The 8th season of How I Met Your Mother continued tonight with Who Wants To Be A Godparent, in which we got to see Lily and Marshall struggle over the important decision of who would look after Marvin if they were to die.
The premise for tonight’s episode is simple, Lily and Marshall, a couple who is closer to their group of friends than any member of their family, is faced with the tough decision of deciding which friend is best suited to be the godparent for their son. Although the show tackled the serious decision in an interesting and humorous way, for the most part the execution fell far short of the potential.
This was one of the first episodes for the show that I was completely disappointed by the acting. Josh Radnor and Cobie Smulders’ enthusiasm during the game felt extremely forced, and I could hardly stand listening to Alyson Hannigan’s fake cry every 30 seconds. Week after week, the cast has been spot-on, so a one-week anomaly isn’t the end of the world, but I still expect more.
Unfortunately, the problems with the acting paled in comparison to, and could probably be blamed on, the flaws in the story and lack of humor the actors had to deal with. Tonight’s episode felt like a simple rehash of some of the humorous, but not legendary plot devices from earlier seasons, the first of which being the fear of death all around them.
I’d actually say that the initial time death being all around someone was used (Disaster Averted) was pretty legendary. Marshall being afraid of getting hurt while he doesn’t have health insurance was pretty funny in itself, but the fact every scenario he imagined ended in him getting eaten by a bear was absolutely hilarious. Lily simply crying every time death is mentioned doesn’t even come close.
So Lily and Marshall decide that in the chance they do meet their untimely demise, they need a proper guardian for Marvin. They then set to the task of deciding who would be the ideal caretaker.
Marshall naturally thinks his mother is the best bet, but as Lily and Judy have never quite seen eye to eye, Lily has a definitely problem with this. As does Marshall with Lily’s mother. Their arguments are where we get another funny, yet overused scene, where Marshall and Lily are in fast motion, moving around as they argue over the course of a half an hour or more. Although there were a few funny moments in there, Marshall getting the pizza was one, we’ve seen this before, and I would’ve liked something new. That being said, I did enjoy the 1-second argument about Mickey.
Another smaller, yet already used shot is the one where Robin is on the bike, letting her hair flow in the wind, picturing herself as much sexier than she is (though she looked pretty good in that leather suit.) Did that seem familiar? Well it already happened in Girls Versus Suits when Robin showed that all girls look hotter when bartending. As much as Smulders may love doing these scenes, once was enough.
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