How I Met Your Mother - General Discussion

[Kromm]

Wow. I don't have the words for how bad that was.  On every level.

[Kromm]

 

Why did it take Ted and Tracy so long to get married after they met?

Because she was nothing more than a cheap plot device and so the writers didn't bother to properly think out how to illustrate their time together?  They maybe hoped that it could de-emphasize Tracy's importance in Ted's life a bit to position things for that final "slam dunk" with Robin to subvert so much of the series?

What this made clear were a few things.  1.) That from Year 1 they knew Robin wasn't the Mother, because the footage was there to have the kids discussing Robin in other terms.  But that 2.) The show totally fucked up even allowing the Barney & Robin relationship to happen.  It cheapened everything.  Then add to that the GREED of an extra season and fleshing out the Mother for us-only to toss her away.

The only way to have Robin be the endgame for Ted and yet not have her be The Mother which could have possibly worked was if Robin really was the one that got away, in a real sense, and NOT with all the shmoopy bullshit making the Mother out to be so important, and Robin and Barney to be such horrible human beings. The Mother in this ideal scenario should NEVER have appeared on screen.  Even for a moment.  And Robin should have been a lot more worthy.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Kromm

[Dilandau]

I think what annoys me most about the ending is that they HAD the perfect ending right there. If they had just ended with Ted and Tracy comparing notes under the umbrella that would have been an adorable way to end the series. But then they screwed it up.

[Kromm]

I think what annoys me most about the ending is that they HAD the perfect ending right there. If they had just ended with Ted and Tracy comparing notes under the umbrella that would have been an adorable way to end the series. But then they screwed it up.

This is not a defense of what they did, because it was utter flaming bullshit.  But I think they felt very committed to using that old footage of the kids and that had to steer the ending.

On one level I don't even completely disagree.  What that does moves the mistakes--the two incredible time wasting audience insulting mistakes--to even allowing Robin to deteriorate into someone the viewers loathed and the other mistake into allowing the Mother to appear onscreen at ALL (with an actress who totally killed) allowing viewers to grow and love her.

[Brian Cronin]

Yeah, they had the makings of a great finale but they screwed it up due to their blind devotion to the twist they had come up with eight years ago. But worst of all. they became so obsessed with keeping the twist a "secret" (a secret everyone guessed anyways, but still) that they couldn't even properly set it up because then it wouldn't be a surprise twist and that was more important than making the story make sense. 

[Kromm]

I gotta say, I bet the showrunners wake up tomorrow with a REALLY nasty surprise when feelings on boards like this migrate to people's blogs, then to online articles/reviews, then to print media and TV, and pretty quickly they'll know this is now the worst TV ending in history.

I think.  To be clear I guess I don't know for sure.  But I sure feel like its going to pan out exactly that way.  How the Seinfeld people felt after their finale will be noting next to this.  

And pretty soon, they'll start being asked questions in interviews and they're gonna get REALLY defensive. Just wait and see...

Yeah, they had the makings of a great finale but they screwed it up due to their blind devotion to the twist they had come up with eight years ago. 

Actually I debate even that.  The one scene--the first meeting in the train station--was genius. But virtually everything else in the episode sucked--not just the final moments. Even the editing sucked.  For example, the moment where they jumped from the wedding reception TO that scene on the train platform was probably the single clunkiest cut I've ever seen actually broadcast on TV.  Ever.

[Brian Cronin]

 

 

I gotta say, I bet the showrunners wake up tomorrow with a REALLY nasty surprise when feelings on boards like this migrate to people's blogs, then to online articles/reviews, then to print media and TV, and pretty quickly they'll know this is now the worst TV ending in history.

I think.  To be clear I guess I don't know for sure.  But I sure feel like its going to pan out exactly that way.  How the Seinfeld people felt after their finale will be noting next to this.

I think other shows have had similar bad endings, but the problem here was that, like Seinfeld and Lost, people were specifically tuning in to see how it ended. Roseanne, on the other hand, which had an ending probably even worse than this one, no one even watched and people barely remember it. 

[niklj]

 

I think I just heard half the internet scream in rage.  Was anyone actually hoping for that outcome?

You probably heard me screaming in absolute joy. I couldn't believe it. They...they actually made me love this show again, right before it ended.

Ted never got over Robin, no matter how many outs they gave him. And Robin never got over Ted, no matter how many ways they tried to morph Barney and Robin's characters to fit each other (as friends, they are fantastic, but as romantic partners I thought they lost too much of themselves). Even to their wedding day, who got Robin's locket back for her? Ted. Ted and Robin were always there for each other and this ending, with their random encounters as they aged, proved that.

I loved it. Farewell, HIMYM.

(OK they never solved a few mysteries and Barney never received his final slap, but that won't be what I remember in the end anyway.)

[Kromm]

Barney got his final slap in the previous episode.  They made quite a big deal of it.

As far as this bending back to Robin and liking that? I'd respect that more if Robin hadn't been dragged through the mud so much. Making her unworthy and illustrating that over YEARS of the show is what ruined the finale, not the choices in the finale itself.

[niklj]

Barney got his final slap in the previous episode.  They made quite a big deal of it.

As far as this bending back to Robin and liking that? I'd respect that more if Robin hadn't been dragged through the mud so much. Making her unworthy and illustrating that over YEARS of the show is what ruined the finale, not the choices in the finale itself.

Ah thanks for clearing that up, you're right. I think I tuned out near the end of that episode so I missed it.

I will admit that this episode was pretty rushed but upon reflection, I guess that's why there was so little focus on the mother this last season and rather on the concept of Ted and the gang learning how to grow up with each other as their lives were changing so drastically. How one day you could be the best of friends with someone and then suddenly they drop off the face of the earth, just the same as that stranger you meet could one day become your best friend.

Exploring relationships like this is where I felt HIMYM was always strongest (and some of those concepts hit close to home) so I liked that it began with the gang meeting Robin, losing her, and then maybe reconnecting once again. It was rather hopeful.

By the end of the episode, both Ted and Robin had gotten most of what they wanted out of life like the rest of the gang had; there really wasn't anything anymore holding them back from each other.

Life is unpredictable and so was that finale, and ultimately I'm happier for it.

(I just realized I'm posting this after 2 AM haha.)

[ShellSeeker]

OMG. I am so glad I stopped even hate-watching this show a couple years ago, because had I invested another 2 years in it, last night would have induced Soprano-like levels of rage.

For me the tired old cliche of the love Barney/Robin/Ted love triangle ruined the show. First of all, because it's just been done to death, and second of all, Robin became such a wretched shrieking harpy that I could not understand how not just one but two men found her so alluring that they spent years upon years basically competing for her affections.

The whole stupid Barney/Robin romance made the show veer wildly off course, and it was no longer about Ted meeting The Mother, but a will-they-or-won't-they exercise for Barney and Robin. The whole idea of focusing the entire last season on the wedding weekend was completely asinine and 20+ episodes of squandered opportunities for character development and growth.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Glad I got over this show a couple years ago, and very sorry to those of you that stuck it out until the end, only to have to endure this absolutely awful ending.

[CaseyMcCall]

Dear Lord. The ending that everyone predicted (from "Time Travellers", "Vesuvius", the way Ted/Robin refused to die) but I never thought in a million years would actually happen. Totally obvious yet utterly shocking in its awfulness. 

The creators apparently knew the ending in S2 and just "forgot" about everything else to try and shoehorn their original idea into the finale. Robin and Barney apparently couldn't make any compromises to make their marriage work, despite them being willing to make changes for each other in S8-9. Robin is somehow still in love with Ted in 2030, a man she doesn't really know any more, despite not being in love with him when they actually hung out and knew each other from S4-9, to the point that she happily married someone else.

Lily and Marshall were fine but everyone else's ending depressed me. Barney lost his wife and gave up on true love, and gaining a daughter doesn't make up for that (his daughter isn't a confidante or companion, and she'll eventually grow up and move on). Robin was the offensively cliched sad career woman (don't most successful journalists have partners and/or families? Why couldn't Robin have both?) Ted ended up "living in his stories" like Tracy warned him not to - with the blue french horn, he was still chasing the twentysomething dream of what love/romance might be rather than someone who he was actually compatible with.

There was also an icky Nice Guy Syndrome wish fulfilment to Ted/Robin - Robin was Ted's "reward" for all his pain and longing, regardless of Robin's own feelings up to that point and their very real lack of compatibility.

No idea why Ted's kids were 1) so bitchy about hearing about their dead mother or 2) so okay with Ted chasing someone who he'd apparently been in love with throughout his marriage to their mother.

From their comments about the Cheers finale, I thought that we'd get an ending that was about everyone finally saying goodbye to their young Manhattan/McLarens life, growing up and moving on. I think there could have been real bittersweetness just in acknowledging how things change as time passes. I could even accept Barney and Robin divorcing and/or the Mother dying if it served a purpose beyond awkwardly slamming Ted and Robin back together.

I rewatched the show on Netflix recently and refound some of my old affection for it, but yeah, that's gone now. Never watching this show again, or HIMYD. Classic case of the creators' "vision" blinding them to who their characters actually were and what their show had actually become.

[b2H]

I'm one of those viewers who often show up for the last episode of something based on the hype.

It wasn't too hard to piece everything together, and I loved the scene with Barney talking to his daughter for the first time and using his pick-up line on her.  Very touching.

But there was one thing that was clearly an inside idea that I couldn't figure out:  in the final scene, when he's standing outside the apartment, he holds up a blue french horn.  It's gotta have some significance.  Anyone??

[Dilandau]

Another thing that bothered me about the finale is Barney's "redemption." Now that he has a daughter he can view women who aren't his friends as human beings, yay! And how does he demonstrate that? By patronizingly telling two women to go home and "put on some clothes." Are you serious? Ugh, gross.

[ApathyMonger]

But there was one thing that was clearly an inside idea that I couldn't figure out:  in the final scene, when he's standing outside the apartment, he holds up a blue french horn.  It's gotta have some significance.  Anyone??

Yeah, it's from the first episode. It's stupid.

I didn't hate the finale as a whole, but that last five minutes dragged everything down. Ugh.

Edited April 1, 2014 by ApathyMonger

[AzraelKay]

I hated it. I never particularly liked Ted and Robin together.  And somehow, there is just an "ick" factor with her going back and forth between two best friends, even having married one, and then going back to the first one.  One of my least fave series finales ever.  

[terrymct]

Even if I didn't have a problem with the ending, the reaction of the kids rings so false to me. It's fine that they are encouraging Ted to move on, but the unfeeling and offhand way they talk about their own father having actually always been in love with someone else was ridiculous, and not at all "true to life" which is sometimes cited in defense of the mother's death. 

This was my problem with the finale, as well.  One of those kids should have said "You mean that you never really loved Mom?".   The only way the ending would have worked was for Ted to realize over time after Tracy's death that he loves Robin, his best (female) friend.  Otherwise, it just feels really skeevy.

[swimmyfish]

On the plus side, NPH acted the heck out of Barney's scene with his daughter. While all of that emotion was completely unearned, I came this close to buying it.

There was one other thing about the finale that I liked, something to do with Ted, but I don't remember what it was anymore. Instead, I wonder why Robin, in all of her years of international travel and not hanging out with the gang, never met someone else that she connected with. That seems like bull.

Also, while I object on principle to Ted and Robin getting back together, I object even more strongly to the specific way they got back together. Blue French Horn? Didn't we just spend the whole last episode learning that Ted's not that guy anymore?  But no - apparently  Ted's whole life with The Mother was just a re-spawn. Nice.

While this ending was apparently planned for a while (with the bit with the kids being filmed several years ago), it really smacks of the writers wanting to have their cake and eat it, too.

[Laura527]

Skeevy is right.  Ted and Robin together are skeevy.  Barney long ago went from funny to skeevy (sleeping with a different woman every day for a month?  that is just gross).  I hate-watched most of this season and wish I hadn't wasted the time.  Cristin Milioti was the best thing that happened to this show in years - how could they screw up the ending so badly???

[Boundary]

While this ending was apparently planned for a while (with the bit with the kids being filmed several years ago), it really smacks of the writers wanting to have their cake and eat it, too.

This. While it was very clever for them to plan for this by filming it years ago, it should've been just an option. They weren't obligated to use it. Ted/Robin ceased to be a viable finale option a long time ago and Cristin was better than anyone could have believed, it seems so harsh to sweep her under the carpet so that Robin can become the end game. Even her death was off screen, too unimportant to cram into the hour finale.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Boundary

[Izzy Gal]

This was my problem with the finale, as well.  One of those kids should have said "You mean that you never really loved Mom?".   The only way the ending would have worked was for Ted to realize over time after Tracy's death that he loves Robin, his best (female) friend.  Otherwise, it just feels really skeevy.

I agree with you both,.  I would have been ok with the mother dying, Ted moving on, heck I might have even been ok with him ending up with Robin (though I would have probably rolled my eyes out of their sockets) if they had handled it better.  The kids reaction did feel really skeevy. Yes, it's been six years since their mother died - but come on, it was their MOTHER.  They just heard a long story about how their father was forever hung up on an ex-girlfriend and their response is "Oh cool - you obviously love Aunt Robin, go for it!"  No, a thousand times, no. 

[Rhetorica]

I'm one if the few. I loved it. There were no surprises; the mother's death and end game of Ted and Robin were telegraphed clearly. So if this was the end game, I thought it was well done. The scene with Ted & Tracy meeting was beautiful and had me tearing up. I thought they wrapped it up as well as as could be expected since they knew the finale for nine years.

[ApathyMonger]

I really liked Linda Holmes' piece on the finale: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2014/04/01/297675381/oh-mother-an-awful-end-to-a-long-love-story

[Jediknight]

On a scale of 1-10, it sucked.

Horrible, horrible ending.  They introduce The Mother, she's awesome, she has great chemistry with Ted, we get invested in her, and she's just a plot point for Ted to be with his real love, Robin.

I did like Barney telling those girls not to drink in the bar on Thursday morning.  The baby changed him, and he saw those girls would be perfect prey for an asshole like he used to be.

End it at the train station, and it would have been a perfect finale.  At least William Zabka, Marhsall and Lily got a happy ending, and Barney actually became a good guy.

[starrywonder]

This was an awful finale. I have no idea what the writers and even the actors were thinking. They really should have ended it with Tracey and Ted under the yellow umbrella. If you are going to show anything after that show that Ted went back to the Perfect Match place and was looking into dating again. Anything but having him end up with Robin again after the audience watching for 9 years and seeing that their relationship didn't work at all ever.

Robin only wanted Ted when he was with someone. Ted loved Robin as an ideal and not at all for who she really was inside. I know he was fine with her not having kids but he would not have been fine with Robin traveling, not settling down in NYC with him, etc. that is what broke them up the first time.

They redeemed Barney so many times and then reverted his character NPH should sue for whiplash. Honesly I also understood and felt that Robin and Barney were in love and they worked for each other. It was a dumb reason to say that they divorced over wi-fi. Seriously? Get real.

And I ended up despising Lily and Marshall the last few seasons, they were insufferable as anything.

This show has not been funny since season 4 and it makes me sad that I sloughed through 9 seasons for this finale which the audience did not deserve.

[Rinaldo]

I bet the producers of Lost are heaving a big sigh of relief today -- at last another series has displaced them in the spotlight for discussion of Disappointing Finales (and yes, I'm aware that that finale has always had defenders too). It'll be a while before a new one displaces it, I imagine, given that the whole series was based on teasing us to wait and see how it ends.

That's the thing (for me). I really don't think a TV series should think about "giving the fans what they want" (except in the most general sense that if what you're creating is clearly not working for anybody, you might want to stop and reassess if it's coming across as you imagined). By all means give the fans something different and better than they could have imagined; that's creativity. But... a series creates its own parameters. As it progresses, it establishes the "givens" and the expectations that it's going to fulfill -- perhaps without the creators quite consciously realizing it, at first. And this was, as it developed, a show about the mystical rightness of fate steering Ted and his one right life partner together. I get that in Season 2, for a few minutes, it seemed that ending up with Robin looked attractive. But that's not where the show went, so they should have scrapped that plan and figured out where the series they actually wrote was going.

That put a lot of weight on the end; how in the world will you find an actress for the mother who won't be a huge letdown. And, miracle of miracles, they did! Cristin Milioti was a joy. And then they trashed her and the whole direction they had themselves found for the series, in service of a stupid idea from eight years ago. Permanent bleaugh.

[anniebell]

Please tell me, I didn't spend nine years watching this TV show title "How I Met Your Mother", finally meet the Mother and really fall in love with her character only to have Ted & Robin end up together? Seriously?  That end scene was ridiculous.  I could accept the mother dying what I cannot accept is after years of the writers showing us how Ted & Robin clearly don't belong together, that is our end game.

I have zero desire to watch reruns, buy DVDs or watch How I Met Your Father. 

[Tara Ariano]

Omar wasn't crazy about the finale either -- here's his (final) post!

As a pretty independent person who never wanted kids, I've always identified with Robin, so the way they sold out her character is especially sad for me. One of the attributes Barney loved most about her was that, as he put it, she's always been her own "daddy," but when they get married, he can't handle her success? Learn that lesson, ladies: don't be too good at your job, or you'll drive your man away!!!

[random chance]

I will always believe that Barney was such a sociopathic womanizing immature bastard because Ted is telling this story. What's that saying, history is written by the winners?

[wudntulik2know]

Wow. Looks like this show did a Lumberjack finale.

Glad I never watched it.

[BindsTheTuna]

It was the worst ending in the history of endings. The Worst.

[Rinaldo]

Because Tracy deserves a thread where she can be remembered by her name (which lasted about one minute in show time), and by the value she added to this series in its final season.

What are the odds? After all the mystery and buildup, how do you find an actress who's a fresh face to the audience and who won't be a letdown after 8 years of waiting? And they FOUND her, and Cristin Milioti was sensational: cute, funny, just as snarky as all the others, interacting ideally with all the regulars... we couldn't have hoped for better. So they minimized and then trashed her. Jerks.

Still, that's not Cristin's fault. She'll go on to (much) better things.

[Potanical Pardon]

Man, that editing with the previously-shot footage. So bad.

[Rinaldo]

Omar's writeup is good, and insightful, and a refreshing change of tone after the (justified) anger in the other reviews I've seen for this episode. But I do think he's wrong, unfortunately, when he says

That doesn't mean we can't remember the good times we used to have

It may be true of life in general, and of most TV series with disappointing ends, but when an entire series has been pointed toward how it's going to turn out, where fate is going to put everybody -- then I think it does ruin everything that came before. At least right now, I can't imagine ever wanting to watch any of the earlier episodes ever again. They're permanently soured.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Rinaldo

[MacGuffin]

She was great!

Thanks for killing her off after you actually pulled off the impossible task of finding someone that had chemistry and fit with the rest of the cast. Kudos!

The entire final season should have been about her integrating with the group.

[April Bloodgate]

I disagree, Rinaldo. I think fans can enjoy individual episodes in the back-catalog for their humor. We just probably won't be able to binge-watch again and get invested in long-term story lines.

[etagloh]

 

I bet the showrunners wake up tomorrow with a REALLY nasty surprise

I doubt that. We can argue about just how "too long" the show has run -- should it have been a short S9 in the Purgatory Inn? should it have wrapped at S8? were the last three or four seasons increasingly Flanderized and padded with filler? -- but the people who've followed HIMYM since its early, brilliant beginnings have been pining for and dwelling on those first few seasons a long time, and it's hard to believe the showrunners weren't aware of that.

Which, I suppose, made it a fitting finale. There was both a weariness about it, and the desire to complete the circle. And that's where it failed in its final few minutes, I think, by trying to have it both ways: the entire momentum of the finale was centrifugal: people get older, the things they have in common diminish, the bonds they have grow weaker, and while they can reconnect at the big moments, you can't go back to those places. But even as those bonds weaken, they propel you forward in other ways. But then there's Robin with her dogs, and Ted with that bloody blue French horn.

And the show can't undo the way it's treated its characters in later seasons (especially Robin, who was diminished in the attempt to pair her off with Barney, and was "cold and aloof" at the end when she finally got the career promised to her in early seasons) which is why forcing an ending imagined in S2 upon them feels so very uncomfortable.

[Kat From Jersey]

I *loved* The Mother/Tracy!  I loved her by herself (in fact, one of my favorite episodes ever was this season's ep that showed her story); I loved her with Ted.  They were adorable together, and I think they had such chemistry.

I get the impression that the show-runners had the finale planned out way at the beginning of the series, and didn't plan on The Mother having such charisma.  They should have ditched their original plan and ran with Tracy and Ted.  So they pretty much suck.

[Lisin]

I am just happy I was right. I mean don't get me wrong, I hated being right, but at the same time since I didn't like the episode it's the only pleasure I can take. 

[Omar G.]

Omar's writeup is good, and insightful, and a refreshing change of tone after the (justified) anger in the other reviews I've seen for this episode. But I do think he's wrong, unfortunately, when he says

It may be true of life in general, and of most TV series with disappointing ends, but when an entire series has been pointed toward how it's going to turn out, where fate is going to put everybody -- then I think it does ruin everything that came before. At least right now, I can't imagine ever wanting to watch any of the earlier episodes ever again. They're permanently soured.

I feel like I could still watch Slap Bet or the episodes this season that were heavy on The Mother. I think taken out of context, the episode where Robin finds out she can't have kids is still poignant.  Am I gonna watch them this week? No way. But I would watch some of them in syndication down the road once the sting of the finale has worn off.

[ADawn05]

Mark me down as disappointed. The one scene I really liked though was when Ted actually finally meets the mother (imagine that). I like Cristin Milioti and wish they would have done more with her.

[LulaMaeBarnes]

I am another of the rare voices that actually liked the finale. My much bigger problem was the terrible decision of stringing out the final season over one weekend, and the fact that it was getting harder and harder over the last couple of series to remember why I liked the characters so much in the first place all those years ago when I first saw them. I know it was a sitcom, but it never shied away from dealing with real life (the best executed example for me was when Marshall's dad died).  I am a bit older than the characters on the show and the realism of everyone's future,  particularly Robin and Barney's divorce  and the mother dying didn't feel completely contrived. (Note, I must add the caveat that a 30 second explanation that Robin & Barney's marriage wasn't working because of Robin's job did a huge disservice to both characters, especially Barney.) I loved Cristin Milioti as the mother and I believed completely in her relationship with Ted and that they were really happy.  I loved the scene at the train station - it was beautiful, and definitely delivered what I had been waiting for.  But as the flash forwards were progressing, I also started liking Robin again and somehow Cobie Smulders convinced me that she could be the person she had been earlier on in the series - the one Ted would steal a blue French horn for, rather than the one who screams at Patrice like a banshee.  Do they live happily ever after? Who knows. But it was believable to me that if Ted was going to move on, he would try to do so with Robin.

[Helena Dax]

This is a mess. I only liked the scene with Barney and the baby and some scenes with  Ted and the Dead Mother. I shipped Barney/Robin at the beginning because they had an interesting non-conventional relationship, but then the writers started to screw with  it. Well,  of course, since now we know it wasn't meant to be. Ted/Robin was meant to be, apparently, but by the time it happened -the last scene- most of us were tired of that couple. 

And funny thing is I think Ted/Robin could work if we watched the show assuming they're endgame. But we've been told for  years they weren't. That the Mother was The One.  

Really, I don't  get it.

[SamIAm]

I'm with Omar here that there are plenty of brilliant moments from earlier seasons that I could watch over and over again and still find them funny.  I'm pretty sure the episode where Marshall's dad died could still make me cry again too.  The finale totally sucked balls, yes and I wish it had ended differently.  But I will still watch one of my previous season DVDs and laugh.

[purplemouth]

I was not happy with the ending of this show, but I had even more issues with the episode/season itself. Terrible editing and it felt so rushed.

Making the whole season a single weekend leading up to the wedding (and we got the first wedding scene in season 8? 7?) was a mistake. The concept would have worked in an earlier season, but there was just too many loose ends that needed to be tied up to keep them sequestered in a strange place all season. I felt like the finale was just checking off boxes of things that needed to be said or done.

Are we supposed to believe Robin is "The One" (TM Jack Donaghy)? Nope. Tracy was perfect for Ted. I have disliked Ted for many seasons, but she really brought out the best in him. The finale wasn't about how he met their mother. It was about how meeting their mother kept him in town so he could end up with Aunt Robin 15 years later. I'm not angry he ended up with Robin, but I do not like how they got their. Had we had the whole season to get to know the mom, maybe more time with her sick, more scenes with Robin and the gang after Ted and Tracy's wedding, it may have felt more organic for them to end up together.

I will look back on this fondly because even when I was watching out of obligation, it made me laugh and made me care about some of the characters, but it's still a disappointing ending.  

[Iseut]

I probably will eventually watch some of my favorite reruns every so often, mostly the one-offs that have more to do with people in their late-20s/early-30s hanging out in the early '00s. I'm the same age as these characters so a lot of their experiences and pop culture references were relatable and that was a big part of why I liked the show so much.

But I agree with most here that they will at least be somewhat soured. The first appearance of the blue French horn and then the blue orchestra, which were adorable and hugely romantic at first viewing, will now make me throw things at the TV.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Iseut

[Happy Harpy]

OK, so, in a nutshell, Monica died and Chandler reunited with his first love Janice at the urging of the twins, while Ross and Rachel divorced less than fifteen minutes into the series finale after the whole year was about their wedding day?  I'm so glad that I'm part of the Friends generation. I'll take "lukewarm" yet feel good over "burning down the house" and "this is my middle finger, thanks for the 9 years-long high ratings and support" any day. I was a tad envious of the HIMYM fans for getting such a satisfying payback with the mother -but happy for them- now I feel sorry for the kick in the teeth/shin many of them seem to have felt (except the Ted/Robin shippers first who got what they wanted! Edit: mostly, it seems, not only!).

I was never invested in HIMYM, but I watched casually this year since I was positively amazed, after a pure curiosity check, that the Mother lived up to 8, eight, ocho, hachi, huit, years of hype. I was bored -as I always was, sorry- by everything but the way she fit and her scenes. I don't know if anything like his ever happened in TV shows history: How many "ghost" characters, talked about for so long, happened to be utterly likeable, have such chemistry with the core characters, and fit like a glove?  I can't think of one. So I think I was witness to a WTF of epic proportions with that series finale.

I can't believe, I just can't believe that those showrunners struck gold like three of four generations of TV shows wished their main couple had from the start, before there even was any pressure from hype, and threw it all away in something like twenty minutes. And I just can't believe they did it, the way they did it, while they have a spinoff to sell.  I, for one, won't watch a show if I can't trust the showrunners to respect an implicit moral contract. What I consider fair game on Game of Thrones or Six Feet Under or the Walking Dead isn't on a network comedy -or dramedy, schlomedy, whatever. Recalling a show with fondness, not bitterness, is imo important for its legacy; and I wonder if HIMYM will benefit from the fondness after such a finale?

Edited April 1, 2014 by Happy Harpy

[Moviesnob]

I didn't hate it, and I didn't love it. It was ok. I've seen where they were going over the past few weeks, so I'm not surprised at the outcome. 

I just don't get their execution. It felt so rushed - especially the last five minutes. I appreciate the realism of someone finally drifting out of the group. I can also fanwank pretty much most of the gaps - IE I see how Robin's life has changed from when Ted's wife died to six years later (she appears to have settled down a bit, and gone back to being in one place for a while, with the dogs).  It's also evident from the kids conversation that Robin is back in their lives, at least somewhat regularly. They are both in places where things are right for them to be together.  I don't feel like the relationship he had with the mother was invalidated, but I just don't get why they showed us the timeline they did. They needed more time to establish that they are in a place for each other, and to not make it feel like the mother was a placeholder for Robin, and not just dump it all in the last five minutes.

If this ending had come three or so years ago, would've been a totally different ballgame. I know they filmed one scene like 7 years ago and they wanted to stick with their plan, but I wish they had been more open to changing their vision.  Why they didn't want to give the audience more time with the mother is really evident now - most folks fell in love with her just from her slight screen time, and they effectively assassinated Robin's character and her chemistry with Ted over the past few years. It just wasn't the right time for that ending anymore, at least not in the way they presented it. 

ALSO - Ted waiting five years to marry the mother? What? No way.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Moviesnob

[Kromm]

Links to articles and reportage on the show go here!

The New York Times plays nice with the finale:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/arts/television/how-i-met-your-mother-ends-with-twists-expected-and-sweet.html?_r=0

TIME Magazine also plays nice, but unlike the NYT at least recognizes that people are upset:  http://time.com/44970/three-reasons-himym-finale/

TODAY reports on fans being upset:  http://www.today.com/entertainment/how-i-met-your-mother-slaps-its-fans-series-finale-2D79463458

E!'s Kristen points us to Craig Thomas' post-show reactions on Twitter:  http://www.eonline.com/news/527130/how-i-met-your-mother-boss-responds-to-fans-after-controversial-series-finale

Two people debate the worth of the finale on E!:  http://www.eonline.com/news/527227/in-defense-of-the-how-i-met-your-mother-finale

[Kromm]

HuffPo:  A fairly viscous knocking on the finale:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/claire-fallon/how-i-met-your-mother-mee_b_5071662.html