I love Broken Lizard and I love Cobie Smulders.  How could I not love The Slammin’ Salmon.

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Poster and trailer for THE SLAMMIN’ SALMON HollywoodHubbub

Whilst I absolutely love How I Met Your Mother I haven’t plunked down the cash for the show on DVD yet.  Therefore I hadn’t seen the bloopers from the first four seasons until I stumbled upon them on Youtube.

To say they’re awesome is an understatement.  These guys and gals goof around not only like they’re best pals but like they could be my own best friends too.  It’s this kind of chemistry on set which translates to chemistry on screen.

Below are the four blooper reels.

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Bloopers for HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER HollywoodHubbub

© CBS

Title: “The Leap”
Written by: Craig Thomas and Carter Bays

Well here we are, the last of the season finales that I actually care about.  Last week was pretty hectic with the finales of Fringe, Lost, 30 Rock, The Office and Parks & Recreation, all of which were fantastic finishes to great seasons.  So how does How I Met Your Mother stack up to these shows?  Frankly, pretty well.

I like this show.  I might even go so far as to say I love this show sometimes, but there are elements to it which aggravate me, and they’re elements which are central to the premise of the show.  Chief amongst these is Ted’s quest to find his perfect match.  I know the show gets its name from his search, and that’s typically how they work any storyline involving Ted, but it’s not important to the show.  In my opinion they could easily dispense with the whole “how I met your mother” element and make the show simply about the gang living in the here and now.  The show wouldn’t suffer in the least from this and it would save me having to put up with the presence of Ted’s kids, the voiceover from Bob Saget, and the constant tease that maybe his kids’ mother would be revealed when we all know she won’t be until the end of the show.  Honestly, what’s the point of repeating these constant teases about finding “the mother” when the central charm and enjoyment of this show comes from the interaction between the gang.

Anyway, enough of my rant about my pet peeves and onto the actual episode.  The episode follows Ted struggling to come up with a proposal for his rib restaurant clients, Marshall throwing Ted a surprise birthday party on the roof, and Barney and Robin dealing with their feelings to each other.  The title of the episode, “The Leap”, comes from the leap that all of the characters make in the episode, either physical or metaphorical.  Marshall finally makes the leap across buildings to the perfect rooftop, Barney and Robin appear to have made the leap in their relationship despite their emotional barriers, and Ted makes the leap from dreaming and struggling to be an architect to taking the job as a professor.  There’s a nice symmetry in this and it all played out well in the closing scene on the rooftop.  It was touching without being sappy.

I can’t review this episode without mentioning the return of Lily to the fold.  The show has plugged along pretty well without the presence of Alyson Hannigan, or so I thought, but her return adds another quality to the show that I didn’t even realise was missing.  Alyson brings the cute and funny Lily to life and she provides Marshall with another person to bounce off and interact with that boosts the show when other elements fall a little flat.  She also delivered a great speech to Ted about him being like the goat who wants the hand towel all the time when it’s forgotten why it even wants it.  It’s this speech which gives Ted the impetus to stop trying to be an architect and take the job as a professor which allows him to follow his passion in a more fitting scenario.  I’m very glad they were able to bring Alyson Hannigan back to finish out the season so the whole gang could be together again and they could take the leap into the unknown as a group.

Final Grade: A-

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HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER 4×24 review HollywoodHubbub

© CBS

Well I think anyone who watches How I Met Your Mother with any kind of regularity knew that the reveal of Stella at the end of last weeks episode was gonna be a fakeout, so it shouldn’t be a suprise that it actually was.  I’ve never been a fan of Stella, and despite by love of Sarah Chalke in Scrubs, she just doesn’t seem to fit within the HIMYM universe.

The A plot involved Tony trying to repay Ted for him stealing Stella away, and then Ted helping Stella convince Tony to get back with her after he leaves her.  The B plot centered on the rest of the gang (minus Lily) talking about how they’ve avoided getting a ticket from the police, and Barney purposely getting tickets in order to prove that he can get out of them.

The whole Ted/Stella/Tony plot was pretty boring, but it did offer a few good things, one of which was the conversation between Ted and Stella in the car where she tells him that his “the one” is coming as fast as she can, which is where the episode gets its title.  However, the real gold in this episode once again came from the combination of Robin, Barney and Marshall who seem to be the main source of comedy lately, while Ted is the focus of the more dramatic elemets of the show.  I was glad to see that Lily made an appearance in this episode after being away for so long, but it was barely 2 minutes at the end of the episode.

Pros:

• French Stella with her awesome rack
• “you’ll get her back… and her front”
• “a cheque so big it doesn’t take it’s shirt off when it goes swimming”
• the whole murder house scene and discussion in McLaren’s
• the “Let’s go to the Mall” ringtone on Ted’s phone

Cons:

• Stella and Tony (they’re just not characters I enjoy)
• Not enough Lily

Final Grade: B-

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HIMYM 4×23 “As Fast As She Can” review HollywoodHubbub