Episode 1 - Do I Know You
12 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Stella says yes to Ted’s proposal. Marshall soon discovers that Ted knows very little about her. Ted makes her watch Star Wars because it is his favourite movie and he is desperate for her to like it. Meanwhile Barney confides in Lily that he is in love with Robin. She sets them up on a dinner date to try and force him to admit it. The Good: The Star Wars plot makes a nice point. Ted and Stella don’t know each other very well and so it actually is kind of important that she can stand his taste in movies. Marshall’s explanation at the end that Star Wars is a movie which Ted watches in sickness and in health, in good times and bad is a very clever and clear analogy for their marriage. Her decision to lie about liking the movie would have more resonance if it weren’t obvious that she wasn’t going to be the children’s mother (see The Bad). Barney is a great sit com actor. By that I mean that he is capable of projecting simple emotions and desires into humorous but plausible physical and verbal acts. Even without much of a script to work with he can make the occasional line funny. The Bad: We have barely seen Stella on screen (she has appeared in three previous episodes). So it is difficult to get invested in her story because she has been elevated to a level of importance (fiancée) well before we have gotten to know her. And of course in a show called How I Met Your Mother we have to assume that their relationship won’t last. We have to assume Ted would have finished the story if Stella were his children’s mother. So everything Stella related is difficult to care about. As for Barney and Robin, that story just lacks something. Barney suddenly changing his behaviour just doesn’t seem convincing. There is no subtlety to his interest in Robin and so no reason to believe this won’t fit into the usual clichéd romance storyline where slowly they will get together. The humour is very poor throughout the show as well. Lily and Ted just aren’t good comedy actors. They both deliver a line involving the word “bastard” in this episode and neither sounds like they would ever use the word normally. They both sound forced and unnatural trying to be funny in this scripted environment. Robin and Marshall are better at it but they have nothing to work with here. Marshall’s “what are you doing?” montage is one of those impossible jokes which remind you that this is a TV show and not remotely real while Robin borders on the deeply unprofessional for frowning through her on-air puns. Finally Barney’s speech about bimbo’s doesn’t strike a comedic note. It just sounds offensive, shallow and unrealistic. Comic Highlight: Robin tries to get Barney to revert to his normal behaviour and make a double-entendre.
R: “Today I was at the dentist. That guy drilled me all day long. He drilled me hard. He filled all my cavities. Come on man!”
B: “Well, your teeth look fantastic.” How I rate your episode: Not a good start from How I Met Your Mother. The show has been on a slow decline for a long time now and this does not fill one with confidence.
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