TV Review: Emmy-Nominated ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Starts Promising Fifth Season

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CHICAGO – CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother” reached a creative and cultural peak last season shooting up twenty-one places in the ratings and an average of 1.2 million viewers a week - a virtual tsunami of TV watchers in an era of constant erosion with broadcast TV ratings. Moving up a half-hour and being asked to anchor CBS’ Monday line-up, the debuting fifth season of “HIMYM” could be a make-or-break one for the show, the year when this sometimes excellent show finally becomes “the next Friends” or heads back in the other direction.

Television Rating: 4.0/5.0

It helped to have another sitcom that was consistently improving as a lead-in in “The Big Bang Theory” last season, but I think the increased notoriety for the show (which actually started with the Britney Spears cameo) lit a fire under a cast and writing crew that had grown a bit stale. I was very happy to see “Mother” get the attention of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences this year and hope the upward trajectory continues. Based on the fifth season premiere, there’s no reason to think it won’t.

“Definitions” — When Marshall (Jason Segel) and the gang finds out that Barney (Neil Patrick Harris, right) and Robin (Cobie Smulders, second right) are hesitant to define their relationship, Lily (Alyson Hannigan) forces them to confront their biggest fear. Meanwhile, Ted (Josh Radnor) is anxious about teaching his first lecture at Columbia, on the fifth season premiere of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, Monday, Sept. 21 (8:00-8:30 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Photo credit: Eric McCandless/FOX ©2009 Fox Television. All Rights Reserved.

“How I Met Your Mother” opens with Ted (Josh Radnor) teaching in a classroom that reportedly contains the “mother” that drives the entire show. Of course, that reveal isn’t happening without a month or two of build-up, so don’t expect to pick her out of the crowd. In the premiere, Ted isn’t really that good a teacher, more interested in pretending to be Indiana Jones (courtesy of a gift hat and whip) and crippled by fear of inadequacy.

“Definitions” — Ted (Josh Radnor), Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) and the gang find out that Barney and Robin are carrying on a secret romance, on the fifth season premiere of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, Monday, Sept. 21 (8:00-8:30 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Photo credit: Eric McCandless/FOX ©2009 Fox Television. All Rights Reserved.

More of the focus of the first episode is on the budding relationship between Robin (Cobie Smulders) and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris). After kissing at the end of last season, they open the season having split up, something that Lily (Alyson Hannigan) takes harder than anyone, having dreamed of the double dates and family things the two friend-couples could do together. Of course, the break-up is just a front and the couple has merely been delaying defining their relationship while they fool around all summer, something Lily refuses to allow to continue.

The well-publicized and unusual relationship between the commitment-phobic Barney and high maintenance Robin will clearly drive a major portion of the new season and the show looks like it could easily be better for it. Harris should have won the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor on Sunday night and Cobie Smulders has improved every year. They have a quirky, clever chemistry on the show that feels unique in the TV landscape. It will be fun to watch it develop.

What’s improved the most over the years that “How I Met Your Mother” has been on the air? The chemistry of the cast and the consistency of the writing. The first season of “HIMYM” was very promising but the show dipped significantly in season two before re-focusing on the characters that audiences cared about in the first place. Last year, the cast seemed reinvigorated, knowing that the writing was better than ever.

As for the rest of the cast, Hannigan is back and, once again, one of the funniest comedy supporting actresses television after a pregnancy-shortened season last year forced her to miss part of the year. Jason Segel has proven repeatedly, in films like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “I Love You, Man” that he’s one of the best of his generation and I love that the writers and producers of “HIMYM” have avoided pushing their biggest box office star to the front and left the show as an ensemble. As for Radnor, he’s grown on me but is still the weak link in the cast.

The list of quality broadcast TV sitcoms is not nearly as long as it used to be. We’re no longer in the golden age and shows like “Cheers,” “Seinfeld,” and “Friends” are much harder to spot than they used to be. “How I Met Your Mother” is still not quite worthy of being mentioned with those heavyweights, but it’s regularly beating down the competition on the air in 2009. It’s a great way to start one of the most popular nights of TV of the week.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]