How I Met Your Mother: The Limo

"People often think a good mix should rise and fall, but people are wrong. It should be all rise baby" -Barney.

For me, this show has been nothing but "rise" as well. This episode was another great episode in an absolutely fantastic season. I say this week in and week out, but this show really strikes a chord with me, and last night's episode made me feel like maybe I'm not the only one who always seems to be "looking" for something/someone on New Year's Eve. I'm not sure if mine will turn out quite like Ted's, but I'll be sure to let you know, since I'm sure you all care so much. On with the show!

Ted decided to do something really special for their group's festivities this New Year's Eve. Apparently, it's been a while since they've all spent it together, and Ted means to fix that. He took about half of his Christmas bonus, rented a limo for the evening, and planned out a bunch of parties to hit. Unfortunately, Robin can't join them because she's meeting her boyfriend for the holiday. At the first party, Ted meets up with a "friendly" girl from his work. Barney also meets a nice foreign girl he plans on spending the night with. On their way to the next party though, they have to pick up Robin, whose date ditched her, and Lily ducks out to run home and change shoes. They also notice Moby (the popular recording artist, not the whale) standing on the side of the street, and ask him to join their merry adventure. They start to suspect it's not Moby, a fact that's confirmed when he pulls a gun.

After ditching not-Moby, the group was feeling a little down. Marshall had bailed to go find his fiancee (even though Lily had already re-joined the group), not-Moby had stolen Barney's "Get Psyched" mix, Barney had somehow lost his girl, Ted's friend picked up on the fact he was infatuated with Robin and decided to leave, and to top it all off, the limo had gotten a flat tire. With the minutes ticking away, Marshall emerged from a smoke filled alley and got everything to click. He had been to the last party on the list already, and claimed it was "awesome", so in the newly repaired limo, the group sets off. Barney also found his girl had been asleep in the front of the limo, and Marshall had pilfered the Psyched cd from not-Moby. With Robin's kiss waiting for him at midnight, all seemed to be going perfect for Ted. Then Derrick, Robin's boyfriend, showed up. Feeling completely deflated, Ted started a very John Cusack-y walk down the streets of NYC. As the last seconds of 2005 faded away, Ted got a surprise, Robin ran up behind him and kissed him.

What can I say, I'm a sap. This show just gets it right, you know what I'm saying? There have not been many "romantic" comedies that have made it on TV. In the past couple of years alone we've had Good Morning Miami and I'm With Her fall flat on their faces. The played up the "romantic" part and let the comedy be in the background. They also teased us too much with "will they or won't they". How I Met Your Mother is the exact opposite; they started with a plan, and in the very first episode we found out "they won't", but we do know that Ted is going to live happily ever after, and that compells us to keep watching. They also play up the comedy and let the romance happen in the background. I love it, and I'm certainly going to be here, week in and week out, rooting Ted on. But then, as I said above, I'm a sap. Let me know what you think.