When "How I Met Your Mother" first aired in 2005, it was mostly seen as an attempt to recapture the
magic of "Friends", following the lives of a group of young, mostly single New Yorkers on their quest
for love and success. Trading in Central Perk for McClaren's, and a will-they-won't-they romance
for something a little different. "Aunt Robin?!" What immediately set it apart from "Friends" was
the structure of the show itself, told through a series of flashbacks as present day Ted
recounts the stories that led to meeting his wife, and while it may have put some off in the
beginning for its seeming lack of originality, it quickly won over audiences with a likeable cast,
clever writing, and a format that took full advantage of its unique concept.
It wasn't just a "Friends" or "Seinfeld" clone, but something that could stand on its own two feet
as a great sitcom in its own right. It remained one of the most popular TV shows on throughout
its series run, before ending with one of the most universally hated series finales ever aired.
The Independent published a great article about the aftermath,
noting that "How I Met Your Mother has all but disappeared from the cultural consciousness.
It hasn’t been critically reappraised or memed into oblivion, its catchphrases haven’t lasted,
and its stars have struggled to replicate their visibility at the show’s peak."
While the show's finale may have been the most publicly criticized, I'm of the opinion that the
show's final two seasons are almost entirely forgettable and disappointing. I think even
starting in season 7, the show started to lose a lot of its focus and momentum,
and started heading in the wrong direction by focusing less on Ted's story and more on Barney
and Robin. But having recently revisited the show, I have to say that it still (mostly) holds
up as one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. I'll eventually discuss my problems with the later
seasons, but when looking at the show during its best years, it's impossible to deny how special
it was. Like any sitcom, it's not for everyone. Plenty find the show to be boring or cliche,
or find the characters unlikable, or that it simply isn't funny. There's no convincing
someone into changing a subjective opinion, but there's a reason the show was on for
9 seasons, with 10 Primetime Emmy wins and millions of weekly viewers.
They put together a great staff of writers and a beloved cast, with a truly unique idea that
felt like something we'd never seen before. It's storytelling concept was more than just a gimmick,
it led to some truly brilliant moments on the show as it played with the unreliability of memory,
or even just allowing us to visit flashbacks more often than other sitcoms would;
giving us more backstory for the characters or just revealing embarassing memories.
It felt like the epic story of a simple life. Cataloging the ongoing adventures of Ted Mosby and
his friends, following a more serialized form of storytelling than we usually see in sitcoms;
with a lot of storylines that stretch for multiple seasons, or with certain stories foreshadowed
years ahead of time. And while the show may have many of its roots in a cynical sense of humor,
with the characters often judging or making fun of each other, there's always an underlying sense of
goodness to the show and its characters. Even the openly manipulative characters like Barney or Lily
are shown to have their heart in the right place when it counts,
and Ted has definitely been the subject of a lot of criticism, for his over-the-top romanticisicm
and general creepiness at times, there's a reason all of these people consider him their
best friend. We see countless examples of Ted going above and beyond, and not just for Robin
or the other women he falls in love with, but for all of his friends. (Punchy best man) And I think
that's one of the core reasons the show works for as long as it does, despite the jabbing they do
at each other, how much they care for each other is always apparent. A lot of other sitcoms try
to disguise their sentimality or dole it out in small doses, and some do away with it altogether,
but How I Met Your Mother always wanted to be a show that wore its heart on its sleeve,
while still trying to make us laugh. And it just so happens that the show is great at doing both.
Because it's sort of slipped out of the cultural zeitgeist, it's easy to forget just how funny the
show was at its best. Plenty of notable moments come from the show's structure, but plenty come
from just simple and brilliant comedy writing. HIMYM S06E06 Ted,Becky and Spider .avi
"By the way I think I only wounded the spider, it crawled off into my bedroom."
"Is that why you slept on the couch last night?" "Yeah...I slept."
Again, there's really no arguing your way into convincing someone that something is funny,
you either laugh or you don't. But I think a large part of any sitcom's success is how well it
can find new ways to play with the formula. What can the writers add into the mix at Paddy's Pub,
or what's new in Pawnee; so we can see the characters in their element and how they
respond to new people or events. And I'm of the opinion that the writers of How I Met Your Mother
always managed to do that really well, whether it's running gags like the Slap Bet or
Robin Sparkles, or the casette tape stuck in the Fiero, the Doppelgangers.
Like any great TV show, it built it up its own mythos that rewarded the loyal
fans with unexpected recurring characters or symbols that hinted at the identity of
the mother. (Yellow umbrella) The creators of the show, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas
had said themselves that one of their hopes was to create a show that would be great to watch on DVD,
or to binge watch, by writing with a bigger picture in mind that had a focus on watching
these characters grow and change. Pulling a lot of stories from their own lives, including the
set up of the show itself; as Ted and Marshall are based on Carter and Craig respectively; to tell a
story about a guy searching for love while living with the best friend that had already found it.
It gives the show an authenticity that runs throughout. Despite how exagerrated the show
can get at times, it always kept the core focus of the show tightly on the characters
and their relationships. As a sitcom, it was all in service of making us laugh first and foremost,
but I think for many it's the show's tender side that made it something truly special.
All of the characters, through big and small gestures show how much they care about each other,
and ultimately that they just want what's best for their friends. As they all try to navigate
the murky waters of their 20's, fighting and failing to achieve the dreams they had when they
came to New York. These themes have been explored by virtually every other similar sitcom, but the
framing device for the storytelling immediately strengthens all of this just by virtue of
hindsight. Because when we're living through our own lives, experiencing each moment as it comes,
we can get bogged down by stress or anxiety, that immediate sensation of loss or regret. But
it's often when looking back at our lives from a place of distance, that we can start to see how
everything fit together, how all of those experiences have shaped us into who we are.
Normally in a show we follow the characters along a linear timeline, experiencing each new moment
right alongside them. But on How I Met Your Mother, because we're seeing everything through
Ted's perspective, we experience every moment as a memory, tinted with all of the same rose
color that Ted sees them through. And it puts this comforting blanket of nostalgia over everything,
even the darker moments can still be played for laughs because Ted can remember them more
fondly with age. And all of the mess of dating, the bad breakups and the doubt and insecurity
all take on a different meaning when you know where the story is heading.
The characters all go through a lot of unexpected changes, like we all do in our 20's,
as our dreams don't go exactly as planned, maybe we're still looking for the right person
or maybe we're just trying to decide what we want out of life. These sort of common experiences are
what make up virtually every other sitcom, but How I Met Your Mother gives us both that vicarious
experience of life in your 20's, as well as that feeling of looking back on a life well lived.
I think it gives us a model for how we all wish we could live our lives, like we're a part of a story
that leads to a happy ending; where no matter what happens to us, no matter how much frustration
or disappointment or heartache we face, we know that things will work out in the end.
I think that's where the show loses itself in the final seasons, and certainly in the
final episode. We've spent the entire series building towards this concept, Ted finding the
love of his life and getting his happy ending. But even starting back in Season 7, it started
to feel more and more centered on Barney's story, first with Quinn and then Nora, and then Robin.
Seasons 8 and 9 almost entirely revolve around Barney and Robin, with all but the last two
episodes of Season 9 taking place over the course their wedding weekend. Only to dismantle
everything over the following years in two final episodes that tell us Barney and Robin split up,
Barney's now a father from a one night stand, and Tracy and Ted get married and have kids and then
she dies and now in the present Ted just needs the final shove from his kids to pursue Robin again.
I could easily make an hour long video untangling all of the reasons this is disappointing as a fan
of the show, but the short version of that rant is basically that I think in general sitcom writers
should realize that when it comes to the ending, and by extension; the legacy a show will leave
behind, it's all about sending those characters off in a way that feels satisfying given the story
leading up to that point. So spending 9 years telling us that this show was not about Robin
and Ted, it was about Ted finding the mother of his children who was decidedly NOT Robin, to pull
a complete 180 didn't just feel strange, it felt like a betrayal. It's not that people inherently
would oppose Ted and Robin ending up together, it's that they spent 9 years showing us why that
could and would never happen. It's not that people inherently have a problem with the death of Tracy,
at least from a storytelling perspective, it's that we barely even get to see her or
her relationship with Ted, the entire hook of the show and they somehow managed to find an actress
the virtually every fan of the show loved and they give us just a few minutes of crammed exposition
that covers their falling in love and getting married and having kids and her getting sick and
eventually dying. They have a whole massive history together, that easily could have made
up an entire season's worth of story or more, but instead the final season is just a single weekend
save for the two part finale. It just feels like wasted potential, and a failure to deliver on
the promise of the series. But it's because all along, they had been building towards this secret
ending that reveals that it was never really the story of "How I Met Your Mother" at all,
but rather the story of a widower who wants his kids approval before trying to chase an old flame.
And maybe that would make for a good ending to a movie, but having fans invest
nearly a decade of their live's to following these characters, I think
the last thing anyone wanted was a plot twist. Not every ending has to be this mindblowing
thing that no one saw coming, sometimes it is the obvious ending that works the best.
And it's undeniable that the ending did tarnish what could have been a great legacy for a great
show. But I would make the argument that ultimately the ending doesn't matter?
For six seasons it was one of the funniest, and most rewatchable and lovable shows on TV,
and I can still return to it and love it every bit as much during its good seasons. It's a show
that embraced its roots as a romcom, and is one of the few that is equal parts romantic and comedy;
and it will always have a special place in my heart for that as an unironic fan of both
genres. Maybe I'm missing out on some other better shows, but I feel like that romantic component is
severely lacking in most other sitcoms, but that's the entire main story of How I Met Your Mother.
It always keeps a heavy focus on the romance without ever coming at the expense of the humor,
and even rewatching the series multiple times still brings me back to the feelings I had when
I first watched it, and it can still make me laugh. Not all of it has aged perfectly,
there are episodes or moments that don't stand out as much as others,
but no other show can make me feel quite the same way. It's filled with so much love and
hope. Both behind the camera and on the screen. So maybe it's not objectively the best show there
is, maybe it loses me by the end, but I'm a firm believer in unironically loving the
things that make you happy. Thanks for watching.
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