HIMYM

[shipperx]

I feel like a grumbly curmudgeon where HIMYM is concerned.  I just... don't find Barney amusing any more.  It's sad.  I really do like NPH, but I just could find no humor in Barney's childish badgering of a 12 year old, and yet I know it's so Barney.    I know I was supposed to find the humor in the situation the way it was set-up.  I saw all of that. And I still thought it was rather horrendous... which I realize is not the reaction I should have.  I should be laughing at Barney's bad behavior not wanting to smack him and tell him to grow the hell up already.  Be angry with the right person and leave the kid out of it.

I really think the show ruined Barney for me last year.  I find his shallow arrested development annoying now.  Frankly, Robin and Marshall are the only ones on the show that I actually like at this point.

*sigh*

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's why I gave up on HIMYM and stopped watching last year- the only characters I could stand where Robin and Marshal and only peripherially. I loved Barney and Robin together, and how Barney was evolving. Then the writers got bored as they always do, and broke them up and regressed Barney until he basically became a cliche of himself.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the way that they so clearly wanted to dump the Robin/Barney thing without even a decent story doing so and then pretend that it never existed irked the hell out of me. And the return of horndog Barney (EXTREME!) is exactly that. He became a cliche of himself. An unbearable cliche. They turned him into a cartoon.

[lk737.livejournal.com]

i have to completely agree! when watching last night's episode, a Barney centric, i just cringe and want to smack him too. i love the episodes where he shows emotional growth, but those are so far and few between. i think his comedic relief in the area of little boy sexist freak is getting old.

i know the badering was so Barney, but i agree that i wish we could have the Barney grow up already like the other characters. it's about time!

and Robin and Marshall are my favorites too! our Marshmallow!!! *hugs you*

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Seriously, it's just not amusing to see a 30 year old man abuse a 12 year old... and be LESS mature than the 12 year old!

I do still love Robin and Marshall (but I don't know that it's enough to keep me watching).

[bluemage55.livejournal.com]

I get the impression they're gradually trying to work some character development for Barney into the story. Last night's episode is another step towards that, in the footsteps of similar themes in previous Barney-centric episodes. Hopefully they'll get somewhere with that.

[next_to_normal]

I think the problem, though, is that it's one step forward, two steps back with Barney's development. We saw him mature quite a bit when he fell in love with Robin, and now it's like that never happened. I can understand him regressing a bit in the immediate aftermath of the break-up, but to have a whole year go by without any hint of that maturity? And then they act like it's a huge deal for Barney to want a relationship with Nora when Robin's sitting right there as a reminder that we already trod this ground with Barney.

Now that we've seen him be mature, it's a lot harder to accept old!Barney antics. I realize that they want to develop his arc over time, but they really fumbled the ball by having such a huge regression.

[bluemage55.livejournal.com]

Certainly a fair point. For some reason, the writers seem to try to pretend that the Barney/Robin arc never happened.

[deird1]

That's why I stopped watching.

Character development: it's a good thing.

[bluemage55.livejournal.com]

The fact that our fandom revolves around two shows with some of the most triumphant examples of character development is a testament to that. :)

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

It just feels like last year the writers got scared as hell and tried to do a do-over with Barney, only what they really did was make him a parody of himself. They really took him too far in to cartoon level characterization and I don't know that they've adequately recovered. I see them making some effort. He's not as cartoonish as last year, but I fear it may be too little too late.

[next_to_normal]

Yeah. Barney typically doesn't bother me that much,** but last night's antics were cringeworthy. It was too cartoonish, even for Barney, IMO. I get what they were going for, and I liked the way it culminated in Barney finally expressing how much his dad had hurt him, but I would've liked to see more subtle passive-aggression directed toward his dad, rather than the broad childishness.

**Definitely more so since the B/R break-up, though. That's the problem with character development - now that we've seen him be more mature, going back to the old Barney feels like he's regressed way too much.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I think that by regressing him last year they may have done irreparable harm to the character. First time we were able to see a character, second time and he's a parody of himself and a cartoon.

[rowanswhimsy.livejournal.com]

I find the show unwatchable since they broke up Robin/Barney.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The way they ran from it, refused to deal with any repercussions, and basically went lalalalalalala that didn't happen has really gutted the show in a lot of ways. I don't know that the character of Barney is salvageable any longer.

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Last night was the first time I'd watched in a while because of the whole on-opposite-House-and-Chuck thing, because I wanted to see Lithgow, but yeah -- I was disappointed in the Barney story. Did enjoy the "gaps" in education, though.