Sunday, May 18, 2008

How I Met Your Mother

So I tried "How I Met Your Mother". Man, was that lame! I can't figure out how it gets so many good viewer reviews. I have not been so disappointed in a sitcom since season six of Spin City. (That was when Charlie Sheen took over from Michael J. Fox, though it seemed that more than Charlie it was the writing that suddenly sucked.)

I bought this show because I love Alyson Hannigan, and because it has such great Amazon viewer reviews, presently 5.5 stars on average. I am just confused. This show just did not impress me in any way. I love sitcoms, I have like four shelf-meters of DVDs with just those. But this one not even Alyson could salvage. The actors did what they could, but the stories were run-of-the-mill, the writing uninspired, and it simply was not very funny.

Also the basic setup, where a guy is talking to his future kids about "how he met their mom", but it quickly becomes clear that we'll probably never find out who their mom is... not a good idea.

19 comments:

Bert said...

Didn't you know that Amazon won't allow negative comments? Either you've seen the show on TV (and thus would never buy it) and are not allowed to comment because you didn't buy it, or their comment reviewers will find some reason to delete your comment if it scores below 3/5. No personal attacks allowed, bad language, criticizing form instead of contents, any reason is fair to them to remove a negative comment.

Will teach you to trust a peddler over those of us who tried to warn you...

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Come on, I've seen lots of negative reviews on Amazon. And usually I find it a very reliable source, if one knows how to read them. (For instance for a niche product you only get reviews from those into the niche.) Which is why this surprised me. I've bought based on those reviews for ten years or more.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

... I've just looked it up, they have posted my own quite negative review of this.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

... Also I am leafing through all my old reviews now, and the negative reviews are still there. (Even though they tend to get very few "helpful" votes for some reason.)

Bert said...

Don't know. There are quite a few pseudo-scientific books in there that are nothing but rantings from deluded wannabes, and there's little that can be done to point them out. This has been discussed many many times in the community.

Then again, you may have a special derogation since you are such an illustrious reviewer... ;-)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

No way. My "reviews" tend to be just brief rants. The rare one which gets many helpful ratings is the rare one where I took more than five minutes.

I hate writing more than 200 words, which is why blogging is the only writing I do these days.

Bert said...

I honestly have quit reading Amazon reviews a while back for the reasons mentioned above, so I have never run across one of your reviews. What I meant is that you are on their reviewer list, no?

I didn't know of this show until you wrote about it, so I can't take credit personally for trying to warn you. But I went a different road: I downloaded season 1, and tried it. Didn't make it past 3 episodes, so I definitely won't buy it. And, contrary to what many think, I do buy what hooks me.

It would be interesting to have this scientifically evaluated, but I think that most sales lost to piracy are for garbage which otherwise would do better in terms of sales.

Anonymous said...

Sorry you don't enjoy HIMYM, but personally I think it's fantastic. Watch the 'Robin Sparkles' episode and then see if you like it.

Anonymous said...

Isn't Doogie in that show too? Oh how the mighty have fallen! ;-)

It's too bad, they have some talent on that show but very poor writing.

I can't remember if I was one of the ones who warned you about this show. I may have figured you'd ignore the advice anyway, and it's not like it's a huge hit financially. You've got plenty of the green.

I do not read Amazon reviews. I have no time for even professionals and am not going to bother with the opinion of some hack wannabe.

I too would go the download option. I too buy what really grabs me.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Thanks, all.
Anon, I might do that.

Anonymous said...

I'm one of those hack wannabes, Joe Dick, and that hurts! Snif!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I'd give anything to become a hack wannabe.

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't you rather be a hack you gets paid? I mean, if you're going to be a hack you might as well get something for it!

Sorry, Michael! Ha ha ha ha

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I couldn't imagine to aspire to such heights.

Anonymous said...

That's a shame.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Just doing a funny.

Anonymous said...

Me too. Say "that's a shame" like Seinfeld. :)

Btw, I was surprised that you gave HIMYM two stars - very generous!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Well, the actors and the sets were pretty.

Also, if one gives something just one star, it looks like an attack and some will just dismiss it.

Anonymous said...

It's funny, bert argues till he's blue in the face (I assume) that he's not a bitter, bile-filled, angry, disappointed, frustrated Comic Book Guy type, and yet he continues to write posts that show quite clearly he's got a huge chip on his shoulder. The world still not understand you, Harvey Pekar? You poor bastard.