Alyson Hannigan

Sometimes, there’s nothing on television worth watching. And then, other times, there’s just too much. Which is how I ended up hearing about the comedy series How I Met Your Mother, and yet managed to somehow, quite by chance, miss every single episode. So it wasn’t until I got my hands on the DVD release of the first season (a method by which I find I’m discovering more and more television series) that I learned how side-splittingly funny this CBS sitcom is.

The framework premise is of a father (an off-screen Bob Saget, Full House) telling his two children (Lyndsy Fonseca and David Henrie) in the year 2030 the story of how me met their mother... in excruciating detail. So much detail, in fact, that one season later, we still haven’t got to the point where they’ve met. It’s like the longest running "pink gorilla" story ever written.

The narrator, Ted, played in present day by Josh Radnor ("Not Another Teen Movie"), is having a young-life crisis. His roommate and best friend Marshall (Jason Segel, Freaks and Geeks) is marrying his other roommate and best friend Lily (Alyson Hannigan, "Date Movie"). This has made Ted take stock of his life thus far, and he has decided that perhaps it’s time to settle down with the right woman after all. Ah, but who is the right woman?

For Ted’s other best friend, Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), no woman is the right woman — at least, not for more than a night. But when Ted encounters television news reporter Robin (Cobie Smulders, The L Word), he’s instantly smitten. And after a pilot episode of dating errors, the narrator blithely informs the kids, "And that’s the story of how I met... your Aunt Robin." As the series progresses, Ted continues to pursue Robin off and on, Marshall and Lily get closer to their wedding date, Barney never gets any closer to being anything other than Barney, and the kids come no closer to getting off the couch, as it’s apparent that dad’s story is going to go on... and on.

And on, if the viewers are lucky.

How I Met Your Mother is a fun fresh comedy that, in some ways, is a lot like Friends — only, you know, with bite, wit, and a clever framework. Barney is a manic, off-the-wall personality who develops the craziest of schemes to amuse himself — like paying Robin increasing amounts of money to sneak more and more bizarre phrases into her reporting spots. Marshall is the easygoing and gentle future lawyer who is always up for a party. And Ted is the classic over-thinker, often painting himself into corners of logic and reverse-reverse psychology. Lily is "one of the dudes" but remains nonetheless girly, and Robin is the newest member of the group — not ready to commit to any long term relationship, and saddled with some baggage of her own when it comes to sharing her personal life.

The series features such classic episodes as "Slutty Pumpkin" — a takeoff on "It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" — which finds Ted attending the same Halloween party for four years, in the same costume, hoping to re-meet the girl in the sexy pumpkin costume whose number he lost shortly after she gave it to him. There are also a number of moments of real-world irony: When Marshall won’t join the boys on a trip to a dance club to stay at home with Lily for a boring wine and cheese party, Barney retorts, "Wow. Who knew being in a commited heterosexual relationship could make a guy so gay." And the season finale-slash-cliffhanger is the happiest, saddest, most-fulfilling, most-emptying all at the same time kind of moment any show has ever had. Ever.

An unseen and unusual aspect to How I Met Your Mother is in the directing: the series has thus far stuck to a single director in Pam Fryman, giving the show a consistent feel from episode to episode. It’s a formula you can expect other shows to follow, given the charm and fan following this series has garnered. And if they don’t — they should!

The special features — other than the commentary tracks, noted below — are on disc three, and open with the music video, "First Call". This is a music video set to clips, a common feature lately on DVD sets, except that this one is exceptionally well timed, with all the high fives and butt slaps hitting on the beat. Kudos to editors Sue Federman and Stew Halpern on this one. A similar job is done on the closing feature, "Last Call", which is more clips to the same song.

In "Video Yearbook" the cast and crew look back on the making of the first season, from casting through production. There’s singing (the creators wrote the theme song!) and dancing (Jason can robot like nobody’s business!) and just a general sense of friendship and fun in this featurette that makes it worth watching. The blooper reel isn’t half bad, either, since each scene gives you the build up and the after effects — far superior to some of those blipvert clipshows of just people laughing because only they know what happened.

Audio is in English 5.1 Dolby Surround, with optional subtitles in English, French and Spanish.