Episode 7 - Matchmaker
25 March 2012
Synopsis: Robin does a piece for Metro News One about Love Solutions, a company who claim to be able to find your soul mate. Barney forces Ted to go but Ellen, the head of Love Solutions says that she can’t find a single match for Ted. The one match he did get has already been set up with another guy. But Ted wants to check her out and so heads down to see Sarah O’Brien at her dermatology office. Meanwhile Lily and Marshall discover a strange creature living in their apartment which they name the Cockamouse.
The Good: Ted’s search for the one continues with Love Solutions. It’s an interesting story as we wait to see what will go wrong with Ted’s attempt to be set up. Once he actually meets Sarah the real fun begins. His attempts to attract her are pretty funny as he sings “Summer Breeze” (because he has read her file and knows she likes it) and asks her to call him if her marriage doesn’t work out.
When she calls him back he is amusingly sure she is about to fall for him: “You have a basal cell carcinoma” she tells him. “Anything else?” he replies with a smile. Ted has become so obsessed with finding the one that he crosses appropriate social boundaries by approaching Sarah. In the end he returns to the comfort of faith that somehow he will find the woman he is meant to be with. It’s an enjoyable tale throughout.
Ted’s stories do benefit from Barney’s presence, as he brings the big laughs with him (see Comic Highlight). Barney’s immoral selfish approach to everything is consistent and consistently funny. Here he attempts to meet his soul mate just to have sex with her. He goes under the alias Jack Package, “It’s pronounced packaaage” he says helpfully.
Lily and Marshall make the best of their Cockamouse story by throwing themselves into it with gusto. The writers do a good job of establishing Marshall’s childlike wonder at all things mysterious (ghosts, aliens etc). It makes it more plausible that he would believe what he was saying was a new kind of creature.
The Bad: Unfortunately the Cockamouse is the continuation of a pattern of jokes from How I Met Your Mother. Viewers will instinctively care less about what they can’t see. There is something phony too about actors reacting to something which the viewers know isn’t there. More than make you laugh, a story like this reminds you that you are watching a TV show and makes you think about how they filmed it. It takes you out of what you are watching and doesn’t help you get lost in it.
It’s also worth considering that Love Solutions couldn’t possibly operate the way they claim. The only way they could match people up so accurately would be to have them all fill in detailed questionnaires. But they surely don’t have access to all the millions of New Yorkers which they claim to be trawling through. So Ellen’s depression over not finding a match for Ted doesn’t actually make a lot of sense. Not only are there millions of women who have never used Love Solutions but there are millions elsewhere in America and the world who might be right for Ted.
Comic Highlight: Ted refused to go with Barney to Love Solutions. So we cut to the next scene of Ted sitting alone in his apartment. Barney rushes in yelling “Ted! You’ve gotta help me, my boat is sinking.” He goes on to explain “I bought a boat last year at a police auction and I just got a call from a guy down at the marina that it’s leaning starboard at a 45 degree angle and if I don’t get down there right away it’s going to capsize, now come on!” He says it all at such a speed that faithful Ted follows him out of the apartment. Cut to Love Solutions where Ted and Barney are filling out questionnaires. The writers really are servicing Barney with some great deceptions.
How I rate your episode: The Love Solutions story was fun, the Cockamouse a lot less so.
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