Let's Go to the Mall

Despite an overly Friends-ly vibe at times, How I Met Your Mother has really grown on me over the past year.

Freaks and Geeks alum Jason Segel and Buffy vet Alyson Hannigan bring a lot of endearment from previous projects to the show, but even without that, Marshall Eriksen and Lily Aldrin would still make a cute TV couple worth rooting for. The newly uncloseted Neil Patrick Harris is also perfectly (and ironically) cast as amoral poon hound Barney Stinson.

That said, I haven't warmed as much to Josh Radnor's Ted Mosby. Nor do I think the device of Bob Saget as old Ted explaining to his kids how he met their mother is particularly effective. Maybe the producers have a bit too much personal investment in him as a protagonist. Who knows?

Cobie Smulders' Robin Scherbatsky is cute, but her character has been a bit flat as well. At least that was the case until this week, when her "big secret" turned out to be that she led a previous life as a Canadian pop star named Robin Sparkles.

This being the age of the Internet, "Sparkles" #1 fan has a MySpace site where you can hear her minor 1993 hit, "Let's Go to the Mall." It's actually a very funny parody of the short-lived teen pop queen age exemplified by Tiffany and pre-Deborah Debbie Gibson.

And just in time for Black Friday, too!