Sophie helps Jesse get a date, while Valentina helps Sid’s long-distance sex life, and Charlie and Ellen search for an apartment.
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Sophie helps Jesse get a date, Valentina helps Sid’s long-distance sex life, and Charlie and Ellen search for an apartment.
| Aired | 1/25/2022 |
| Network | Hulu |
| Directed By | Kimberly McCullough |
| Written By | Isaac Aptaker
Elizabeth Berger Dan Levy |
| Introduced This Episode | |
| Drew | Josh Peck |
| Ralph | Lincoln A. Castellanos |
| Camilla | Angie Kim |
Recap
Jesse’s Profile Photo Shoot – Sophie, Jesse, Drew
Jesse has resigned himself to dying alone, but his friends somehow convince him to give online dating another shot. Sophie, a photographer, agrees to help him take the perfect profile photo. She stages a photoshoot the next day outside the school Jesse works as a music teacher, but Jesse keeps posing awkwardly.
When one of his students comes over to talk, he starts acting more himself until they’re interrupted by Drew, the vice principal. Drew and Sophie end up hitting it off, while Jesse feels like the photoshoot has been a bust. Sophie convinces him to go to a bar and meet someone in real life.
At the bar, Jesse starts chatting with one girl, but when he leaves for a moment, Sophie hears her mocking Jesse as Proposal Fail Guy. Sophie steps in to defend Jesse’s honor, effectively shutting down any chance Jesse had with her. Sophie admits she’s been feeling hopeless on the dating front for herself, and Jesse comforts her. Later, Sophie sends Jesse a great photo for his dating profile, and Jesse sends her Drew’s contact info.
When Sophie calls Drew to ask him out, he remembers the two met the night Sid proposed to Hannah. Since that was the night Sophie met her son’s father, could Drew turn out to be the father?
Spicing Up Sid’s Long-Distance Relationship – Sid, Valentina, Hannah
At his bar, Sid receives a package from his long-distance fiancée Hannah. Expecting it to be their weekly date-night meal prep kit, he’s surprised to instead find a fancy sex toy that Hannah can control remotely.
Valentina helps him set-up the most photogenic lighting in his bedroom to show off “Li’l Sid” for his long-distance date, but technical difficulties lead Sid to back out and Hannah to hang up on him in frustration. When Sid explains it all to Valentina, she asks an ex to fly him out to LA, where he surprises Hannah.
Searching for an Apartment in NYC – Ellen, Charlie
Charlie is having a tough time finding an apartment in the city and asks Ellen to be roommates. She declines, claiming she’s not a “roommate person” – a lie that is quickly exposed when Charlie runs into Ellen apartment-hunting with her new roommate she found via Craigslist. Ellen confesses she doesn’t want to room with Charlie because he’s clueless.
Upset, Charlie snags the apartment by pawning his gold necklace for rent money, but the cash is stolen immediately, sending him back to square one. Meanwhile, Ellen’s Craigslist roomie has stolen her identity to buy some very questionable items, leaving her alone in her search again. She decides to take Charlie up on his offer to be roommates – after all, they can figure out the city together.
What Could Happen Next
- Drew and Sophie get together but break up before the season’s end.
- Sid and Hannah continue having relationship issues and call off their engagement.
Collected Quote(s) & .Gifs
Repeat after me. “Today is the first chapter of my next great love story.”
— Sophie
Review
Highlights
We Get to See More of The Characters’ Lives
This episode gives us a little bit more insight into the main characters, especially Sophie and Jesse. We learn about Sophie’s difficult relationship with her mother, and we get to see Jesse at work connecting with his students. Meanwhile, we get to see more of Sid and Hannah’s relationship (and its potential pitfalls).
This episode’s subplots also feature some new pairings. Valentina discusses sex with Sid, and Charlie and Ellen fumble around trying to find an NYC apartment – it’s nice to see some different character combinations.
Low Points
Proposal Fail Guy
I honestly can’t believe that Jesse’s proposal video went that viral. It seems like such a huge thing, but the clip from the pilot just… doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. Sure, a marriage proposal being publicly rejected is awkward, but it’s not an “insanely viral” type of awkward.
Plus, the internet has an extremely short attention span, and this supposedly happened weeks, if not months, ago. All in all, I’m over How I Met Your Father milking this “Proposal Fail Guy” (really, that’s the best the internet came up with?) bit for sympathy for Jesse.
Too Many Canned Laughs
The laugh track was arguably a central component of the original How I Met Your Mother experience, but that was a different time and place (namely, 2005 to 2014 on CBS). For a Hulu show set in the current day, the laugh track just feels outdated and out-of-place. Combined with the lackluster jokes, the comedy in this episode ends up feeling flat all over.
The Subplots Never Come Together
There are three distinct stories jammed in here with very little, if any, overlap. It’s a subtle flaw, but a key strength of How I Met Your Mother was its ability to weave together its storylines and make everything feel connected, usually with the whole crew ending up at McClaren’s by the end.
Maybe it’s a side effect of having 6 instead of 5 main characters, but that sense of connection within the How I Met Your Father group isn’t there yet. After the first scene, the subplots and characters really get siloed off, making the whole episode feel less cohesive.
On The Fence
Definitely PG-13
Sure, sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother and Friends are targeted towards an older audience and include plenty of sexual innuendos. But How I Met Your Father so far, and especially in this episode, somehow feels more risqué. Sid’s subplot is pretty explicitly sexual, and his naked shots, except for a sex toy on his penis, are rather bold.
Since the show is on Hulu rather than broadcast television, it has more liberty to explore sexual topics like this. It remains to be seen whether doing so, however, will help the show establish a unique voice or whether it will just come off as crude humor.
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