Episode 2 - We're Not From Here
12 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Ted and Barney pretend to be tourists in order to hook up with girls. Meanwhile Gael invites other travellers into Robin’s apartment and she begins to lose the side of her she enjoyed while in Argentina. Marshall is struggling to write a note to Lily in case of his death and she hasn’t written one at all.
The Good: Robin returning to her usual self makes sense. It feels very natural in her case because of her conservative, organised lifestyle. Similarly Marshall getting upset at Lily seems normal for him as he is a sensitive guy.
Ted and Barney provide a couple of jokes and their story is a clever one. Seeing them pretend to be from out of town in interesting and Barney throws himself into the fun as you would expect.
The Bad: Unfortunately all three plots all miss their mark in some way.
Ted’s rant about how great New York is compared to New Jersey is a difficult one. For the vast majority of the audience it is a speech with no resonance. It’s also difficult to see why he is so passionate about New York when it hasn’t been a strong part of his character so far. Otherwise that plot is fine but Ted’s anger throughout doesn’t endear you to him.
Gael’s behaviour is too unreasonable to seem real. Inviting travellers into Robin’s home, smashing her lap top and dropping food on the couch do add up. Perhaps one or two inconsiderate things would have been easier to take, but together with the unruly travellers the story seems silly. It’s not helped by Robin implausibly allowing them all to stay and making very old jokes about marijuana.
Finally Marshall and Lily’s plot feels inconsequential. They have a couple of silly arguments all for the payoff of the final scene in the future. None of it is very funny and seeing them in the future takes away any intrigue about where their relationship is headed.
Comic Highlight: The year 2029 and balding Marshall finally opens Lily’s death letter to find the words “Busted! I knew you’d read it. You suck Marshall, you totally suck.” He confronts her and she says she knew he wouldn’t wait. He replies: “Well you didn’t keep your promise either, I don’t see any dirty pictures in here.” She concedes “Oh fine, I’ll take the dirty pictures.” And he says with great delivery “I don’t want them now.” And so another fight begins.
How I rate your episode: Three poor unconvincing stories make this no fun to sit through. It has not been a good start to season three of the show. Improvement is needed soon.
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