tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post8892231110126748323..comments2024-03-22T04:20:11.870-05:00Comments on Gentlemen of Leisure: How I Met Your Mother 9x09: PlatonishAustin Gortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-57987395765762446562013-11-20T14:34:42.685-06:002013-11-20T14:34:42.685-06:00@Blam: I still wish Victoria hadn't been (re)w...@Blam: <i>I still wish Victoria hadn't been (re)written off so obnoxiously.</i><br /><br />Ditto. And for reason everyone (but the characters) knew was bunk. Even if Ted did end up going for another ride on the "I love Robin" merry-go-round after Victoria, we all know he's not destined to end up with her, so it intentionally makes Victoria look like an idiot for thinking so with such certainty.<br /><br /><i>my appreciation of the scene quickly gave way to a head-smack that </i>even Ted's proposal is now just one more throwaway anecdote on the road to the literal end-note of the series' title.<br /><br />The flippancy of that was bothersome - we know the creators are all wrapped up in the notion that the series has to take its title literally, and lord knows I'm glad we're getting some time spent between Ted and the Mother, but I don't I buy the show's insistence that his literal meeting of her is the most important moment in his life, moreso than the moment he realized he loved her, that he proposed, that they married, that his children were born, etc., especially because the main reason the show has to give for thinking the literal meeting is the most important is just "because that's the title." <br /><br /><i>We can see the Mother now because it's the final season and the producers have cast her, period.</i><br /><br />Well said.<br /> Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-36731014143774592992013-11-17T13:47:09.248-06:002013-11-17T13:47:09.248-06:00I've been with you pretty much all the way so ...<br>I've been with you pretty much all the way so far this season and this (past) week is for the most part no exception. You wrote of Ep. 9.01,<br /><br /> <i>// The idea of stretching out a simple event into a long, lengthy story is fundamental to this show, and has been a part of its DNA since the beginning. //</i><br /><br />Which is so true — but also why Season 9 has been so frustrating, almost like it's trying to prove the naysayers right. I'd heard that the whole season's "present day" would be the wedding weekend in Farhampton and I was actually looking forward to the <i>HIMYM</i> time-jumping shenanigans inherent in (or at least suggested by) that premise. Unlike you, I <i>didn't</i> know in advance that Cristin Milioti would be appearing as the Mother in little flashforwards from the ongoing flashback that is the "now" of the series, 2030 Dad Ted aside, which meant that the quiet little transition in the premiere from Lonely Current Ted to, at the same table, Near-Future Returning with Mother-to-Be Ted kind-of blew me away. <br /><br />The Mother crossing paths with the rest of the gang doesn't bother me, necessarily; it's even, as you say, part of the show's pattern of coincidence (and/or fate). I too hope that when Barney sees her in the band he remembers her from what turned out to be one of the most important nights of his life, however.<br /><br />I still wish Victoria hadn't been (re)written off so obnoxiously. Having Ted mention how surprised he was that it didn't work out to Barney might have been nice, if that period is when the flashback is placed, especially given that the show winks at its missteps on occasion. On the other hand, I guess if Victoria was brought back in part thanks to overwhelming fan appeal only to be dismissed in a way that made me wonder why she was ever brought back at all then I can't really trust or expect Bays & Thomas to redress those grievances. <i>See also: Robin, </i>ad nauseum<i> return to Ted's feelings for</i><br /><br />My biggest issue with this season so far, even more so than the meh plots in Farhampton or that concurrent, interminable road trip, is the dark side of the bright moments that do in fact include the Mother. As nice as it was to see her and Ted up on that lighthouse, my appreciation of the scene quickly gave way to a head-smack that <i>even Ted's proposal is now just one more throwaway anecdote on the road to the literal end-note of the series' title</i>. I've had a grudging respect for the <i>Tristram Shandy</i> approach being taken even when the contortions were beyond my relatively high tolerance for such narrative gymnastics, but the producers' willingness to include the Mother in both trivial moments and turning points in this final season retroactively color past seasons' avoidance of such scenes in a way that can't help reminding us that this is a TV series — and not in the positive way, overtly indulging in and often subverting familiar tropes, that's become one of the show's stocks-in-trade: We can see the Mother now because it's the final season and the producers have cast her, period.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.com