Alyson Hannigan

How I Met Your Mother: Season 1 is the somewhat whirlwind tale of a man telling his children that very story. The thing is, everything it isn’t as it seems on this pop culture infused sitcom. When Ted (Josh Radnor) decides to find the woman he is going to spend the rest of his life with, we get to see him aided and abetted by his buddy Barney (Neil Patrick Harris). Right off the bat, Ted sits his sights on Robin (Cobie Smulders) and while all signs point to these two ending up together, nothing is really as it’s seems here. As this show is also told in flashbacks, we are often tricked (in a good way) of thinking that we’ve put something together that isn’t what has happened at all. Add to this that Ted has been inspired to find Miss Right by his friends Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan), and you get a fair share of irreverently funny, and potent, present-day pop culture humor. Commentary Tracks

I hate to say it but featuring Hannigan, Harris, Radnor, Segel, and Smulders this commentary has too many voices. It is one of those things where nobody talks enough, and when they do talk they all talk at once. A lot of time is spent with the actors cracking themselves up, watching the show, and at one point Hannigan complains that nobody is saying anything. This is all fine, I guess, it’s like getting to listen to an episode of this show as we watch it, but the problem with having such a big group is nobody is going to really express themselves for fear of being razzed and picked on.

First Round and Last Call

These can best be described as a video montage of this show set to music. I don’t know what else more I can say about this other than that, because I just don’t know what these things are or what they are supposed to be putting across. I guess, and I might be going out on a limb, but these could be just disparate moments to sort of give fans an extra look at their favorite characters?

Happy Hour Gag Reel

Video Yearbook

A look at Season 1 that unfortunately doesn’t have the best audio. What I thought was a nice touch was that they had the person who narrates this show do those same duties here. We find out from the creators how they based this show on their lives, how the actors were cast, how the episodes were shaped week to week, and basically what it took to make How I Met Your Mother: Season 1 a success. The Look

Full Frame Aspect Ratio - 1.33:1. As this is a sitcom, other than the chopped up story line, there isn’t too much they can do with the look of this show. Everything is brightly composed, traditionally shot and I think this is a good thing, because when you start messing with the story line and the presentation it could literally become one big mess. Also, lets forget that this is network TV so they aren’t going to do much to shake up the viewers any more than they have to. The Sound

Dolby Digital. English 5.1 Dolby Surround. Subtitled in English, Spanish, and French. Close Captioned. The audio was good. It didn’t do much more than underscore the action on screen, but it seemed to be leveled quite well and I didn’t have to adjust the sound levels from episode to episode. This, I think, is very important because the jokes are coming fast and furious and you don’t want to miss a thing. Due to the way the audio is put together, you don’t. The Packaging

This front cover features the cast of this show all placed around and behind a couch that looks like a pair of lips. The back features a description of what How I Met Your Mother is about, a Special Features listing, a polaroid of the cast having dinner and holding up drinks, as well as some system specs. The three discs that house all 22 episodes are stored in two slim cases with more pictures of the cast on the cover, and on the back are more episode listings and descriptions. Once again, Fox keeps things economical with a slipcase digipack design. I had been somewhat familiar with this show because I try and watch Two And A Half Men on occasion (they used to play them one after the other on CBS). While I can’t say that I had ever seen a full episode before, I had a lot of fun getting acquainted with the How I Met Your Mother: Season 1 DVD set. I think the writing on this show is a cut above for a few reasons. First off, it seems to give equal time to all the characters, while making sure that the main ones are established. Secondly, it is working with a convoluted and backwards story line, so as a viewer you are always on your toes about where it might be going or what you are watching. Thirdly and finally, the actors on this series are all very much on their game. I am not saying that they are conjuring up the ghosts of Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer, but they are doing some very above average work in what is usually considered a light medium.

How I Met Your Mother: Season 1 is some of the best TV I have watched in a long time.