How I Met Your Mother

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

Which would've been fine if the show ended with Season 5.

Exactly - the entire latter half of the series established - REPEATEDLY - that Robin was not the right person for Ted. Ever. In any way, in fact. They almost overdid it.

And sure, maybe 50 yr old Ted was a changed man - but we didn't see any of that. It wasn't part of the show. It didn't matter. So why is this sudden flip at all relevant to the series and how did it contribute to it?

It's Game of Thrones levels of awful.

[BWillie]

I don't know how any of you could dislike the mother's character. She's the most likeable one on the show, would have been fine with me if they would have just left it be with the six of them being old happy and reminiscing at mcclarens at the end

[phisherman]

The issue with HIMYM is ultimately that it should've ended 4 seasons ago, but ratings were high, and you've got to keep milking the cow.

[KCFaninSEA]

I quit watching this show a while back but had to tune in last night to see how it all ended. I actually liked the ending and was a bit thrown for a loop by the "mother" being killed off.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by KCFaninSEA

I quit watching this show a while back but had to tune in last night to see how it all ended. I actually liked the ending and was a bit thrown for a loop by the "mother" being killed off.

That's why i got the Robin ending. I think they had to kill her off, but the show couldn't end on that note.

[ragedogg69]

Also, Sepinwall says that the huge number HIMYM did last night means it is a sure thing that How i met your Dad will be picked up. He also notes that there may be a backlash in viewership for it.

Carter and Bays are pulling a Lindelof and Cuse and are not answering any questions....

[Discuss Thrower]

I'm just going to pretend this is how it ended:

[Deberg_1990]

I've never seen the Pilot, but Sepinwall is saying that the writers got trapped by the Robin line in the pilot.




"
Because they wanted to make their pilot seem unpredictable enough to catch the attention of a CBS development exec way back in the script stage, they added the Aunt Robin gag at the end. But they couldn't have known at the time just how good Radnor and Smulders would be together, how much the fans would want to see them be together, and how hard it would be to come up with another pairing that equaled it. (Though in isolated moments before Cristin Milioti turned up, Victoria and Stella sure came close.)

Then once the Ted/Robin sparks became too powerful to ignore, they began looking for ways around the trap they'd set for themselves in the pilot. As Bays noted, they were bound by what the narrator told us, and as Thomas insisted, Robin would not be revealed to be the kids' mother. But there was nothing in that narration that said that Ted and the Mother still had to be together in 2030. And that gave them an out, and another opportunity to be clever. Because they knew the kids were aging, they could film their reactions now, and save them for whenever the show ended — which, at that pre-Britney Spears phase when "HIMYM" lived perpetually on the bubble, seemed like it could be in another year or two at best — and they would be all set, and their fans would be happy and impressed by both their forethought and creativity."



Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-wat...8WuJVBQzEYO.99

[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".

[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.

[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.