2x16 Stuff

For a show that is anything but formulaic, there is something of a formula to the best "regular" How I Met Your Mother episode. There's an A-story with some emotional depth and a some sort of twist on the usual storytelling, and a B-story with something a bit wackier, but well observed in how friends interact with each other. This episode fits that formula to a tee.

The main conflict with the A-story -- what's the right way to handle stuff left over from exes, is one of those small but significant things that feels applicable to anyone watching the show. It's a debate most people have had, even if not in those terms, and while both Ted and Robin are a bit unreasonable at times (it's a bit churlish to expect someone to get rid of anything from their exes, and it's insane to expect someone to get rid of their pets), both sides of the argument get a fair hearing. And of course, the fact that the objects/animals actually turn into manifestations of the exes is one of those HIMYM twists that adds a touch of the show's heightened reality to the prosaic if interesting relationship issue drama and finds creative ways to dramatize internal insecurities.

Then the B-story, with Lily and Barney in a battle of wills about off-off-Broadway plays was much more slight, but hilarious and well-observed, both in the form of raw, lumpy, faux-socially conscious plays you go to in New York because your friends are in them, and in the social convention of saying nice things no matter how terrible the performance is. (Barney charging through folding chairs to get away from the Q&A with the director was a particular treat.) It had just the right balance of down-to-earth interpersonal conflict and outsized silliness to work.

Overall, this is HIMYM using its formula, or the closest thing it has to a formula, at its peak. And it's hard to go wrong there.

(Oh, and slap #2 is my favorite of them.)