“It’s like a black cat walked through my uterus.”
The second half of the season kicked off with this episode is the kind of show that sitcoms invariably do, and this one is no stranger to it, where it runs with the comedy to good results as it ties together a whole lot of threads over the course of the series but also hits you hard with the serious material. Unfortunately, depending on your point of view of course, it’s telegraphed pretty early on if you’re familiar with the execution of such events though they do try to cover it up a little bit with some explanations along the way.
“Bad News” covers a lot of ground considering the changes that have gone on with the show recently. One of the more amusing subplots in this episode involves Robin’s new research assistant job where she discovers on her first day that her boss is Sandy Rivers, her former co-anchor that was one of the worst out there that she had to work with. And he’s playing it up by announcing during her introduction to everyone that they slept together when they didn’t. Yet her denials just make it worse and Sandy starts digging up every awful thing out there on her through the Internet, which means the workplace gets to see all of her Canadian adventures and numerous on camera gaffes and accidents over the years. Watching her struggle through it is surprisingly hard, but seeing the teen idol segments again even briefly makes me laugh.
The main thrust of this episode revolves around Lilly and Marshall’s problems with conception though as they’re really starting to worry after numerous months of trying and over two hundred successful sexcapades in a whole lot of rooms and situations. Getting Lilly checked out first is the obvious route but when it turns out she’s fine, it’s all about working over Marshall. It’s incredibly stressful for him because it’s something that’s been at the back of his mind for some time. Where the fun comes in is that the specialist that they both see is Barney’s doppleganger, which goes back to the whole reason why the two were trying to have kids as they supposedly saw the doppleganger before, but Marshall and Ted kinda fudged on that. Seeing Barney’s doppleganger here is priceless as he’s a very serious fertility specialist with black hair and a beard which Neil Patrick Harris has a whole lot of fun playing since he keeps it so straight and has to deal with the loon that is Barney who gets brought in a couple of times to great effect.
The episode does a good job of balancing the two storylines well, but it goes for the serious angle at the end in a way that can really hit home for people. It’s telegraphed pretty easily and a lot of shows handle these things badly. Seinfeld brought death into the series in a really black way that threw off people and left the unsure whether to laugh or not. Home Improvement played it in standard style by using it as a chance to really humanize the characters more. Here, it’s a moment that’s important for Marshall as he works through the challenges in his life and will force him to find a new center in his life. There’s obviously real options there and I admit to being interested in seeing how the show handles it in going forward, whether it will impact more than just the next episode.
