I watched the first four seasons of How I Met Your Mother four times in a single year. It's a show for which I have inexplicable patience in large doses. It's fun, often clever, and features a core cast of characters with whom I immediately connected. Still, that didn't stop me from being less than optimistic about the show's future while I watched the fifth season as it aired. Post-jilting, the series hadn't seemed to deal a lot with the central premise of the show beyond offering a lot of teases. The season meandered a lot but didn't really commit to anything for more than an episode at a time beyond a couple of ill-fated pairings for Robin. The result was a collection of mildly amusing episodes that manage to be significantly less bad when you're watching them en masse without expectations.
Season six, on the other hand, managed to lose me about halfway through (shortly after a certain funeral). It spent an awful lot of time focusing on Ted's flirtatious relationship with a new addition who we absolutely knew wasn't The Mother -- mostly because of things we already knew about The Mother but also because she was already married. I missed a couple of episodes, which prevented me from catching up on CBS' website, and just gave up. I hear that Zooey ditched her husband or some such and that she and Ted dated for awhile and it was all as pointless as it seemed.
Season seven started last week, though, and I'm now caught up with the first three episodes, and I have to say, I'm feeling hopeful. It could just be the effect of watching 3 episodes at once and my lingering affection for these people, but I think it's making important steps to clear the way for the Event We've Been Waiting For. There have already been needless teases, including the cliffhanger ending of the second episode, but the season so far seems to have set an admirable goal: helping Ted move beyond his past and remembering how to believe in romance again.
I'm not sure if this will make it a show I look forward to watching week-by-week the way I do Community or Parks and Recreation, but at the very least, I suddenly find myself looking forward to binging on this season in a year's time when I can speed through the teasing and just watch these people grow and learn and enjoy one another. Hell, I'll probably go and pick up season 6 just so I can see what shenanigans I missed in the middle of all the time wasting.
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I think I've been on the same schedule as you--last year was my first "real-time" season too. It definitely didn't seem as good as the other ones, and the Adulterous Ted story arc all seemed kind of pointless, and an unnecessary betrayal of his character.
It's a show that I really like to watch "as it happens" though, at least for the sense of anticipation--you see Cute Cupcake Girl make a cameo, and have to wait a week before figuring out whether or not she's coming back to the show. There's something really fun about that, even if you're watching alone.
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