After the annoying slowness in releasing season 2, it's great to see season 3 coming out quickly. If you haven't caught the show, or saw a clip and thought it was trying to be another Friends (which it isn't), the premise is that in the future Ted tells his children a story of how he met their mother. His story starts before that event and so we're left to work out who his future wife will be. This arc story lets us meet his friends who are his sometimes girlfriend Robin, his unpleasant womanizer friend Barney, and Marshall and Lilly, a sickeningly happy couple.
In the third season the show's format has settled down. The quick editing, changes in time frame, and the surprising amount of external filmed footage, for a sitcom, are now all familiar. The writers' strike happened during season 3, but it doesn't affect the flow too obviously. The arc story continues to be very slow to advance and the emphasis this year is more on the various permutations the main leads can go through in their sometimes rocky and sometimes close relationships. Mild spoilers here are that Lilly and Marshall are married and Ted and Robin part. The latter allows Ted to meet the always entertaining Sarah Chalke as a new recurring character Stella. Barney is his usual hilarious self. Enjoy.