It seems to me that NPH is stuck in the same acting expression no matter what role he's playing. He was horribly miscast in Gone Girl and from preview for upcoming American Horror Story episode I also got this "Barney vibe" from him. He just seems able to play just this one specific role and expression of cocksure arrogant type of person and in Gone Girl it was really distracting and it was the only thing that took me out of the movie experience.