How I Met Your Mother is back for another fun-filled season. At the end of the seventh season, the gang was gathered in Farhampton for Barney’s wedding, and we discovered that his bride-to-be was in-fact Robin! The eighth season of How I Met Your Mother explores the events that lead up to that fateful wedding weekend when Ted will finally met the mother.

This season, while new parents Lilly and Marshall try to deal with the challenges of raising a newborn, they are both offered career-changing opportunities—except that these are on different continents. Meanwhile, Ted’s career is also taking off, but he soon realizes that he has no one to share it with, and so he continues his struggle to find the girl of his dreams. And Barney must win over Robin if we are every going to get to that wedding in Farhampton!

Even in its eighth season, this series continues to churn out some of its best episodes yet. The fourth Robin Sparkles episode, “P.S. I Love You”, gives us a look at darker, grunge-phase “Robin Daggers”. The episode features a wonderful new music video and some hilarious cameos from many Canadian celebrities. And the double-episode midseason finale, “The Final Page” is masterful in its execution, keeping the viewer wondering what is going on, until the big twist gives a touching moment that has been a long time coming.

The writing on the series continues to be layered and witty. Jokes that are introduced earlier in the season (or even in prior seasons) continue to have pay offs later in the season. Re-watching the episodes, there is always something new you find or something else to laugh at. The ninth season of the series is currently airing, and it’s interesting to go back and watch this previous season and see how the writers planned ahead for the current season.

Other fun plots in the eighth season include Lilly and Marshall hiring a nanny, a test to see who gets to become Marvin’s godparents, Robin and her unknowing nemesis Patrice having a BFF Fun Day, Barney heading to Canada to scope out Robin’s exes, Barney not being able to speak due to a jinx, and a Silence of the Lambs pit reference. Also in this season, Ted gets a stalker, Barney resurrects The Playbook to help Ted, Marshall embarrasses Lilly at her gallery show, Barney tries to make his apartment unattractive to prospective buyers to avoid losing his bachelor pad, and Ted & Barney get visited by versions of themselves from 20 years in the future. Plus Marshall challenges Robin to a dance-off, Ted and Barney are obsessed with a girl whom they believe is hiding an amazing body under a puffy coat, Barney bonds with Robin, Sr., and the gang plans a legen—wait for it—dary bachelor party for Barney.

The eighth season of How I Met Your Mother is loaded with great new and returning guest stars, including Tom Lennon, Becki Newton, Michael Trucco, Bill Fagerbakke, Chris Elliott, Ashley Williams, Joe Manganiello, David Burtka, Joe Lo Truglio, Peter Gallagher, Seth Green, Alexis Denisof, Steven Page, Geddy Lee, Luc Robataille, Dave Thomas, K. D. Lang, Alex Trebek, Jason Priestley, Paul Shaffer, James Van Der Beek, Alan Thicke, Abby Elliott, Kyle MacLachlan, Jayma Mays, Ralph Macchio, Frances Conroy, Ray Wise, Keegan-Michael Key, and Casey Wilson.

While the video quality of the DVD set is decent, it doesn’t have that same crispness as the series did when I first watched it on the HD CBS channel. At times the the colors seem a bit duller and washed out—it can go from one scene with the flesh tones being pink to another where they are more pale and yellow. However, this didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the episodes.

As for bonus features, the set contains audio commentaries on two of the season’s key episodes, as well as an excellent behind-the-scenes look and music video for the latest Robin Sparkles episode. Rounding things out are almost 11 minutes of deleted scenes, a 5 minute gag reel and a set tour. Overall, I’m pretty satisfied by what was provided—they give a good look into the making of the series.

How I Met Your Mother continues to be fresh and entertaining, even in it’s eighth season, and this DVD set comes recommended.

What’s Included on the DVD:

Episodes: (517 min)

• All 24 episodes of Season 8:
  Disc 1: “Farhampton”, “The Pre-Nup”, “Nannies”, “Who Wants to Be a Godparent?”, “The Autumn of Break-Ups”, “Splitsville”, “The Stamp Tramp”, “Twelve Horny Women”
  Disc 2: “Lobster Crawl”, “The Over-Correction”, “The Final Page” (Parts 1 & 2), “Band or DJ?”, “Ring Up!”, “P.S. I Love You”, “Bad Crazy”
  Disc 3: “The Ashtray”, “Weekend at Barney’s”, “The Fortress”, “The Time Travelers”, “Romeward Bound”, “The Bro Mitzvah”, “Something Old”, “Something New”
• Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Chinese
• Closed Captions

Extras:

• Deleted Scenes (10:53)
  Deleted scenes appear on the discs with their respective episodes. Each disc has a Play All or select from:
  • Ep 803 “Nannies” — 1 scene (:31)
  • Ep 805 “The Autumn of Break-Ups” — 3 scenes (1:00)
  • Ep 806 “Splitsville” — 1 scene (:38)
  • Ep 810 “The Over-Correction” — 1 scene (:31)
  • Ep 811/812 “The Final Page” — 1 scene (:48)
  • Ep 814 “Ring Up!” — 1 scene (:22)
  • Ep 815 “P.S. I Love You” — 2 scenes (:44)
  • Ep 816 “Bad Crazy” — 2 scenes (1:10)
  • Ep 817 “The Ashtray” — 2 scenes (:51)
  • Ep 818 “Weekend At Barney’s” — 1 scene (:13)
  • Ep 819 “The Fortress” — 1 scene (:34)
  • Ep 820 “The Time Travelers” — 1 scene (:18)
  • Ep 821 “Romeward Bound” — 4 scenes (2:01)
  • Ep 823 “Something Old” — 1 scenes (:33)
  • Ep 824 “Something New” — 2 scenes (:40)
• Audio Commentaries
  • “Farhampton” (21:39)
    Writers Carter Bays and Craig Thomas discuss the season premiere. They talk about what it was like finally getting to film the train station set they dreamed of from the start of the series, as well as working with guest stars Becky Newton, Michael Trucco and Tom Lennon. The guys also talk about writing the show while being unsure if there would be a ninth season—and how, afterwards, they decided to set the entire ninth season around the wedding weekend.
  • “The Final Page” (43:23)
    Cast members Neil Patrick Harris (Barney), Cobie Smulders (Robin) and writer Craig Thomas discuss the two-part episode that changes everything for Barney and Robin. They talk about a mute Barney, Buffy reunions, guest stars, Patrice, “jelly” babies, comedy in the cab and more.
• The Making of “P.S. I Love You” (12:17)
  A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the fourth Robin Sparkles—err Robin Daggers—episode and music video. Also includes footage from Cobie Smulders’ recording session and interviews with the famous Canadians who have cameos in the episode.
• “P.S. I Love You” Music Video (2:47)
  The full Robin Daggers grunge music video for “P.S. I Love You”.
• Where We Make Your Mother: Set Tour with Josh Radnor (9:19)
  Josh Radnor and co-Creator/Writer Craig Thomas take viewers on a tour of New York Street on the Fox lot, intermixed with clips from the series. Josh also takes a look at the sets for MacLarens and the apartment.
• Gag Reel (4:52)
  The cast has trouble with props, flub/forget their lines, crack up and just have fun on set—and things get a bit raunchy.

Final Thoughts:

Even in its eighth season How I Met Your Mother continues to be fresh and entertaining, and this set provides another 24 fun-filled episodes that can be rewatched over and over. While the picture quality was a little disappointing, the bonus features provide a nice behind-the-scenes look at the series.