How I Met Your Mother 'Bedtime Stories' Review

How I Met Your Mother tried to do something ambitious and unique on Monday night with "Bedtime Stories," an episode told entirely in rhyme. In places, it worked. In other places, it felt like a bad paint job.

The premise of the episode was simple enough. Marshall forgot Marvin's books in the car and the kid cannot sleep without a story, so Marshall decided to tell stories about his friends entirely in rhyme. There was "Mosby at the Bat," which detailed Ted's date with a girl who claimed she dated a New York Yankee. It turned out to be Barney, who pretended to be Derek Jeter.

There was "Robin Takes the Cake," in which she ran into her Canadian ex-boyfriend, Simon (James Van Der Beek), who was no longer fat and bald. In fact, he was getting married to the girl with whom he cheated on Robin, so Robin stole the wedding cake and started to eat it. Halfway through, she gave up until Lily encouraged her to finish it, which she did in front of a large group of people. She then drank an entire keg of beer and had to get her stomach pumped.

And finally, there was "Barney Stinson, Player King of New York City." Barney slept with a girl (actually, it was the girl from Ted's story) on the East Side even though his jurisdiction is the West Side. He met with the rest of his fellow players, all of whom were just Barney in different outfits and accents. He poisoned the other members and became the undisputed Player King.

The biggest issue with this episode was not the rhyming (although it got old about halfway into the episode), but the fact that it was another episode of pure filler that barely (and I mean BARELY) moved the season forward at all. Marshall made a passing remark about missing the rehearsal dinner and, at the end of the episode, his bus broke down, so he decided to walk the five miles to the Farhampton Inn. And that was about it. Everything else was just a goofy side story that had no bearing to the wedding.

The result was a mixed bag of an episode that was funny in parts but ultimately useless. The writers know that they can pretty much go nuts because this is the final season, and a rhyming episode is definitely a unique and difficult attempt at storytelling that deserves recognition. But the exercise was ultimately futile, which made the episode fall a bit flat.

Notes and Quotes:

-       Barney's various player incarnations were Pickle Jar Bob from Brooklyn, Staten Island Lou, Tuxedo Charlie from the East Side, Bronx Donnie and Captain Bill from Queens. All of them were equally ridiculous and hilarious.

-       Somehow, the writers found a way to drag out Marshall's absence from Farhampton even more. This is a terrible idea.

-       Guest star Lin-Manuel Miranda's rap about the difficulty of rhyming another word with Canada was the highlight of the episode.

-       Ted still hasn't gotten over LeBron James' leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers. As Barney said, it's time to move on.

-       I thought about doing this review entirely in rhyme and gave up after about seven words.