Alyson Hannigan

The complete first season How I Met Your Mother (a fresh take on a familiar TV sitcom setup) was recently released on November 21st. The show tells the story of four friends: Ted (Josh Radnor), the lead protagonist, Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lilly (Alyson Hannigan) who are engaged to be married, Robin (Cobie Smulders), a television news reporter for a tiny news station, and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), Ted’s bar-hopping wingman and resident man-whore.

The focus of the show involves Ted’s search for love and affection in all the wrong places, as well as the crazy trouble that he and the rest of the characters get into. In fact, all of the episodes revolve around a future Ted telling stories to his teenage children about the adventures him and his friends got caught up in during their college days. Each episode serves as a place mark for that sub-plot, and the series never strays too far from it.

*The following is a brief description of the season’s episodes.

Episode 1: “Pilot” - When Ted’s best friend Marshall proposes to his girlfriend, Lily, Ted realizes he’d better get a move on if he hopes to find true love. Ted soon meets Robin in a neighborhood bar, immediately becomes smitten and scores a first date. But when Ted can hardly wait to see her again, his eagerness threatens to scare her away. Episode 2: “Purple Giraffe” - In a desperate attempt for a second date, Ted invites Robin to a party he is throwing. However, she doesn’t show up and he keeps throwing parties in the hopes she will finally arrive. Episode 3: “Sweet Taste of Liberty” - Ted agrees to let Barney spice up his love life, and ends up on a crazy adventure of flying to Philadelphia, encountering the law and visiting the Liberty Bell. Episode 4: “Return of the Shirt” - Ted’s outlook on his continuing search for love is altered when he rediscovers a shirt that has not seen daylight in years. Meanwhile, Barney amuses himself by coaxing Robin into sacrificing her job by saying completely outlandish things on air live for a cash reward. Episode 5: “Okay Awesome” - Ted and Barney start checking out the club scene with their friend Robin, whereas Lily and Marshall try to participate in some more "grown-up" activities, as they draw slowly nearer to their wedding.

Episode 6: “Slutty Pumpkin” - Ted makes his yearly pilgrimage to the rooftop Halloween party in search of a girl dressed as a pumpkin who he met years ago. Meanwhile, Robin is dumped after driving her new boyfriend away with her independent ways. Episode 7: “Matchmaker” - When a matchmaker with a 100% success rate turns Ted away because he is not compatible with any of the available women in her database, he is still determined that he is going to find his match. After getting information from the matchmaker’s computer, Ted pays a visit to a very cute, but taken, dermatologist in an effort to prove the prediction wrong that there are no women out there for him. Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily are obsessed with ridding their apartment of a critter. Episode 8: “The Duel” - As Lily becomes more of a permanent fixture in the apartment, Ted feels like he is being edged out of the mix by his engaged roomies. Petrified of being left alone and homeless, Ted tells Marshall that when he and Lily are married, he wants the apartment. The problem is that Marshall wants to keep the place too, so they settle it like real "grown-ups" — launching into a sword fight that leaves one man down for the count. Episode 9: “Belly Full of Turkey” - Ted and Robin are surprised to run into Barney when they volunteer at a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving. Lily is on the brink of freaking out when she goes to Thanksgiving dinner at her future in-laws house. Episode 10: “The Pineapple Incident” - After being forced into knocking back 5 shots, so he will stop thinking, Ted goes on a partying rampage. The next morning he wakes up with a woman in his bed, but he does not know who it is. So he turns to his friends to try and piece the night together and work out who the woman is in his bed.

Episode 11: “The Limo” - Ted rents a limo to take the gang out to sample five New Year’s Eve parties in a quest to find the perfect celebration. Episode 12: “The Wedding” - Robin accepts Ted’s invite to a friend’s wedding, but thanks to Ted, the couple may never make it down the aisle. Episode 13: “Drumroll, Please” - Ted finds a new woman at the wedding. They want to remember the evening so they don’t exchange last names or numbers; but Ted takes a big fall when he tries to find out her name. Episode 14: “Zip, Zip, Zip” - After agreeing to take things slowly and not have sex for a month, Ted and Victoria decide that they have waited long enough. Episode 15: “Game Night” - A mysterious tape arrives for Barney from one of his numerous ex-girlfriends, and the entire gang watches it. But, in order for them all to find out how she broke Barney’s heart and made him into a suit-wearing bachelor, everyone must share their most embarrassing moment.

Episode 16: “Cupcake” - Things are going great with Ted and Victoria’s relationship, but when Victoria is offered her dream job, the couple has to make serious relationship decisions. Meanwhile Marshall and Lily set out to purchase their wedding outfits and find out that none can afford what they bought. Episode 17: “Life Among the Gorillas” - Marshall interns at the corporation where Barney works and finds that he is becoming a shallow jerk as he tries to fit in with his Barney-like coworkers. Meanwhile, Ted feels guilty when he receives several gifts from Victoria while he hasn’t sent her anything. Episode 18: “Nothing Good Happens After 2 a.m.” - Robin, who is very lonely, asks Ted to come over to her apartment after 2 A.M., but he isn’t sure if he wants to go as he has a phone call on the way over with his friends, and with Victoria on his mind Episode 19: “Mary the Paralegal” - Robin is nominated to receive an award for a news report and everyone needs a date to take to the show. Barney introduces Ted to Mary as a date that Ted can take to the show. Originally Ted is opposed to the idea of just trying to save face in front of Robin but when she shows up with a date he changes his mind. Robin asks Mary lots of questions, and Ted begins to really like Mary, despite her occupation.

Episode 20: “Best Prom Ever” - Lily, Barney and Robin attend a high school prom to scout out a potential band for Lily and Marshall’s wedding reception. In order to get in Lily and Robin pretend to be the dates of two kids who were going alone. Ted and Marshall are back at the apartment where they are preparing the invitations to be sent out. Episode 21: “Milk” - When a matchmaking company calls Ted claiming they have found his soul mate, he is forced to postpone his date when Lily asks for his help. Episode 22: “Come On” - Ted tries to keep Robin from going on a camping trip so that she can spend time with him. Barney enlists the help of an old flame to perform a rain dance. At the same time Marshall finds out about Lily’s interview for the fellowship in San Francisco. Most of Ted’s stories start in a local bar, the premiere hangout for him and his friends, and this location is where most of the really funny dialogue and quips take place.

Unfortunately, as is common with most sitcoms, writers tend to drag their characters out to phony looking sets in order to spice up the plot. At least nobody has gone ice fishing in Styrofoam lakes or hiking through small forests lined with astroturf.....yet. Radnor, in his first leading role, does an admirable job of keeping Ted from coming off too whiny or arrogant, as most lead characters in sitcoms often seem to appear. He does overact a bit, however, and it eventually becomes hard to believe that any woman could fall for such a dopey and insecure guy.

This is really where the show loses its footing in the first season. Instead of seeing Ted’s character grow and change into a more confident and charismatic person, the viewer is simply shown a lonely and broken hearted Ted over and over again until one just can’t help but feel sorry for the poor guy. Hopefully, season two will usher in a new Ted, perhaps one that isn’t such a sad sack of a man.

There are laughs to be had, and this is what really sets How I Met Your Mother apart from bland shows like Everybody Loves Raymond. Although the rest of the cast often gets a couple of zingers during any particular episode, Neil Patrick Harris (who seems to have recently found his niche in adult comedies) provides most of the comedic moments in the show.

Lilly and Marshall’s antics as a soon-to-be married couple provide a necessary alternative to the other characters’ relationship troubles. While they both love each other completely, and want to be married, they discover that the hardships of marriage are very similar to those of being single, except you’re going through it with the same person each time.

Instead of playing to stereotypical male and female characters, Ted and the gang really get to branch out and find their own ways. Lilly and Marshall learn the struggles involved in marriage, Ted and Robin explore why finding that special someone is never as easy as it is in the movies and Barney continues to live life as a party in the meantime while discovering a bit of a moral backbone. In some ways, however, the show still recycles cliché plotlines, no matter how varied the characters may appear.

Commentaries are provided for a handful of the episodes, and most of them are just the series creators and cast mates making random comments and laughing at the on-screen footage. The entire cast appears, as well as the creators Carter Bays, Craig Thomas and Director Pam Fryman.

First Round is a music video featuring random clips from the show in sync with the music. The Video Yearbook feature is a 20-minute retrospective look at the show featuring short video interviews with cast and crew members. Happy Hour is a 9-minute long segment of blooper footage, some of which is downright hilarious. Last Call is another music video featuring various footage set to background music.

Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, both veteran writers for Late Night with David Letterman, have assembled a show that follows the standard sitcom pattern pretty closely, but holds enough comedic water to satisfy viewers thirsty for funny television.

TV viewers who just can’t seem to find anything else funny to watch will be doing themselves a favor by picking up How I Met Your Mother, despite the miniscule amount of extras. The show doesn’t revolutionize the sitcom arena by any means, but at least it’s not the same old characters in the same old storylines.