How I Met Your Mother

INTRODUCTION:

  Are you a fan of Neil Patrick Harris? Are you a fan of comedy? What am I kidding, everybody is! If you haven't seen this show then you are missing out, because nobody is funnier than NPH, and the characters in this show seems so random yet they clash so perfectly. This show will get you hooked after just one episode, trust me, it happened to me!

DESCRIBE:
  
  How I Met Your Mother is a comedy, starting on September 19th, 2005 and is shown on CBS, however I watch this hilarious TV series on Netflix because there are no commercials to interupt my viewing entertainment. The show is a story about Ted Mosby (played by Josh Radnor)(narrated by Bob Saget) after he is all grown up and has a wife and two kids, a boy and a girl. It's about him telling his kids the story of how he met his wife/their mother. The year is 2030, but his stories take place 25 years ago, starting when he was a 27 year old architect, living in New York with his best friend Marhall (Jason Segel). In the first episode (pilot), Marshall is going to propose to his girlfriend Lily (Alyson Hannigan), while Ted, still a bachelor, goes out to the bar with his other friend Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) to look for his future wife. Because I watch this show on Netfllix there are no commercials, and that is exactly why I watch it online, I hate commercials. However, I recently watched a current episode on the networks (CBS) website which included commercial advertisements such as car promotions like Chevy, Toyota, Acura and Audi. Some other ads included Farmers Insurance, Verizon's Droid, Macy's, Jack-in-the-Box, and Google+. The car ads were mainly promoting family cars which is not surprising considering the current episode I had watched involved Lily (Alyson Hannigan)(Marshall's wife) giving birth to her first born child. The Droid and Google+ ad were not surprising cause it's what's new with technology these day, and the Macy's and Jack ads were just random ads that are popular in relates to people's interests with food, clothing, and jewelry.

ANALYZE:
 
  This episode, The Pilot, takes place in New York (like majority of the episdoes), and although I don't know the exact year, it takes place during the 21st century, approximately around our current year date. It's the perfect setting because it's our setting: same technology, same clothing style, same personality style, etc. It's pretty much the same style as we have in our society now. The show takes place on a multiple number of sets, however, the sets are set up to look like actual locations, like actual restaurants, bars, apartment living rooms, etc. for example. The show itself isn't very unique or different, however, the fact that the series takes place in New York is pretty neat and unique, because of it's busy lifestyle and flashy environment, which not a lot of TV shows take place in a New York style setting.

INTERPRET:

  The show's characters are a unique group of people. Ted is a hopeless romantic bachelor in search of his one true love, whereas Marshal and Lily are boyfriend and girlfriend who tell each other EVERYTHING about their lives and what goes on in it. And Barney, who is also a bachelor, has no desire to find a girlfriend and get tied down, he just wants to hookup with as many women as he can and then never call them again. The opposite personalities between the group is what makes the show so interesting, how they somehow all become best friends and get along so well (at most times). The target audience for this show would be for men and women ages 25-30 years, (same age range as the characters) but being a hilarious comedy, people of all ages watch it. Like me for example, I'm 20 years old and watch this show, and my friends and their parents even watch it. The stereotypes in this show include a hopeless romantic, a "playboy", and a "Mr. Nice Guy". This show definitely has some offensive messages, sexual ones mostly (thanks to Barney!), as well as offensive language, and I wouldn't recommend letting kids under 13 watch it. I also wouldn't recommend this show to anyone who is a femminists and/or has no sense of humor.

  One of the best parts about this show is that if I were a visitor from another country, say Europe for example, this show portrays very well how life is/would be living in New York. The setting/environment that the show portrays is pretty much exactly how life would be as a blue collar citizen living in an NY apartment.

EVALUATE:

  I, personally, can't find any weaknesses with this show, because it's about regular people, living regular lives. They have their up's and down's, deal with stresses everyday, as well as have happy experiences, creating good memories and bad. The show overall reflects "real life" pretty accurately. I love this show because of their mixed personalities and how they don't always get along with each other, or agree on the same things as one another. The show has a lot of sad encounters and experiences that take place, however the drama is part of why people watch shows. As well as comedy, which there is a lot of in every episode. Barney (NPH!) is my favorite character is this series because he is so laid back, and exciting, and most of all, hilarious! He doesn't have a care in the world, and although he is extremely shallow and only cares about himself, looking to score everywhere he goes, his personality is the main reason why I've watched five full seasons in 18 days. He is what attracts my attention and interest more than any other reason or person in that cast. Some strengths in this show is realisticness, the drama, and most of all, the comedy that it shows in every single episode. One weakness I can think of would be Barney's shallow attitude toward women, which is not good because every woman deserves to be treated with respect and love, but that's part of the drama that is created, which also makes it funny to watch. Majority of the critics favor this show, although every show has negative reviews. This show was majority voted positive by critics with a few mixed and negatives, but overall was positive. To dive deeper and look more into it and read some of their words go to http://www.metacritic.com/tv/how-i-met-your-mother/season-1 for more details.
 
ENGAGE:

  At first, I never really watched the show unless it was on TV and I was channel surfing for something to kill some time, however, after I had seen a couple episodes and saw that Neil Patrick Harris was in it, and how hilariously funny he was, I was immediately hooked! I started looking for episodes online, eventually finding the show on Netflix, which had every season that they have completed, up to date. Since Netflix has no commercial interruption, and every episode is only 20-23 minutes long, I have pretty much had a watch-a-thon, episode after episode after episode. It's almost become an obsession of mine, I watch about 8-12 episodes a day, almost daily. It's rare that I'll go a day or two without watching atleast a few episodes in one sitting. I've gotten a few of my friends to watch it and they've also gotten a few of their friends to watch it as well. I am a huge fan of their facebook page, and I love to read Barney's blogs!, which you can find links to on FB.

http://youtu.be/ZI6xO3IGE2o

http://youtu.be/0q4wU9nh6cg

http://youtu.be/HcQJJ9CHXOw