Season 8, Episode 4: Who Wants to Be a Godparent?

Follow @SlapBetBlog Since Robin Sparkles is a little bit busy learning, I thought I might just give it a shot to keep folks entertained and updated. But before we're going in medias res, I've got to call out Robin on the last episode. It wasn't a filler. It was a step down from the week before, indeed. But "Nannies" was vital to the character developement and what we saw in that episode will be exemplary for how the viewers are going to treated with in the 8th season - a lot. Character arches are coming to a close, and many of the minor characters on the show - in this case Mickey - will get their last hurrah. Now for "Who Wants to Be a Godparent?". I don't know what writer Matt Kuhn was thinking, but there is good a reason for him being one of the least busy authors on the HIMYM team.

The end was absolutely predictable, even though the episode didn't stay within it's inner logic. Kuhn forgot two very important props: water skis and a shark. I had the qualms about the Fonz lurking behind some sofa or door frame. If this - one of my most beloved sitcoms - was about to jump the shark, it was ought happen in this very episode. What happened here was the same thing that happened to the X-Files about 15 years ago. There is a monster du jour, but no real story arch anymore. At times it felt as if a horde of russian suicidal novelist trying to be funny wrote this. You know what they say about monkeys, typewriters and Shakespeare. They had to get that "godparents issue" out of the way, but it ended in the most foreseeable kind of way. The idea of Marshall and Lily's very own wheel of fortune was nice. For one second. Then it became a sandwich of ridiculousness and vicarious embarrassement. I don't understand how Hannigan could agree to wear that kinda dress. She is an actress, but she's got to have some decorum and dignity. She looked like a glittery, golden bologna. Maybe that's what was supposed to be funny. The number of cutaway gags in this particular episode was just too damn high!

On the upside, we got to see Robin in a leather catsuit. And a close up on Barney's face proves time actually does take it's toll even on the best, which is giving me hope to some extent. The cutaways to the future were funny at times, but I still don't get why Marvin Eriksen jr. looks like Prince Michael Jackson jr. So that's why this episode ranks in my bottom 10 HIMYM episodes of all time.