Rockupied

So I rented the rest of the DVD's for the first season of How I Met Your Mother.
What can I say -- I'm kinda hooked.
It's an interesting show -- engaging in a surprising way. There’s this running theme that seems to permeate all of the storylines thats represented by separate characters at different times. It’s this idea about the value and difference between being impulsive and going for what you want versus taking the time to consider what a given decision might mean, weighing the consequences, and being sure about yourself before taking a stand.

But what makes it interesting is the way that each decision making process seems to offer equal chances for failure and success.

For example, the careful decision maker -- the guy who over-thinks everything keeps screwing his own world up by thinking too much, and yet he’s clearly the protagonist of the show (and if the title is any indication will come out on top when all is said and done). But on the other hand the impulsive character is the one who seems to have his life the most under control, which in turn leads to him being the one who appears to be the one having the most fun (although it’s hinted a lot that despite all of this there’s a basic hollowness to that lifestyle that might eventually catch up with him).

It’s like I find myself half the time saying, "Stop thinking about it and just go! " only to turn around a second later and catch myself yelling at a completely different character to "Don’t do it man, don’t do it!"

In other words - both approaches are shown to be equally effective and disastrous at different times.

I mean lets face it, no matter how different the spin might be -- this is still prime time TV. The formula is always there, and it's not really going away. The hero will eventually get the girl of his dreams and everything will work out ok. But what I find interesting is that inside that foregone conclusion seems to be episode after episode suggesting that even when that victory is won, there will be a string of missed opportunities and what if's left in it's wake that you can either dive in and take for what they're worth or regret passing on forever.

I don’t know. I’m notoriously bad when it comes to making big decisions -- and in a lot of ways this show seems to speak directly to that process. Maybe that’s what fascinates me about it -- because to me it's not so much a collection of stories dating and relationships as much as it is one long story suggesting that how we choose things is almost as important as the choices themselves.

At the same time it’s weird because I continually catch myself returning to the surface -- connecting not so much with the characters, but with the situations portrayed. Finding places where the instances on the screen take me back (or perhaps forward in speculation) to events in my own life. Decisions made too quickly, choices missed because of hesitation, the times where I mistook being selfish for being happy,
... people that got hurt along the way.
Unfortunately as the night went along, the stories started hitting close to home, and it became a really different sort of experience.

I like the spirit behind the humor. I think the writing's really smart.
But it took me a long time to watch certain parts of it.
And some of it I couldn't really watch at all.
[Listening to: Chevelle, "Get Some"]

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