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How I Met Your Mother Season 5 Episode 18

Say Cheese

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7.8

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 3/22/10

Lily's furious when Ted brings a date to her birthday dinner, and a review of her photo album shows all the girls Ted's brought to events because he thought they were "the one". Meanwhile, Robin desperately tries to take a bad picture of Barney.

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (9)

Once again, is this necessary to the main plot?

6.0

By nananabatman, May 13, 2013

In this episode, Ted angers Lily when he brings a random date to her birthday party, so she is forced to remind him of all the other random women he has brought along to important functions, only to discover that they weren't "the Besides that, the group discovers that there aren't any bad photographs of Barney and Robin tries hard to take one.

This is one of the very few episodes of this season in which I could totally emphasize with Marshall and Lily - especially when Marhsall was outraged by Ted's date. On the other hand, Ted was being a jerk in this episode - I didn't like him in most of this season's episodes. Robin and Barney were fine, the storypart with ridiculously photogenic Barney was pretty funny.

The screenplay of this episode was written not very well and some parts in it were dumb, but most of the time this is one of the funnier episodes of season #5. Most actors were good, but I hated to see Laura Prepon again - I hate her role, but I also think she is a poor actress.

So, all in all, this is quite a nice episode while being below the standards of HIMYM season 1 and 3.moreless
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Lilly's Birthday

7.5

By Lostindharma, Apr 18, 2013

After a good episode (by season 5 standards) this one was a bit of a drop back from the previous episode. Lilly who really likes her birthday invites the whole group for it. Things quickly go sour when Ted decides to bring his latest girlfriend. I have to agree with Lilly that Ted shouldn't bring girls he just dated to some personal gatherings. While Amanda was nice and not douchey (Karen) or crazy (Strawberry) she might as well just been blah blah. While I can understand Lilly can too far with the group pictures, I do still side with her. Ted came off as too much like Barney in this episode. For someone who wants to find the one, how he can't remember names of the girls he dated is surprising. It was funny when Lilly was showing the pictures from her events that one girl Ted admitted he just wanted to bang and Lilly giving him props for that. The group saying her name is Strawberry when Ted asked why things didn't work out was also funny. It was also good to see Marshall's you're dead to me look. I also enjoyed how Marshall can't take a good picture while Barney can't take a bad one. I thought Marshall's bad picture was a reference to My Name is Earl. One thing this episode did that was good was showing Lilly's party for next year. If you were watching the episode for the first time, I was looking for the same thing. It was a good thing how the first group of picture of Lilly, Ted and Marshall was shown. It saved this episode from being rated lower.moreless
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I wanted to give this a positive review...

6.0

By TheDeadPuppet, Feb 26, 2013

But Ted's so infuriatingly assholish that he takes away from the episode. The story started out good, but Ted ruined it by not even bothering to listen to Marshall and Lily's much wiser and completely correct points. Instead the writers took his side despite how wrong it is. Ted needs a wake-up call soon, and his friends need to stop coddling him. He's becoming really annoying.
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It's Lily's birthday.

9.0

By Jon_MW_14, Aug 30, 2011

"Say Cheese" is an awesome How I Met Your Mother episode. I love how this episode because it makes a point that you shouldn't bring dates to best friend events. I love Lily in this episode because I feel the same way as her. I love how she looks through an album explaining how Ted has ruined every special event they had as friends by bringing a date. I love how Barney never takes a bad picture. I love how Robin tries to get a bad picture of him and she doesn't succeed until the end of the episode. I give this episode a 9/10.moreless
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an unnecessary addition

10

By jinson_cme, Jun 25, 2011

The episode never really adds on to what they've said time and again. Ted brings home his new girlfriend to Lily's birthday, and Lily does not want her to be part of the group picture. Marshall runs around trying to plan the perfect birthday for Lily while Robin notices how Barney has the same (awesome) pose in every picture.

Firstly, Lily's apprehensiveness over Ted's new girlfriend's appearance in her birthday photo is not new, and it is understandable. Hence Ted's defending it as though it were a new subject seems off. Moreover, how she could screw the cake up so bad, I'll never know.

Second, (SPOILER ALERT) Marshall talks of how he's had to talk to all of Ted's girlfriends after he (Ted) broke up with them and be the shoulder they could cry on. It just seemed odd that Ted broke up with so many girls in his apartment when getting rid of them from there would be the obvious hassle, hence men tend to avoid breaking up in their own house.

Third, What is the point of the whole Robin-Barney photo thing? I don't see how Barney's looking good in photos has anything to do with anything. Moreover, the impossible shots just take away from the reality of the show without adding anything to it. I was unimpressed by that and though they did flesh out Robin's role as the maybe that stayed, I did not much care for it.

Overall, a dismal performance on a dismal storyline. It has been a while and the mother is almost entirely forgotten. One other thing i can't stand is how Older Ted is saying all this to his kids and they still listen to this without yelling at him to "Bring out the mother, already!'.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

EDIT

Josh Radnor	Ted Mosby
Neil Patrick Harris	Barney Stinson
Jason Segel	Marshall Eriksen
Alyson Hannigan	Lily Aldrin
Cobie Smulders	Robin Scherbatsky

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Brooke Nevin	Amanda	Guest Star
Asia DeMarcos	Japanese Wife	Guest Star
Gaku Space	Robin's Date	Guest Star
Bob Saget	Voice of Ted, 2030	Recurring Role
Laura Prepon	Karen	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (1)
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- In this episode, it is stated that Marshall can never take a good picture. However, in the opening sequence, Marshall is in several pictures, all of them decent. In contrast, it is stated that Barney can never take a bad picture. In the opening credits, however, we can see that he doesn't look perfect in all pictures.
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QUOTES (1)
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- Barney: I always look drop dead, stone-cold amazing; unlike Marshall, who just looks dead, stoned, and cold.
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NOTES (3)
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- Music: The French rap song which plays when Ted, Marshall, and Karen were in Paris is "Brique" by Les Cautionneurs
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- The Italian episode title is "La foto di gruppo", meaning "Group Photo".
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- International Airdates: Australia: July 22, 2010 on Channel 7; United Kingdom: September 23, 2010 on E4; India: October 27, 2010 on Star World; Czech Republic: January 3, 2011 on Prima COOL; Germany: February 9, 2011 on ProSieben; Slovakia: November 28, 2011 on JOJ Plus
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ALLUSIONS (0)
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