So, first things first. Obviously, this post contains SPOILERS if you haven’t seen the finale of How I Met Your Mother yet. So if you don’t want to be spoiled, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.
Now that that’s out of the way…
I didn’t start watching HIMYM from the very beginning. It was at least a couple seasons in when I discovered it. I also haven’t really watched with much regularity. I usually catch up either when a season is over or every few episodes. When the finale aired, I was actually an episode behind and had to watch the next-to-last episode first. So I watched both last night. (If I hadn’t, I probably would have had to stay off the internet lest I get spoiled myself!)
I really liked this show. Although, I’m not sure how much I liked the last season. It really had some funny stuff, and the characters on the show were very likable and fun. Ricky and I even talked about how we really needed a couple friend like Marshall and Lily to hang out with. But the last season was kind of… well, almost pointless. The entire season revolved around ONE weekend, the weekend of Barney and Robin’s wedding. It was kind of difficult to get through, because you’re really just like (even more so than “get to how he met the mother!”) “get to the wedding already!” I mean, I feel like they wanted to tie some things up, and obviously since this was the weekend Ted did meet the mother (aka Tracy), it was a pretty important weekend, right? (Side note: some smart people had actually already guessed the mother’s name as Tracy based on a previous episode where Ted meets a chick named Tracy who introduces herself. He jokingly told the kids “and that’s how I met your mother” and since they were shocked, they didn’t react to the name NOT being their mom’s – indicating that it actually WAS Tracy. Nice one if you caught it!)
Now, to me, Season 9 just kind of made me mad. We spend the whole season (and basically multiple seasons, since this wedding was alluded to even before Season 9) leading up to Barney and Robin getting married. And by the end of the next-to-last episode (which I really liked and almost made me cry, BTW) we are pretty much CONVINCED that Robin and Barney are meant to be. And then in the finale they get divorced, almost nonchalantly. WHAT?? I’m sorry, but I don’t see Robin being the one for Ted. She seems much more suited to Barney, IMO. Plus, I tend to think that Barney, despite all his faults, is just a lovable guy. To see him still unable to commit and still practicing his womanizing ways up until the end is just disappointing.
Granted, I understand the ending. It’s like, full circle, right? The blue horn. Ted going to get Robin’s locket for her before the wedding. Etc, etc. And of course, all good TV shows end with a bang or a twist, right? But I’m sorry… to me, this was just unfulfilling. I mean, it honestly doesn’t surprise me that the mother dies. But she was so built up the whole show. SHE’S what the show is about. And she turned out to honestly be a really great character that we totally did NOT get to see enough of. I get why they did it the way they did. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Honestly, I kind of wish it ended with the next-to-last episode. That one was good to me. Barney and Robin’s moment together was beautiful, and I really thought and hoped they’d be a happily ever after. And that Ted was meant to be with Tracy. I mean, think about it. Lily’s goal was for them to be there through the big moments, right? And I get that in the end, the thought is that they are all happy and that Ted ends up with Robin. But… again, WHAT?? come on… they expect you to think that life is messy, but yet we end up happily ever after? Sorry, but pick one or the other. I just don’t see any group of friends where one chick dates a guy, breaks up, later dates his best friend, then breaks up and dates him again… but ends up marrying the best friend only to get divorced three years later and hook up with the original guy after he’s been married, had two kids, and his wife died? I’m sorry, but I just don’t see that being a happy group of friends!
In the end, I feel like the happy, lovable group of friends I liked from the beginning ended up pretty unrealistic and just an echo of what they started out as. Lofty goals, but disappointed fans. But at least we found out how he met the mother.
Life is a series of experiences. Some of mine include walking along the Great Wall of China, drinking craft beer in Belgium, playing poker in Vegas, reading novels at home, or just relaxing with my husband and lovable dog. This website is your invitation to join me as I take on the planet one experience at a time and blog about it for your enjoyment!
funny that i had many of the same feelings…like you, i wasn’t a HIMYM regular or even a fan from the beginning…just a casual observer of the show that i liked because jason segal was on it…and doogie howser, who though gay in real life, plays a womanizing idiot (akin to many a david spade character) to a tee…i also thought the writing was clever, sometimes witty and ocassionally LOL funny…just different enough than most sitcoms to keep me slightly interested…but there came a point while watching an episode, probably a rerun on a cable network, last year where i was saying, “C’MON ALREADY! ENOUGH! Just meet her already!”…i had gotten sick of all the close calls, the tension between ted and robin, etc…didn’t really pique my interest again until this year when i found out the show was ending…but the treatment of his wife, tracy, as just some sideshow character, meant to lead him back to his first love, was sort of demeaning to her…she gave him two kids, for crap’s sake! and even gave her life in the end…but that was just a cutesy, romantic way to get him hitched with a member of the original gang…kinda stupid, if you ask me…why did they even call the show How I Met Your Mother…it shoulda been How My First Love Became My Second Wife, Kids!