Tonight's HIMYM "The Rough Patch"

So, if you haven't watched How I Met Your Mother S5 E07 yet, then then you might not want to read the rest of this.

I don't know how to feel about the fact that Barney and Robin broke up. I think the idea of the episode was good, it just didn't necessarily translate as well to the screen. I feel like something that took two ish seasons to finally happen, should not be ended so quickly or so un-awesomely.

During the build up of the relationship, I was super into the idea of Robin and Barney. The mushy girl inside of me went all gooey anytime anything happened to bring the two together. There was this great tension there that just drew you in. Now, having said this, once they got together, it wasn't so exciting. They couldn't keep that same feeling there. I was really disappointed, but things did seem to be looking up. I figured after a few episodes they would really get the hang of writing for the couple. I think that is why I was so disappointed with this episode. I thought they had a lot more material left, and they just prematurely cut it all off. They didn't even give it any real build up or meaning like they normally do. While watching Robin and Ted together, you knew they didn't end up together, but their break up was still treated as this monumental thing.

So I guess when I say that I'm not sure what to think its because I don't know their meaning behind breaking them up. A big draw of the show was Barney's womanizer ways. If they felt that they were failing with writing the relationship and wanted to regain viewers that missed the old Barney, then I guess I could see it. Its disappointing, but understandable. Though, as we've seen, there is much more to Barney then what was previously assumed. They can't just take all of the progress he has made and throw it away just for ratings. I am hoping that they are using this episode to momentarily worry people and then slowly get them back together. They are both still somewhat flat characters, so maybe if they rounded them out a bit things a bit it'll work next time. Now that I think about it, that is what went wrong. They built up Barney's character last season, but flattened out Robin...We never really saw Robin's struggle with her feelings....so why are we to believe that she has them? When they got together, Barney was slowly flattened and Robin stayed the same. Its like they only wanted to use their relationship, as they have been with both characters lately, as a gimmick. I really hope they fix this, show some jealousy and show them wanting to get back together and all of that other jazz. If they don't, then I'll have to be forced to think that the writers are losing their touch, or at least are in a "rough patch" themselves. I just hope they get things back on track in time to bring in the mother and end the season. I would be really upset if they get themselves cancelled.

I hate saying any of this because How I Met Your Mother is one of my absolute favorite Television shows. I love the cast and I think the writers are skilled. I'm just not happy with this break up and needed to vent. Here's to hoping that the trouble Barney has next ep with dating after Robin is because he still loves her and is only pretending not to die inside!