How I Met Your Mother - "The Best Man/The Naked Truth" Review

Mosbius Designs may have failed, but these episodes succeed.

Ah, How I Met Your Mother. A show I barely knew about a year ago, until introduced to it by some college buddies, and now, it may just be my favorite sitcom of the last decade. Its sweet and honest humor, its solid logic and overarching narrative, and its very much beating heart are just a few reasons of why I so love it. And in Monday night's two-part premiere, I got what I hoped for: two more hilarious and heartfelt half-hours of time with Ted, Marshall, Lily, Robin, and of course, Barney. "The Best Man" and "The Naked Truth" succinctly represent the two sides of HIMYM's coin, the former being more toward the overarching story and emotional core of the series, while the latter plays more for laughs, while setting up the plot points for this current seventh season. I will, thus, review the two individually.

"The Best Man" opens the season with an event discussed much last season: the wedding of Punchy, Ted's high school friend, whom Ted is serving for as the best man. It is shown through the lens of Future Ted (or as I like to call him, Saget Ted or ST), as he recalls the wedding of Barney that is apparently still "a little ways down the road". Barney's future wedding is, of course, where Ted will meet his future wife, The Mother, as revealed in last season's superb premiere "Big Days". This season appears that it will drive toward Barney's wedding, with the main question now being "who is his bride?" And right now, we have two candidates, Robin and Nora. While Robin reveals in the premiere that she still has feelings for Barney, which she clearly shows after they take over the dance floor, I can't help but wonder if this is another red herring. Barney, meanwhile, decides to attempt to move forward with Nora, so it's all up in the air right now. In the end, I wouldn't be surprised if his bride is someone completely different.    Back to Punchy's wedding. Overall, it made for a funny setting, with Marshall drinking for him and Lily due to her still concealed pregnancy (as revealed in "Challenge Accepted", last season's finale), and eventually accidentally ruining Punchy's wedding, which was used as a subplot throughout the episode, that ended up feeling a tiny bit played due to its overemphasis in the plot. Ted's habit of choking up as a toaster at weddings was played well, particularly with his funny "Mosbius Designs has failed" remix, but I was a little irritated with Ted's decision to attempt to find love once again, as this has happened one too many times for me. When it happened after Stella, it was understandable, but with Zoey, their lack of chemistry and shorter relationship makes me feel like Ted shouldn't have needed to have this decision again. Zoey was the main underminer of season 6, though, so it's good to see them put this behind the show. "The Best Man" was still a wonderful episode, though, and perfectly set up the season.

As we can see, Beercules will indeed strike again. Note the ducky tie on Barney.

"The Naked Truth" was, in short, the perfect follow-up to "The Best Man", being a more jokey, lighthearted episode that had quite a few laugh-out-loud moments, a lot of them revolving around Marshall's YouTube persona, Beercules (who you will bow down before, BTW), as well as Martin Short's guest role as Marshall's new boss. Short was hilarious in his Short time on screen (geddit?), despite the obvious fact that the "swamp" he was standing in was on a green screen. And Liam McPoyle himself (IDK the actor's name) showed up as Marshall's former college friend, as he attempted to do the impossible, in finishing the hallowed sport, EDWARD FORTYHANDS!!!! (Seriously, when that showed up, I practically killed myself laughing). Barney also took a big step forward in character development, as he attempted to make amends with Nora, telling her of his entire bag of tricks. This somewhat felt like a rite of passage for the character, as he leaves that shallow Barney Stinson behind in favor of a more meaningful existence, culminating in him waiting at the diner for quite a number of hours. Have we seen the last of "Daddy's home?" Maybe, maybe.  However, there were a few minor shortcomings to the episode (mainly the false promise of a Lenny Kravitz cameo that never materialized), as well as a final twist that somewhat lacks in impact (though I'm interested as to what (SPOILER) Victoria's return means). The problem is, now that we know where Ted will meet the Mother, any romance he has before Barney's wedding is doomed to fail. It was the problem with Zoey, it will inevitably be the problem with Victoria's return, and with the return of the Slutty Pumpkin (who will be played by Mrs. Cruise herself, Katie Holmes, no less), it will probably resurface as well. However, this is not a knock on the episode, as these two rank among HIMYM's finest, if not its absolute greatest.

On a side note, any theories on who the Mother actually is? I've got one: Carly Whitaker. Who is that, you ask? Jerry Whitaker's (Barney's father) daughter. Lithgow himself mentioned that she was currently in college, and could conceivably be Cindy's roommate as well as at Barney's wedding, as his half-sister. Just a thought.

Anyway, my ratings for these episodes:

"The Best Man" - 5/5 stars
"The Naked Truth" - 4.5/5 stars