Best read after viewing the finale, but spoiler tagging items related to the episode just in case.
I quit this show.
Toward the end of Season 7, I stopped watching. I met to watch the final five or eight episodes that built up on my DVR at the end of the season, but after hearing how the last episode ended, I decided to not bother. Until that point I had gradually lost interest in all the "live" episodes I watched after viewing the first two seasons on DVD in about a day or two. But being the
Lost devotee I was, I decided to stay strong.
Season Seven was bookended by flashfowards at a wedding where we know the groom to be Barney, and at the end learn the bride to be Robin, provoking an eye roll and a "delete all episodes". So I went about two years without watching any new episodes. The show had also been extended for a few years so I knew I wasn't going to miss anything, and always knowing I was going to tune in for the series finale.
I tuned in for "How Your Mother Met Me"* which showed the path Tracy took to meeting Ted, filling in the negative spaces in scenes where Ted narrowly missed the mother throughout the shows run, such as the St. Patrick's Day party, or being in her apartment as a guest of her roommate. It showed the origins and emphasized the significance of the yellow umbrella.
* The HIMYM version of "The Other 48 Days"
The yellow umbrella became an object that they both were attached to and could claim ownership, so when one eventually saw the other with it, it would make sense to be the subject of their first conversation, getting the ball rolling.
The show posed two main questions, and a third as a sub question. I actually view 2 and 2-1 as more important. Question 1 is a vehicle but Question 2 and 2-1, though unstated, are actually the crux of the mystery.
- How did Ted meet their mother?
- Why is Ted telling their kids at this particular moment?
- And why is he telling them in this incredibly long and drawn out way that actually is 98 percent about his friends, Barney, Marshal, Lily and Robin?
Immediate reactions to finales are mostly a product of their expectations and I think it takes time and perspective to take it in. Having quit the show, my expectations were low, so the ceiling was high.
Probably the biggest reason I gave up on the show was not that I was frustrated with the indirect route they were taking to solving the titular mystery, but how they seemed to bastardize the characters, particularly Robin, Ted and Barney, who bore little resemblance to the people we first met, and whose differences were not a result of carefully charted growth, but what I perceived to be a lack of ideas and respect for the characters.
Not only that, but despite the innumerable prospects that rotated in and out of the three unmarried characters' lives, the show also failed to develop any additional characters of interest or depth, or that catalyzed change or growth from the gang. My favorite non-gang character was James, but daytime television is a busy time and we saw him once in a blue moon. Victoria was a close second simply for being so dern likeable (and cuter than a sleeping dormouse), though it always seemed more of a product of the actress than the writing.
Not only that but seeing Robin and Barney together, and knowing much of the show would be dedicated to their path to the alter was grating at best. It seemed like a poor attempt to make them the Chandler and Monica to Lily and Marshall's Ross and Rachel*. In particularly, seeing them both move up and down and back and forth from the independence that definied their characters early on was disappointing, especially when Robin was infatuated with her bland co-anchor, Dud.
* One could argue Ted and Robin were Ross and Rachel. After the finale, I would say that is spot on
My opinion of the characters falling so far is similar to people's expectations of a finale. It was so high after two seasons of the show there was little opportunity to move but for moving down. So now looking back after quitting this show for two years* I saw let us not bury the gang but praise them.
* For example, after two seasons of relate-able experiences, the show kept trying to invent "a thing". Which is when one character references some phenomenon by its proper name, another character asks what that is, the first character (probably Barney) explains and then spends the rest of the episode involved in hijinks pertaining to the phenomenon, involving other members of the gang as needed. The League does this as well (often via Taco).
I think because the gang was so darn likeable and relateable is why I wanted them to continue to succeed so much, and to do so as the people I knew. So when in my opinion the show turned away from being about those people, my tv friends, then I turned from the show. One of the reasons I liked the finale was because it combated this. Barney pleaded with his friends to let him be himself as he chased tail in the bar. Sometimes people don't change. Like Ron Swanson not taking the city manager job on Parks & Rec for a plausible reason that is actually rooted in his character, Barney wasn't going to change. Unless there was a reason. They probably could have gotten a lot of good episodes out of his arc squeezed into the finale, and it was the some of the best character development the show has done. Ultimately though, may we just take what they gave us.
A baby storyline is usually a lemo or even a death knell for a shown, unless the baby is largely ignore once it arrivesd. But in Barney's case, giving one to a character like his can result in something interesting.
One of the things everyone wants to know in a finale is simply "What happens to....?" The show that answered this best was
Six Feet Under, which is probably part of the reason it is
so universally acclaimed.*
HIMYM uses a similar device as the end of "Everyone's Waiting", jumping ahead in the years but also using bits of the flash forwards we saw throughout the series' run.
* I/everyone marveled at both its concept and execution, and it forever changed how I/everyone listens to "Breathe Me". I think though, the reason the audience reacts so positively to this closing was because it tied off ends as much as a show can, and that seems to be what audiences want, and that number of stories closed off seems to directly relate to how good or bad a finale is received. Which is a terrible metric. Additionally, I think unsatisfied viewers are more likely to be louder about their dissatisfaction than satisfied viewers will be about their satisfaction. Reading forums, I've learned the first several pages of posts are generally from these unsatisfied viewers, regardless of any circumstance, and are written from an emotional and reactive state. These being the first reactions are both the starting point and driver of the conversation. Which is a terrible way to do it. See Sopranos, The. It's all part of a terrible version of the squeaky wheel getting the grease and makes my introverted brain a-splode.
"Last Forever" quickly answers question 1. Now that we've answered the title, why is there more show? Because
HIMYM questions 2 and 2-1 lying there, posed in a more indirect, almost meta, way.
Sure enough Ted and his kids speak directly to the audience as the show wraps. And the three of them provide the answers to the remaining questions. It's significant because it shows us the window for Ted's dream, to be married and with kids in the house he fixed up, making a living as an architect designing skyscrapers in New York
, was actually quite small, meaning that he lived his dream but not for long. So what else is there? The whole point of the show was Ted answering these questions and realizing that dream. At this point the show, passes into "present" time, it's caught up. It's zero hour. So for the first time in the show, he doesn't know what's going to happen and the clock is moving forward. Ted spent his life trying to achieve something, and he did so briefly. But with that gone, the thing that defined his existence, what does he do? So he goes to Robin. And while his life doesn't have "the" ending he planned for, it's actually somewhat comforting and satisfying to see one that is deserved.
