Quite the rebound from a pair of dud episodes! I like the way all the disparate storylines in the episode eventually tied together. The Bagpipe euphemism worked in the vein of "eating sandwiches" as a goofy way to describe something not especially appropriate for kid ears, and the twist that when Ted went to complain, they were old people and he couldn't stop them because "good for them" was a fun little wrinkle to the story. But the main bit about Marshall foolishly taking Barney's advice and trying to tell Lily that he shouldn't have to wash his dishes worked like gangbusters. There was something adorable about Marshall mangling Barney's pitch so badly, (plus Barney's 50's housewife imagine spot was hilarious in its absurd awfulness) and the idea -that such fights spiral out into fights about anything and everything was well-observed.
I also enjoyed that the "Bagpipes" were Ted's inspiration for finding Barney's downstairs neighbor (a fun if weird performer) to discover that Barney and Robin's lovey-doveyness was a cover for how they'd been fighting all the time. And that dovetailing into Marshall and Lily's realization that their dish problem was incredibly small by comparison was perfect. As a Robin-Barney skeptic, I appreciate the show leaning into the fact that they're emotionally unprepared for this (though the two of them saying the whole act was because they were tired of hearing that was a nice touch) and their blatantly ignoring Marshall and Lily's advice about setting aside your ego and not worrying about winning was a perfect indication as to why they don't really work at an elemental level. Plus, I'd be remiss if I didn't note that there were a lot of laughs here, from Marshall's speech about being the perfect boyfriend, to Robin and Barney's fight resolution strategy, to the last little tag to bring the bagpipes back. All-in-all, a very nice episode.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-04-21T01:51:24Z
Quite the rebound from a pair of dud episodes! I like the way all the disparate storylines in the episode eventually tied together. The Bagpipe euphemism worked in the vein of "eating sandwiches" as a goofy way to describe something not especially appropriate for kid ears, and the twist that when Ted went to complain, they were old people and he couldn't stop them because "good for them" was a fun little wrinkle to the story. But the main bit about Marshall foolishly taking Barney's advice and trying to tell Lily that he shouldn't have to wash his dishes worked like gangbusters. There was something adorable about Marshall mangling Barney's pitch so badly, (plus Barney's 50's housewife imagine spot was hilarious in its absurd awfulness) and the idea -that such fights spiral out into fights about anything and everything was well-observed.
I also enjoyed that the "Bagpipes" were Ted's inspiration for finding Barney's downstairs neighbor (a fun if weird performer) to discover that Barney and Robin's lovey-doveyness was a cover for how they'd been fighting all the time. And that dovetailing into Marshall and Lily's realization that their dish problem was incredibly small by comparison was perfect. As a Robin-Barney skeptic, I appreciate the show leaning into the fact that they're emotionally unprepared for this (though the two of them saying the whole act was because they were tired of hearing that was a nice touch) and their blatantly ignoring Marshall and Lily's advice about setting aside your ego and not worrying about winning was a perfect indication as to why they don't really work at an elemental level. Plus, I'd be remiss if I didn't note that there were a lot of laughs here, from Marshall's speech about being the perfect boyfriend, to Robin and Barney's fight resolution strategy, to the last little tag to bring the bagpipes back. All-in-all, a very nice episode.