How I Met Your Mother

[Jilly]

Maybe it is because I am a church geek, but this is comedy gold to me!!! I have no idea if this got embedded or not.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8NWDXg266A

[JD10367]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

Spoiler!

Robin wanted to travel the world and didn't want to have kids. She basically got to do that and tie her own loose ends. Loop closed. The two were never right for each other during the show's run. The show was actually pretty successful in setting up a relationship where two people were compatible but in totally different places in their lives. I hated the Zooey storyline. But every single relationship, even Robin, the show always made it feel like something was just a little off. The mother was the only one where everything fell perfectly into place, right person at the right time. What makes the final Robin and Ted thing work is that they are both good for each other in that moment in ways they were not throughout the 9 seasons.

/thread

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Robin COULDN'T have kids, right?

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by mikeyis4dcats.

Robin COULDN'T have kids, right?

Supposedly the reason her and Ted never got together was because they never saw eye to eye on the kids thing and because she wanted to see the world. She got to do both. So what was standing in the way when they're older?

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

Supposedly the reason her and Ted never got together was because they never saw eye to eye on the kids thing and because she wanted to see the world. She got to do both. So what was standing in the way when they're older?

Just the internal consistency of Ted's morality fables.

The fact that Ted and Robin didn't work was the whole point of the "Front Porch" episode. Lily meddled with them because she knew they wanted different things out of life and thus wouldn't be happy with each other down the line when the gang (minus Barney, oddly enough) were retired and spending their time sitting on the "front porch".

[mcan]

No question, the last episode was a tough pill to swallow. It was just... So damn real. A stark contrast to Ted's fairytale. In the end, he found his perfect girl but lost her. And after all was said and done, he still had that longing for his old flame. They weren't "meant to be" but they ARE great for each other.

We also have to take into account that Ted has always had a flare for the dramatic. He's been telling us nine years of very unreliable stories, that are highly exaggerated and heavy on the nostalgia. That last episode though, the memories are darker. They are colored by the fact that he lost his friends to time and his wife to illness. That last scene of the first half (robin walking out of the party) killed me every bit as much as when marshall lost his father. It's what I'm going through now. I'm in the process of losing all my old friends to time. Yeah, facebook keeps me from losing touch with them, but... Life has this way of camouflaging the bonds until you don't really see them at all anymore.

This episode was ballsy. Very bittersweet. And never shied away from how hard it is to say the tepid goodbye, all the while knowing it's audience was expecting a warm hello.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by mcan

No question, the last episode was a tough pill to swallow. It was just... So damn real. A stark contrast to Ted's fairytale. In the end, he found his perfect girl but lost her. And after all was said and done, he still had that longing for his old flame. They weren't "meant to be" but they ARE great for each other.

We also have to take into account that Ted has always had a flare for the dramatic. He's been telling us nine years of very unreliable stories, that are highly exaggerated and heavy on the nostalgia. That last episode though, the memories are darker. They are colored by the fact that he lost his friends to time and his wife to illness. That last scene of the first half (robin walking out of the party) killed me every bit as much as when marshall lost his father. It's what I'm going through now. I'm in the process of losing all my old friends to time. Yeah, facebook keeps me from losing touch with them, but... Life has this way of camouflaging the bonds until you don't really see them at all anymore.

This episode was ballsy. Very bittersweet. And never shied away from how hard it is to say the tepid goodbye, all the while knowing it's audience was expecting a warm hello.

That's how I felt too. The episode struck a chord and I think some are either too young to know or too settled into a new life to remember. But for any 30 to 35, the episode felt starkly real. HIMYM was always built a different way. It wasn't handled fluffy like Friends and it handled reality in dark ways Seinfeld would never go. The last episode felt real. 9:45 bedtimes on bar nights, friends drifting apart, divorce from two people trying really hard to make it work, the fun guy who looks out of place with friends who are settling down.

Which is why I was okay with the ending. The romantic comedy ending would have stopped at the train. But HIMYM served a final dose of reality. Ted with Robin doesn't feel perfect. The writers don't try to make it feel perfect. They made it clear that the mother is the love of his life and that Robin was not. Ted is head over heels in love with the mother, even when Robin is there. So him getting together with Robin makes sense and even if not perfect, it feels satisfactory. And I think that's an appropriate ending for a show that was usually more interested in reality than it was giving fans a bunch of happily ever afters.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

Just the internal consistency of Ted's morality fables.

The fact that Ted and Robin didn't work was the whole point of the "Front Porch" episode. Lily meddled with them because she knew they wanted different things out of life and thus wouldn't be happy with each other down the line when the gang (minus Barney, oddly enough) were retired and spending their time sitting on the "front porch".

And now they are older and the things Ted wants, he already has. The things Robin wanted, she got to do them. And clearly, there won't be any issue about Robin fitting in on the front porch. I don't see any inconsistency there.

I think it's perfect that the two aren't perfectly compatible. The ending wouldn't have worked if they were. The story isn't trying to sell to you that Robin is the love of Ted's life. They're basically showing two people in a perfect place to settle in together. It was uncomfortable, but honest and relatable. Do you have any relatives who tragically lost a loved one, then moved on and married someone else? I know a few. I think when you look at it from that angle, it makes perfect sense. Which is why I thought the ending was absolutely brilliant. In Wonder Years like fashion, they chose a route that was unconventional, uncomfortable, but completely relatable over the safe, neatly wrapped route.

[Lex Luthor]

My only complaint is all of the wasted episodes in the final season. IMO the first half of the season was complete garbage. They spent far too much time with Marshall in the damn car, they spent far too much time focusing on the days before the damn wedding, and they spent far too much time repeating the same jokes over and over. I mean, how many times is it really funny that Lily gets a new drink put in her hand as soon as the old drink is empty? Answer: it was funny twice. After that it was tiresome and I felt like the writers were mailing it in.

I did notice real improvement in the final month, the last episode was warm and touching, and the final 5 minutes were perfect. When Ted's daughter said "This story isn't about how you met mom", I thought that summed up the entire series perfectly.

It wasn't about he met their mother. It never was. It was about Ted's journey.

After suffering through the God-awful Dexter finale, this was a relief. Dexter's finale nearly ruined the entire series. The HIMYM finale affirmed the series.

[Baby Lee]

The real gripe, who the **** keeps an umbrella functional for a decade, and how does an umbrella stay that bright over that time period?

[cookster50]

The wife really hated it. I wan't a big fan.

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by cookster50

The wife really hated it. I wan't a big fan.

Originally Posted by Brainiac

My only complaint is all of the wasted episodes in the final season. IMO the first half of the season was complete garbage. They spent far too much time with Marshall in the damn car, they spent far too much time focusing on the days before the damn wedding, and they spent far too much time repeating the same jokes over and over. I mean, how many times is it really funny that Lily gets a new drink put in her hand as soon as the old drink is empty? Answer: it was funny twice. After that it was tiresome and I felt like the writers were mailing it in.

I did notice real improvement in the final month, the last episode was warm and touching, and the final 5 minutes were perfect. When Ted's daughter said "This story isn't about how you met mom", I thought that summed up the entire series perfectly.

It wasn't about he met their mother. It never was. It was about Ted's journey.

After suffering through the God-awful Dexter finale, this was a relief. Dexter's finale nearly ruined the entire series. The HIMYM finale affirmed the series.

Still doesn't change the fact that the show runners fatigued the **** out of the Ted/Robin 'ship, only to seemingly write them off in S7 onward yet magically put them together in the finale.

[KCFaninSEA]

Originally Posted by Brainiac

My only complaint is all of the wasted episodes in the final season. IMO the first half of the season was complete garbage. They spent far too much time with Marshall in the damn car, they spent far too much time focusing on the days before the damn wedding, and they spent far too much time repeating the same jokes over and over. I mean, how many times is it really funny that Lily gets a new drink put in her hand as soon as the old drink is empty? Answer: it was funny twice. After that it was tiresome and I felt like the writers were mailing it in.

I did notice real improvement in the final month, the last episode was warm and touching, and the final 5 minutes were perfect. When Ted's daughter said "This story isn't about how you met mom", I thought that summed up the entire series perfectly.

It wasn't about he met their mother. It never was. It was about Ted's journey.

After suffering through the God-awful Dexter finale, this was a relief. Dexter's finale nearly ruined the entire series. The HIMYM finale affirmed the series.

I couldn't agree more and that is why I couldn't take it any more and turned it off.

[Red Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

Still doesn't change the fact that the show runners fatigued the **** out of the Ted/Robin 'ship, only to seemingly write them off in S7 onward yet magically put them together in the finale.

I disagree. I think the show did WAY too much w/ the Ted/Robin 'ship past S7.

I wish they'd written if off then. But they didn't. They just kept beating that horse. Which is why I knew they'd end up together and why I think it was anything but "magically putting them together." It was telegraphed over and over and over again.

[Lex Luthor]

Originally Posted by Red Brooklyn

I disagree. I think the show did WAY too much w/ the Ted/Robin 'ship past S7.

I wish they'd written if off then. But they didn't. They just kept beating that horse. Which is why I knew they'd end up together and why I think it was anything but "magically putting them together." It was telegraphed over and over and over again.

It was clearly their intent from the very beginning. I think they were planning to end it that way after 8 seasons and they were surprised to be renewed of a 9th season. That's why most of the season was just filler.

[duncan_idaho]

My wife and I sat down and talked about it. Mainly, about the uncomfortable places How I met your Mother was always willing to take you, and took you one last time.

They really did hit on a lot of the scary things about your late 20s/early 30s:

1) Being single and worrying you're never going to find the right person
2) Losing a parent
3) The effect growing older and having families/kids/careers has on friendships (this one is weighing on me right now... my best friends from college and I are in this stage and we're the last couple without kids. In just 4 years, we've gone from seeing each other all the time to not getting together as a group in 2 years)
4) Realizing you're with the perfect person for you and losing them too young (I have a friend who has experienced this, and it is excruciating)

We talked about that last part a lot. I lost it when I saw Ted with Tracy in the hospital because it was really easy for me to see my wife in the bed and me reading a book to her.

She made a good point, though. That if something like that DID happen, she thinks I would eventually remarry one of two girls that both have Scherbatsky-like connections to me (One a serious ex ... we broke up due to wanting different things out of life, kind of like Robin and Ted; the other is a good friend who fits the drinking buddy/longtime friend side of the equation).

Anyway, talking through it all brought me back around to a place where I can like it. Even if it caused some pain.