How I Met Your Mother used to be a really good show.

I have to tell you, before anyone gets upset, that I watch this show pretty devotedly now. Even though it's been weeks and weeks since there was any HINT of mother around the plot. And they're all old and paunchy now (well, not all of them, but I'll get to that).

The comedy DRAGS in recent episodes, when once it was a clever, moving show that was really about friends and being a 20-something in NYC. Now it's about slightly boring settled and unsettled 30-somethings, who we don't really care about anymore...

And how many years does it take this guy to MEET THEIR MOTHER??

Still, I've started watching episodes from the beginning on Netflix Instant Watch and I'm liking it so much more than what I've seen on air in the last three or four years.

Here are some reasons why and why not (only including episodes in seasons 1 and 2 so far)!

40% OF THE CAST HAS NOT AGED WELL
I'm looking at you Cobie Smulders and Jason Segel. It's a shame, too, because you were both super cute in 2005.

FUN WITH GUEST STARS
Seasons 1 and 2 included appearances by
Bryan Cranston, of Malcolm in the Middle and Breaking Bad fame, as Ted's terrible boss,
Joe Manganiello, Alcide on True Blood, as Marshall's law school classmate,
Jayma Mays, Ms. Pillsbury on Glee, in a cameo as a coat check girl, and
David Burtka, Neil Patrick Harris's real-life partner, as Lily's high school boyfriend, Scooter.

(Fun fact about David Burtka and NPH: My old college classmate Joe was in a musical based on the movie The Opposite of Sex (see how far that show went?) when it was tried out in San Francisco. David Burtka was also in the cast, and the night we saw it, NPH was in the audience! He was so not famous (again) yet, but I flipped out when Doogie Howser was standing in the same theater lobby as me.)

Also, Megan Mullaly is TOTALLY the voice of Barney's mom (who is eventually played by Frances Conroy).

Are you still with me?

THESE ARE THINGS I DISPUTE. YOU COULD CALL THEM CONTINUITY ISSUES.
So. There is an entire episode devoted to Barney having his heart broken really badly and then turning to the dark side. You know, the episode where NPH dons the ratty blond wig, works happily making lattes, and sings love songs to his barista girlfriend, among other hippie-ish things?

And then one day, a customer in a slick suit and spouting sexist credo comes in and notices Barney's gf. Barney is about to leave to go to the Peace Corps, or something, and runs back to the cafe, one day, to say goodbye, or something...yadda yadda yadda...he catches her making out with slick suit guy.

This all leads up to Barney transforming into the womanizing, suit-wearing character we all have come to know and love. (The transformation sequence even heavily references Anakin turning into Darth Vader.)

BUT THEN, episodes later, Wayne Brady's character, James (Barney's brother), is introduced, and he is presented as being exactly the same as Barney: suit-wearing, on the prowl, a party animal.

Barney didn't learn about the ways of his world from his brother. He turned into the Darth Vader of dating after suffering a broken heart. This does not compute.

Also, Barney would totally not ever wear big, baggy boxers like the ones he wears in the episode where he commissions Lily to paint a nude portrait of him. That is a character who would wear boxer briefs, if I've ever seen one. (Probably can't wear boxer briefs on CBS.)

AND FINALLY, I KNOW YOUR SECRET THE OFFICE
You totally stole the idea where Jim and Pam get married on a boat at Niagara Falls before their actual wedding from this show, in which everything that could go wrong for Marshall and Lily on their wedding day does and they ultimately get married (SPOILER ALERT) outside with just their friends, accompanied by acoustic guitar, as they always dreamed.

Stay tuned for impressions from Seasons 3 and/or 4-7...