How I Met Your Mother – “Bad Crazy”

Season Eight, Episode Sixteen

Grade: C+

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All right, so here’s a problem that I’ve had with HIMYM throughout its eight seasons. Essentially, the show is about Ted’s journey to when he finally meets his wife. There are a lot of girls that come and go in this epic love tale, but there is only one special woman that Ted can call that special girl. But through the many stories that Ted recites, there are plenty of girls we simply know will not be the future wife, yet HIMYM spends far too much time focusing in on these story-lines. It’s like knowing your favorite sports team lost, but still watching the game that you recorded anyway.

So Ted has stated that Jeanette is important in his quest of finding his future wife because she’s the last girlfriend he had before finding her. Jeanette is also crazy and is the one who makes Ted realize it’s time to settle down rather than chasing girls. But that’s a bit down the line and we’re going to have to put up with more useless, silly story-lines until we finally get there. Hey, as a fan of HIMYM from the beginning, I’m used to this since it’s been the formula for years. I just really wish they would move it along a bit better.

As for the episode itself, there were some funny things from time-to-time. I particularly enjoyed the short montage of items that Marshall and Barney brought over to Ted’s apartment, which consisted of an arcade cabinet, a Boba Fett costumed mannequin, a cotton candy machine, a vespa, a horse, and a canoe. So while Ted’s trying to figure out how to break up with crazy Jeanette, Robin hasn’t ever picked up and held Marvin yet and is too afraid to do so. But when Lily leaves Robin and Marvin in the middle of the city street, Robin (in a series of flash-forwards) confesses that Mike Tyson (senator? okay that made me chuckle too) held Marvin, took them to a strip club and gave Robin some advice about Ted.

Okay, so HIMYM really cranked up the silly in this episode, but I was okay with it. And while the flash-forwards were funny at first, they beat the dead horse almost instantly, which is not a good thing in a half-hour sitcom. Was the Mike Tyson reveal was supposed to be shocking? Funny? I have no idea. I found it slightly amusing but it didn’t save the fact that I no longer cared what happened to Robin and Marvin that afternoon on the street.

As for Ted, he tries to break up with Jeanette but he can’t. Instead of meddling in his problems, Lily and Robin agree that Ted might be as crazy to be going out with a crazy person and admit that he just needs to get all the crazy out of him. Frankly, that just doesn’t cut it for me because seems like a very lazy way for the writers to allow Ted to remain with Jeanette a little longer. For what reason would Ted remain with Jeanette that wouldn’t be an issue when they finally split later on? She’s a psychopathic cop who likes to break things. Close the book on this story-line asap.