How I Met Your Mother: Benefits

My viewings of HIMYM have been intermittent this season, partly because of work and partly because my TV plate is so full these days. However, catching up on this episode made me remember why I love this show so much in the first place. Barney trying to hide his true feelings, as Robin and Ted mentioned to the rest of the group that they were back to hooking up, was funny and affecting at the same time. I especially liked the low key way they tied the A story with the B story (Marshall, erm, taking long washroom breaks at work) to have Barney finally summoning up the courage to tell Robin his feelings, only for Robin to first misinterpret it, and then for Barney's momentary burst of bravado taken away by Robin saying it was a bad idea for friends to date (referring to her and Ted). The back-to-status-quo nature of the conclusion is nothing we haven't seen in other shows before, but it's so nicely set up and played out here that I totally loved it, especially the knowing glance between Ted and Barney.

Miscellaneous notes:

- Loved the continuity with Ted and Robin's Private Thing joke...the Major Buzzkill scene in "Slapsgiving" is one of my favorite scenes in the series' history.

- Totally misinterpreted the Marshall storyline line as him really reading a magazine at work (ha!). I'd like to blame it on the long day I had, but I'm obtuse at the best of times. I got what they were actually going for by reading about it elsewhere online.

- Maybe it helped that we were introduced to Lily and Marshall as being totally in love with one another, but I never tire of them as a happy couple. I always thought I would like Jim and Pam of "The Office" as a happy couple, but unfortunately, that's not happening right now for me. Yes, I do miss Jim and Pam when they were apart. Please don't throw garbage at me.

- The quick sequence of shots going from Ted and Robin deciding they needed to "relapse" into having sex to avoid fighting again, to Marshall (and therefore Lily) finding out again, and finally Barney venting his frustration, yet again, on CRT TVs was the laugh-out-loud moment of the episode.

The next episode can't come soon enough!