A while back, I went through and did a little examination of why I still watch this show that, has bothered me for years. Now that it's over, I want to reflect a little.
I want to remember it as it was
I loved this show. I watched the first season when it first aired and thought it was a great little show. No show deserves to have a cast that good. Neil Patrick Harris was the breakout star and Barney Stinson is one of the great TV characters of all time, especially in those early days (Remember when people used to still call him Doogie Howser?). NPH gave Barney a charm that couldn't be written into a character and is the main reason he worked so well. Alyson Hannigan managed to do the damn near unthinkable and follow one career-defining role on Buffy and follow it up with an even better one in Lily Aldrin. Jason Segel brought leading-man charm to a supporting role and since the show began has amazed me in the show as Marshall and outside of it with his comedic prowess. Cobie Smulders came basically out of nowhere and fashioned Robin into probably the most complex character on the show. Josh Radnor has the raw deal in this because Ted was a character never allowed to be more than who he was at the beginning, which makes it all the more impressive how nuanced and believable he made the character.
Few shows, if any, have ever been so successful at creating phrases, concepts, and recurring gags as this show. Bro Code. Cocamouse. Let's Go To the Mall. Lawyered. "Haaaaave you met Ted?", Legendary, and the list goes on.
The writing in some of those early seasons, from the long payoff to Ted finding the penny on the subway, the the dueling perspectives of "Cupcake", or the just insanely sweet gestures like the Blue Horn Incident or the two minute date, are simply stunning when you think that this isn't some auteur-driven cable series but a 20+ episode per season network sitcom with a laugh track. The level of experimentation and ambition was at times breathtaking for any fan of comedy.
Okay. Awesome. I wanted to get that out of the way partly to cool myself off because I want to make it clear why this was a miserable ending to this series.
1) We don't get more of the Mother. Getting a little bit of Cristin Milioti was nice. I now absolutely love her character and she proved to make Ted a much more enjoyable character. Her and Ted shared numerous sweet moments and got to see the interesting ways that she could interact with everyone in the cast. So, naturally, we get a whole season of Zoe and half a season the writers systematically destroying everything we likes about Victoria and got saw so many other toxic relationships of Ted's. I feel cheated. The fact that we got to see the Mother in the last season means the showrunners we fine with not taking the title so literally, so why did it take 8 seasons?
1)The Mother dies. This just sucks. He's talked this woman up for so incredibly long and despite all the moments shared between Robin and Ted, the Mother always was the one to beat. To kill her off is cruel.
2) Barney and Robin break up. The one thing the show has been building to nearly as long as Ted and the Mother being together is Barney and Robin being together. For god's sake, the whole season was prepping for their wedding which, just last week, we were supposed to be weeping with joy over that wedding just last week. They are the Ross and Rachel of this show more than Ted and the Mother ever were. They were that placeholder couple that carried us through to the end when the larger story couldn't suffice. Then, they throw that away in a matter of minutes as an "Aw, shucks. I guess it didn't work out" right at the end. That's bullshit.
3) Ted ends up with Robin. I don't want to harp on this, but the one thing we knew from the first episode is that Ted doesn't end up with Robin. I know, technically they just say she's not the Mother, but that's a cop-out. It breaking the spirit of the law if not the letter of it, if you know what I mean. And, if we were supposed to see this last season as a final set of reasons why they were meant for each other then how sleazy is that? Solidifying the relationship during her wedding weekend, one that again, we were supposed to be happy about just last week.
4) Barney has a kid and we don't know the mom. I love the idea of Barney having a kid. In fact, that would've been a season arc I'd've loved around season 7. This one really gets me pissed off because I think back to a few seasons ago when we find out Robin can't have kids, which still goes down as my least favorite episode. If we accept that this ends up a messy show of exes and lost loves, why can't we at least give Barney and Robin something that would change it all for them? A kid together. I know, that's me trying to write my own ending and I shouldn't do that, but I can't be the only one irritated that the mother of Barney's child is a nameless, faceless, 31st part to the sleaziest and most implausible of all the things Barney has done.
5) The gang splits up. I get that people grow apart over time, but they don't even give good reasons for it. Robin leaves basically because earlier in the series, they make the mistake of saying that she lived all over the world (although she just so happens to still live in New York when Ted wants to be with her at the end). It seems like every other time the gang gets together it's the first time in a while. You are telling me that Lily, Marshall, Ted, and the Mother don't play bridge every weekend together while the kids play? I don't know. There just doesn't seem to be any good reason for the gang not to still be tight other than the writers thought it would be more dramatic.
So, yeah. Good riddance How I Met Your Mother. I won't be watching How I Met Your Dad. I won't be revisiting any episodes of this show past maybe season 4. And, I hope to enjoy everything all five cast members do in the future now that they are free from this thing that has been needlessly weighing them down for years.
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