I just finished the series How I Met Your Mother on Netflix. It was nine seasons (this has taken me years by the way, because it definitely didn’t ‘hook’ me). It follows the lives of 5 New Yorkers, and is narrated by ‘Ted’, telling his future children how he met their mother. Ted is considered the main character, he is an architect whose sole purpose in life is to meet ‘the one’ and have kids. His best friends are Marshall and Lilly (who are a couple), Barney (a single womanizer) and Robin (the ‘newbie’ in the group).
Here are my thoughts (WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS):
Okay, so over seasons 1-8, here’s what happens.
Marshall and Lilly get married. Ted dates various women (including Robin). Marshall and Lilly have a kid. Barney is….Barney. Eventually he and Robin starting dating, and get engaged. Ted is still single. And yes, through seasons 1-8 the ‘mother’ is mentioned, but never shown. Her yellow umbrella is shown multiple times and she and Ted have various ‘encounters’, but never speak and never know they are in the same place at the same time. Example: she took an economics class that he accidentally taught when he was in the wrong room at the University. Stuff like that.
Season 8 ends with the whole clan getting ready to head to the Hamptons for Barney and Robin’s wedding.
Season 9 is the last and final season. I am still trying to decide if Season 9 is brilliant or maddening. Here’s why. The entire season (all 24 episodes) takes place over a 3-day period: Barney and Robin’s wedding weekend. How they were able to pull this off is amazing to me and also incredibly frustrating. I found myself wanting to skip episodes to just get to the end already, but in this show it’s pretty important not to skip episodes. Especially during the last season.
The season is packed full of flashbacks and flash forwards, especially in the last two episodes. In a nutshell, here’s what happens: Barney and Robin get married, stay married for three years and then get divorced (this is no surprise). Barney reverts back to his old womanizing ways, gets someone pregnant and has a little girl. Robin is a successful newscaster who travels all over the world. Lilly and Marshall are pregnant with their third kid, and Marshall is appointed a judge in Queens. Ted meets ‘the mother’ (whose name is Tracy) at Barney and Robin’s wedding, they have two kids, then get married, then the mother gets sick and dies. No, I’m not kidding. And then, 6 years after her death (we are finally at ‘present day’), with encouragement from his kids, Barney steels the blue French horn (the grand gesture he made for Robin in the very first episode), and goes to Robin’s apartment and they smile at each other and it is implied that they will get back together.
In general, it is a very funny show. They cleverly weave stories together and have both flashbacks and many, many flash ‘forwards’, which keep you interested and watching. However, in my opinion it is at least 3 seasons too long. It probably should have ended at season 6 or 7. My other big hangup with the show is that Ted and Robin were my two LEAST favorite characters. And most of the show was focused on them. So at times it was hard to keep my interest. I wanted less Ted and Robin and more Lilly and Barney. Plus, I SWEAR that some of the plot lines were taken straight from Friends. Oh, how I miss Friends.
My favorite characters? Lilly and Barney. Lilly is hilarious and slightly crazy and Barney, although he is a disgusting womanizer, is so so funny and even lovable. Oh, and Tracy was also one of my favorites. It’s too bad they waited until Season 9 for her to be a ‘regular’. I mean I get why they didn’t introduce her in like season 7, but she was so likable and quirky and funny. It would have been nice to have more of her in the other seasons.
So in a nutshell, it made me laugh but I will probably never watch it again. Nine seasons is a lot, and unlike other shows that have run for that long (Friends, Seinfeld, etc.) this show felt redundant and they just drug it on for way too long. But it’s a nice ‘fluffy’ show, something to have on in the background if that’s how you watch TV.
