I do my weekly DVR Purges, but let's be frank: they are crap. I don't proofread them at all most weeks. They're collections of scattered thoughts that barely even make sense a week later. What I've decided to do is, with most of these shows I watch taking a break, reflect on where I stand with them, assessing what is in the show's favor (assets) and what could get it in trouble (liabilities).
Now, not every show I watch will be included. In general, I'm sticking to shows that I've kept notes (be them from Purges or otherwise) as I've watched. That means, shows like The Bridge, Looking, Sherlock, and Dexter will not be included. To get my thoughts on those, ask me. This project, supposing I stay on schedule should take all month and I hope it does a good job summing up where these shows stand. In some cases, I'm hoping to convince you to start watching. Other times, it'll be nothing more than a postmortem for a show that's gone.
I hope you enjoy.
Favorite Epiosde(s): "How Your Mother Met Me"
I spent the entire season talking about my three part formula to what made a good episode, so why stop now?
Had the Mother: Cristin Millioti was superb through and through. For years, I assumed that they didn't introduce the Mother because Bays and Thomas set the bar too high and they could only botch her. It turns out, it was the complete opposite. Millioti was perfect as the Mother and how she worked with Josh Radnor, but it was always supposed to be Robin. Had the Mother been more of a place-holder character, I'm not sure the backlash to the finale would've been so harsh. As is, they cast her too well. How often does that happen?
Callbacks: One of the show's greatest strengths was the ability to create a lexicon and reuse it. Most of the best moments throughout the season involved callbacks to things, from Aldrin Justice, to the Proclaimers, to the Slap Bet, to anything from "How Your Mother Me Me".
Genuine Emotion: Say what you will, but How I Met Your Mother was never a show to shy away from a sweet moment. Even the much maligned finale nailed several great moments. Barney meeting his daughter for the first time was beautifully handled by Neil Patrick Harris (let's ignore that we know nothing about the mother and it required a painfully awkward call-back line reading). The gang's goodbye after the wedding was great too (even if it was negated the next day when Ted didn't leave town). Or, Ted and the Mother finally meeting (don't think about the fact that they kill her off seconds later). The whole season is filled with wonderful emotional beats from the cast (and Billy Zabka of all people): Marshall finding out the Lilly is pregnant, Ted spending any time with the Mother, when Ted finally let's Robin go like his balloon (Ok, maybe not that last one). It was a season full of good, sincere moments.
Liabilities:
The Lost Season(s): One of the lesser-mentioned complaints with the finale and the season structure in general is how it gave us a glimpse of seasons that we'd never get to see. It's impossible to cover the entire life of a character and most shows don't tempt us with the past and the future the way that HIMYM did. That's a consequence of the structure. But, each time the finale cut to a future scene with the Mother in the gang, hanging out at McLerens' I wondered why we only got 2 minute snippets of that and almost a season's worth of Zoey. For all the feet-dragging in the season, the finale showed a plethora of ideas Bays and Thomas had for the future, all of which would've made for a better show than the last few seasons were. This only solidified the frustration with the last half of the show's run.
The Farhampton Inn: My understanding was that the Inn was supposed to be a framing device used as a way into stories about the past and future. That's what I was excited for at the beginning of the season. When it turned out to be a suffocating season covering nearly every minute of the wedding weekend including poker games and Barney manipulating his parents back together, I was exhausted and disappointed.
Changing the Narrative: The first episode of the show establishes two things: Robin isn't the Mother and the Mother is the high point of Ted's life. When the finale is over, that is still technically true, although it's a massive case of following the letter of the law, not the spirit of it. I listened to nine years of Bob Saget telling me that Robin and Ted weren't right for each other (and that Barney and Robin were). Silly me. I believed them. I also listened to nine years of, after anything bad would happen, Ted assure me that it would all be worth it since it led him to the Mother. I've heard all the arguments about how it reflects the messiness of life or that Ted is an unreliable narrator. I get that, but that was never what this show was about. They changed this series as a whole with that last episode. I think I'm allowed to be angry at that. If it happened on any other show, I'd think it was just as stupid a decision.
I think I'm done with HIMYM. In nine years, it had one all-time great season, about three good ones, and five sub-par ones. That averages out to a show of okay quality, with a ridiculously talented cast, who I can see in plenty of other places now. Oh, and it has the most maddening series finale of the last decade. That's me though. The things that bothered me didn't bother others. We all watch TV in different ways. If a show can't make me laugh (which it didn't for most of its run) then it needs to have a story that I like (the finale has retroactively ruined most of that). I'll look at it as a show best forgotten, which is a shame for something that, at one point I would've called a favorite. Maybe for new fans, in these days of binge watching, it will play better. As someone who put in years of patience, no way. Good riddance, How I Met Your Aunt Robin.
Previously this Offseason...
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine
New Girl
Suburgatory
Modern Family
Parenthood
The Mindy Project
The Michael J Fox Show
The Big Bang Theory
Agents of SHIELD
The Crazy Ones
Back in the Game
Parks and Recreation
The Walking Dead
The Middle
Saturday Night Live
Cougar Town
House of Cards
Louie
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