Character Development

This diagram illustrates some of the character development I have seen in some of my favorite shows over the last few years. I want to point out that this does not count as character development unless she jumps off. Otherwise she is going to return back to the initial starting point and if that happens then there had better be a darn good reason, and it better not happen repeatedly. HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER.

This show has admittedly gone down in average episode quality but that's almost par for the course in any long running show, the episodes were still good enough to keep my interest, ( though I would usually just record it or watch it online later ). But after the season 8 finale I began to get annoyed.

I am going to assume that you either watch the show or have enough of a working knowledge that I don't have to hand hold you through this.

A few episodes ago Barney was kind of a jerk to Ted. Ted pointed out that as a man who is days away from his wedding perhaps he shouldn't be checking girls out in front of his bride, because she isn't as cool with it as she lets on. Barney's response was less than gentle, and included a little jab that Robyn is ending up with Barney not Ted. I had no idea where this reaction came from since we had already seen Ted "give up on Robyn" during the Last Play. Part of Barney's plan to propose to Robyn hinged on Ted effectively let her go and give her and Barney's future his blessing with 0 regrets. This was nice since the whole "Ted must finally let Robyn go" bit had been going on for years. They had mined this particular vein dry long ago and I was glad that the final nail had been put into that story. Then in typical serial TV fashion it got cracked open again.

Turns out Ted is leaving New York. He can't be in the same city after seeing his "soul mate" marry his friend. Not only that but now he has this super emotional gift to give Robyn at the 11th hour that even Lilly has warned him about. I liked the whole part where after calling all her friends, Ted is the only one to show up because he was the only one to pick up on the subtle hints that she needed someone. Now that whole mess isn't a sweet display of the special bond they share as friends but some sort of dangerous liaison of forbidden love. If you are going to keep Ted's infatuation with Robyn as a plot point, then stop having these long arcs culminating in him reaching a point of self awareness where he learns to let her go, only for it not to happen a few episodes down the line.

Battlestar Galactica did this. Apollo and Starbuck went back and forth so many times I literally got mad during the boxing episode. They are in the ring kicking the snot out of each other, everyone else leaves because its clear what is going on between the two, including their respective spouses, but we had already watched them reach something like 3 conclusions to their relationship. If I was in a relationship and we each decided to end things. We would end things, now that's not to say that there might not be a few reconciliations for a few weeks, I think it was Seinfeld who said
 "Break-ups are like tipping over a refrigerator, you don't get it done in one push, you have to rock it back and forth a bit."
But this kind of stagnation should not last years.

Well, at least I have Breaking Bad coming back soon, I was talking with one of my sisters a while ago and while she was complaining about how few episodes come out for it and how long it takes I countered with, would you prefer 12 episodes of Breaking Bad quality, or 24 episodes of Walking Dead season 2 quality? Well, I am off to play me some Guns of Icarus. Check it out, for $5 I don't think you will be disappointed.