Episode 8 - The Playbook
18 November 2009
Review
Synopsis: With their break up fresh Robin and Barney take different approaches to moving on. She throws herself into work which leads Ted and Marshall to point out that it’s moments like this that people find love. Barney throws himself back into dating or to be more specific conning women into bed. He uses “The Play Book” his own collection of scams and manages to incorporate Lily into his schemes.
The Good: Though this isn’t a very funny episode it is very entertaining. The writers manage to densely pack the episode with action and wrap the entire story around a huge Barney con. The combination of the mystery of what Barney is up to with the non-stop action makes for a winning formula to keep viewers hooked.
Barney’s big con is relatively satisfying if predictable. The collection of play’s from his book help keep the episode moving as well as playing into the overall con of making Lily mad enough to steal the book. Amongst the various plays the Mrs Stinsfire was a funny idea and waiting at the top of the Empire State building telling women that “He’s not coming” was inventively cruel. The “Ted Mosby” play was a predictable but smile worthy inclusion too. It was a nice touch to have Robin explain why she wasn’t always disgusted with Barney’s immorality.
Marshall and Ted teasing Robin about finding a new love was a fun side-conversation to make it seem like life was continuing in the midst of Barney’s big con. Marshall’s analogy about frozen waffles is the kind of thing the show should do a lot more of. By making an analogy to a beloved food Marshall seems like a real person and naturally it leads to him asking her to pick him up some waffles when she goes out.
The Bad: The lack of any real emotional fallout from Barney and Robin’s relationship is sad. I feel like the producers never really tried to make their relationship seem real and this only adds to it. It would have done so much for Barney’s character if he has conscientiously kept Robin away from hearing about his other women.
Most of Barney’s plays weren’t funny on their own. The Mother writers don’t seem to appreciate the difference between a list of funny ideas and a way to actually bring that to life in a sit com. Of course many of his plays also stretched the credibility of the show too much. I won’t discuss the penis that grants wishes nonsense but the whole “Secret NASA” idea is not something that should work (see Comic Highlight though). The “hell no” harmony is another example of this. It’s a nice idea in principal but there’s no way everyone round the table would have known what to sing, especially not the girl who they had just met. Why was an attractive girl alone in the bar anyway? That almost never happens either.
Comic Highlight: Several of the Barneyisms in the episode were fun. But the line which caught me by surprise and elicited a laugh was this one. Barney cons some women by telling them he works for the Secret NASA. Or SNASA obviously. He admits he has not been to the moon but he has been to the SMOON. Yes, dumb I know. Robin comments that “If you fall for that one my heart breaks for you but I’m sorry you’re a SMORON.”
How I rate your episode: A fun episode filled with Barney’s tricks. But do the producers have any other tricks in their bag? Or did they break up Barney and Robin because they felt so limited by not being able to resort to Barney’s antics?
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