Communication Obsevation

I watched How I Met Your Mother first without sound and then with the sound in order to observe the nonverbal and verbal interactions between the characters on the show.  With the sound off I could tell who was friends through smiles, relaxed gestures, hand shakes, and hugs.  They seemed to be speaking calmly with each other and at ease with each others presence.  I could tell who was not fond of each other due to facial expressions, tense bodies, and shortness of the conversation.  It was difficult, however, to determine who was in a relationship.  Friends were very familiar with each other, just as they would be with a boyfriend or a girlfriend.  After I turned on the volume I was surprised to find out who was actually in a relationship with another character and who was not.  With the volume on I was also surprised to see conversations that looked pleasant between friends were not as pleasant as they looked.  People can be deceiving,  many of the characters on this show seemed to have that quality.  However, even with the volume off I understood the jist of what was happening.  However, without the sound it was difficult to tell the specific relationship each character had with another.  In a more familiar show, I may have understood what the characters were talking about because I would have known their relationship with each other and the way in which they speak to one another.