There is a certain stupidity associated with being extremely angry at a television show, and yet, there is also a certain necessity, and when it comes to How I Met Your Mother, fans who had been loyal to the show for its nine year air time have the right to want to burn it to the ground.
Of course, I am not one of those people, having just binge-watched the whole thing like any respectable loser with a lot of time on his hands. And even in this scenario, there is so much boiling anger that ‘furious’ is a bit of an understatement.
This rage would not exist if How I Met Your Mother was not a good show, and unfortunately for it and its fans, it was a great show. How I Met Your Mother was uniquely funny, packed with heart and a show that never had a bad episode… Until it ended, of course.
Oh, by the way, spoilers.
The charm of the show was that it never shied away from exploring the complexity of its main characters’ relationships with each other. In doing so, it brought out the best in the actors, the writing, the laughs and the tears. It turned its characters into completely different people by the end of its run, and I mean that in a good way. The characters grew so naturally and so beautifully throughout the series that one develops a bond with the show that is extremely rare.
A lot of this is probably because the show had a plan, from beginning to end, and it was exactly as long as it needed to be (unlike a certain Modern Family that should have capped at a perfect eight seasons). In its nine year run, the show was always fresh and brilliant, and it would have betrayed itself if it went on any longer. Of course, it betrayed itself anyway, but, I’ll get to that later.
The show’s premise is, well, alright, even if it’s handled rather questionably. The fact that Ted is narrating all of the events of this story to his children makes for some real emotional moments and some great laughs.
But that’s what makes everything about How I Met Your Mother’s finale so… Wrong.
The final season of How I Met Your Mother – except the finale – is arguably the greatest of the show. It had all its characters hit their highest and lowest points, and it enabled all of them to find their perfect endings.
Lily and Marshall are probably the only characters that remained with a perfect ending. Ted, Robin and Barney, the show’s hit-you-over-the-head love triangle, however, would all fall so far down from grace.
Yes, the entire series kicked off with Ted falling head over heels for Robin, but, that didn’t mean the show had to beat on a dead horse for so long. Having watched the entire show at a stretch, it is honestly very hard to believe that Ted would have feelings for Robin throughout the entire series, especially since the show is literally titled How I Met Your Mother.
Leading up to their wedding, Barney Stinson (excellently played by Neil Patrick Harris) completely changed himself for Robin. Their relationship was nothing but rocky, but it was the struggle itself that made it impossible for them not to end up together. Barney’s proposal to her was perfect, and everything that happened on their wedding weekend was, perhaps, necessary, but they should have stuck together. Ted should have let Robin go because Robin and Barney were the actual centre of the entire last season of the show. Having them announce their divorce in the very same episode that began with their wedding reception is the equivalent of looking every single fan in the face and spitting right into their eyes.
I do realise that the idea of Barney and Robin being together is what I would like to have seen, but even if they were never meant to stay together, both characters deserve better than to announce their divorce like it was nothing. What’s worse is that Barney goes back to his ‘abandoned’ single lifestyle, only to involuntarily become a dad and close the series on that note, and Robin distances herself from the entire group. This is such a horrible conclusion to their stories that it even distracts you from the fact that Robin is present in most flash-forwards to the future from previous seasons, so it doesn’t even make sense that she distances herself.
Then comes Ted. Ted, who has spent the entire show narrating to his children the story of how he met their mother, only to have her be a red herring. Why? There is no reason for this. What the show is saying is that the whole time Ted was with his children’s mother, he was secretly in love with Robin?
All other things aside, it’s at this point that you realise the show just tried too hard with Ted and Robin, and stuffed itself too much at the end. The finale (spanning 40 minutes) is so rushed and has so much going on, that it is the show’s only poorly executed episode.
One particular comparison that can be made is how the finale handles Marshall’s judgeship. When Marshall was going to become a lawyer, the show dedicated an entire episode to him trying to find out if he passed the bar exam, and in doing so, enabled all of Marshall’s friends to support him and be with him when it was ultimately revealed that he passed the test. That’s what made How I Met Your Mother stand out. It made sure all the big moments, and even the little ones, were memorable. In the finale, Marshall announces that he’s been made a judge right at the start, and then it’s dismissed for the million other things that happen in the episode.
The finale sticks out so much that it’s even apparent in the sets and cinematography. Set in various points across the future, the finale has familiar sets like McClaren’s Bar, Ted’s/Marshall and Lily’s apartment and even Robots vs Wrestlers, except, all of them are drab and devoid of colour. It’s as if the show knew it was taking a completely unnecessary turn to the dark side, and was embracing it.
But of course, the trophy for ‘worst decision of How I Met Your Mother’ goes to the reveal of Ted’s wife being dead six years prior to him telling his children this story. This is the moment that anyone who is still around would want to punch whatever screen they’re watching the episode on, because it makes everything that happened in the nine seasons prior a little less important. Beyond this, you really have to ask, why was this decision even made? It ruins the show, it has Robin and Barney end the series in the wrong places and makes Ted seem like someone who always loved Robin more than his own wife.
Here’s the thing. Up until the very, very last episode, How I Met Your Mother was essentially perfect, and it even made it look like the whole Ted-Robin thing was wrapped up. All it had to do was tell the story of how Ted first met his wife, and that’s it. Instead, it chose to leave everything it spent nine years building in ashes, and laugh at every single fan.
I’m not a person that always needs a happy ending, but after watching this show, that’s all it needed. The finale is so depressing that it makes you wonder why you invested so much time in a show that was ultimately going to leave you disappointed. Lily and Marshall have a happily every after, and, I suppose, so do Ted and Robin. But Barney deserved better. Barney didn’t spend nine years completely changing himself for Robin just to break up with her after three years of marriage and go right back to his old self. Barney said it himself. He only felt truly happy with Robin. How I Met Your Mother robbed him of that.
You can’t have a show that is so beloved, with characters so cared about, and then throw everything out the window for nothing.
I realise I have ranted about fictional characters this whole time, but, it can get frustrating when a show can end having been complete perfection, and then somehow flips itself on its head right at the end. I will remember that finale for its grey colour palette (seriously. Its’s grey) and it will forever tarnish the legacy of this truly wonderful series.
That is really quite a tragedy.
