The Playbook

Season 5, Episode 8, Aired
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8.2
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Barney dusts off his "playbook" to help him back into the dating scene following his breakup with Robin, incensing Lily in the process.
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Fan Episode Reviews (15)

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  • Lily steals Barney's playbook.

    8.5
    "Great"
    By Jon_MW_14, Aug 29, 2011
    "The Playbook" is an entertaining How I Met Your Mother episode. This episode is all about Barney being a single man again. I love how Barney is sitting in the bar in a scuba suit and Lily warns a woman about him and the gang explains what lead to that moment. In turns out that Lily tried to set Ted up with her teacher friend, who Barney uses the "Lorenzo Von Matterhorn on her. I love how Lily steals the playbook and threatens to publish it online. Anyways, I don't remember how it happened but in the end Barney fooled everyone. I give this episode a 8.5/10.moreless

  • I loved it, and as somebody else before me said, clearly the best episode of this show in quite some time!

    10
    "Perfect"
    By amazing_race, Mar 08, 2011
    This was quite an episode, and it was very entertaining. Seeing Barney back at his best was absolutely epic and all the scenes of the various tricks were highly enjoayble, and I was laughing a lot throughout this episode.

    Overall, the sensational storyline was exceptionally funny and I highly enjoyed it. Lily was great in this episode as well, and seeing Barney back felt like gold, to me!@

    I would recommend this episode very highly, as it was packed in with great scenes, exceptional moments of great humour and quite simply, it was the best episode of How I met Your Mother in quite some thim!moreless

  • Entertaining.

    8.0
    "Great"
    By Canogaparkcindy, Mar 08, 2011
    This episode didn't have much development, and I thought it was part of the aftermath of Barney & Robin's breakup. But this episode was basically letting us know that the good old Barney is back. He's turning tricks up his sleeve and in his playbook. The playbook is a book in which he has plans to get girls, ridiculous plans that often work. Lilly is completely against the playbook so she basically sets Barney up, in a battle of wits. Meanwhile Robin is trying to get over the breakup by swearing off guys completely and dedicating all her time to work. Ted & Marshall think that's when she is going to find a guy, when she isn't looking for one. Robin begs to differ. I enjoyed seeing Lilly & her manipulating ways. Her hiring that actress, just so she can steal the playbook, and Barney creating the scuba diving game when actually there was more to it. It was happening since the very beginning and Lilly was a part of it. Barney gets the girl in the end, and as he winks at the screen, we know good old Barney is back. We get to see that Robin is going through a hard time seeing Barney bounce back so fast, and Barney exposes fake feelings. This is all part of the play. Nothing much else to say, except I enjoyed the Lilly/Barney interaction since we haven't seen that since season 4, also enjoyed the minor development since Robin met a guy in the end, loved her last lines: "Dammit Marshall," hilarious.moreless

  • Lame, again.

    5.0
    "Mediocre"
    By Spoontown, Mar 08, 2011
    I think I must get a different version of this show to everyone else. I've been trying to think why HIMYM is now so poor when compared to the earlier episodes. I think it is the quality of the writing and the way in which some of the far out ideas are presented. In the first few series this was an endearing show with some funny ideas that made me laugh. Now everything is done in such a stupid unfunny way that it ruins any good bits that come along. I now think that they should change the name as the amount of episodes which actually contain information about How he met his wife can be counted on one hand. They should now call it 'How I Stretched Out A Half Decent Concept For 2 More Years Than Was Necessary'.moreless

  • Funny dating techniques by Master B, almost no Marshall, twisted story but predictable writing, too many poor jokes, neglected supporting cast and no heart nor soul

    6.0
    "Fair"
    By goa103, Oct 24, 2010
    A special Barney episode ? It could only be funny. I feared the writers would decide to throw in the usual dumb Marshall arc but they didn't. They were wise enough to focus on Barney's dating how-to book. In fact the story reminded me of Game Night, season 1 15th episode, because it's one of the only dedicated to him. However considering how bad the show has apparently evolved I wasn't expecting The Playbook to be as interesting and sad. But in the end I have to admit that it was at least funny. Of course all jokes weren't good but some should make you laugh enough not to make you feel like you've just wasted twenty minutes of your precious life. In fact the best thing about it is that it should encourage you to be more original and daring when it comes to dating.

    The twisted idea behind the story was creative but the execution was almost a failure. I think the writers mistake was to not focus on the best and most important joke. In fact the end reminded me of "Ted Mosby : Architect", season 2 5th episode, but it wasn't as surprising and hilarious. So when you could watch that one over and over to appreciate all its awesomeness I don't think you'll want to go back to this one. Beside the relatively linear and riskless writing I also blame the poor use of the supporting characters because their role was quite anecdotic. I think it's a mistake because the story would have been far much more entertaining if it involved more Ted or Robin for example. Why didn't they viciously switch profiles in a crazy fashion ? What about revealing the story was just a dream at the end ? It's already the 96th episode but it doesn't mean you can just sit back and relax instead of challenging yourself. Of course it's easier to review other people's work than to get things done but I can't help thinking that some talent is desperately wasted.

    To sum things up it was a decent installment but not a match for the great episodes I mentionned. It's almost scary because The Playbook is actually the highest rated episode on TV.com. I think its creators should just make the wise decision of finally answering The Question no one really cares about anymore. Maybe the wake up call they need will come from viewers disappointed by a show that didn't meet their expectations. It will be so sad if they decide to cancel How I Met Your Mother once it jumps the shark. Let's hope it won't happen because the people who worked on it deserve better. Cobie Smulders is beautiful and her acting talent can only improve. Neil Patrick Harris is legendary as Barney. Last but not least Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, the sitcom creators, successfully served us with a few excellent episodes.moreless
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  • QUOTES (4)

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    • ("The My Penis Grants Wishes") Girl: Really? A genie comes out of it? Barney: Only if you rub it hard enough.

    • ("The Cheap Trick") Barney: I'm the bass player from Cheap Trick.

    • ("The SNASA") Girl: Wow! You're an astronaut? Barney: Shhh! I'm actually in a top-secret government space program called Secret NASA, or SNASA. Girl: Wow. SNASA? Do you go to the moon and stuff? Barney: Well, not the moon you're familiar with. Though I have been to the smoon. Girl: Wow, the smoon.

    • ("The Don't Drink That") Barney: Whoa! Don't drink that! I saw some guy slip something in there. Girl: What?! Who? Barney: (points to Ted) Um, that guy. (Ted gets tackled by bartender) Girl: Thank you.

  • NOTES (3)

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    • The Italian episode title is "Strategie di rimorchio", meaning "Towing Strategy".

    • International Airdates: Australia: April 8, 2010 on Channel 7; United Kingdom: July 15, 2010 on E4; India: October 11, 2010 on Star World; Czech Republic: December 15, 2010 on Prima COOL; Germany: January 26, 2011 on ProSieben; Slovakia: November 21, 2011 on JOJ Plus

    • The various web pages Barney created for his Lorenzo Von Matterhorn alias that were shown in-episode all were actually created and viewable on the Internet. Additionally, there was a wikipedia article available on him as the show aired, but by morning wikipedia had discovered the hoax, and "Lorenzo Von Matterhorn" was redirected to their page for the episode. Additionally, the name was Google's most popular search term for the day this episode aired.

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