Inside Television with Alan Sepinwall

'How I Met Your Mother' - 'The Wedding Bride': Baggage handler

Ted suffers another indignity from Stella's husband

By Alan Sepinwall Tuesday, May 18, 2010 7:31 AM

The ubiquitous Judy Greer as Ted's latest girlfriend.

Credit: CBS

As I said yesterday, covering the upfronts is going to get in the way of some of my reviewing this week. I watched last night's "How I Met Your Mother," but don't have time to say much about it, save that (like much of the season) it felt really, really super-broad, but I did like the baggage metaphor sight gag.

I'll have a longer review of the season finale, but what did everybody else think of this one?

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

Related Searches: Alan Sepinwall, How I Met Your Mother

I thought the movie meta humor gag was pretty funny if only because once again, HIMYM stretched the idea of an unreliable narrator (this time it's Tony). I thought the closing scene was a bit cheap though by making this girl completely crazy in the end...
May 18, 2010 at 7:45AM EST Reply to Comment
- sepinwall Yes, that felt very much like those episodes of "Friends" where one of the gang would have a perfectly good new boy or girlfriend and the writers would have to contrive something stupid to get rid of them (like Michael Rappaport shooting the bird).
  May 18, 2010 at 7:55AM EST
- dstalcup I agree, Alexander. I wish they hadn't wasted The Wedding Bride (something they've been planning for a year) on a one-episode girlfriend who ends up being dismissed as a joke.
  May 18, 2010 at 8:24AM EST
unkraut

I liked the episode. Funny idea, good execution... Better than most of the other episodes in this season.
May 18, 2010 at 7:58AM EST Reply to Comment
Shannon

I didn't love it. I thought the movie stuff was way too broad and it didn't make me laugh once. I'm pretty sure they've used the "helping someone move, oh wait, they're robbing the place" joke before, maybe in the episode with the Murtaugh lists.

Also, why is Robin hanging around like nothing happened? If they weren't going to follow through on her decision to back off so she could make it work with Don, why did they even bother to set it up? For a show that prides itself on detailed continuity, they have really been messing up on the big things this season.
May 18, 2010 at 8:26AM EST Reply to Comment
- Mike I agree. It's almost like they though the movie idea was so good that they didn't have to put any effort into developing it. The writing this season seems to stop at the premise. Put Barney in a Fat Suit. A movie about Ted. The King Kong joke.
  
  How great would it have been to have Ted and Jason Jones debate the movie on a talk show (Robin's?) or something. Or if the movie's release complicated the relationship with the mother.
  
  I also thought the last scene totally undercut the sweetness of the penultimate scene.
  May 18, 2010 at 8:39AM EST
Drewson

Judy Greer on HYMYM the week after BBT and a month or two after Modern Family? She gets around (pardon the pun)
May 18, 2010 at 8:38AM EST Reply to Comment
conrad

"who the kiss are you?" - barney

favorite bit of the ep.
May 18, 2010 at 8:53AM EST Reply to Comment
- gin_in_teacups I liked the episode, mostly because I love Judy Greer. I wish they'd found a way to use her for a few more episodes. And Barney's "who the kiss are you" made it all worthwhile.
  
  May 18, 2010 at 9:36AM EST
- conrad i wish they could use judy more too. but apparently "it's the last time you'll see these!" *flashes boobs to ted*
  May 18, 2010 at 2:30PM EST
bryan-a

May 18, 2010 at 9:10AM EST Reply to Comment
bryan-a

absolutely AWFUL - so they take the worst storyline of last year, in fact the worst storyline of the entire series and rehash it again for a half hour (not to mention the second ep in a row that involves an inordinate amount of Ted's d-ness)

Terrible writing, stiff and awkward acting and an idiotic plot device (2 actually)
May 18, 2010 at 9:13AM EST Reply to Comment
- halfabrian Agreed. Awful. I cant imagine anyone liking a movie that was so clearly terrible. Let alone it going on to be the 5th biggest grossing film of all time. Ridiculous premise and unfunny episode. If that had been the only episode Id ever seen I would never watch the show again.
  May 19, 2010 at 8:45PM EST
nic919

I thought it was a waste of Judy Greer, who should be someone they are considering to be the mother.

The movie was funny for about 5 minutes, but then it became tired and overused. It also made no sense to have Barney in the theatre using the f-bomb.
May 18, 2010 at 9:52AM EST Reply to Comment
- LAprGuy Hear hear.
  May 18, 2010 at 2:26PM EST
- Tyroc I actually liked Barney there because it added something that was missing... jokes.
  
  Judy Greer was indeed wasted. She's the best (and yes, sadly not the mother.)
  May 18, 2010 at 2:45PM EST
bsangs

Ho-hum episode. The stunner for me was this may have been the sanest character I've ever seen Judy Greer play. (Catch her on "Archer" btw - she is hysterical, as usual.)
May 18, 2010 at 9:54AM EST Reply to Comment
srpad

Not terrible (I find myself saying that about too many shows this season). I felt the baggage concept was great and should have been more fully developed and be the star of the episode. Then they could have come up with a better B story for "The Wedding Bride" episode. They danced around with playing with Rom-Com cliches in this one to parallel the movie. Pushing that idea to another level could have been very funny and very meta (in a good way). Instead we just got two decent ideas mashed together into one middle of the road episode instead of two very good ones.
May 18, 2010 at 9:58AM EST Reply to Comment
Tarasa

The "movie" was so bad that it ruined everything else for me. Either do the movie real or keep it bad and make it as a cult movie. But what they showed and the loving reactions did not line up. Bad, bad, bad.
May 18, 2010 at 9:59AM EST Reply to Comment
- Falling Ardor Yeah it was awkward seeing the masses overreact. I thought Chris Kattan was funny, but I thought they could've played Ted as a caricature a lot better, but then again they sort of did that with D-bag Ted last week. Strange.
  May 18, 2010 at 10:20AM EST
I thought it was one of the better episodes this season, but that doesn't mean it was great. I thought Marshall's happy walk was really funny and he wasn't forgettable this week. I thought it was kind of a funny idea, but I agree with most people that the unveiling of Judy Greer's baggage was just awful. HIMYM? More like how to undermine your plot in under 30 seconds. The Barney line was very funny but it was kind of random and the "scene" he made was unnecessary. Overall above average, but sabotaged by the ending.

Alan I did think the physical baggage was very cool. Especially the bag that stood out the most, "Cubs Fan" Ha.
May 18, 2010 at 10:06AM EST Reply to Comment
Nathan

I thought it was overall pretty funny. They did use the robbing someone/helping them move joke in "Murtaugh", so I kind of feel cheated on that. I thought the Wedding Bride stuff was pretty enjoyable, it was a nice, quiet dig at the rom-com genre and how people arrive in flocks to see really bad movies like that. Plus it was nice to see Chris Katan doing something again, even if it was playing "the most corrupt architect in New York".

I feel really cheated on the Robin storyline. That was something I felt the writers should have really carried through to the finale. They had a wonderful episode with a surprisingly dramatic ending where Robin moved out of the apartment, and seemingly the group, and the best resolution we get is 'Hey guys I'm back' at the end of "Robots vs. Wrestlers". The HIMYM writers are usually fantastic at continuity, which they showed through the Wedding Bride faux-film in this movie, but I'm disappointed with what they did with the Robin leaving the group story.
May 18, 2010 at 11:00AM EST Reply to Comment
Lionors

I was really looking forward to the episode. I thought the concept had a lot of potential, and I loved the casting. If you hire Chris Kattan to play someone, who know he's not going to be the hero.

But, as with much of this season, I was disappointed. I enjoyed the callback to the red cowboy boots (Actually, they're more of a burgundy), and I liked Ted was talking back to the screen, but mostly my feeling is "eh."
May 18, 2010 at 11:41AM EST Reply to Comment
- JimAbbott'sRightHandMan If you hire Kattan to play someone, he's not going to be the hero? Obviously somebody missed the instant classic Kattan film, "Corky Romano."
  May 18, 2010 at 5:37PM EST
LJA

We've been looking forward to this episode for a full year, and it was really disappointing. If I wasn't invested in finding out who the mother is, I'd have ditched this show months ago.
May 18, 2010 at 12:59PM EST Reply to Comment
Andrew

The show fell off hardcore with this episode. Why would Stella allow the film to Trash Ted so much. And if her husband hated him so much, then why would he of helped me get the job. Sloppy sloppy writing.
May 18, 2010 at 1:06PM EST Reply to Comment
- anon I don't necessarily think Tony hates Ted as much as Tony made Ted the villian so that he could be the bigger hero. Also, in Tony-land he was the hero in the first place, so Ted would still come off bad even if it wasn't the result of some crazy hate.
  
  My gripe (which sort of falls into a new level of "unreliable narrator) is that Stella wouldn't have known about the goat, right?
  May 19, 2010 at 11:14AM EST
Tom Galloway

OK, so this brings up the old unreliable narrator bit again, but is no one else wondering what Stella's reaction to the movie was? I thought she still thought Ted was a decent guy, so I can't really see her seeing this movie and not have it affect things with Tony or even result in a phone call to Ted apologizing.
May 18, 2010 at 1:07PM EST Reply to Comment
anon

barney at the end was the only moment i laughed all episode... disappointing episode in a disappointing season
May 18, 2010 at 2:22PM EST Reply to Comment
Lepidoptera

With this episode I realized that for me the magic is simply dead. Many times last season, I felt the concepts were sub-par, or that one or another character's behavior was too often erratic for the sake of repeated gags. Now, the characters are so archetypically drawn that you just sit back and watch which erratic character trait (fluent-Italian speaking Romance literature major, smalltown simpleton, angry party hostess, impulsive home-buyer, intolerant culture-haters, etc) is going to define the humor that night.

Showing the audience reaction to what was a ridiculously unfunny movie was galling, but not nearly as galling as the reminder of how little this show seems to be gauging what is actually funny lately. Did Marshall, an attorney, who has lived in NYC for YEARS honestly just insist that there is crime in Minnesota, like the shopkeeper who was held at hoe-point? That's not only sloppy, lazy writing, it's a further abandonment of what was once your most fully realized character.

Judy Greer is a very funny actress, but you would never it know from this "performance."
May 18, 2010 at 4:27PM EST Reply to Comment
RD

I enjoyed the episode for the most part. I enjoyed the ridiculous-ness of the movie and I enjoyed the baggage gag as well. Apparently "Still liking Oasis" is baggage. Sigh.
Anyways, I loved the episode for the most part except for the ending where Judy Greer could help Ted with his baggage, but Ted unwilling to accept hers. It seemed very douchey of Ted.
Barney was great in this episode tho, and I enjoyed the niceness of Marshall.

This season has been far from perfect. Very far. But, I'm loyal to my Tv Shows (I watched one tree hill until season 6!), so I'm willing to give HIMYM the benefit of the doubt that next season will be better.
May 18, 2010 at 4:53PM EST Reply to Comment
OrphanFunkhauser

I used to love HIMYM, but like The Office, the show has become stale. The jokes are not as funny and the characters are becoming caricatures as the writers are running out of material.

Even worse, the show has done nothing to advance the nature of who will become the mother. This indicates to me that the show runners have no idea when the series will end and are stalling. It's unfortunate because the first two seasons were fantastic.
May 18, 2010 at 5:42PM EST Reply to Comment
baz1860

I thought it was a fairly poor episode designed to fill the week before the season finale. It was lame and laboured, and indicative of the season as a whole. If ever a show needed an end date set to get the storytelling moving towards something again, it's this one. I love the show, but seriously, enough is close to being enough.
May 18, 2010 at 8:48PM EST Reply to Comment
HIMYM had a bad season, and this episode really ended it on a sour note.
One question I have to ask, that no one seems to mention: WHY WAS THERE A LAUGH TRACK?
There has never been a laugh track on this show before, but this episode was full of awkward and inappropriate laughs.
HIMYM was a show that always seemed to make it off its quirky/snarky humor. Having the execs at CBS tell me when to laugh at the jokes really illustrated how unfunny the episode really was.
At first I thought they were going for an ironic thing like Scrubs did in their 3 camera episode but it quickly occurred to me that they weren't trying anything, but they were really trying to pull off the laugh track as part of the episode.
I really hope that next season they don't come back with the laugh track because that will really cause me to start ignoring the show.
May 19, 2010 at 12:27AM EST Reply to Comment
- Fiz You're kidding, right? There has ALWAYS been a laugh track in this show.
  May 22, 2010 at 3:16AM EST
Neeek

The biggest problem with this episode is the huge suspension of disbelief required to believe that Tony would ever write Ted as such an ass, or that Stella would put up with it if he tried. Sorry, I just don't buy it.
May 19, 2010 at 1:00AM EST Reply to Comment
Kelli Oliver George

I really did not want to like this episode, but the way they used the soundtrack from one of my favorite movies (Love Actually) as the soundtrack to their own silly movie, it was hard to resist giggling (a bit) I also have to wonder if the use of the Love Actually soundtrack was a coincidence or not?

I did love the baggage sight gag, though.
May 19, 2010 at 11:43AM EST Reply to Comment
fred

Well, I actually liked the episode. I agree with the general idea of the execution, or that making the girl crazy was pretty bad, but - unlike most of the season - I thought it was funny, for the most part.

Couple of things:

- Ted was a douche, yes. But unlike last time people here were making fun of him. Ted wasn't his douchy self and liked for it, his proposal or 2-minute date were turned into jokes at his expense, and it worked for me.

And when Ted "exploded" it was him miserably going "the movie sucks, and you're stupid for liking it" and then, all proud of himself feeling superior, just using "Jed"'s catchphrase, thus still making fun of Ted for being such a douche. I liked it.

- It's something that sometimes doesn't work for me, but that most of the times people seem to get and apparently not this week, so let me say it:

Guys, the movie was NOT as bad as we saw it here. It was just a (probably pretty good) romcom where "Jed" is not the hero who gets the girl.
What we saw was the movie THROUGH THE EYES OF TED, and that makes all the difference.

The movie wasn't such a bad caricature of things, but Ted saw it that way. Typical HIMYM way of doing/showing things.

For instance, while it's odd Ted's date didn't noticed the similarities between his name and the character's name in the movie, I don't think he actually ever said "Ted Mosby" in it, it's just how Ted heard it/took it.

- "Who the kiss are you?" Gotta love Barney.

- About the baggage sight gag: loved how at the end, in front of the theaters, a couple of girls had for baggage "slept with barney"

May 19, 2010 at 2:35PM EST Reply to Comment
- fred Well, I actually liked the episode. I agree with the general idea of the execution, or that making the girl crazy was pretty bad, but - unlike most of the season - I thought it was funny, for the most part.
  
  Couple of things:
  
  - Ted was a douche, yes. But unlike last time people here were making fun of him. Ted wasn't his douchy self and liked for it, his proposal or 2-minute date were turned into jokes at his expense, and it worked for me.
  
  And when Ted "exploded" it was him miserably going "the movie sucks, and you're stupid for liking it" and then, all proud of himself feeling superior, just using "Jed"'s catchphrase, thus still making fun of Ted for being such a douche. I liked it.
  
  - It's something that sometimes doesn't work for me, but that most of the times people seem to get and apparently not this week, so let me say it:
  
  Guys, the movie was NOT as bad as we saw it here. It was just a (probably pretty good) romcom where "Jed" is not the hero who gets the girl.
  What we saw was the movie THROUGH THE EYES OF TED, and that makes all the difference.
  
  The movie wasn't such a bad caricature of things, but Ted saw it that way. Typical HIMYM way of doing/showing things.
  
  For instance, while it's odd Ted's date didn't noticed the similarities between his name and the character's name in the movie, I don't think he actually ever said "Ted Mosby" in it, it's just how Ted heard it/took it.
  
  - "Who the kiss are you?" Gotta love Barney.
  
  - About the baggage sight gag: loved how at the end, in front of the theaters, a couple of girls had for baggage "slept with barney"
  
  - "Major Baggage!"
  May 19, 2010 at 2:37PM EST
Ptid

BORING. Don't count me in for the next season...
May 21, 2010 at 4:41PM EST Reply to Comment

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'How I Met Your Mother' - 'The Wedding Bride': Baggage handler

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Comments

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

I thought the movie meta humor gag was pretty funny if only because once again, HIMYM stretched the idea of an unreliable narrator (this time it's Tony). I thought the closing scene was a bit cheap though by making this girl completely crazy in the end...

sepinwall Yes, that felt very much like those episodes of "Friends" where one of the gang would have a perfectly good new boy or girlfriend and the writers would have to contrive something stupid to get rid of them (like Michael Rappaport shooting the bird).

dstalcup I agree, Alexander. I wish they hadn't wasted The Wedding Bride (something they've been planning for a year) on a one-episode girlfriend who ends up being dismissed as a joke.

unkraut I liked the episode. Funny idea, good execution... Better than most of the other episodes in this season.

Drewson Judy Greer on HYMYM the week after BBT and a month or two after Modern Family? She gets around (pardon the pun)

conrad "who the kiss are you?" - barneyfavorite bit of the ep.

gin_in_teacups I liked the episode, mostly because I love Judy Greer. I wish they'd found a way to use her for a few more episodes. And Barney's "who the kiss are you" made it all worthwhile.

conrad i wish they could use judy more too. but apparently "it's the last time you'll see these!" *flashes boobs to ted*

bryan-a

halfabrian Agreed. Awful. I cant imagine anyone liking a movie that was so clearly terrible. Let alone it going on to be the 5th biggest grossing film of all time. Ridiculous premise and unfunny episode. If that had been the only episode Id ever seen I would never watch the show again.

nic919 I thought it was a waste of Judy Greer, who should be someone they are considering to be the mother. The movie was funny for about 5 minutes, but then it became tired and overused. It also made no sense to have Barney in the theatre using the f-bomb.

LAprGuy Hear hear.

Tyroc I actually liked Barney there because it added something that was missing... jokes.Judy Greer was indeed wasted. She's the best (and yes, sadly not the mother.)

bsangs Ho-hum episode. The stunner for me was this may have been the sanest character I've ever seen Judy Greer play. (Catch her on "Archer" btw - she is hysterical, as usual.)

Tarasa The "movie" was so bad that it ruined everything else for me. Either do the movie real or keep it bad and make it as a cult movie. But what they showed and the loving reactions did not line up. Bad, bad, bad.

Falling Ardor Yeah it was awkward seeing the masses overreact. I thought Chris Kattan was funny, but I thought they could've played Ted as a caricature a lot better, but then again they sort of did that with D-bag Ted last week. Strange.

JimAbbott'sRightHandMan If you hire Kattan to play someone, he's not going to be the hero? Obviously somebody missed the instant classic Kattan film, "Corky Romano."

LJA We've been looking forward to this episode for a full year, and it was really disappointing. If I wasn't invested in finding out who the mother is, I'd have ditched this show months ago.

Andrew The show fell off hardcore with this episode. Why would Stella allow the film to Trash Ted so much. And if her husband hated him so much, then why would he of helped me get the job. Sloppy sloppy writing.

anon barney at the end was the only moment i laughed all episode... disappointing episode in a disappointing season

Fiz You're kidding, right? There has ALWAYS been a laugh track in this show.

Neeek The biggest problem with this episode is the huge suspension of disbelief required to believe that Tony would ever write Ted as such an ass, or that Stella would put up with it if he tried. Sorry, I just don't buy it.

Ptid BORING. Don't count me in for the next season...

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unkraut

I liked the episode. Funny idea, good execution... Better than most of the other episodes in this season.

Drewson

Judy Greer on HYMYM the week after BBT and a month or two after Modern Family? She gets around (pardon the pun)

conrad

"who the kiss are you?" - barney

favorite bit of the ep.

conrad i wish they could use judy more too. but apparently "it's the last time you'll see these!" flashes boobs to ted

nic919

I thought it was a waste of Judy Greer, who should be someone they are considering to be the mother.

The movie was funny for about 5 minutes, but then it became tired and overused. It also made no sense to have Barney in the theatre using the f-bomb.

Tyroc I actually liked Barney there because it added something that was missing... jokes.

Judy Greer was indeed wasted. She's the best (and yes, sadly not the mother.)

bsangs

Ho-hum episode. The stunner for me was this may have been the sanest character I've ever seen Judy Greer play. (Catch her on "Archer" btw - she is hysterical, as usual.)

Tarasa

The "movie" was so bad that it ruined everything else for me. Either do the movie real or keep it bad and make it as a cult movie. But what they showed and the loving reactions did not line up. Bad, bad, bad.

LJA

We've been looking forward to this episode for a full year, and it was really disappointing. If I wasn't invested in finding out who the mother is, I'd have ditched this show months ago.

Andrew

The show fell off hardcore with this episode. Why would Stella allow the film to Trash Ted so much. And if her husband hated him so much, then why would he of helped me get the job. Sloppy sloppy writing.

anon

barney at the end was the only moment i laughed all episode... disappointing episode in a disappointing season

Neeek

The biggest problem with this episode is the huge suspension of disbelief required to believe that Tony would ever write Ted as such an ass, or that Stella would put up with it if he tried. Sorry, I just don't buy it.

Ptid

BORING. Don't count me in for the next season...

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