A Statement About How I Met Your Mother

Yes, again. Get over it.

So we were displeased with the finale (well not displeased... disappointed), but after many more reviews of previous shows, we (you know... me) have a couple of more things to share about what has to be the most underrated show on television.

Similar to the aforementioned Gavin & Stacy, the show has created such a strong ensemble simply because the most obvious people are not in the driver's seat.

It turns out that Alyson Hannigan is a pretty huge deal--cult actress with comic book likenesses and everything, and the woman can act. The temptation to put her front and center in anything would be strong, but is something the casting directors of HIMYM were wise to avoid. Her strength lies in being a supporting player, in maintaining the heart of the show, and in bringing the main characters down a peg or two when necessary (see: every interaction ever between Willow Rosenberg and Buffy Summers). To have put her in the role of Robin, the more-or-less main "love interest" on HIMYM would have been a colossal misuse of Hannigan's powers.

Ditto for Jason Segel, who plays Hannigan's on-screen husband Marshall. To look at him on the show, one would have no idea that he is one of the Apatow Gods of Comedy, and that he had one of the more vulgar and disturbing roles in Knocked Up. Not to mention the fact that he wrote, starred in, and did full-frontal nudity in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. His supporting role in HIMYM is in no way a reflection of his talent, and does no injustice to his ability to be a very very funny man. Instead he is allowed to create a character (a character, I suspect, who is closer to his actual personality than any of his other personas) and build it with his own specifications, without any of the pressure of having to actually carry the show.

This post would go on for far, far too long if I started discussing the merits of Neil Patrick Harris, but suffice it to say he's established a new Gold Standard for the term entertainer in the past year.

When the five leads in How I Met Your Mother sit around their favorite bar table, you know you're in for a laugh riot (or at the very least, a good giggle). It's hard to believe, too, that the people sitting around the table playing those characters are legends in the making.