Tom Reviews: How I Met Your Mother: Season 7 Episode 15 "The Burning Beekeeper"
This episode attempts to do something that classic episodes of How I Met Your Mother like "The Pineapple Incident" "The Platinum Rule" and "Three Days of Snow" managed to pull of so well. Interweave multiple plot threads through a non linear story telling method. I actually bought that it would work for a while, but ultimately I found that this episode fell short of expectations, and the story telling framework just made it worse. Why didn't it work? That's what I plan to dive into now.
The way this episode is broken up is to give us each a linear account of what happened in the three rooms of Marshall and Lily's new house. It's a good idea in theory, but it breaks down as soon as the first act ends. A lot of what happened in the Living Room was entertaining and funny, and I was genuinely interested to learn what had happened in the other rooms to prompt the scenes in the Living Room. Unfortunately the reveals all ended up being rather lame, and the narrative device of the episode broke down because they kept repeating scenes, but instead of each repeat giving a scene a new meaning, it literally felt like i had just rewound and watched the same moment again. Also the timeline for this whole episode is confusing without being interesting enough for me to unravel.
But enough negativity, here are some things I liked about this episode:
I love Marshall's concern over bees.
I love seeing Ted face off with Marshall's boss. That scene was probably the highlight of the episode.
I love the use of the word "fisticuffs."
I like the callback to Ted being a kicker.
I enjoy that Barney refers to his penis as a "she." It's funny, but it also makes sense in a weird way.
I like that Robin gets upset over there not being hot mustard.
I like that it ended up being Marshall's boss in the bee suit.
So other than the narrative device not really working for me, there were some things about this episode that felt really weak to me. Here they are:
Lily feeling overworked and stressed about the baby is an important and relevant part of her character arc, but it's not given enough attention or thought in this episode. If you're going to bring it up, address it writers! Also I'd like to predict that after she gives birth she'll have some sort of depression. I guess that's stealing from Carla from Scrubs, but there you go.
Marshall just quit his job like it was nothing, and then at the end of the episode took it back like it was nothing.
Barney's plot in this episode was kind of funny, but nothing mind blowing, and at this point I want to see his plots have some substance to them. I'd actually really like there to be an episode where Kevin and Barney hang out alone together, because that would be awkward in a way that could generate some humor.
Ted and Robin's fight had a couple of funny lines but was ultimately inane and didn't deal with any issues.
I dislike Lily's dad. I mean, I dislike him being on the show.
The main problem with this episode was that it was a sitcom episode. I realize that it's stupid to ask a sitcom to not act like one, but I want HIMYM to be more than this. I want to set up some drama. I want to deal with the Barney/Robin tension, or advance it in some way, or generate some other tension. I want an episode that requires context rather than an episode that I could easily skip without missing any major plot action.
Rating: 6 out of 10 burning beekeeper suits.
I want this show to be good. I really do. I come into every episode wanting to enjoy it, and I found myself really liking the first ten minutes of this episode. It didn't go anywhere though. This show doesn't always need to go where I want it to go, but it needs to go somewhere. There are a dozen different things you can do with the Robin/Barney situation that I would absolutely loathe, but I would still prefer watching them happen than not getting to see any progress. I remember the first four seasons of this show all advancing towards one thematic conclusion, but the last couple of seasons have felt like the writers just tacked on some important life events to the end a season of one offs. That feels like what season 7 is doing too right now, although I hope I'm wrong. I hope the next few episodes get us back on track. I really want this show to end as satisfactorily as it began. So I keep watching, and hoping.
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