7.2/10. I like the theme behind this one. The idea that in the modern age, internet research/stalking has given us an unprecedented level of info about potential friends and dates and made the experience a little less pure is an interesting one. It's a bit luddite, but also a fun premise for a sitcom episode. Ted meeting a great girl, fearing the horrible secret she may be harboring, and then queering the whole deal when he finds out she's an uber-successful dynamo and starts feeling intimidated is a succinct but amusing exploration of it.
The rest of the episode isn't nearly as sharp, but still amusing enough to amble by. Carrying that theme of mystery with Marshall and Lily not wanting to know the sex of their child is a bit of a strained connection, but Barney's mini-fashion show was worth a laugh, and while the humor overall is a little broader, Marshall and Lily's united front and then desperation to know worked pretty well in terms of comedy.
I have more mixed feelings about Kevin basically going all Frank Grimes in his psychoanalysis of the gang. The co-dependence point and all the other psychological maladies he details are not inaccurate necessarily, but they're one of those "break the reality of the show" types of moments that work for a minute, but then leave you kind of feeling like they betray the conceits of the genre without the shield of being a light meta-gag. Still, the group texting each other the shape of their deuces and Kevin's shock definitely works as something that the crew would do and an outsider would rightfully be horrified by.
Overall, not the strongest episode in the world, but enough good stuff to get by.
oh I gots to know!
Shout by MiltonBlockedParent2023-01-22T23:59:52Z
I can't stand the amount of transphobic jokes anymore, for f*ks sake it's 2011 already