Episode 19 - Murtaugh
14 September 2009
Review
Synopsis: Barney is banned from Laser Tag for shoving kids around and wants to TP the place. Ted keeps a Murtaugh (a Lethal Weapon reference) list of things he is now too old to do. Barney takes up the challenge to complete them all in twenty four hours and if he succeeds Ted has to help him with the TPing. As Barney slowly suffers he makes a counter bet that Ted has to complete a list of things he is too young to do. Meanwhile Lily gets Marshall to coach her kindergarten basketball team but he cares too much about winning for her tastes.
The Good: There are two really good plots here, in theory. They don’t quite work out in execution but they fit the characters really well.
The conflict between Barney and Ted is one of the central stories of How I Met Your Mother. At least in the first two seasons the story was clear. Ted wanted to have a wife and start a family and Barney felt he should do the opposite. So the idea of Barney taking up a challenge to convince Ted to remain young and wild is both ideal comedy fodder (see Comic Highlight) and solid characterisation. Barney of course throws himself into the challenge with gusto leading to lots of fun at his expense as he foolishly pierces his ear, hurts his back sleeping on a futon and dresses up in Day-Glo gear to go to a rave.
Robin plays an important balancing role which could well have been expanded. She initially sees the wisdom of Ted’s list when she sees Barney is going to sleep on a futon. But when Ted tells her he wants to be old she turns toward Barney’s philosophy. Again it fits her character well because she doesn’t want to have children or think too hard about where life is taking her (114, 222). Her joint answer phone message with Barney was well written to poke fun at all the clichés.
The counter list of things Ted is too young to do was slightly overplotting for me. I felt that seeing Barney complete everything on the Murtaugh list and drawing out real emotions from that could have carried the episode. But the new list still fitted in well with Ted’s character. The show has definitely built Ted up as a responsible, adult-already character (212, 406). So seeing him in reading glasses and acting old is fun. And the line that struck a chord with me was him reading “Yell at neighbourhood kids” and then responding “My pleasure!” It just fits Ted so well (see him pushing around kids in flashback in 415) and conjures up an amusing image.
Barney and Ted’s gentleman’s agreement hand shake was surprisingly funny as they both shout “Huzzah!” as they release. It somehow fits both their characters to take it so seriously and sound silly as a result. I also like Ted telling his kids about Lethal Weapon. From his perspective in the future it sounds plausible and to us it sounds funny to describe it as a “80s noir masterpiece.” Barney was suitably aggressive and overzealous as a laser tag maverick (notice the board full of all his high scores in the background) and McCraken (Lechero from Prison Break) played his role well too.
Marshall and Lily’s story about her kindergarteners functions nicely as a debate over how they would raise their own kids. Marshall makes the point well that teaching children to win can help them later in life when they are fighting to win a job etc. And Marshall’s swallowed frustration at his team’s poor performance is well acted. I particularly liked the way he took it out on the ref who asked him to call him Kenny instead of “ref.” Marshall keeps his anger nicely bottled as yells “Great job Kenny, thanks a lot Kenny, see you later Kenny!"
A Russian beer is a brewskie. Nice.
The Bad: I’m not sure Lily yelling at Marshall in order to get her way is a great advert for their marriage. The story doesn’t quite make sense because Marshall prepared his team to win and only told them to just have fun as the game began. So logically speaking they would have lost the game anyway, it’s not as if they had the skills to win and weren’t using them. I have no problem with Marshall’s retelling of the story being used to humorous effect. But having an actual teen wolf shoot hoops was kind of pointless. Like Ted shouting at neighbourhood kids, it sounds funnier than it would be to see it. Ditto Marshall pelting a ball at a kindergartener, which just shouldn’t happen.
Ted realising that the Lethal Weapon motto actually means you’re never too old to do some things is an interesting conclusion. It follows in a long line of back steps from Ted as he has moved slowly away from talking about marriage and family (see 312, 404, 412). I suspect what is going on here is that How I Met Your Mother has become a successful Monday staple for CBS and the producers are preparing to extend the show’s run and therefore Ted’s character arc. While that is a decent motive for making him embrace fun it doesn’t justify breaking into the laser tag place. That is a crime and vandalising it, however gently, is still an offence which could land all of them in jail.
Comic Highlight: Having slept on the futon Barney is bent double in the booth at McLaren’s trying to drink shots with strangers (one of the things on the Murtaugh list).
T: “You ok Barney? It looks like you hurt your back.”
B: “Oh no. Rocking a party hunch. I like it. Closer to my booze. To youth! (He tries to drink the shot but amusingly fails) Can I get a straw?”
How I rate your episode: Two good stories, loads of enjoyable jokes but it could have been developed further and made even better.
Feedback
Add your comments on this episode below. They may be included in the weekly podcasts.
’)