Ok... so it's been a while since I've posted, and I don't usually critique the shows I watch publicly unless we are face to face... BUT! I think people are really missing something beautiful about How I Met Your Mother.
I was not a launch follower of HIMYM but actually started watching before the start of it's final season. All it took was a Netflix account and I binge watched my way through 8 seasons to arrive at the culmination of all that I had been waiting for. We meet "THE MOTHER" and she is everything we hoped for! All along, we wait for the story to become about all the things he does with the mother. All the adventures of life they will proceed now that they have met. We want what every good story writer wants to write about. Conflict and resolution. Only, TED doesn't meet the mother, we do. He doesn't get to meet her until the last episode of the last season. Then they proceed to jump from the meeting to her dying and him ultimately going to Robin Scherbatsky, now aging and alone with her dogs.
So I will now give you all the reasons why you could hate it, or at least all the arguments I've heard so far.
ONE: You hate Robin.
You have every right to as she has proven herself to be a terrible person in wanting to turn on Barney right before the wedding, to how she treats her friends as an unforgiving and uncaring person, especially in the final episode. It is personified in the way she treats Lilly at the halloween party when she's dressed as "The white whale." (Super symbolic by the way if you didn't catch that and my favorite shot in the entire episode.) You can't stand that Ted would like a girl like that and maybe you relate with Ted and are objectively saying to yourself, "come on Ted, get it together, you hurt yourself over and over again. She's just not worth it."
TWO: You LOVE the mom.
She's great! She is what I'm sure many men would picture as their perfect wife. She communicates on a level that speaks directly to the heart of whoever she's talking to. She sings with the voice of an angel. Her crazy optimism makes her all the more attractive. She's emotionally solid, having gone through her own love and loss giving her the true depth of a character that could stand on her own in the show and carry a whole episode. Then in the final moments she disappears as a memory never to be seen again. Frustrating for some who have been building up to this moment for 9 years but that leads us to the next part...
THREE: It happens so fast!
In the span of about 3 minutes you get all of their history in a flash from marriage to death. Yes, they pepper in moments throughout the last season, but is it ever really enough?
FOUR: Barney and Robin.
They really were building towards something. Barney had all this personal growth and then went back on everything after the divorce and then had a baby and changed everything. AGAIN. Where was the stability?
So, basically, those are all the major complaints I've heard... BUT, I love that they did it that way. As a writer you have to think of being true to the story you're telling. The choices have to be believable, characters have to fall into a line of actions that make sense. So if the writers are really remaining true, then what are they remaining true to?
Well in this case it all falls under HOW the story is being told, and in this case it is through an older Ted looking back on his life and trying to give an honest but somewhat altered version for his kids, for example, the instances where they eat "sandwiches."It was through him they learned all about the life Ted had up until the moment he met "the mom." Interestingly enough they start with him meeting Robin, a person their kids are becoming more familiar with because he is telling them a story about her. He isn't sugarcoating anything either because as a dad he knows his kids have a choice in choosing whether or not to include her in their family. What would you tell your kids about more, time with someone who was a huge part of your life in learning how to love someone unconditionally but without love in return, or the person that they experienced for themselves. The show is a constant lesson in love and loss for all the characters. Love is not perfect or easy but prevails none the less. Contextually I was overjoyed with the ending because it didn't give me what I want, even if I possibly expected it to happen.
It gave me a real look at life without covering up someones flaws and romanticizing them. In that way, I believe they told an honest and real love story that to me is reminiscent of "How Harry Met Sally." They meet in the beginning with no way of possibly ending up together and go on to love other people, or at least try to. Then in the end it happens because it has to. Just think if he had married and had a whole life with someone else in-between that time, and then tried to explain to his kids that this was who he wanted be with. I think it would have happened a lot like how HIMYM portrayed it. I will defend this show to the end, regardless of what alternate endings they show in the future, I love what I love and if HIMYM is right, you can't stop loving those things, even when they go a way you wouldn't expect.
Have a pleasant tomorrow!
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