Episode 4 - Little Boys
12 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Lily sets Robin up with one of her kindergarteners fathers. Robin likes the guy but struggles to cope with his son. Ted and Barney make a bet over who can sleep with a girl first. It turns out that Barney has already slept with her, but the bet goes on. The Good: The Ted and Barney story is a good one. The twist that Barney has been playing Ted all along is typically clever. The switch of perspective is fun to see and it plays well to Barney’s character by allowing him to be the smartest man in the room. Even better is the final twist where Stacey is taking it slow with Barney because she was hurt by Ted. It’s a pleasingly logical and realistic ending. But beyond that it underlines what should be the moral bottom line, which is that Barney doesn’t always benefit from deceiving people. Barney provides the humour of the episode with Ted as his foil. His Olympiad suggestion, his Mount Everest analogy and his Reggae mocking are all fun. There’s also a very nice moment early on where we hear what all the others think Robin’s “but” (drawback as a girlfriend) is. The Bad: The Robin story is passable but it a bit weak. She doesn’t like kids, she likes this one and then she breaks up with him. Not much to it. The big problem with this episode is the way Ted is written. The name of the show should remind the writers that the premise of Ted’s character was that he wanted to get married. However here he ridicules Marshall for being in a relationship for so long. Though you can defend it as just banter, it looks like incompetent writing. The tiny Barneys and Teds are silly and too obvious to be funny. Comic Highlight: Barney slowly torturing Ted about having been with Stacy. “I was with her a year ago. You gotta figure for her, that’s like 200 showers ago. You gotta ask yourself Ted, is 200 enough?” How I rate your episode: The twists are enjoyable to see. Barney is strong in his role but this is not a very funny episode overall.
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