oh my God I I'm so sorry what what happened well she left and I don't even know if she's coming back the first season of How I Met Your Mother ended on a Bittersweet note Ted and Robin hooked up while Marshall and Lily broke up and as far as the first seasons of sitcoms usually go it was overall fairly strong the show's quirky narrative structure and unique way of blending dramatic moments into the comedy intrigued audiences and its characters were well defined right from the start even though the ingredients were all there it would take
a second season to perfect the recipe it's all big Li debuting in 2005 How I Met Your Mother recounts how Josh radner's Ted Mosby met the mother of his two children that tale which is framed as a story Ted is telling his future kids Luke and Penny equally follows the lives and romantic Trials of Ted's Best Friends Barney Stinson Robin Trotsky Marshall Ericson and Lily Aldren the show's pilot finds Ted taking a ro rtic interest in Robin after longtime couple Marshall and Lily become engaged to be married both of those stories unfold across the season
and in the first season finale Ted and Robin spend their first night together as a couple after that a triumphant Ted returns home to find Marshall crying in the rain and holding Lily's ring their engagement having been called off that kind of emotional gut punch would become one of the show's trademarks and as we said at the top the first season of How I Met Your Mother was pretty solid at the same time it's hard to ignore that it was a little rough around on the edges the initial season is for example weighed down by
an abundance of humor that didn't age particularly well okay Crouch down and bend over a little bit wow it took five shots of tequila to get you in that position and even die hard fans will have to admit that at least a few of the episodes are real Clunkers including forgettable installments like purple giraffe and sweet taste of Liberty those problems however can mostly be chocked up to Growing Pains and the list of classic sitcoms that had similarly Rocky first seasons is a long one that includes now Legendary Shows like Seinfeld friends the office Parks
and Recreation and Brooklyn 99 just to name a few as was the case with all these others it would take a second season of How I Met Your Mother to really perfect the formula part of that would be about perfecting the format season 2 for example would be the point at which the show firmly established the general template for how stories would be structured going forward including regularly starting off episodes with cold opens but what really made it perfect was the next level storytelling season 2 picks up the morning after the season 1 finale with
Ted Robin and Barney comforting a despondent Marshall the show then speeds through the next 30 days ju deposing the Bliss of Ted and Robin's new relationship with Marshall's seemingly bottomless well of self-pity despite his friend's best efforts Marshall continues to obsess over Lily until Ted finally gives him some tough love pointing out that Lily could never fall for someone who acts as pathetic as Marshall was then acting of course whatever I say you're just going to do the opposite so have a great weekend good luck screwing up your life come on Robin it helps Marshall
turn a corner and at the same time solidifies a new and unusual status quo where Marshall and Lily are single while Ted and Robin are a couple this reversal of the show's typical Dynamic then gives the writers a chance to more fully explore the characters including among other things who Marshall and Lily are independently of each other the relatively brief but memorable stretch finds Marshall awkwardly trying to date again while Lily attempts to figure out what she wants to do with her life and winds up living in Barney's apartment along the way the stories illuminate
why both members of the former couple really need each other and this is never more evident than it is in the fan favorite episode swarley how they get swarley from Barney it's not even a name who would ever be called swarley oh please don't start calling me swarley the seventh episode of the Season finds Marshall finally going on a date with another woman albeit one Ted thinks has crazy eyes the Romantic outing makes Lily jealous ultimately prompting her to break it up that in turn causes Marshall to realize how much she still loves him which
is what convinces the two to get back together the season would then end with them finally getting married their story is ju opposed against the opposing Arc of Ted and Robin's romance and over the course of the Season we see that typical sitcom hyinks notwithstanding they actually make a pretty great couple but there are also little hints that all isn't as well as it seems whereas Marshall and Lily ultimately realized they want the same thing in life Ted and Robin come to the opposite conclusion Robin dreams of traveling the world and living life like an
adventure while Ted wants to get married and have kids and settle down so while Marshall and Lily Are celebr celebrating their wedding in the season finale we learn along with Neil Patrick Harris's Barney that Robin and Ted finally came to terms with their incredibly bad timing as a couple and broke up it's a brilliant reversal of the emotional gut punch the show threw at the end of its season 1 finale when it broke up Marshall and Lily the issues that divide Ted and Robin meanwhile will be continually Revisited throughout the series in fact For Better
or Worse the story behind their breakup plays a pivotal role in setting up the whole series ultimate conclusion which found Robin and Barney divorcing over her globe in career and a lonely Robin and Ted finally finding their way back to each other similarly the season also sets up a number of other important story lines and elements that will play out over the remainder of the series we see Ted present his first major building design for a skyscraper that will actually be constructed Seasons later Lily meanwhile attempts to pursue a career in the Arts she fails
and returns to teaching but then finds herself working as an art consultant later in the series and Barney search for his father takes flight in the episode Showdown where he thinks he might be the son of the then host of The Price is Right Bob Barker your dad is Bob Barker that's right the host of the pric is Right Bob Burker that's pops it's a strong episode in a season that contains an inordinate number of classic episodes often found at the top of best of lists these include the aforementioned swle as well as Ted Mosby
architect Something Borrowed araer chiero something blue brunch first time in New York but even without all those season 2 might rank as the best season by virtue of the fact it contains what is almost universally regarded as the single best episode of the entire series slap bet in the hilarious lap bet the gang finds out Robin has a strange aversion to mauls which she refuses to explain that prompts Marshall and Barney to make a bet over who could find out the truth first the winner getting the chance to slap the loser it eventually comes out
that back in Canada Robin was a teen pop star called Robin Sparkles who had a hit with the song Let's go to the mall neither Marshall nor Barney actually win the bet but a penalty entitles Marshall to five free slaps to be doled out from this point into eternity that establishes what will become one of the show's most beloved running gags as he continues to use those slaps right up to the end of the series that's all of them and Robin's past as a pop star also becomes a beloved running gag but more importantly slap
bet is the episode where the emotional and comedic interplay between the five main characters really Finds Its Groove a that's one it's where the whole series clicks into place and from there on out the show fires on all cylinders season 2 is How I Met Your Mother at its best and strongest and even though most of the definitive elements of the series were in place during season 1 it still took 22 Episodes and a second season before the show really found its footing it's a point we make here a lot at nerdstalgic but in today's
television landscape seasons are of course rarely longer than eight episodes and streaming services are apt to cancel most series after just a season season or two it means that unlike How I Met Your Mother most shows nowadays simply don't have the luxury to take the time to figure out what they can be and in all fairness that's not always a bad thing after all brevity is the soul of wit and there are plenty of comedy shows with short runs that are nonetheless truly great but it's also no wonder why the kind of show that makes
you want to spend time with its characters for 208 episodes over nine Seasons doesn't Come Around Much Anymore which is all to say while Luke and Penny may have complained about the length of their dad's story they didn't really know how good they had it so what do you think was season 2 the perfect season of How I Met Your Mother and if it wasn't what was let us know down in the comments below and if you enjoyed this video you'll definitely find others you like if you check out the rest of the channel as
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