How I Met Your Mother - "P.S. I Love You" - Review

There’s a moment in “P.S. I Love You” where the episode loses all sense of plot that came before it and delves into a lengthy joke. Normally this might be a problem, but it’s such a tried and true gag, and the writers put all the stops out for (what appears to be the last appearance of) Robin Sparkles that it doesn’t really matter all that much.

Even Ted’s story about meeting and falling for stalker Jeanette is somehow far funnier than it has any right to be. Starting with the legal pad gag and ending with the call back to the so-called destined first meeting of Marshall and Lily, it’s a nice set of callbacks and great in character jokes (this is some of the best use of “Douchey Ted” all season). However, putting this story on the backburner to emphasize the Robin Sparkle VH1-like special actually does wonders for this storyline. If they had carried on the jokes any longer, it would have gotten real old, real quick. It’s just the right amount of time on screen for it to be amusing without getting stale.

Now, instead, for most of the episode, we get a slew of cameos from famous Canadian personalities. And whether it was them all stating the place they were and the donut they were eating when the “P.S. I Love You” incident went down or Bob Saget’s future Ted making a meta-Full House reference when Dave Coulier is on screen, it’s one of the funnier gags the series has managed in a long while. The extended segment probably goes on longer than it has any right to. But though the rest of the plot suffers significantly in way of development due to it, I could care less for how much I was laughing.    

I don’t expect works of wonders from HIMYM at this point in its run; but if it can at least still orchestrate some memorable segments such as still finding humor to be mined from Robin Sparkles, it may not be so painful to go down with the ship. 

Stray Observations:

-Ted has a backup yellow legal pad.  

-Was it just me or was the laugh track particularly bad at points during the episode?

-Dobbler/Dahmer Effect is one of the less interesting terms the gang has come up with.

-“50 Meters … that’s like 4 years!”

-Great callback: Barney’s power drill has a label on it that says “Property of Ted Mosby”

-“I’m coming to think you didn’t come here to see my lectern”

-Robin’s single went “Maple” and then “Double Maple” in Canada.

-“Even when Canadians are mean, they’re nice”

-The happy music cutting out when Ted said, “Just like Jeanette” was great.

-“That’s now considered the day grunge was created” 

Grade: B+