How I Met Your Mother review: The Rabbit & The Duck

Not familiar with How I Met Your Mother?  Let me bring you up to speed.

How I Met Your Mother’s premise and unrelenting hook is found in it’s name.  Each episode is a bed-time story of sorts:  Ted Mosby is a 50-something narrator telling his two teenage kids, well, how he met their mother.  With the help of some of the most creative flashbacks ever, we watch vicariously as 30-something Ted searches for the woman we’re told will be his wife, and the mother of his children.  And don’t forget the rest of the gang: Ted’s best friend Marshall and his wife Lily, Ted’s ex-girlfriend Robin and everybody’s favourite womanizer, the awesome, the legendary Barney Stinson.

This season, Ted is back to his old self – someone we haven’t seen since the end of Season 2 – exhibiting his trademark infectious charm, trusting blindly that destiny will bring “the one” to him.

In this episode however, titled “The Rabbit and the Duck”, it’s not destiny that he trusts with finding his future wife, but his friends Marshall and Lily.  Tired of being single and looking for a woman to marry, Ted says: “Marshall, Lily.  Arranged-marriage me!”

What follows is – dare I write these words – maybe the best episode of How I Met Your Mother to ever have been put to film.  And, if you watched the Superbowl, you might have seen the show’s standout character Barney Stinson hold up his fictional phone number in a pre-produced promotional spot for the show.  When I watched the brilliant tie-in from that promotional spot unfold into this episode, it was all I could do to stop laughing long enough to write these words in my notebook: THIS. IS. THE. BEST.

From the reference to The Naked Man, a delicious peek into the undeniable magic of Ted and Robin’s former relationship, more innovative use of flashbacks, a very slick use of the “Lawyered” running gag and, of course, Barney at his absolute most womanizing, this episode represents a love letter to die-hard fans from the writers – a timely move, considering that they’re telling a Valentine’s Day story.

For those of you who aren’t yet fans of the show, find a way to watch this episode and you’ll be hooked.  This is How I Met Your Mother at its finest and, if the writers can keep this up, I can’t see how you wouldn’t join me in saying that this show is, above all other sitcoms, legen … wait for it … dary!

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I’ll be writing more TV reviews from now on.  How I Met Your Mother and Community reviews exclusively for my readers here at Tonguetwisted Ink, & 24 and Chuck reviews for my friends over at Hollywood the Write Way.  I’ll link everything from here, so you just sit back and enjoy.

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francy