HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: THE COMPLETE SEASON 7
(not rated)
MOVIE: **** (out of 5)
DVD EXPERIENCE: ***1/2 (out of 5)
STARRING
Josh Radnor as TED MOSBY
Jason Segel as MARSHALL ERIKSEN
Alyson Hannigan as LILY ALDRIN
Neil Patrick Harris as BARNEY STINSON
Cobie Smulders as ROBIN SCHERBATSKY
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Created by: Carter Bays & Craig Thomas
BY KEVIN CARR
When “How I Met Your Mother” started seven years ago, it was questionable whether it could sustain the premise even beyond a single season. However, with some extremely clever writing and a strong focus on what the show was about (a bunch of friends dealing with the challenges life throws at them) instead of what the show is based on (a pervasive joke about never finding out who Ted’s mother is) helped make the show a hit.
Now, after its seventh season, it’s still going strong. Sure, there’s a lot of frustrations for the audience around finding out who Ted eventually ends up with. The show continues to tease its audience, most noticeably in the opening and end of the season. In season seven, things open up at someone’s wedding, and we are left guessing throughout the year whose it is.
But what makes the show strong is the interaction in the lives of its characters. However, they’ve grown up a bit. The stories are no longer ubiquitously about who’s banging whom. Instead, we see the gang go through more adult decisions. In particular, the big focus of the season is Lily and Marshall having a baby. More over, they are also struggling with the decision to move out to the suburbs so they can raise their kid there.
This is actually a welcome sight instead of general dating and drinking angst that happened to permeate the show for previous seasons. We also get a slight glimmer of Barney’s humanity as his middle aged years are creeping up on him. In a sense, the show is less about Ted and who he ends up making babies with and more about the other characters growing up.
There’s still plenty of crazy antics, and there’s also plenty of relationship humor there as well. We also see call-backs to previous episodes, most namely the return of the Slutty Pumpkin from season one. This continues to make the show appealing to the fans but not so obscure in its self-referential humor that it can’t be understood by new viewers.
The three-disc DVD set includes audio commentaries on select episodes, plus an assortment of deleted scenes from throughout the season. Additional features include a spotlight on Neil Patrick Harris getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a spotlight on the guest stars, a gag reel, plus two featurettes: “How We Wrote Your Mother” and “How We Make Your Mother.”