“The Chain of Screaming”
April 14th, 2008
Like last week’s episode of 30 Rock, I felt as if “The Chain of Screaming” was trying too hard to follow the checklist of HIMYM’s most successful elements as opposed to actually creating a strong episode of television. Barney’s titular catchphrase never quite gelled, even if it was the episode’s best element, and everything just felt extremely slow – the central point was there, but I wasn’t feeling the flow I’ve come to expect.
My thoughts were the same on 30 Rock, but on second viewing I enjoyed it more – perhaps tomorrow I will feel the same about this one, but I really just wasn’t on board from day one. I’m not necessarily against Marshall and Lily stories, our first in quite some time, but their side of the series has been floundering ever since they bought the crooked apartment. After two episodes focusing on Barney and Ted, clearly at this point the show’s most interesting character studies, heading back into the working life of Marshall seems, ultimately, uninteresting.
This isn’t to say that it was all bad, but rather felt more inconsequential compared to how it feels like it wanted to feel.
Cultural Learnings 