Cool and Chill

Great start to the season. Characters feel much more natural and fun, and a lot more of the jokes landed this time around. Still has some of the cheesiness and cringe but it's balanced with much more likeable performances and clever editing and writing that make it more bearable and fun.

I was a fan of the first season, but this is far better in comparison, comparable to the leap in quality from HIMYM season 1 to season 2.

Hope it keeps up because if it does this could be one of the best sitcoms of the last several years, and the fun HIMYM connections make for a great added bonus.

Also, that ending reveal gave me chills.

I had my problems with season 1, too many characters, hardly any good humour, only Charlie was on the same level as the old characters and the narrative structure was weak.

Some things have remained the same, seven or in this episode even nine characters, who all have to play their part, are too many for a 25 minute episode, not everyone can be considered accordingly in the character development.

There are still some jokes that appeal to a very young audience at boomer level and thus take you out of the scene.

Now that I've said that, it's important to mention all the positive things.

The characters harmonise really well, they are written in such a way that they can develop and still contribute to the story, which is classically constructed while incorporating a lot of the flair of the original series.

The cuts are similarly well placed as in HIMYM and thus support the mostly really good jokes of the episode.

The showpiece of the episode though is definitely the finale, while you expect a good episode to fade out, there is a frequently used stylistic device from the original series that breaks the mood and creates a moment of pure ecstasy with a legendary (wink) character.

It is truly a good start to a long and hopefully similarly good season as this episode.

While I personally enjoyed the first season as a whole, there were admittedly episodes that made it feel like the show was trying to hard to separate itself from the original material, which made it fairly difficult to watch and get invested.

This first episode set a very strong tone for a season and characters that are more relatable and more enjoyable. One of The most appealing things with HIMYM for me was being able to watch the characters go through emotional growth and evolve into better versions of themselves. Genuinely excited to see that journey again with the new cast, and excited to see how this season develops it.