“How I Met Your Mother” is working hard to bring in the ratings. After a successful guest stunt by Britney Spears, HIMYM has landed James Van Der Beek (”Dawson’s Creek”). EOnline has the story:

In the meantime, I must break in with the fabulous news that our old friend Dawson Leery, aka James Van Der Beek, has officially agreed to guest star on How I Met Your Mother’s upcoming “Robin Sparkles” episode. I’m hearing he plays the Canadian pop star’s crush, but I have yet to get confirmation on that little detail. Sounds about right though, no?!

As I’ve said before, Mother deserves another season, and if they have to pull in guest stars to keep it on the air then ok. They’ve shown with the Spears episode that they can have high-profile stars without overshadowing the main characters (in that case, Ted). My criticism is that the Spears episode wasn’t a typical episode. Therefore, 1st time viewers didn’t get a real taste of HIMYM.

The Robin Sparkles episode was one of the greats, and I think the character deserves to be revisited. New viewers to HIMYM should go back an check out that episode.

Last night was a typical episode, and it was great. Using tournament brackets to search through Barney’s past conquests was legen - wait for it - dary! Also, even characters as shallow as Barney can show growth without the show changing too much. And then, not having the payoff was risky but effective. Now there are 2 mysteries: who is the mother and who is Barney’s revenge seeking conquest? I’m not sure how long the second will last, but I’ll enjoy the ride.