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The “Robin Sparkles” episode of How I Met Your Mother (which was also the first “Slap Bet” episode, from which it takes its title) was indisputably the show’s best (see, it even says so on Wikipedia!). In it, the characters try to figure out why Robin is afraid of malls, and in the end it turns out that it’s because she was once a Canadian teen pop singer who went on mall tours. The episode ends with the discovery of one of her videos, “Let’s Go to the Mall,” in which Robin commits every single ’80s girl pop video cliché (even though it was then the ’90s, but “the ’80s didn’t come to Canada ’til like ’93″).
ANYWAY, as a dedicated HIMYM fan, I was kind of annoyed to learn last week that the show was continuing its stunt casting with an episode next Monday starring Alan Thicke and Tiffany that “further explores” Robin’s backstory as Robin Sparkles. I wasn’t annoyed that it was happening, mind you. I was annoyed that I was reading it ahead of time, possibly in a Simpsons Comic Book Guy way. One of the joys of the Robin Sparkles episode was the surprise! That’s why I refuse to listen to the new Robin Sparkles song, “Sand Castles in the Sand,” leaked today to Variety. You can, though. There. Fine. But I’m waiting until Monday.
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I love How I Met Your Mother. Let that be known. Love, love, love it. But the episodes this season are complete crap. I feel like they are relying on stunts, gimmicks, and recycled material to make the stories good, and they’re not working for me. Britney Spears? No good. Reprise of the slap quota in Slapsgiving? No good. Episodes completely built around Barneyisms (The Platinum Rule, The Yips, The Chain of Screaming, etc.)? Really, really not good. And now you’re telling me that Robin Sparkles is coming back? It’s time for the writers to start over. Season One was amazing, and, while Slap Bet is the best episode, Season Two was a lot less consistent. Nowadays, I’m so tired of being let down, that I start watching the show with expectations as low as if I were watching Two and a Half Men. I thought the writers were better than this… Sorry for my rant.
I don’t like “How I met your mother.” It’s just an updated version of Mr. Belvedere.
Katie. As a fan who hasn’t started Season 3 yet…your comments FRIGHTEN me. I just hope they don’t overdo this Robin Sparkles thing. That’d be bad. It’d me like Family Guy with “It’s like that time…” blah.