Well I hope you all are enjoying rewatching Season 1 of HIMYM this summer. I’ll try to keep these better paced. I’m still struggling with the new format of including video reviews, but I’ll try things out and hopefully it will come together. I usually spend some time commenting up front…just general thoughts but I feel like that part will be replaced by the video, but I’ll still be keeping Legendary Lines, HIMYM Music section, Moments of Awesomeness and Lingering questions.

   I really want to encourage you all to comment or leave video replies on the How I Met Your Mother Site Youtube Channel, which you can find at: youtube.com/thehimymsite. I know I’m a big dork but I’m a fan like all of you and enjoy talking about the show, so I look forward to what you have to say.

   With that said, what did you thing of Purple Giraffe (from the first time watching even till the 87th)?

How I Met Your Mother Music

• Haven’t We Met instrumental version by Stephen Lang (Ted imagines Robin at his party) DVD replaces with John Swihart jazz piece
• Music cue for the show by Swihart (plays during Ted’s keep playing the game scenes)
• Everybody Have Fun Tonight by Wang Chung (while not played Marshall references it in Legendary fashion)

Moments of Awesomeness

• Awkward moments with Marshall, Lily…. and Ted. it’s always classic when those two go at it and there is Ted. “Guys. Boundaries”
• Gatsby. Loved the party scenes… Ted seems slightly different in these…but he is truly more Gatsby. Plus, I’ve always had a fondness for the Fitzgerald story.
• Barney’s Statistics… despite the lack of 83% it’s still golden.
• First off, I love Lily really, but this Season is definitely when she was way more hot than annoying.
• “The Mosby” truly the fastest way to get rid of a woman…or is it?
• In true Bro Code fashion, Barney works so well as a wing man for Ted, example…pushing Carlos over to cover his Bro’s story.
• The Kid. Even if it is self assigned, what a great nickname for Marshall.
• Ted & Robin. Despite knowing (yes I said knowing) that they don’t end up together, one must admit they do work so well together.
• The roof. plus the writing for this ep…especially up there. Btw, I personally wish there was on off switch too.

Legendary Lines

Robin: Hello Sailor

Barney: As your sponsor, I will not let you relapse. You blew it. It’s over. move on.

Marshall: We threw two parties. Everybody had fun. Everybody wanged, everybody chunged.

Ted: So that was Robin…

Robin: It’s a great look but you’re looking at the wrong girl…

Ted: My friends are gonna love you…like you…as a friend.

Barney: Solid plan my little friend.
Ted: We’re the same height.

Barney: Unbelievable. That is just a recipe for disaster, they work together

Ted: I mean maybe New York’s just too big a town, you know?  There’s millions of people in this city. How in all this mess is a guy supposed to find the love of his life? I mean, where do you even begin?
(Robin taps a random woman at the bar)
Robin: Hi, Have you met Ted?

Lingering Questions:

• Why do you think the interactions with and of the kids faded more in later episodes? Just the age of the actor/actress? Or was there more to how they tell the story?
• We seem to get birthday parties in the future but, parties like this in the apartment seem a rarity in the future? Why do you think that is?
• Do you play the “Have you met …” game with your friends?
• Robin and Ted were clearly great together, why do you think we start the whole series with finding out she isn’t the mom and then continue with their relationship anyways?
• Despite my EXTREMELY firm belief that Robin isn’t the mother (ref. Who is the mother part 2) many still believe it’s Robin, if that’s you then state your case. You’ll get no hate from me, I’d just love to hear it.

Kids, I’m gonna tell you an incredible story,
the story of how I met your mother
~Future Ted

So as many of you know, I didn’t start recapping HIMYM until Season 4 (ref. Woo Girls) and because of that I’ve always felt that beawesomeinstead.com is incomplete. The thing is, I like completion…so let’s start from the beginning shall we?

I’ve got to be honest, starting to re-watch from the beginning is really stinking difficult. I mean we know so much more now, and at the same time still know so little. And with knowing what comes next for a lot of this it’s hard not to sit and pick apart the little details that would drive many of us mad…Example, Ted references the first time that Marshall & Lily had sex and implies that they were on the bottom bunk, but when we see “Frist time in New York (ref. s02e12) they are on the top bunk. So past that one, I’ll try to keep it as if we are watching for the first time, otherwise we could be here for weeks.

Robin. Robin is great in this episode. Even though she ends up being just Aunt Robin the fact that it starts here should make her a huge part of the story. Not only that but she looks amazing! It doesn’t hurt that in this phase of HIMYM, Robin seems quite flirty. Anways, it’s hard not to watch her interact with the group yet, but I guess that’s the burden of foreknowledge.

Lily & Marshall. Just great together, I mean what more can you say. Lily in the eye patch looks ridiculous but I suppose that’s the point. I wish Marshall said “dibs” more. And for some reason I completely forgot that Barney kissed him… his reaction was hilarious. Speaking of which….

Barney. I’ve always loved the way that he & Ted meet. It’s quite legendary when you think about it. It’s even funnier when you get the rest of the story. My favorite part from Barney here has to be his pushing Ted to wear a suit…and how stinking excited he is when Ted actually does. Plus we get to see him play laser tag. Good stuff.

Ted. If you haven’t figured it out by now, the show is about Ted. Now while I might get some debate on that, it’s true. With that said, already I see a ton of foreshadowing in this episode. And while there are some continuity errors since then, seeing those really encourages me that the show is still going in the same direction they initially indented…even though I’m sure some details have changed.

All and all, what a great episode and premier. Season 1 really was an amazing season…enough from me, what did you all think about the Pilot of HIMYM?torrentz.com

How I Met Your Mother Music

• E-Pro by Beck c(not exactly but it’s the same tune as the guitar riff when Ted, Barney, Lily & Marhsall are in Ranjit’s cab after stealing the Smurf penis)
• Cigarettes and Coffee by Otis Redding (playing in Robin’s apartment –Air Version)
• I Want To Be Ready – Kool Blues (playing in Robin’s apartment –DVD Version)
• Back On The Chain Gang by the Pretenders (closing song, Ted explains to his kids how he met Aunt Robin)

Legendary Lines

Ted: You know ever since college it’s always been Marshall and Lily and me. Now it’s gonna be Marshall and Lily… and me. They’ll go off get married, start a family, and before you know it, I’m that middle-aged bachelor their kids call “uncle Ted.”

Barney: Okay, meet me at the bar in 10 minutes, and suit up!
Barney: …Where’s your suit? Just once, when I say, “suit up” I wish you’d put on a suit.
Ted: I did… that one time.
Barney: It was a blazer!

Lily: did you know there is a pop tart under your fridge?
Marshall: No but dibs.

Ted: Hey, Barney. See that girl?
Barney: Oh, yeah, you just know she likes it dirty.

Barney: De -wait for it- Nied! Denied!

Barney: There’s no such thing as the signal! But yeah, that was the signal.

Ted: I gotta do what that guy couldn’t, I gotta take the leap!…Okay, not a perfect metaphor, cause for me it’s fall in love and get married, and for him it’s…death.
Barney: Actually, that is a perfect metaphor…

Ted: Are you trying to get me drunk?
Robin: For Starters

Marshall: Lily, I like olives.
Lily: We’ll make it work

Moments of Awesomeness

• Have You Met Ted? … best game ever. True Story
• Marshall’s practice proposal to Ted. So perfect…those two should totally be toget…wait, Marshall isn’t he mother. I mean Marshall & Lily.
• Uncle Ted. I love Ted’s talk with Barney about Marshall & Lily’s kids calling him Uncle Ted. Explains a lot if you think about it.
• Lily’s second surprise from Marshall, “Boogity Boo!”
• First episode and already we get Carl & Ranjit!
• Barney’s catch phrases are in fully swing… what up, wait for it, suit up…
• Ted suits up. Barney’s reactions are far better than Ted suiting up though.
• Is Robin hot in the episode or what?…seriously, oh my.

Lingering Questions

• Ted ask Marshall what he told him that his perfect woman would be. Marshall recalls that it’s someone who loves dogs, drinks scotch, can quote obscure lines from Ghostbusters. Since most of us know a little bit more about the future, what do you think happened to these qualities in the future?
• Will Ted tell the eventual mother that he loves he on the first date or before? Will he Mosby her? Have you ever Mosby’ed someone?
• the first time you watched this episode, how did you feel about the ending?

A man can do a lot of living in three hours.
So I’m out experiencing this beautiful, crazy dance called life.
~Marshall

How I Met Your Mother Music

• Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp by George Harrison – Ted pushes the button, Lily gives the news & Barney has a moment…and more

     If you are like me then you loved tonight’s How I Met Your Mother. And wow is there a lot to talk about…though we’ve got all the way till Season 7 to do so! Read more after you get your free gallon of soup!

     I did feel like they were trying to piss most fan’s off with the slight resurface of Zoey but hopefully that is done for.

      Lily & Marshall. First off, If I remember the callback to Subway Wars correctly, Lily only thought she could speak conductor correctly…so it seems off that she can do so well now. Past that, I felt like the Pregnancy things was a given the moment she first hurled chunks. I felt like a lot of people on twitter called it as well. But I feel like it could be a good time to explore this chapter of LAME. I mean the trying to get pregnant stuff gave us a few laugh and also kept us distracted while they punched us in the gut with the death of Mr. Eriksen. I’m sure pregnant Lily will give us good laughs too…or could it bring us more grief?

      Ted. This dude really seems like a B story in his own story. And that’s ok because we love the characters and seeing how it all relates to the day Ted meets her. And now we know it’s at Barney & ????’s wedding. I’m glad he got to push the button. It’s a big deal for him to succeed, and like his friends, Ted’s had a crappy and crazy year. Good thing he has friends like Barney & Robin to help him from doing something extremely stupid, like getting back with Zoey.

    Robin. Just a simple though/question. Tell me what you think this face means:

… is it: What have I done?  Do I still love him? Did I make a mistake? Will he be happy?

    Barney & Robin. These two just make a great team together. Whether they are the wedding couple or not I feel like they make a good team. The relationship before didn’t have a lot of depth, but Barney has grown a lot…I still feel like Robin has some journey to go on. But I think it still has a chance. And their cab conversation with Ranjit (woo hoo), totally double meaning. It could not be more clear they were talking about each other.

    Barney & Nora. Here is the issue. I like them together two. She made Barney face some hard truths. And the simple fact that she didn’t’ slap him and run off, I thought shows good chances for them. The “It’s never too late” line, complete double meaning. IT’s never too late for Barney to try again and it’s never too late for sundresses. Sorry, I just really like sundresses.

   That’s all I’ve got for this Season. Keep stopping by in the summer as I take another look at Season 1! As for Challenge Accepted, What did you think?

Moments of Awesomeness

• New Rule: New Is Always Better…also Barney’s oldest rule…maybe?
• Hallo! Ranjit! I always love it when Marshall Manesh is on the show, even briefly.
• Dave Foley! Anyone remember Kids in the Hall?
• Velocoraptor Sound Lily. Awesome.
• Double meaning…it’s like when people talk about someone else but they really mean to be talking about themselves. What does it mean?
• Sandwiches…How come the hipster kid didn’t ask them to buy sandwiches instead of pot? Sorry, if I’m Mr. Continuity tonight
• Robin & Barney to the rescue. Thank God they showed up when they did! I couldn’t take much more of the Zoed relationship. Plus I love Robin & Barney as a team.
• The mother phych out was great. Obvious…but great.
• Barney’s Wedding! Well that answered one part of the wedding question answered. Now for the other part, game of guess who anyone?

Legendary Lines

Ted: Do you know how many people it takes to change 50,000 lightbulbs?
Barney: Are these people Irish, Polish, blondes? What are we dealing with?

Marshall: Can I borrow an adult diaper?

Robin: You were the only boyfriend I ever motorboated

Robin: Man, I wish we had gotten to Brooklyn sooner
Hipster Guy: I know right? Ever since the Trader Joe’s opened up, Brooklyn’s been like..whatever.

Robin: You can’t just run back to the past because it’s familiar.

Nora: It’s never too late
Barney: Challenge Accepted

Lingering Questions

• Is that finally the end of Zoey (like we were promised) or will we see here again?
• How do you feel about a baby on HIMYM? Good? Bad? Will we even see the kid before the end of the show?
• Robin or Nora? We can divide this into two questions…which do you like better for Barney & which do you think will be his bride?
• What did you think the the Season 6 Finale!?

What a great episode of HIMYM. Natural History had the perfect mix of what makes this show awesome. And it’s a very nice recovery from last week’s Canning Randy. And from what twitter was saying last night HIMYM fans agreed (if you haven’t then start following @bawesomeinstead now!). Btw, if you would like a more in depth recap check our @MeredithJJacobs run down of tonight.

Three main story lines, Barney & Robin’s “Do Not Touch” challenge, Marshall & Lilly’s Corporate/College argument and Ted, Zoey & the Captain in a web of lies and deciept… actually I don’t think anyone is sure what’s going on there. Some people scream Mother, I doubt she is the mom but I know Jennifer Morrison is around in at least the on  screen nemesis for a bit, I’m just trusting that HIMYM is going somewhere with it. Still the look in her eyes during the dance and her move to erase the tape after Ted showed some dignity hints at something slightly more serious.

The big revelation of the night had to be the reveal of Barney’s father. I realize that I should always use the word “potential” with How I Met Your Mother reveals, but he seems pretty certain of it in the final scene with Robin. I really do feel like we are ramping up for a more mature version of a Barney/ Robin relationship, possibly even a wedding.  Still there seems to be a lot of emotional depth to what’s been happening with Barney this season, and it’s a lot more than just Awesomeness and cool posters.

Possibly another big shake up was the Re-Return Moment when we see that Corporate Marshall will soon be extinct. That and Old Ted’s famous “but more on that later” to let us know something’s coming up.

All in all Natural History was an excellent episode. So what did everyone else think?

Moments of Awesomeness

• Galactic President Superstar McAwesomeville, well and “the Captain”…
• I love the more confident confrontational Ted. But Ted having some  dignity, I like that Ted too.
• Scooter! I love the callbacks. The prom night picture was nice.
• Ted’s Architecture fun facts. This one actually played into the show. Still, these always make me smile.
• Want a hit of this sandwich… two things. One the Lily/college Marshall conversation is probably the only thing tonight that didn’t work in my opinion. It was funny, yea..but come one. And two, it’s funny but hard for me to buy that Ted sensors “sandwiches” but talks constantly about chicks and sex.
• Barney and Robin were Amazing tonight! I love the Do Not Touch game in the museum. Anyone wanna play?

How I Met Your Mother Music

• "La Javanaise" by Madeleine Peyroux (closing dance with Zoey & Ted)

Legendary Lines

Robin: You can’t kick a story in the nuts

Robin (to Barney while touching the statue together): Get your other hand off my ass.

Zoey: Ted, This is my husband
Ted: Yea, Old stuffs great.

Marshall: Lawyered!
Lily: That’s also a made up word!

Security Guard (about something young Barney did): That story is Legend <phone rings> hold on… dairy.

Ted: Oh my god! You have a monocle? Is this really happening? Good luck killing James Bond.

Ted: You look gross when you cry. Some people look cute, you look like a basset hound.

We see Marshall working late and Artillery Author pushing him to keep going. Then, Old Ted let’s us know that the extinction of Corporate Marshall is coming.

Lingering Questions

• So we have a good idea that Barney’s dad is Jerome Whittiker, a man that Barney thought was his uncle. Do you tin he will every pursue it? And is anyone else starting to sense that bond between Barney & Robin?
• I’m on the record as saying Zoey is NOT the mother. Reason’s you ask?
  1. She’s not in economics class, 2. She is not the Cindy’s roommate and 3. Ted had met her before the wedding…but her role is definitely important or she wouldn’t be around so long. Where do you think they are going?
• We know Marshall discovers the Loch Ness monster, but no clue what his job was other than still being a Lawyer. What do you think is coming with the death of Corporate Marshall?

It’s very late and I’m on vacation so the bulk of this will have to wait, thought I really want to know your thoughts on some things.

First off, I thought the episode was solid. Great flashbacks, worked pretty well on continuity I thought and kept me laughing all the way through. Barney’s awesomeness and inability to take a bad photo was great. Marshall’s love for games came through even at Lily’s party too and that really made me laugh. A ton of great moments and quoted but I wonder what stuck out to you.

Secondly, Did the one year from now birthday shot tell us anything? To me it says that Ted isn’t with the Mother yet…has he "met" her, possibly (or possimpibly, whatever) but since it’s just the 5 of them I would say that Ted isn’t with a "the one" girl. No Don either… and you would think that after a year it would be acceptable. He could just be out of town but I would put my money on him being gone within the year. Also, it may be a small detail but Marshall & Lily are in the same place. No baby either..I had heard once that LAME might have a baby but I hope not since it would change the show dynamic a lot! Did you see anything else? Reading other items of interest in? It’s in my nature to search for these things, but I miss a lot. What did you see?

Finally…music. I loved Marshall’s happy Birthday Lily (Lori?) song…that guy cracks me up. But the French Rap song… just awful. Well placed, but it was so bad it was comical. Btw. It’s "Briques" by Les Cautionneurs . I can’t find the song for sale but it could be under a different name, I’ve left you the Amazon and iTunes band links above if you want to search and report back. I’m horrible at French and draw the line for listening to music at something that horrible where that combines the worst elements of rap and a language I don’t understand. Wewe? Bonjour.

I’ll do my regular roundup soon but for now, what did you think?