“The Perfect Week” is another great example of the strength of the ensemble cast when they have the chance to play off each other’s characters. In this sports themed episode, everyone is having a lousy week. Marshal and Lilly have scared off another couple by revealing they share a toothbrush, Ted has his first student drop his class due to his horrible treatment of her name, Robin is pining over a geeky guy who won’t call her back, and Barney is in risk of getting fired over a merger deal gone south. To take their minds off of everything, they focus on the fact that Barney is quickly approaching a perfect week: a week of seven girls, in seven nights, with zero rejections.
The whole episode plays back as a sports interview story with the very real Jim Nantz of CBS Sports interviewing Barney as he waits for his meeting. Even as they go back over it, there are small hints of being at a game, such as Ted eating a hot dog and calling out for a beer at the bar. The whole game was almost ruined by an overzealous Lilly jinxing the entire week by her cavalier dismissal of jinxes, summoning the real life New York Yankees player Nick Swisher to be some heavy hitting competition for Barney. I thought it was very creative how they were able to keep the whole motif running the entire episode, and it just shows how good the writing is on the show can be.
The B-plot of the episode revolves around the various problems the rest of the gang faced during the week, and provides plenty of moments for one liners amongst the gang. The biggest revelation of the episode is that Marshal, Lilly, Robin, and Ted at one point all shared the same toothbrush together.
Overall it was a pretty creative episode with a lot of good dialog and plenty of interaction amongst the gang. It shows how well everyone fits together and the strong chemistry they all have when they work off of each other.
Interesting Observations
- Cook Pooh is a terrible name. I’m sorry.
- That girl must be really down in the dumps. You really smeared the pooh name. Did you ask if all the pooh is out of our system? … Pooh dropped out? She’s flushing her education down the toilet.
- “I think i’m going to go small boobs tonight.” – Barney “You’re disgusting” – Lilly “Lilly, they’re people too.” – Barney
- Wendy the waitress is back!!
- Once he realizes that for 8 years, all three of them shared one toothbrush, Ted starts eating a napkin.
- “Let me try to Canada up this, eh?” – Lilly
- “I’m totlay gonna sit my kids down one day and tell them about how barney nailed 7 chicks in a row.” – Ted “Am I bad dad?” – Future Ted They finally make a reference to the fact that Ted is telling his kids all these stories of his and his friends sex lives, which is probably not what a normal dad would be talking to their kids about.
- The memorial hat: Seven Up, Seven Down
- Barneyism of the Week: The Perfect Week: 7 Girls, 7 Nights, 0 Rejections.
