Bedtime Stories (How I Met Your Mother)
 | This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (December 2015) |
| "Bedtime Stories" | |
|---|---|
| How I Met Your Mother episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 9 Episode 11 |
| Directed by | Pamela Fryman |
| Written by | |
| Original air date | November 25, 2013 |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"Bedtime Stories" is the eleventh episode of the
Plot
On Saturday at 5pm, 25 hours before Barney and Robin's wedding,
"Mosby at the Bat"
The first story concerns Ted while he was still a professor. Lisa, a young physics professor, introduces herself to Ted and asks him out to dinner to learn more about his inspiring lectures. Ted is at first excited, but then wonders if Lisa will view the dinner as a date or as just a meeting between coworkers. Throughout the dinner, Ted receives mixed signals on whether it is a date or not, and Lisa eventually reveals she had once dated a New York Yankees player. Ted is so intrigued he urges her to tell who; she reveals him to be Derek Jeter just as she casually describes their meeting as "a lovely date", but when Lisa shows him a picture, Ted is annoyed to find out it is actually Barney.
"Robin Takes the Cake"
The next story begins with Robin having recently broken up with one of her ex-boyfriends (Marshall is unable to remember who), and is unashamedly shoveling down sweets at a bakery. She then runs into Simon and is surprised to see he is more clean-shaven and professional than before, but quickly becomes dejected when he reveals he's engaged to be married. In anger, Robin steals Simon's wedding cake and begins eating it at Ted's apartment, much to Ted's scolding and bewilderment. When Robin has finished nearly half the cake, Lily arrives, and Robin feels remorse for her actions and decides to stop. Lily, however, convinces Robin to be strong and finish the cake. Her struggle to finish soon draws others to the apartment to cheer her on, including Barney who brings a keg of beer. She eventually finishes, then proceeds to do a keg stand (Marshall adds that afterwards they had to get her stomach pumped).
"Barney Stinson, Player King of New York City"
The final story has the gang at McLaren's, where Barney has his sights set on a girl who just walked into the bar. Lily says the girl is out of Barney's league, but Barney claims no girl is unworthy as he is the "Player King of
Marshall nearly gets Marvin to sleep when the bus suffers a
Critical reception
Bill Kuchman of Popculturology praised the episode's rhyming scheme on a creative level, but nevertheless called it "just another filler episode". Kuchman singled out Marshall's line, "I'm so sorry this journey has been a bummer," asking, "Is there a line that sums up this season more perfectly?"[1]
The A.V. Club's Donna Bowman graded the episode an A−, praising the writing, performances and the tight editing.[2]
Max Nicholson of IGN gave the episode 5.5/10, stating that while he commended the writers for following through on having an all-rhyming episode, he felt that the gimmick ended up falling flat. Nicholson noted that this episode, which does almost nothing to advance the plot, should have been used in another season rather than the final one. He added that, while he enjoyed the stories, he wished that Robin's had somehow tied into Ted and Barney's connected stories.[3]
References
- ^ Bill Kuchman (November 25, 2013). "'How I Met Your Mother' 'Bedtime Stories' Recap: No, I Will Not Rhyme, for 'HIMYM' Is Wasting Time". Popculturology. Retrieved August 13, 2017.
- ^ Donna Bowman (November 25, 2013). "Bedtime Stories". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved August 13, 2017.
- ^ Nicholson, Max (November 25, 2013). "How I Met Your Mother: "Bedtime Stories" Review". IGN. Retrieved August 13, 2017.
External links
- "Bedtime Stories" at IMDb
