Episode 16 - Sandcastles In The Sand
12 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Robin is meeting her old boyfriend Simon (James Van Der Beek) who dumped her when she was a teenager. She is trying to “win” by proving how successful she is now. When he arrives everyone thinks he is a loser except for Robin who reverts to how she used to feel and starts dating him again. Lily regresses herself when her high school friend Michelle joins them. Robin gets dumped again and is comforted by Barney, in more ways than one.
The Good: The writers make it four in a row, as this week Robin gets an episode all to herself. The story of her regression is not as important as the twist at the end where she ends up with Barney. As abhorrent as Barney can be the writers have at least given themselves a tiny bit of cover. The opening montage reminds us of Robin’s cigar smoking, gun wielding, no-nonsense personality which has made her bond with Barney in the past (114). We even got a hint of it when he talked about asking her out a couple of episodes ago (313).
Meanwhile her story with a very game James Van Der Beek is passable. The concept of regressing to how you used to behave is an interesting story. Robin justifies the whole story pretty well when she says to Barney that she wished she could be as vulnerable and open to things as she once was. It’s a line which fits with her hard bitten image in the present. It also provides a reasonable explanation for her silly behaviour as she fauns over the obviously unworthy Simon.
There are a couple of jokes which work including the opening digs at Robin using Canadian jokes and Barney’s Greece reference.
The Bad: As with the other one character episodes we have seen recently, we get a lot more room for jokes than we are used to. Unfortunately the writers seem to be demonstrating why they have focussed for so long on plots rather than jokes.
Robin’s second music video is just as silly and implausible as her first one (209). Sadly it is only the most obvious example in a string of jokes which just look and sound implausible. Lily talking “street” with Michelle is so unlike her normal behaviour that there is no reason she should not see her own regression. Not to pick on Lily but her acting does not have the range to make this remotely believable.
Lily and Marshall acting like Robin’s parents is one of those classic sit com juxtaposition jokes and it doesn’t work either. In the middle of this silly dialogue Lily accuses Robin of drinking. Robin of course points out that Lily bought the round. It’s a line which is so stupid it underscores how bad the writers are at making their characters funny. The problem is that Robin and Lily are portrayed as normal women. And they act like normal women. When they are forced to say sit com lines they have no believable reason to do so. So the lines jar and look like what they are – poorly thought out attempts to make jokes which are in the wrong context.
The writers also have pet jokes which they trot out at every available opportunity. One example is their pornography and double entendre fetish but here we see more Canadian jokes. Not that making fun of Canadians is bad in itself. It is more the way they make Robin say things which are normal in the United States but transferred into a Canadian context. Here she talks about Simon being from a red province and the deep North (as opposed to an American Red State and the Deep South). They are so obviously not Canadian terms that they fall completely flat.
There is even more unconvincing stuff than this with Simon defending his job at the waterslide and their “amusing” Canadian accents.
Comic Highlight: Simon convinces Robin to play his demo CD on the news. So during “Puppy Corner” where she shows photos of dogs from Midtown Animal Shelter she plays the song “Murder Train” by The Foreskins. She defends herself by pointing out that lots of dogs were adopted. But has to add that people who called in thought that they were going to kill the dogs. It works as a joke because the music is spot on.
How I rate your episode: Sadly How I Met Your Mother is not making the best case for me that having one character’s story is the key to better episodes. We do get a touch of nice characterisation here but it is outweighed by a ton of terrible jokes. The twist at the end though will ensure that this episode will be remembered as “the one where Barney and Robin kissed.”
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