How I Met Your Father - General Discussion

[BetterButter]

 

[peachmangosteen]

I still have HIMYM ptsd and the promo for this was like legit horrible. And yet, I still feel like I'll be watching lol.

[Scarlett45]

I did not see HIMYF but I like Hilary Duff and I think Kim Catrall would be fun as a narrator, I may check this out. I liked the trailer.  

[Door County Cherry]

3 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

I still have HIMYM ptsd and the promo for this was like legit horrible. And yet, I still feel like I'll be watching lol.

I thought the trailer was actually decent in that I see a lot of qualities that I miss in sitcoms and things that will hopefully play better in context.

And I hate it because---yes---HIMYM.  

[peachmangosteen]

The acting all just seemed so bad in the trailer to me. And I have a sort of weird aversion to both Hilary Duff and Christopher Lowell, which probably contributes to it. And yet again, I will be watching it lol.

[WendyCR72]

21 hours ago, Door County Cherry said:

And I hate it because---yes---HIMYM

God, the ending to that STILL makes me ragey. After it all ended, I got rid of my DVDs.

[Spartan Girl]

Let’s hope this one will have a better ending.

[WendyCR72]

Just now, Spartan Girl said:

Let’s hope this one will have a better ending.

If it even makes it a season. Based on that trailer, I'm not hopeful.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

If it even makes it a season. Based on that trailer, I'm not hopeful.

It’s on Hulu and it’s only 10 episodes so the whole season will be released. 

2 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Let’s hope this one will have a better ending.

Fortunately Carter/Bays are much less involved in this so hopefully the new showrunners won’t  make the same mistakes. 

On 12/17/2021 at 6:08 PM, Door County Cherry said:

I thought the trailer was actually decent in that I see a lot of qualities that I miss in sitcoms and things that will hopefully play better in context.

And I hate it because---yes---HIMYM.  

I completely agree. I miss this style of sitcom but it’s hard to erase the bitterness from HIMYM. 

[peachmangosteen]

10 hours ago, Dani said:

Fortunately Carter/Bays are much less involved in this

Great news lol!

Do we know if all the episodes are being released at once?

[marypat57]

After the debacle that was the finale of HIMYM, I vowed never to watch even a single episode in syndication.  I have not broken that vow.

From viewing the trailer of this show, I fear more of the same, so I don’t even want to begin to watch HIMYF.

[NotChristine]

On 12/20/2021 at 9:55 AM, peachmangosteen said:

Great news lol!

Do we know if all the episodes are being released at once?

According to this article, 2 eps on premiere date then 1 ep weekly.

[Trini]

23 hours ago, marypat57 said:

After the debacle that was the finale of HIMYM, I vowed never to watch even a single episode in syndication.  I have not broken that vow.

From viewing the trailer of this show, I fear more of the same, so I don’t even want to begin to watch HIMYF.

I get it. I kinda want to give this a chance, but the negative associations to HIMYM are very strong.

[Virtual]

I liked Hilary Duff when I was younger and still do, but I question how this show will do. Hopefully there’s something up their sleeves that we don’t know about.

[Jillybean]

The laugh track...UGH. This isn't terrible, it isn't amazing. It may have potential but the laugh track dates it terribly.

[Aulty]

I watched the first two episodes and find it likeable enough. Its surprisingly unlike HIMYM in some aspects, but there are subtle connections and its refreshing that the premise is slightly different aswell.
I was getting a bit bored with Hilary on Younger, but she is very lively in this. Love Kim Catrall.

[tennisgurl]

I am going towards this torn between the show having a really solid cast and having been burned by How I Met Your Mother's terrible finale that retroactively ruined the entire show. The ending was just so awful that I never watched another HIMYM episode in repeats and have sworn to stay away from any of the show runners projects, but I really do love Hilary Duff and I know that the show runners here don't have as much creative control so I feel like I should at least give this a try. 

The first few episodes were rather clunky in the way that pilots often are, especially the future scenes, as awesome as Kim Catrall is, but I did get a few laughs, Hilary is a likable lead with a solid supporting cast around her,  including Chris Lowell, who I always love to see, and I like that they started out with a different twist then the original show had. There were some nice HIMYM shout outs, especially the one at the end, but I don't know if I really consider that a good thing. Have I mentioned that I'm bitter? It could actually be one of the worst, most insulting series finales I have ever seen in my life, I don't know if I can trust anything connected to that shitshow. Hopefully they learned their lesson from the backlash?

Edited January 18, 2022 by tennisgurl

[Trillium]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

I am going towards this torn between the show having a really solid cast and having been burned by How I Met Your Mother's terrible finale that retroactively ruined the entire show. The ending was just so awful that I never watched another HIMYM episode in repeats and have sworn to stay away from any of the show runners projects, but I really do love Hilary Duff and I know that the show runners here don't have as much creative control so I feel like I should at least give this a try. 

The first few episodes were rather clunky in the way that pilots often are, especially the future scenes, as awesome as Kim Catrall is, but I did get a few laughs, Hilary is a likable lead with a solid supporting cast around her,  including Chris Lowell, who I always love to see, and I like that they started out with a different twist then the original show had. There were some nice HIMYM shout outs, especially the one at the end, but I don't know if I really consider that a good thing. Have I mentioned that I'm bitter? It could actually be one of the worst, most insulting series finales I have ever seen in my life, I don't know if I can trust anything connected to that shitshow. Hopefully they learned their lesson from the backlash?

I am with you on the bitterness. I too am still not over it and cannot rewatch it, and I’m a habitual sitcom rewatcher. When Bob Saget passed I almost was going to give it a retry, but I still could not. I was a viewer from day one and could write a dissertation on how much I hated the ending. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. 
 

I haven’t watched this yet not sure if I will. Maybe I’ll wait until it’s over and I can be assured they won’t find the perfect father and then say “psyche, he’s dead, let’s go bang the obvious wrong for me ex. ✌️“

Edited January 18, 2022 by Trillium

[NeenerNeener]

3 hours ago, Trillium said:

I was a viewer from day one and could write a dissertation on how much I hated the ending. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. 

Amen! I haven't been able to watch the reruns either. I've also been scarred by the Medium and Game of Thrones finales, and another that I can't remember off the top of my head. 

Well, I'm almost through episode 2. I loved seeing the original apartment and original bar again, but I hate the room mate. Is she supposed to be the Barney of this version? 

 

ETA: Dexter!!! The other on the list of worst finales of all time was Dexter! The reboot ending just about made up for it, though.

Edited January 19, 2022 by NeenerNeener

[Guest]

That was better than I expected. The changes that were made felt like good ones. Changing the mystery in particular was smart given how badly HIMYM ended. It’s virtually impossible for them to make the same mistake with this scenario. It also gives the show a more limited shelf life but that’s not really a bad thing. 

8 hours ago, NeenerNeener said:

Well, I'm almost through episode 2. I loved seeing the original apartment and original bar again, but I hate the room mate. Is she supposed to be the Barney of this version? 

She’s my least favorite. I don’t think there is a version of Barney in this one. If anything she reminds more of Ted than Barney. 

9 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

There were some nice HIMYM shout outs, especially the one at the end, but I don't know if I really consider that a good thing. Have I mentioned that I'm bitter? It could actually be one of the worst, most insulting series finales I have ever seen in my life, I don't know if I can trust anything connected to that shitshow. Hopefully they learned their lesson from the backlash?

The apartment and bar were probably the only aspect of the show I didn’t grow to hate so for me it’s a good shout out. 

If nothing else comes out of this, at least it’s nice to know I’m not the only one still bitter about the original. 

Edited January 19, 2022 by Guest

[NeenerNeener]

Between HIMYM and Medium I've learned that when a showrunner announces the finale is a "love letter to the fans" it means the writers decided to ignore the fans and write something they think is "edgy" but is really just depressing and disappointing.

I hope HIMYF doesn't follow that rule. By the way, it's nice to see Kim Cattrall again. I've missed her on AJLT, which also has terrible writing.

Edited January 19, 2022 by NeenerNeener

[hiisa]

I can still be counted on to go on a long winded rage filled rant at the mention of HIMYM. I heard the babababababas of the theme song and nearly yakked.  Im not sure which will win by long lived love of Hillary or my long lived hatred of HIMYM. 

[SallyAlbright]

I like it so far, it's absolutely nothing groundbreaking but it's easy to watch and the characters are likable enough so far that I'm happy to hang out with them. I've always liked Hilary Duff, and I like Chris Lowell a lot too even despite his trying to come between Veronica and Logan on Veronica Mars! I'm also excited to hear that Leighton Meester (who had a quick cameo as the ex Jesse proposed to in the viral video) will be a recurring character. She's always good, so I'm in. 

[chitowngirl]

I loved that they dedicated the first episode to Bob Saget

[xander874]

While I too hated the ending of the original, I still love to watch the occasional episode (the original Robin Sparkles episode is a masterpiece to me) and I was almost kind of excited about this. Mainly because I love Chris Lowell and the British guy is serious eye candy but I found I enjoyed it. The first episode was a LOT of setup but it started to come together in the second episode which gives me hope they will find their groove.

I like the concept of one of the 4 guys being the dad. And I got the guys apartment being the old one (love the reference to the "old couple" who lived there - Marshall and Lily would be in their late 40s), but is Sid's bar supposed to be the same one? It didn't look like it to me. However, I thought the girls' apartment looked a lot like the Mother's apartment but that may be me trying too hard to find Easter eggs.

[absnow54]

I didn't think the first two episodes were very good. They were watchable, but not something I would invest in. I might watch the remaining episodes to see if it gets any better. I generally like Chris Lowell (I've liked him since Life as We Know It, so I could never fully hate Piz) but the hair and makeup people seem to hate him. He was very bronzed, which didn't seem to fit with the character.

I wonder if they filmed alternate endings for the first season depending on whether the show is renewed. Chris Lowell is obviously the Robin of the group, unless they get more seasons to develop a relationship with the other three guys.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Soooooooooooooo disappointed that they decided to use a laugh track.  It's 2022.  When will we be done with this?  This makes the show look so outdated next to all of the great new sitcoms I'm experiencing this year.

[JayDub1987]

I really enjoyed the first episode. Of course, I'm in the minority that enjoyed HIMYM all the way through, and have watched every episode multiple times. When they were in the hallway, I recognized the building, so I love that the apartment is still going to play into the new show.

 

The second episode wasn't as good IMO, but it was because it just seemed like there was too much going on. Overall, I'm looking forward to this.

[Cementhead]

22 hours ago, Jillybean said:

The laugh track...UGH. This isn't terrible, it isn't amazing. It may have potential but the laugh track dates it terribly.

 

27 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Soooooooooooooo disappointed that they decided to use a laugh track.  It's 2022.  When will we be done with this?  This makes the show look so outdated next to all of the great new sitcoms I'm experiencing this year.

I agree.  I can deal with laugh tracks when I am watching an episode of Friends or Seinfeld for the 100th time but on anything new?  Nope.  Not happening.  Won't watch.

[LegalParrot81]

1 hour ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Soooooooooooooo disappointed that they decided to use a laugh track.  It's 2022.  When will we be done with this?  This makes the show look so outdated next to all of the great new sitcoms I'm experiencing this year.

I hate laugh tracks too, but is it a possibility, because it is COVID 2022, that they decided against a live audience?  Overall, it was okay.  I'll give it a little more time.

[Ms Blue Jay]

A live audience in the 90s is one thing (Friends, Seinfeld).  That was of its time.  And we've come to accept it - it's over, it's done, we love the shows and we're used to it.

A live audience in 2022 would still be outdated to me.

A laugh track in 2022, or in the 2000s when HIMYM did it, is cloying as hell to me, and was then, too.  Even worse than a live audience.

This is just my personal feeling on the subject.

27 minutes ago, LegalParrot81 said:

I hate laugh tracks too, but is it a possibility, because it is COVID 2022, that they decided against a live audience?  Overall, it was okay.  I'll give it a little more time.

There is also the option of you know, coming to the 21st century, and not doing a laugh track at all.  

Edited January 19, 2022 by Ms Blue Jay

[peachmangosteen]

17 hours ago, SallyAlbright said:

I'm also excited to hear that Leighton Meester (who had a quick cameo as the ex Jesse proposed to in the viral video) will be a recurring character. She's always good, so I'm in. 

Wow, I didn’t even realize that’s who that was! I’m looking forward to seeing more of her, too.

I had my reservations but I really enjoyed this. My irrational Hilary Duff and Chris Lowell hate were not a problem lol. In fact, I actually really liked both characters.

I’m torn between wanting the dad to be Jesse because they are actually really cute together and wanting it to be one of the others just for the twist.

Does anyone know how many eps this season will be and/or if we’re getting 2 every week?

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

Does anyone know how many eps this season will be and/or if we’re getting 2 every week?

There are 10 episodes in the season. For not on it will be one episode released a week. 

[docmatt]

7 hours ago, xander874 said:

I like the concept of one of the 4 guys being the dad

Shouldn't the kid know who his dad is? If he doesn't know and this is how she's telling him, that's almost more squick than I can handle.

[absnow54]

37 minutes ago, docmatt said:

Shouldn't the kid know who his dad is? If he doesn't know and this is how she's telling him, that's almost more squick than I can handle.

No, the kid implied he knew exactly which one was his father, the audience is the only one who doesn’t know at this point. She’s telling him the story of how they got together.

Although it would be weird if it was the guy who just got engaged or the guy dating her best friend, that her son would have such a blase response. 

Edited January 19, 2022 by absnow54

[SallyAlbright]

1 hour ago, absnow54 said:

No, the kid implied he knew exactly which one was his father, the audience is the only one who doesn’t know at this point. She’s telling him the story of how they got together.

Although it would be weird if it was the guy who just got engaged or the guy dating her best friend, that her son would have such a blase response. 

I can't help but think it will be the guy who just got engaged (after she has a complicated thing with Jesse, of course) because Jesse just seems so obvious, the other one is dating her best friend, and Ian as far as I know isn't a main character. It seems weird that the engaged guy (so sorry I can't remember his character's name) doesn't have his fiancee around very much, but that would make it easier for him to eventually date Sophie as we aren't attached to his current relationship. I have officially overthought this 😂

[JAYJAY1979]

The cynical guy is so obvious...but I'm happy at least the dad is one of the four male characters on the show.

I do wonder if the newly engaged guy will be the father..since the two had an instant rapport in the uber..and they accidentally had one another's phones.  

And Kim Cattrall just has a voice that is perfect as a narrator. 

[Guest]

Is it weird that I don’t even notice laugh tracks?

2 hours ago, absnow54 said:

Although it would be weird if it was the guy who just got engaged or the guy dating her best friend, that her son would have such a blase response. 

Not really since they did say that he already knew the basics of the story. 

10 hours ago, xander874 said:

And I got the guys apartment being the old one (love the reference to the "old couple" who lived there - Marshall and Lily would be in their late 40s), but is Sid's bar supposed to be the same one? It didn't look like it to me. 

I couldn’t tell. If it’s the same location it’s been remodeled. I imagine we will find out at some point when they explain how Sid went from medical student to owning a bar. If it’s not the same I really hope they show what has happened to the old bar. It would weird to never acknowledge the business they live above. 

[peachmangosteen]

13 hours ago, Dani said:

Is it weird that I don’t even notice laugh tracks?

I really don't either. I mean, I do sometimes, but it doesn't bother me.

[Insert Username]

Sigh. The men had decent chemistry with each other and Hilary Duff was good.  Obviously they can't show to son because that would give away immediately who the father is. Also, for someone who owns a bar, Sid apparently can leave for extended periods of time. These people are 30, not 25 and there is a big difference between those two ages.

My issue is with them creating 2 dimensional characters. I could write a book about how much I loathed the ending of HIMYM, but the characters were fully rounded from the first episode.  Here: Valentina: unable to commit, likes sex; Charlie - British and rich; Ellen - a lesbian. That's it, that is all we know about them. Unless they can pull away from that, all of these characters can easily be dropped. In fact, Ellen added precisely nothing to group - they didn't give her a single line not related to her lesbianism. That should be the least interesting thing about her (and the same goes for the other two) At least we got the intriguing fact that Sid was in med school. 

[akg]

Add me to the group that hated the HIMYM finale (and most of their last season) but is willing to give this a try. Ten episodes isn't a huge commitment.

6 minutes ago, Insert Username said:

Obviously they can't show to son because that would give away immediately who the father is

A very big bonus to this is that the writers can't paint themselves into a corner with how they think things will end at this point in the process. The last scenes of Ted's kids had been filmed years before to catch the actors at the right age and couldn't really be changed (although I have no idea if tptb would have rewritten the ending if they'd had more flexibility). With HIMYF's format, they can adjust the plan if actor chemistry isn't what they expect or they realize a different father would just make more sense in 5 years.

[yourmomiseasy]

1 hour ago, Insert Username said:

In fact, Ellen added precisely nothing to group - they didn't give her a single line not related to her lesbianism.

 

She was there for diversity.  She was East Asian and a lesbian, that's two checkboxes.  The writers didn't get the memo that representation only matters if it isn't tokenism.  

 

[absnow54]

1 hour ago, akg said:

A very big bonus to this is that the writers can't paint themselves into a corner with how they think things will end at this point in the process. The last scenes of Ted's kids had been filmed years before to catch the actors at the right age and couldn't really be changed (although I have no idea if tptb would have rewritten the ending if they'd had more flexibility). With HIMYF's format, they can adjust the plan if actor chemistry isn't what they expect or they realize a different father would just make more sense in 5 years.

That's true, but they could always throw in a curve ball that the son was adopted or a donor was used. I liked the cuts to the kids' reactions during HIMYM, but having Kim Cattrall get progressively more wine-drunk might be fun as well.

[Guest]

22 minutes ago, yourmomiseasy said:

She was there for diversity.  She was East Asian and a lesbian, that's two checkboxes.  The writers didn't get the memo that representation only matters if it isn't tokenism.  

 

I think she’s also there because the concept that this is not a preexisting group of friends is limiting. They needed a way to bring in the third woman. At this point she makes more sense than the fish out of water, rich trust fund, Brit that abandons his whole life for a woman he just met. 

She’s actually Southeast Asian which is even less represented than East Asian. Personally, I do think she adds something and am curious about her. It could be tokenism but it’s too soon to tell. 

[JayDub1987]

18 hours ago, Dani said:

Is it weird that I don’t even notice laugh tracks?

 

I don't notice them either. I thought I was weird for not being as bothered by them as others. 

[anthonyd46]

14 hours ago, Dani said:

I think she’s also there because the concept that this is not a preexisting group of friends is limiting. They needed a way to bring in the third woman. At this point she makes more sense than the fish out of water, rich trust fund, Brit that abandons his whole life for a woman he just met. 

She’s actually Southeast Asian which is even less represented than East Asian. Personally, I do think she adds something and am curious about her. It could be tokenism but it’s too soon to tell. 

This group just doesn't seem very gelled as a whole. It wasn't a terrible pair of episodes and  I will keep watching to see if it gets any better, but i dunno this group just seems very pieced together and I agree Valentina who is I guess supposed to be a mix of Marshall (Friend and roommate) and Barney? just seems like the weakest character on the show. 

Josh Peck is in a lot of this season according to IMDB so we will see what he adds to the show. Ian is also credited with 9 episodes so I assume he still will be a storyline of some sort. 

It did feel that one of the four guys from the pilot had to be the father, but I don't trust these writers after HIMYM, because the narration only said that she met the father that night so they could always pull something down the line that it was some background character or like with Ted he was in the same location as the mother at one point and didn't know it at the time etc. I think thats just the safe story for now in case this doesn't make it very long so they could have some kind of resolution, but if this show goes on a while I wouldn't be surprised if that changed since they had a plan like that for HIMYM if it didn't make it past season 1.

Having said that most of these reboots do get a second season so it should probably make it past season 1.

[anthonyd46]

Adds fellow co-creator Elizabeth Berger, “One of the things that’s really cool about this device is that there will be these little, unexpected moments and exchanges with our guys, where all of a sudden you’ve been watching one guy, and then suddenly there’s a conversation and someone else comes into focus in a really surprising, exciting way.”

Of course, there’s always the off chance that the dad isn’t one of the core four.

“In our pilot she makes clear that she met the father that night, which leaves a little bit of wiggle room as to who our father is,” Berger points out. “We’re going to have our core guys, which we hope and imagine people will be very invested in, but there will also be the larger world out there that we can draw from in terms of what happened all throughout that night.”

[Ms Blue Jay]

The characters were all okay, except that I don't care for Hilary's BFF with the Instagram face.  She looks like she's there to pull in the Kardashifans.  All I can think about is all the work on her face.  Those people should stay on Instagram and not "act".  Though, it's nice that she gave one of her kidneys to Selena Gomez!

I don't find the Asian character to be tokenism.  The actor really is a Lesbian in real life, so it's not like they made her do that for the tokenism.  I think it's pretty cool to be honest.

I thought that the show was going to do the HIMYM route and have the kids be white, but it's a nice twist that you have no idea what race the kid is.  I mean, they made Hilary the star of the show while pretending to care about diversity, it's kind of funny.  I like Hilary and all but it's very transparent that they thought that they absolutely needed to have the star of the show be white to pull in the HIMYM fans (that show was sooooooooooo white and in  New York City and in the freaking 2000s to boot.). It was also so racist, in its very last season, as a real "Fuck you" to the Asian fans of the show as it went out.  Twitter was active, people were upset (I include myself), they truly gave no fucks.

I like the guy who owns the bar the most.  I don't know any of the characters' names obviously.  I really liked his acting.

Edited January 23, 2022 by Ms Blue Jay

[peachmangosteen]

8 hours ago, anthonyd46 said:

Of course, there’s always the off chance that the dad isn’t one of the core four.

“In our pilot she makes clear that she met the father that night, which leaves a little bit of wiggle room as to who our father is,” Berger points out. “We’re going to have our core guys, which we hope and imagine people will be very invested in, but there will also be the larger world out there that we can draw from in terms of what happened all throughout that night.”

This annoys me lol. They purposefully showed a shot of the 4 guys when she was voiceover-ing about meeting the father that night so it better be 1 of those 4, dammit!

[methodwriter85]

11 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

This annoys me lol. They purposefully showed a shot of the 4 guys when she was voiceover-ing about meeting the father that night so it better be 1 of those 4, dammit!

Agreed. Please, revival, learn a little from the mistakes of the mothership. At a bare minimum, please don't go, "Psych- your dad isn't the love of my life, your Uncle is and Dad was just a placeholder because Uncle didn't want kids and I did!" 

I kind of want it to be British Guy because he seems like the least likely one.

Edited January 24, 2022 by methodwriter85