Besides the ‘but ummm’ drinking game, tonight’s episode (which, by the way, was directed by the Notorious NPH – Neil Patrick Harris) of How I Met Your Mother presented the brilliant “reacher or settler” philosophy.
The episode titled “Jenkins” has Marshall (Jason Segel) kind of crushing on a new gal at work, Jenkins (Amanda Peet) and he gets nervous because he thinks when Lily (Alyson Hannigan) finds out Jenkins is not a guy, she’ll go postal. From this, Ted (Josh Radnor) and Robin (Cobie Smulders) compare Lily and Marshall’s relationship to the reacher/settler philosophy. A reacher is someone who reaches for someone out of their league while a settler is a person who settles for someone below their league.
Does that make sense? I typed it out pretty fast because it’s almost 1 a.m. and I need to get to sleep. Email me if it doesn’t make sense.
In any matter, as a single, insecure male, I looked at all the couples around me and thought, “Is this theory true?” Then are started to evaluate. Then I started to think it was true. Then I started to feel like I was mean. Then I started to feel really judgmental.
This is EXACTLY why this show is so thought-provoking. It plants a seed of social commentary in our heads and, for us late twenty/early thirty somethings, it fucks you up – but it makes you laugh while doing it.
What do you think? Is this theory true?
Please evaluate the loved ones around you.
More than that, which one would you be? The settler? Or the reacher?
Inquiring minds want to know.
- Excited
- Fascinated
- Amused
- Bored
- Sad
- Angry
