Let's focus on the good. John Lithgow continues to be great, and the swerve of his brief return to "Party Jerry" was appropriately amusing. As is always the problem with Barney stuff, the character himself can get too cartoony for the heavier stuff to work, but the scene with the two of them in the car driving back to Westchester had a more subdued, introspective Barney that managed to feel organic to the character. Lithgow held up his end of the bargain, and while the "behind your ear" button is a little cheap, it worked like gangbusters on me.
The problem is that the rest of the episode just didn't hold up. The whole who's on first routine with clubs in the city went way too long for a reheated routine without much to add. The rest of the gang felt somewhat out of character and unnecessarily mean to each other. Marshall and Lily going off the deep end into their personas was kind of amusing, but their "competition" doesn't seem like something they would do and went a bit overboard. At the same time, Ted & Robin's flashback to a trip to the department store (and the origin of the red boots) had promise, but descended into people being jerks to one another without much of an amusing twist. I'm not against characters being a little unlikable, but there was enough good comedy to justify it.
(Oh, and Barney's comment about "never happier with Robin" feels like it contradicts their breakup. I could swear he actually said "I'm not happy, Robin." Obviously there's ways to retcon it, but it's another little detail that feels out of step with their actual friendship and relationship.)
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-06-24T17:58:54Z
Let's focus on the good. John Lithgow continues to be great, and the swerve of his brief return to "Party Jerry" was appropriately amusing. As is always the problem with Barney stuff, the character himself can get too cartoony for the heavier stuff to work, but the scene with the two of them in the car driving back to Westchester had a more subdued, introspective Barney that managed to feel organic to the character. Lithgow held up his end of the bargain, and while the "behind your ear" button is a little cheap, it worked like gangbusters on me.
The problem is that the rest of the episode just didn't hold up. The whole who's on first routine with clubs in the city went way too long for a reheated routine without much to add. The rest of the gang felt somewhat out of character and unnecessarily mean to each other. Marshall and Lily going off the deep end into their personas was kind of amusing, but their "competition" doesn't seem like something they would do and went a bit overboard. At the same time, Ted & Robin's flashback to a trip to the department store (and the origin of the red boots) had promise, but descended into people being jerks to one another without much of an amusing twist. I'm not against characters being a little unlikable, but there was enough good comedy to justify it.
(Oh, and Barney's comment about "never happier with Robin" feels like it contradicts their breakup. I could swear he actually said "I'm not happy, Robin." Obviously there's ways to retcon it, but it's another little detail that feels out of step with their actual friendship and relationship.)