One of the most maddening things about television is the unimaginative casting. Looking over the fall schedule every year, you can see very few daring choices are made. How I Met Your Mother is a perfect example of this. In coming up with the cast for a romantic comedy, the producers picked Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan, both terrific comic performers with tons of potential. However, they were cast as supporting characters. Why? Maybe the studio didn’t think they were traditionally attractive enough. I don’t know. Whatever the reason, the decision to shift them into supporting roles was a disastrous one and ruined what could have been a terrific show.

How I Met Your Mother follows Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), a single guy longing to find that perfect woman. Unlike other guys his age, Ted isn’t interested in one-night stands. He wants to settle down and get married, as soon as possible, but will not do so until he finds his soul mate. One day Ted meets Robin (Cobie Smulders), a beautiful local newscaster and he immediately falls in love. The show follows Ted and Robin, as their friendship and then romance begin to develop. Ted’s friends Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) get engaged during the pilot episode, putting even more pressure on Ted. They both support him in his pursuit of Robin, as does egotistical womanizer Barney (Neil Patrick Harris).

How I Met Your Mother is a sitcom told in flashback format. At the beginning of the episode, we hear an older Ted (voiced by Bob Saget) begin to tell his children the story of how he met their mother. This is a somewhat effective device, helping to put everything in a nostalgic perspective. However, the show makes one of its first missteps by abusing the technique in the first episode. We learn something at the end of that episode that suddenly makes the romance between Ted and Robin much less interesting. The twist itself is not the problem, and it is very cleverly played out. The problem is that it comes way too early in the show and gives the viewer way too much information.

This wouldn’t be quite as big a problem if the lead actors were interesting enough to carry the romance. Unfortunately, they’re extremely dull and constantly overshadowed by the stellar supporting cast. Radnor seems to have been cast mostly due to his resemblance with John Cusack. It’s clear from the style of the show that the producers have seen both The Sure Thing and Say Anything, but capturing the magic that Cusack brought to both of those movies is much harder than finding a look-alike. As for Cobie Smulders, well she has a pretty nice smile. That’s the most impressive thing about her performance in this show.

The best thing about How I Met Your Mother was the supporting cast. Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segel actually were able to create chemistry. Despite playing oddballs, they made their character seem far more real than the bland main couple. The show could have easily been about them. Both have far more television experience than Radnor and Smulders. The only explanation is that CBS apparently has an unimaginative idea of what leading character can look like. Also a blast is Neil Patrick Harris, whose over the top performance as Barney was sometimes too much, but usually brought in the most laughs each episode.

As the season developed, we ran into some interesting guest stars. The most notable is Ashley Williams as Victoria, a baker who gets involved with Ted. In the season’s best episode, Ted tries desperately to find the woman (Victoria) he met and immediately connected with at a wedding the day before. Williams was so good that she breathed life into Radnor’s performance. This was a romance worth caring about. Unfortunately, after only 6 episodes she was shipped off with a stupid sitcom excuse and we were stuck with Ted and Robin again.

So you might be wondering why did I watch whole season of How I Met Your Mother? Well it was still fun to watch Hannigan, Segel, and Harris in supporting roles. And I did like the conceit of the show. It was a clever way to tell a story, if not cleverly executed. The sentimental nature of the show occasionally made the characters worth caring about. The season finale was extremely well produced, as the story escalated to a sad ending. I won’t deny that it affected me a bit, but it also makes it less likely that I will check out the next season.

The DVD package itself is superb. With most sitcoms, the studio usually rushes them into DVD release without any extras. This 3-disc set comes with 6 audio commentaries, two of them containing the entire main cast. There is also a video yearbook and a gag reel included on the final disc.


Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD