How I Met Your Father is back for season 2. Starring Hilary Duff as Sophie, the 30-year-old photographer with a complicated, and often absent, love life, How I Met Your Father season 2 (of which seven of the 20 episodes were made available for review) is an improvement on season 1. Unfortunately, there are far more lows than there are highs and the Hulu comedy struggles to tell an overall cohesive, interesting, and funny story. Season 2’s narrative is scattered — so much so that older Sophie’s (played by Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall) teasing of what’s to come doesn’t fill one with excitement so much as indifference.
How I Met Your Father season 2 picks up where season 1 left off. Sophie, headed back to the apartment to fix things with Jesse (Christopher Lowell), walks in on him kissing ex-girlfriend Meredith (Leighton Meester). Meanwhile, Sid (Suraj Sharma) and his fiancée Hannah (Ashley Reyes) announce they’re already married, while Valentina (Francia Raisa) and Charlie (Tom Ainsley) decide to call it quits, and Ellen (Tien Tran). Season 2 continues the characters’ romantic efforts while they also build out their friendships, learning about love, life, and making mistakes along the way.
How I Met Your Father is still focused on these dysfunctional adults, but the series, and even its humor, can often be juvenile. It’s as though the comedy is written for a younger audience that just so happens to star adults in their early 30s. Other series have explored the experiences of 30-somethings without making everything feel so demure. Season 2’s humor is a step above season 1’s, but watching How I Met Your Father often feels like a test in patience. It has all the ingredients that would make up an entertaining comedy series, but it’s missing a bit of magic, a spark that is utterly lacking.
There is still a level of cringe laced into the humor that How I Met Your Father simply can’t shake. It doesn’t help that the episodes don’t have a unifying theme to tie the various storylines together, leaving certain subplots drifting on their own with nothing to pull them back in. One can appreciate that the series switches up the character dynamics so that no one person is stuck with the same scene partner all the time, but there is still an overall lack of camaraderie between them because How I Met Your Father scales back on the group scenes. Interestingly, when the series isn’t focused on the romance and tension between Jesse and Sophie, it is a lot stronger. But that isn’t saying much when the show is keen on being less than mediocre.
When it comes to the individual characters, Lowell’s Jesse and Duff’s Sophie remain the least interesting of the ensemble. The rest of the cast has more spunk and better comedic timing — especially Suraj Sharma as Sid and Tom Ainsley as Charlie, whose line deliveries and use of body language are elevated by a sense of theatricality that eludes the show’s leads. They make the most of what they’re given in every episode, and their efforts show. Ultimately, however, How I Met Your Father is still stuck with trying to be a replica of How I Met Your Mother, which at least excelled in its comedic delivery and in keeping the audience hooked regarding what comes next.
This isn’t to say that How I Met Your Father doesn’t have its moments — because it does, and they can be quite good when they happen. But the comedy series doesn’t feel like it’s embracing what it is, still in the shadow of its predecessor, too timid to take the reins and proudly stand on its own. Paired with a lack of oomph, How I Met Your Father can never rise above its underwhelming nature to qualify as must-watch television. It can be engaging at times, but it’s also fairly dull in long stretches. With 20 episodes in season 2, the series still has the opportunity to grow, but given the overall lack of focus and entertainment value, How I Met Your Father doesn’t fare too well in its sophomore outing.
How I Met Your Father season 2 premieres on Hulu Tuesday, January 24. The series will air one episode weekly thereafter.