Good episode. It had a nice balance between the heavier stuff with Ted and Robin figuring out how to be friends for real after their breakup, and the cartoonier stuff with the slap bet.
In truth, the Ted/Robin story is what elevates the episode. Again, it's not revelatory, but the show still has some trenchant insights about the difficulties in maintaining a friendship with an ex, and the earnest way in which Ted and Robin talk about those problems, express their frustration with the other's new partners (Ted seeing Bob as an old man is a nice perspective joke), decide they can't be friends, and then fall back into their inside jokes and realize that they still have a connection even if it's no longer a romantic one, works very well at walking the line between light and serious.
The slap stuff is a little less successful in my book. I'll say it, I think the slap gets overplayed. The initial slap bet episode is amazing, and the surprise slap at Barney's one-man show is my favorite, but the more it went on, the more it turned into a somewhat contrived production and less a fun little part of the show. I did enjoy the various puns and veiled threats (Jason Segel and NPH sell the material like champs), but the song was a bridge too far in my book, even with a somewhat unreliable narrator.
Still, a funny episode with some good Ted-Robin stuff that doubles down on the heart of their friendship is a win in my book.
There's no way two people who were once in a romantic relationship remaining friends is as hard as it was portrayed in this episode. I don't believe it.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-03-10T05:48:34Z
Good episode. It had a nice balance between the heavier stuff with Ted and Robin figuring out how to be friends for real after their breakup, and the cartoonier stuff with the slap bet.
In truth, the Ted/Robin story is what elevates the episode. Again, it's not revelatory, but the show still has some trenchant insights about the difficulties in maintaining a friendship with an ex, and the earnest way in which Ted and Robin talk about those problems, express their frustration with the other's new partners (Ted seeing Bob as an old man is a nice perspective joke), decide they can't be friends, and then fall back into their inside jokes and realize that they still have a connection even if it's no longer a romantic one, works very well at walking the line between light and serious.
The slap stuff is a little less successful in my book. I'll say it, I think the slap gets overplayed. The initial slap bet episode is amazing, and the surprise slap at Barney's one-man show is my favorite, but the more it went on, the more it turned into a somewhat contrived production and less a fun little part of the show. I did enjoy the various puns and veiled threats (Jason Segel and NPH sell the material like champs), but the song was a bridge too far in my book, even with a somewhat unreliable narrator.
Still, a funny episode with some good Ted-Robin stuff that doubles down on the heart of their friendship is a win in my book.