How I Met Your Mother - Series Finale

It truly is an end of an era. How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) has finally come to an end after nine long seasons. I wasn’t there when the journey began, I was late to join the bandwagon. I usually don’t watch sitcoms because they usually aren’t appealing. Since so many of my friends watched this series, I gave it a shot and it was one of those few shows that I stuck with through these years. The series was appealing in the sense it had a linear progression while seeding a lot of unanswered mysteries. However, the general consensus was the story was dragging out way too long and everyone wanted to see the ending. I felt there were way too many filler episodes that did not progress the plotline any further these last few seasons. I guess that’s part of what’s to be expected from a sitcom series. I didn’t see the ending the night it came out, unfortunately. By the time it was the next day, I had already been spoiled by the newsfeeds and news articles on the internet.

I watched the hour finale last night and it was bittersweet. It felt like the story fell short because they were setting up Barney and Robin’s webbing for an entire season, only for them to get divorced shortly afterward. The reason why they broke up wasn’t convincing to me. The whole thing about Barney never going to settle down because he’s just a player didn’t resonate too well with me. It was depressing to see him still chasing after twenty year olds in his forties. It was not until he became a father did he grow up. Again, I thought that transition did not go smoothly. I didn’t buy it.

I enjoyed Ted and the fated mother’s meeting. The entire scene was perfect. Only those who have seen the entire 9th season would know what they were talking about when the two of them met. It was such a perfect meeting between Ted and Tracy. However, the happy scenes did not last long enough for the audience to enjoy. As a viewer, the show built up a great deal of character development for the mother. It made us like her. We believed that she was perfect for Ted and that Robin was finally out of the picture. After they gone through the entire sequence of making a statement about how Ted wasn't right for Robin, we were certain that Robin will never be an afterthought. No good things last in life, and eventually the mother died. That was a gruesome blow to us all because we were all so emotionally invested in her and it was hard to see her cruel fate. But it wasn’t enough that she died, the writers decided to put Ted and Robin together at the end. I don’t know, it just felt like a slap in the face. Wasn’t the purpose of the show about the mother? Why did it end on such a low note? For what reason did they deny all of us of a happy ending? For what it’s worth, the show creators had already filmed the ending nine years ago when the show was first created. At least they had a plan going into the show, unlike some that just go on and on with no end. But like many others, I felt the show would've been perfect if it ended after they met. The extra with the passing of the mother and him going to find Robin was extra information nobody wanted to see.