TV critics and members of the internet's outrage machine take note: I'm wondering what the criteria are for your righteous indignation. It puzzles me how much vitriol Seth McFarlane was met with after "We Saw Your Boobs" and other cringe worthy Oscar moments, when one of TV's most adored characters is so casually sexist on a weekly basis and is met with no such criticism. I'm talking of course about Barney Stinson, who this week toasted champagne with other versions of himself, saying "To boobs." Hmmm. Something about that seems familiar to me. Why could that be? Is it possible that McFarlane became famous for creating and voicing many different characters, all of them similar to himself in their shortcomings, you know—like sexism.
Barney Stinson has consistently gotten a pass from the internet's outrage machine since How I Met Your Mother began nine years ago. Some reasons Barney gets a pass? It might be because the actor who plays him is so much the opposite of Barney. Neil Patrick Harris is a beloved activist and a remarkably talented person, but it isn't Harris who writes Barney's lines. The other (and most popular) excuse is the "reformed" idea, which I categorically refuse to buy into. I've always found it illogical and pandering to have Barney and Robin be together, especially after their relationship so spectacularly failed several seasons ago. But without Robin, where is Barney?
He loses his loveability. Sure everyone loves Barney's crazy schemes, but isn't it kind of hard to keep loving a guy who lauds his hundreds of sexual partners year after year? It is, which is why we get the de-facto sitcom solution: he is reformed and loves Robin. Blegh. In spite of his reformed behavior, we still get flashbacks to his old self, thus keeping the former image of him alive for laughs, but the show runners are careful to balance these with the new, well intentioned Barney as much as possible. The point I'm finally getting around to making is that reformed Barney shouldn't get a pass just because the show overplayed their hand and oversaturated us with Barney. It's their own fault that his shtick was getting old and now we're being forced to watch a final season (OF A SHOW NOT ABOUT HIM) that is all about his absurdly improbable wedding.
If Seth McFarlane gets married tomorrow is he no longer an asshole? That's what Mother is essentially telling its audience and it baffles me that no one seems to see it. It's the secretly conservative bent (I know, it doesn't seem that secretive the show is about marriage) of a show that seems to think that marriage is an end all solution. All that is really accomplished by this myth perpetration is the furthering of the cause of real life Barney Stinsons (and McFarlanes). These real life men will further be able to womanize due to the idea of the reformed player. I'm not saying it doesn't happen. I'm sure it does, but this idea that marriage is the unified fixer of lives is absurd. But Mother seems to buy into it wholeheartedly.
They seem hellbent on character assassinating Barney's brother, James. He has gotten divorced and (gasp) he was the one who cheated and thus ended the marriage. Was anyone calling for the villainization of a popular yet minor character in this show's final season? Show of hands? Maybe by the end of the season, James will come to his senses like Barney and find someone else to marry—I'm sure he'll be a good, reformed man again. But wait...wasn't this show supposed to be about someone else getting married? I can't remember now.
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