"How I Met": Umbrella.. ella... ella

"How I Met Your Mother" returned last night with an OK episode. I kept imagining the writers pushing hard to get back to the air after the strike, and maybe not having enough time to fine tune. All the Barney blarney felt a little forced -- "Bropocalypse Now," hmmm -- but still it was great to see the guys. I love it that Marshall and Lily's Dowisetrepla apartment is tilted. I'm still a little traumatized by a tilted floor in my past.

And the idea of a night of reverse karma is a great one -- it's the kind of humor that really distinguishes this show from "Friends." While both shows are about a group of romantically linked pals in New York, "HIMYM" has a geekier sensibility and a much stronger meta-awareness. It's much more post-production-oriented.

What really struck me about the episode was the way creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas are now full-on playing around with the identity of the "Mother." It's like watching "Lost," in a weird way, as clues and umbrellas are tossed out to us like little pieces of a puzzle. I slo-motioned through that moment when Ted bumps into a woman at the club, studying her face, wondering if she would turn out to be the lady in question; and then I decided that Bays and Thomas were just fooling us. We'll see -- or I hope we'll see, since CBS has not renewed the show yet.