How I Met Your Mother 6×12 – “False Positive”

I’m not a huge fan of romantic comedies on television, but How I Met Your Mother is an exception to this rule. It’s shamelessly, hopelessly romantic without being too saccharine.  It’s often surprisingly adult, yet so gosh-darn cute that I want to squish its cheeks (note to Barney Stinson: the cheeks on its face). Every once in a while, however, the show will ping my feminist radar, and last night’s episode was one of those instances.

Last night’s episode revolved around Marshall and Lily announcing to the rest of the gang that they’re finally pregnant.  This inspires Barney and Robin to make huge changes in the way they live their lives (and Ted to make a Christmas-themed snack for a movie they’re seeing that night)…until the happy couple finds out they’re not pregnant after all (hence the episode title) and the rest of the gang questions their decisions.

The Feminist in Me Says… I’m glad that Marshall and Lily both freaked out about the reality of having a baby.  It’s so easy for sitcom writers to promote the stereotype that expectant mothers are ecstatic to have children, while expectant fathers have one foot out of the door.  Watching them both completely lose their minds was a nice change of pace.

However, I’m bothered by Robin’s storyline in the episode.  From the very beginning of the series, Robin Scherbatsky was portrayed as a dedicated career woman who was passionate about journalism and wanted out of her dead-end job at Metro News One.  After six seasons, she’s finally given the opportunity to work for World Wide News…but after she hears about the false positive result on the pregnancy test, she initially passes up the job opportunity so she can work on the new TV game show, Million Dollar Heads or Tails. Why?  Because she knows she’s pretty and gets to wear great clothes as the show’s “Currency Rotation Specialist.”

Now, Robin has been consistently portrayed as a person who’s a little too confident about her own hotness – she’s very like Barney in that respect (which is why they need to get back together in a committed-yet-unmarried relationship…but I digress).  But, she has also spent her entire run on the show unhappy in her career.  Her stint at Metro News One and Come On, Get Up, New York! were both humiliating experiences at shows that nobody watched, and she resented her legally blonde co-anchor for relying on her looks and girly-baby voice to gain popularity.  Now she’s ready to give up an opportunity of a lifetime because “research is hard?”

I get it – the writers needed for Marshall, Lily, Barney, and Robin to each have a panicky crisis so that Ted could swoop in and save the day, shaming them all into making the more responsible choice.  But Robin denying a dream job for pretty clothes doesn’t fit with her character at all.  I would have preferred to see Robin momentarily choose the Million Dollar Heads or Tails job in a moment of blind panic, because she’s so used to being disappointed in her career that she doubts her ability to work at World Wide News.  Still, at least she made the right decision in the end, and I was tired of watching Robin constantly humiliated at work, so at least we’ll get some character growth out of this.

The Comedian in Me Says… A game show called Million Dollar Heads or Tails is so similar to what’s actually on TV that it barely counts as parody, but I love silly, inflated job titles, and calling the coin flip girl the “Currency Rotation Specialist” was a stroke of genius.  Cobie Smulders’ smug look as she expertly flipped the coin over and over (in front of Alex Trebek, who hires her partly because she’s a fellow Canadian) was priceless, and the writers wisely kept those jokes a very small part of the episode  – Saturday Night Live would have turned the concept into a four-minute sketch that would be three and a half minutes too long.  And while the feminist in me is happy that Robin is about to get some career fulfillment, and the comedian in me is happy that the “Robin’s job sucks” jokes will go away (as they were getting stale), the comedian in me is also a little concerned about seeing TOO much career fulfillment in future episodes.  Happy, well-adjusted people in challenging, inspiring jobs are not very funny.  The best comedy usually comes from people being a little miserable.

The Funny Feminist Decides… I had to rewind this episode several times to catch all of the jokes because I was laughing so hard that I missed half of them the first time.  It had two, two callbacks to Marshall shaving his head at his wedding – that will never not be funny – tight, funny editing with Marshall and Lily’s freakout over the baby, Ted’s “touching” advice for his friend who has cold feet (“Ted, I can’t get married!” “YES YOU DO, YOU LOVE HER!” “YOU’RE RIGHT I DO THANKS TED!”), and Barney’s Oprah impression.  In this case, the humor trumps my minor feminist quibble.