20 TV Episodes That Are Practically Flawless
19. How I Met Your Mother - Legendaddy
Like many sitcoms, How I Met Your Mother always reached its full potential when it balanced the laughs with the drama, and few episodes manage to do better than the season six tearjerker Legendaddy.
Following the season's trend of exploring the gang's relationships with their parents, Legendaddy zeroes in on Neil Patrick Harris's Barney as he comes face-to-face with his estranged father and his long gestating abandonment issues.
With devastating performances courtesy of Harris and on-screen dad John Lithgow, the episode captures the very best of How I Met Your Mother, bursting with effective jokes that never undercut the emotions of the pair's fraught reunion, and revelatory character development. Barney would rarely be this vulnerable or tragic again.