I have since seen all six series, and found them incredibly refreshing among the relentless Everyone Loves Raymonds, Accidentally On Purposes and Just Shoot Mes of American situation comedy. Which has been timed brilliantly, as series 7 is being aired from the 19th of September (next Monday) on CBS in the States*, so what better moment to post a rundown of the things that make the show a little bit different and give it such quality?
There are five main reasons I can think of as to why the show is consistently funny, quality and makes you want more of it.
Refreshing storytelling structure- The key to How I Met Your Mother is the fact that it is essentially one gigantic flashback peppered with narration by Old Ted in 2030 (Bob Saget).
This leads not just to plenty of in-jokes, such as calling an old flame "Blah Blah" because "it's been 27 years, I can't remember all this stuff", but also clever tricks on the part of the writers allowing intelligent storytelling that surprises the audience, making both incredibly funny moments and incredibly moving ones. In Three Days of Snow, for example, the finale of the epsiode (it really is a finale) comes from some deft playing around with the implied timeline of the episode. Sometimes up to three periods of future and two of past are being shown side by side, such as when the group compare being hooked or "the hooker" in previous relationships or the rules of dating in previous relationships to prove to one another that a current relationship won't work, at which point Old Ted normally chimes in that it didn't, they were right. And yet it is understandable, simple enough to follow and makes you think. Slick and clever, the structure of the show probably holds the key to it unlike something like Friends, which dragged on and on for no real apparent reason and in the same vein, with no change to the status quo and no goal in sight, far beyond its quality years.
It's also very in-universe, with story arcs constantly present in each episode. It makes you want to root for the characters a little more. Some of the more drama-based episodes can feel a little closed off if you haven't caught the previous happenings, but in my opinion that's what's so great. You want to find out why the things are happening- at least I did, hence watching from the beginning.
Feeling new despite the bare bones being sitcom standard-
there are established sitcom tropes and techniques within the show, such as the group of friends all regularly meeting in a coffee house/ bar in a big American city, the "apartment set" being a regular feature etc, but there are enough locations for it not to feel stagnant and due to the nature of the story, with tonnes of red-herring women potentially being the titular mother the choice of settings change swiftly.
The character focus raises it above the empty formula of Friends/ Everybody Loves Raymond etc. Drama and humour mix together well because the writers try to flesh out the characters as more than just people who spout set-ups and punchlines at each other with ridiculous speed a la Gilmore Girls. From the first series there's the single protagonist Ted, who is ironically the least well developed of the main characters; his best friend Marshall and his long term girlfriend Lily, the "perfect couple" with some clear divisions and issues that come to the fore; Barney, a womanising bravado-core with fleetingly shown deeper issues and sadness under the superficial suit; and Robin, who we first meet as Ted tries to date her but who then becomes a well-rounded individual in her own right within the group, with ambitions and history that the writers draw on for continuing series.
Having an end in sight-
this kind of ties into the structure of story telling, but it's a point in it's own right because from the outset there has been an ending in play, almost ensuring that the series don't run on too long. They've been signed for series seven,starting soon, and series eight, but nothing past those. The calibre of the writing and the cast would suggest that they would end at a suitable point before hitting the Simpsons stage, the Friends flop-in-the-middle or the Scrubs-stall. Not to say that some series aren't weaker than others, but because it's constantly been interwoven with flashforwards to significant points, some of which have been caught up with by now, the flagging points always have the benefit of brevity and are reasonably infrequent. There isn't a series yet that the audience seem to feel they could do without, unlike with, for example, Friends or Scrubs where the fact that they were/ are respectively repeated ad nauseum on Channel 4 and E4 with notable exceptions prove that some sections acted as dead weight pulling the show down (normally midway through the show's run). It also allows some of the less believable, more blatant sitcom moments that obviously came about after brainstorming ridiculous situations for characters to find themselves in to slide, as it's a guys memories and embellished stories. Several times older Ted recounts that one of the other characters "swears this is what happened next", and in the stories he himself exaggerates many times and is caught out embellishing the truth many times, so the story is not to be taken entirely seriously.
Pop culture references-
How I Met Your Mother is an albeit slightly closeted geek show. Barney's Star Wars paraphernalia, the episode Slutty Pumpkin where Top Gun is referenced by flight-suiting up at a Halloween party, and Three Days of Snow where the film Cocktail is riffed on all heavily bring the pop-culture of America to the fore with brilliant effect.
But there's more. The show is peppered with sharper, wittier and blink if you miss it moments of reference. The intervention for Marshall's hat, which makes him look like Dr Seuss' cat, has Robin read her letter: "Dear Marshall, I do not like that stupid hat. I want to beat it... with a bat. Or maybe stab it with a fork. It makes you look like such a dork." Other references, where the pay off is much greater because the audience know what the joke is, are scattered throughout the show- my favourite has to be referencing Lethal Weapon, where Old Ted censors a quote in telling the story to his kids- "stuff. He said stuff."
Having a type that isn't a type-
this could almost be included in the section about character and feeling above a sitcom, but it deserves a bit more examination- a "Joey Tribiani" Barney Stinson is not. Why? Because he's been a character not a type from series one. Prime example- Joey falling in love with Rachel after nine series of womanising vs Barney finding he has feelings for Robin after five series of womanising with occasional moments of profound depth and exchanges with Lily/ Ted/ Marshall about serious things happening in his life. Barney is almost believable, as a seriously damaged guy escaping that through sleeping around and ebing a bit brash and cocky to cover it all up. No disrespect to Matt Le Blanc (all blame goes to the writers- Le Blanc was great in Episodes, for example), but Joey Tribiani is not believable. He has one catchphrase which is obviously a catchphrase, the "How you doin'?", which pulls people away from being involved. Stinson's catchphrases "What up!", "Suit up", and "Legen- wait for it- dary!" and the many variations upon those themes are more like a set of in-jokes between friends that can be played with to suit the day out/ night in/ current event in a fun way because that's the guy he is in the group.
*As yet there is no air date for series 7 in the UK, but it won't be far off- E4 is on series 6 now. And if you can't wait that long, there's a sneaky thing called the internet with, I'm told, many ways of procuring certain... merchandise.
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