I should start this post off with a fair warning. If you have not seen the finale of How I Met Your Mother and do not want to be spoiled, stop reading now.
No really. Stop reading.
Okay. For those of you who have either seen it, or don't care about spoilers, the finale of How I Met Your Mother aired on Monday night. I contemplated writing this post yesterday but instead I decided to wait a day to let my emotions cool down before diving in.
Short review of the episode: I hated it.
I've been watching this show for years. The entire premise of the show has been Ted attempting to meet "The One" and along the way we get to know his friends. The story is told from the perspective of older Ted telling his kids the story of how he met their mother...which is a really awesome concept for a show, if you think about it. Along the way, Ted dates SEVERAL different women, each proving not to be "The One." We learn about his friends, Robin, Marshall, Lily, and Barney. In the course of the show, Marshall and Lily get married and start a family, and the entire last season is devoted to the wedding of Barney and Robin (remember that. It becomes relevant in a later rant).
Another huge part of the show is Ted getting over Robin. In the first few seasons, Ted and Robin date. And it ends in disaster. They realize they are not compatible in many ways and that their relationship is unhealthy. They develop a close friendship, but much of the show is devoted to Ted wondering if he maybe screwed things up with Robin.
But on the same token, that part of the show is also devoted to watching Ted get past his feelings for Robin....to the point where in last week's episode he told Robin he would not run away with her at her wedding because he would NEVER get between her and Barney.
I choose to believe the show ended last week, with the addition of the scene from this week with Ted meeting the mother.
Basically I am angry that 9 years of character development was thrown down the drain for sake of a relationship that ended years ago.
For shame, writers. For. Shame.
Basically, this.
ReplyDeleteI remember the LOST finale: how, throughout the entire series, people said that the writers had a plan, that they knew how it was going to end. Say what you will about that finale: it had emotional resolution that made sense for each character (well, mostly, but that's a different rant entirely). I think the problem with the HIMYM finale is that they knew how it was going to end from the beginning, as evidenced by the next to last scene with the kids, which was filmed when the series started. The problem is... the show got popular, so the creators got more seasons then they'd bargained for. Which meant that the characters developed and changed, and the original ending no longer fit very well. So they did what they did in the very rushed finale to try and make it work, when really they needed to adapt it and alter it. It's infuriating, especially because there were moments I liked, especially involving the Mother. This doesn't ruin the entire show for me, but I agree - I'm pretending the show ended last week.
I also remember reading an interview at one point that they never anticipated the Barney/Robin storyline to be as popular as it became. I can deal with them splitting up...shit happens in life and this show has never been one to shy away from reality. It just seemed so out of the blue though. And I'm angry that the mother ended up not having the fitting end she deserved and the focus immediately shifted to the kids asking if he wanted to date Robin. Ugh. Feels.
DeleteLove this show so much. I will never watch the finale again though.