic events seem more intense. This was done perfectly in this episode.

They used a classic How I Met Your Mother technique of having a couple of jokes that echo through the episode. Firstly there was Robins 'vice' bag - the bag where she kept anything Marshall might need to get him through the day (smokes, booze, drugs), the second was Marshall trying to remember the last words his father said to him, lastly Ted and Barney looking up 'men being hit in the groin' videos on the Internet to try and get Marshall to laugh. They spaced the gags out well, there was never a laugh too close to the serious stuff.

The ending was heartbreaking. Marshall had been trying to remember his dads 'last words' all day. Most of them seemed lame and pointless, he had trouble dealing with the fact the last thing his father ever said to him was 'Rent Crocodile Dundee 3'. It turns out his dad had left him a voice mail. He debated listening to it for ages before finally checking... only to find it was a pocket dial. Marshall then makes this amazing speech about how unfair death is, how his dad was his hero and how much he's going to miss him. My girlfriend, who hates the show, said the ending really ''pulls at heart strings", and I for one really felt the emotional impact of the moment.

It all works out in the end, Marshalls dad realizes his phone had rang him five minutes into the message and tells Marshall he loves him. Thank Christ. (before things get to sloppy there's some joke about foot fungus or something).

Oh, also there was a guest star - Johnathan from Buffy - what the fuck?

EIGHT THUMBS UP

Catch up on previous episodes here:  How I Met Your Mother: Season One, How I Met Your Mother: Season Two, How I Met Your Mother: Season Three, How I Met Your Mother: Season Four,How I Met Your Mother: Season Five