How I Met Your Mother – Mickey Aldrin is the New Mrs. Doubtfire

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Mickey Aldrin has been a troubling character for How I Met Your Mother to figure out. When he was first introduced in Season 5, he was a fairly unloved character. He offered little in terms of laughs and the fact the rest of the cast didn’t like him either wasn’t a big help. But over the last few years there has been a change in Mickey. Thanks to Lily’s pregnancy, he’s been given a second chance to be a father to her and he’s been doing a terrific job of it. He’s grown significantly and “Nannies” continues that growth by showing us Mickey does, in fact, have it in him to be an amazing father. He’s even reached the point where he’s actually funny now. I remember barely managing a chuckle in his early days on the show, but now I find myself laughing at most of what he says. Either the writers have finally figured out how to write jokes for him or he’s just grown on me. Whatever the reason, I’m just glad this character, who I once rolled my eyes at, has become a significant part of the supporting cast.

As it turns out, the nanny storyline is the strongest part of “Nannies” thanks to Mickey’s part in it. That it entwined itself with Barney’s attempts to be single again was a fine touch. If they had not intersected, I might not have felt so strongly with where Barney was going. It seems like every time Barney breaks up with someone a big deal is made about him, once again, being single and able to sleep with as many women as he wants. It’s a storyline I’m more than a little tired of. At least Barney realized he doesn’t want to be single anymore. It may not have been the most original story crafted for Barney, but it still felt plenty funny. I could watch Barney dress up as a cop and tell women he can “get them off” for hours.

Where the episode really struggled was with Robin and Ted’s rivalry. Early on, the two enter into a bizarre competition to see who can move forward with their relationships the fastest, despite neither of them fully enjoying their significant other. Nick’s a great guy, but he has the sensitivity of a woman on her period, and while Ted certainly loves Victoria, she’s a big slob. But Ted and Robin pretend they can’t see these issues and continue with their competition. What’s the purpose of it all? Just to remind us they will both be single again by the end of the month. I hate this way of telling the story. I miss being shocked when a relationship ended, but everything’s being spelled out for us long before we needed it to be.

And don’t even get me started on Nick. Oh, whoops. Too late, I’ve started. Who is this guy? He’s been in three episodes this season and we’re getting such an inconsistent vibe from him. The Nick we get this week is so sensitive he snaps at Robin because she tried to cheer him up over his football team making a mistake. But in the premiere, she used Nick as a human mannequin, letting Quinn feel his abs. If Nick is really so sensitive, shouldn’t being treated like a piece of meat have offended him? I don’t even know because that’s just how little we know about this guy. He hasn’t had any significant screen time to build a defined personality. And just knowing his going to be gone soon completely kills any desire I might have had to get to know him.

Wherever HIMYM is going this season, it needs to figure out its relationship business. It can’t keep setting people up and spoiling their breakups this way. But if it can’t manage to do that, then I hope it will at least pair those weaker stories with the stronger material such as Mickey’s redemption. Over the last couple of years, HIMYM has shown it can handle more emotional stories better than it’s purely comedic ones. Robin and Ted’s competition was a completely forgettable tale, yet I’ll likely remember Mickey taking care of Marvin Jr. for the rest of my senile life.