HIMYM 7x10: Tick Tick Tick

Original Air Date: 14 November 2011

Storyline: Barney and Robin decide whether to keep their one night stand a secret from Nora and Kevin. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang goes to a "-palooza" concert.Trivia: With the exception of Barney and Robin, all other main characters in this episode (Ted, Marshall, Lily, Nora, Kevin) wear purple. Best quote:  

Nora's father: So, Barney, Nora's told us so much about you, but we want to know everything.
Barney: Uh, let's see. Suit, laser tag. I say "wait for it" a lot. That's about it.

The Review: Let me get one thing out of the way right now and say that if I want to watch drama, I switch to the Hallmark channel. How I Met Your Mother is going in the wrong direction and it's like a train wreck waiting to happen: there's no way to stop it but you just don't want to be caught in the middle so you run as fast and far away as you can. At the rate things are going, I might just cut it from my Monday nights.And all of this is not only because of Barney not being Barney anymore and because of the on-again-off-again with Robin. There's no secret that I hate those two together, they make a really bad couple and I can't understand, for the love of me, why the showrunners insist on throwing them together.

It's also because of the lack of comedy and straying away from the series' main theme, that of how Ted found the mother of his children.
Speaking of the lack of comedy, I spent the entire half hour wondering if I've stumbled upon a completely different show. There were maybe two-three scenes that forced a smile out of me (Barney's characterization of himself, the song they were dancing on at the party and Marshall leaning in to whisper to his wife "Lily has no idea I'm high."). Going back to "eating sandwiches" as an euphemism for weed has always been amusing in its own way, and I always enjoy Alexis Denisof as Sandy Rivers, a role so different from his long time Wesley Wyndam-Pryce that I cannot help to be both nostalgic after the good old Buffy days and amused by the total opposition between the two characters.
But other than that, I didn't find any of this week's episode moments remotely close to being funny. I did appreciate Robin for seeing that Kevin was a thousand times better than Barney, if not at other things, at least at expressing his love for her (what lame answer is "'cause you're almost as messed up as I am" anyways?)
I know this show is taking a road I will not enjoy at all, but it would become at least tolerable if Ted were out and about looking for the one again. I just hope all these years spent watching it won't feel like a waste of time eventually.