Episode 17 - Of Course
14 March 2010
Review
Synopsis: Barney meets Anita (Jennifer Lopez) and though she seems into him she won't have sex with him. Ted realises that she is using advice from a book called "Of course you're still single, take a good look at yourself you dumb slut." Then we discover that she is the author and Robin set her on Barney. It seems that her breakup with Barney has hurt Robin more than she let on. Barney decides to take Anita on a "Super Date" to try and sleep with her but then arranges for Robin and Don to go on it instead.
The Good: The central emotional story here is excellent. Robin and Barney's breakup has been far too amicable and uncommented on and now we see a pretty reasonable other side to it. Barney found a way to get over it quickly of course but Robin has suffered in silence during his multiple conquests. Despite the show's silly exaggerations this emotional reality feels entirely believable. Barney's decision to do right by Robin and jump into the river to avoid betraying her was a suitably noble act of contrition.
On the way to that denouement Barney was entertaining as ever (see Comic Highlight). As always his ability to make his activities seem more dramatic than they really are is enjoyable: "My plan was to sleep with her. But this changes everything. New plan: I'm going to sleep with her!" Marshall and Ted feeling guilty over making Robin feel fine and then yelling at the next guy in the chain for not realising it was predictable but amusing.
The Bad: There are two musical numbers in this episode. I was less offended by Ted's despite its needlessness. Ted launches into a music backed song about Barney's Super Date and you wonder what the point of it was. It wasn't any more entertaining in itself than if he had just explained the date to Barney. Barney even reacts to it as if it were real rather than a Family Guy style musical number. That reaction makes it seem like we are expected to believe this actually happened. The whole incident was dumb and pointless.
Marshall's number on the other hand had a very important point and yet was perhaps even more implausible. Marshall sings an offensive "Bang bang" song about how many women Barney has slept with recently. The entire build up to the apparently spontaneous song makes out Marshall to be crass and insensitive in a way which is completely contrary to his character. Worse than that though Ted joins in even though the way he interrupted implied he didn't know what the song was. The entire sequence once more betrayed a writing team who are shockingly short of good ideas and judgement. No normal person would ever sing such a song! It was idiotic.
Jennifer Lopez was passable in her role but she was on the lower end of guest start. Rather like Bradd Pitt (Friends 809) there's something about big movie stars on the small screen which doesn't always translate to success. Part of that is scripting of course and having her slip the word sex into a sentence with no plausibility didn't help her cause.
Comic Highlight: Barney describing the amazing micro-fibres in his suit as an aid to seduction: "Well you're in luck coz mine's the tiniest. And the more you touch it the softer it gets!"
How I rate your episode: A couple of terrible jokes couldn't derail what was an engaging and logical story.
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