How I fell in love with How I Met Your Mother

If you've never watched How I Met Your Mother, it's way past time that you start.

If you started but stopped, it's way past time you kiss and make up and start watching again.

And if I'm preaching to the choir, then can I hear an "Amen"?

Season 5 of How I Met Your Mother kicks off on CBS in just a couple of weeks, and I am preparing by watching this show on DVD, from the very beginning. Every new television season, I have the intention of giving most, if not all, new shows, a two shot deal - a good pilot is tricky and isn't always indicative of the what the show will become, but at the very least, I do try to catch most pilots, unless just absolutely nothing about the premise grabs me whatsoever. So, in 2005, 2 shows premiering caught my attention in particular - Kitchen Confidential and How I Met Your Mother, the former because it starred Bradley Cooper aka Scruffy Will from "Alias" as well as Nicholas Brendon and the latter because it starred Alyson Hannigan. Now, Nick Brendon and Aly Hannigan are both alumni of my all time favorite show of shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is what boosted the appeal of these two new series. To be honest, there wasn't much else about them that really made me feel compelled to watch. Kitchen Confidential never even made it through the first season, and though I have that season on DVD and love to bits many of the players, I don't think I watched beyond the first three episodes.

How I Met Your Mother had me hooked from the beginning.

As I said before, I usually give shows I think might possibly interest me a two-to-three show leeway. Pilots have too much to establish and introduce to really give you a feel for what the show is offering, but from that very first episode, I never stopped watching. And the funniest part? Alyson Hannigan was my least favorite part of the pilot. In the four seasons since, I have grown to love her again as Lily Aldrin rather than as Willow Rosenberg, but it's an ensemble show about friends that kinda filled the void of Friends...and then went beyond. Talking about the exact parts and pieces of this show that make me love it is a whole other post, but I just thought it appropriate to highlight this quirky, hilarious, moving, and very real comedy in a year when it has actually garnered an Emmy nod for Best Comedy...Neil Patrick Harris is the standout actor and Barney Stinson is the standout character, but when I watch this show about 20 and 30 something friends living in New York, their interactions and actions and feelings and the things they say are the perfect representation of me and my friends, 20 and 30 somethings living in New York (and I'm sure it translates, even if you're not a New Yorker - one of the main characters is Canadian, and the resulting Canadian jokes are half the fun - sorry, Jonathan (my Canadian friend)! I love you!!)

The point is, How I Met Your Mother is one of the funniest, heartwarming, and real shows on tv right now. Its Emmy nod is overdue and well deserved. And I can't wait for the next season to begin.

Suit up! :)

It's gonna be legen- wait for it! - dary!