How I Met Your Mother: Season 6 review (DVD) ★★★★★

Mothers take a bit of a backseat this season, with a couple of storylines that focus on fathers and sons – as Barney finds his, and Marshall loses his. 

Mixing comedy and pathos is tricky, and sitcoms rarely manage to do it successfully – the wonderful M*A*S*H is the only one that springs to mind. But this season sees HIMYM pull off the trick with aplomb, which comes down to great writing and a brilliant cast – none more so than Harris. In the hands of a lesser actor, the self-centred, womanising Barney would be a one-dimensional caricature, but Harris lets us get under the skin and see glimpses of the real, vulnerablem needy man beneath. And what also helps in the two-episode arc in which he finally meets his real father is the fact that his dad is played by thw wonderful Lithgow, who marvellously rivals Harris in the scene-stealing stakes.

There's less happy news for Marshall (Segel), whose father dies of a heart attack. Marshall is shattered – he and his dad were incredibly close, talking on the phone almost daily. How he and the gang deal with this tragedy is at turn warm, moving and often laugh-out-loud funny.

Elsewhere this season, we have Lily (Hannigan) and Marshall trying to start a family, we learn more about Robin's musical past, and Ted Radnor) gets into a new relationship with Zoey (Morrison), who's trying to stop him tearing down a classic old New York hotel to build a skyscraper. Oh, and we still don't know who the mother is, but we do know who she isn't: she's not Robin (Smulders), Zoey, Victoria or Stella.

What started out as pretty much a one-joke show has grown into an award-winning hit, popular with audiences and critics alike. It's alwasy funny, but not afraid to be serious and emotional when it needs to be. How I Met Your Mother probably has just two or three more season left to run, but if it keeps producing season like this one, there won't be any complaints.