How I Met your Mother Premiere Review

How I Met Your Mother Premiere

                How I Met Your Mother is back after a nice break. For those not familiar, this show stars Josh Radnor as Ted Mosby, Jason Segel as Marshall Ericson(Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Bad teacher, The Muppets), Alyson Hannigan as Lily Aldrin(American Pie, Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Cobie Smulders as Robin Scherbatsky (The Avengers) and Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson (Doogie Howser M.D., Harold and Kumar go to White Castle). The show takes place in 2030 New York; with a man (Ted Mosby) facing his children saying that he is going to tell them the story about how he met their mother. As the show progresses, the kids become increasingly agitated, as Ted won’t simply say when or how he met their mother, starting the story years before even meeting her, reassuring them by saying that it all comes together. The season picks up right where it left off, and begins to slowly piece together the puzzle. They’ve sent us visions of the future, keeping us on the edge of our seats and making us feel exasperated whenever they don’t reach the point we were shown.  So do Ted and Victoria ride off in the sunset? How will things get so hectic that Robin ends up marrying Barney?  Well, not even this episode reveals all these answers. However it does answer other questions. Be warned, from here on out, this article will contain spoilers.

 Before we start the episode synopsis, I'd like to point out a few things I noticed or that stuck out to me. Usually, it's Ted's voice at the end of the episode that explains or deciphers his big revelation from the entire experience; however this time it was Klaus's voice. 

Also, this episode begins with a scene from Barney's wedding, with Ted being called into Robin's room. She mentions that it seems so easy to climb out the window and a flashback ensues. So we have a flashback within a flashback? It's not of great importance; however this now brings us back to where the previous season left off: with Ted and Victoria driving off into the sunset. Their leisurely drive halts abruptly however, because Ted asks if she left Klaus a "left at the altar note." Due to the lack of aforementioned note, Ted makes the decision to drive her back to the church to leave the note. An interesting note is that despite Ted's experience with Stella, the woman who left him at the altar, Ted quickly gets over the fact that he's stealing Victoria away. Of all people, he should have a great(er) amount of sympathy and respect for Klaus, who is about to be abandoned as well. So it's decided that the note will be delivered (or planted) by Ted, but after he finally puts the note on the bed, he realizes he also left his keys. So now he has to overcome his fear of climbing up poles. As he readies himself, he finds Klaus climbing out the groom's window: intending to leave Victoria. Ted finds inner strength in this and overcomes his fear of climbing a pole and gets the keys from Victoria's room. Following these events, Ted decides to follow Klaus to "Farhampton," where he asks Klaus why he couldn't go through with the wedding. To which Klaus replies that Victoria is almost what he was looking for, but not quite. The scene later pans to 10 hours after Robin and Barney's wedding, where Ted is seen sitting at Farhampton, when a woman (which we can only assume is the mother, due to the yellow umbrella) gets out of a taxi and waits.

At the same time, Barney is dealing with the fact that he has not mentioned to Quinn (his fiance) that he and Robin dated. This story happens at the same time that Ted and Victoria are planting the note in her room. It's ironic that they both deal with wedding issues and are happening parallel to each other. Marshall and Lily, exhausted and fatigued from caring for baby Marvin, their child, become delirious and don't listen to Robin's plea of not telling Quinn about her past relationship with Barney. They spill the beans and upset Quinn. Afterwards, Robin explains that she's over Barney because she's dating Nick. Upon learning this, Quinn forgives Barney and they are set to get married. Or so it would seem. As history has shown us, Barney and Robin belong together. It's only a matter of time until they realize this.

This first episode has set up a lot of expectations for the rest of the season, and definitely shows that this show will go out with a bang. I'm both excited and saddened to see such a wonderful show end. The story is great and the characters are so full of life and each offer something different, despite their imperfections.