Episode 20 - Miracles
12 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Ted breaks up with Stella because things are getting too serious too quickly. He then survives a car accident and changes his mind. He ends up proposing to her. The others rush to the hospital when they hear about the accident and argue about whether it was a miracle or not. Barney runs all the way to the hospital and is hit by a bus leaving him in traction. The Good: The news that Marshall did go and beg for his old job back. It makes sense that he would man up and accept his mistake and try to regain such a well paying job. As we suspected Barney shows he is in love with Robin by the end of the episode. It should make for some really fun television as he tries to convince her that he really likes her. His accident is serious enough to be an acceptable reason for him and Ted to make up. The Bad: One has to have some sympathy for the producers of How I Met Your Mother. The writers strike doubtless cost them precious time to flesh out this seasons stories. As they are presented they seem pretty weak. Ted and Barney’s argument never felt like lasting and so has little emotional resonance. Similarly we have only seen Stella in two episodes before this one. That is no time at all for us to care about her. Ted’s proposal to her is not much of a cliff hanger either because we know she can’t be the mother of Ted’s children or else Older Ted would have told us. Ted’s break up with her seems really odd as well. He breaks up with her because he is having doubts now, but this is Ted who is meant to be looking for marriage, shouldn’t he be a bit more patient? The jokes in the episode focus on Marshall and Robin arguing about miracles. Their stories are pleasant enough but nothing approaching a laugh which is not good enough for a situation comedy. Comic Highlight: Lily calls Barney to tell him about Ted’s accident. He assumes she is calling because now that he slept with Robin she wants to as well. “Not even if you boiled it in detergent” she says. Barely comedy but I couldn’t find anything much better. How I rate your episode: This is another humourless episode from a show which barely qualifies as comedy at times. We can forgive their plot problems to some extent because of the writers strike. However that is no excuse for the complete lack of comedy. Next season does have a couple of potentially intriguing relationships to explore, so fingers crossed for something better then.
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