Ride out and meet the fail, for death and glory. For your people.

I think HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER has made really good use of rock/pop music for the most part over its run, but it's still too recent to see how badly it's going to age.

@forget it lake: I was going to comment on this thread just to say how much I enjoyed the (exceptionally vague and minor spoiler) astronaut argument, but you beat me to it! (By the way, I've used it as a legitimate ice-breaking question in social situations to surprisingly satisfying effect for all involved.)

I don't know what happened to it, or even how I got it, but I remember having an early, rougher, "stripped down" version of "Goodbye to You" around then. I was maybe 16 or 17 at the time and haven't the foggiest as to where it came from, but it was good.

I almost agree with you, StringerRoss, but I think that as they've slowed down a bit, they've found room to get back to who these characters are and mining that as a source of humor. The best gags over the past few weeks have been very character-specific, especially in "Blitzgiving," which featured Lily's…

The only TV review site I've seen that comes close in terms of the level of discussion that goes on in the comments is Alan Sepinwall's blog, formerly on its own site and now on HitFix. I don't comment much, but when I do, AV Club and What's Alan Watching are the only two places where I dive in.

Thanks for the background info, and for the great Seinfeld reference. I don't really have much of a need of comfort food—HIMYM does that job just fine—but I'm still curious enough that I may check out the first disc of season two from Netflix. (If anyone else has anything to add, though, go for it.)

Worth it?
I watched a couple episodes of the show a couple years back and really didn't like it for a variety of reasons, but chief among them was that the writers seemed to actively dislike the characters. When it didn't feel as though the writers were just throwing together the five least-appealing characters from…

Thanks for the good work.
You've handled this with dignity and aplomb, and my trust in your site has not been eroded. This must be stressful, though, and I'm sure none of us envy you that.

Every year, I tell folks that I consider Ghostbusters II to be a pretty darn good holiday movie, and they always look at me aghast. But I stand firm.

Holiday Inn
I salute you on that choice, Marah. It seems like a lot of people have forgotten about that movie, and I can almost understand why, but I don't agree with the turn of events at all.

Personally
Personally, I only saw a few still ads for it—banner ads and subway ads—and I just kind of assumed it was a reality show about dogs.

Barney transitioning from eating an ice cream sundae to an ice cream cone was a nice touch, too.

Bah—I wish we could go back and edit these comments.

I was trying to get at the fact that grades are only relative to the show being graded, not relative to the entire spectrum of television that the reviewer has experienced. An "A" episode of "Family Guy" is not being compared to an "A" episode of "Seinfeld."

Alan Sepinwall leads off his review of this episode by discussing the wildly divergent reactions some of his Twitter followers had to it. That seems to be a running theme this season on these boards—some folks feel as though the show has regained footing that it had lost last season, while others hear only death…

Over the years, several of the staff have pointed out that TV grades aren't absolute. Instead, they are relative to what the show in question attempts and is capable of. I stand by my assertion that this was an A- episode: Not the very best HIMYM is capable of even this late in the game, but still flexing muscles…

B+?
Come on, Donna. I know this isn't a complaint that gets levied at you regarding your grades for this show too often, but this one was definitely A-range, even if the big Barney/Lily twist was obvious fairly early on. And while it was certainly more cartoony than its brilliant second season, it used that…

Why wait? RotJ was a solid B. I still can't decide if it picks up or loses point for the "memories churning like bad oysters" line.

Tal,