The final episode of How I Met Your Mother has aired, and knowing a number of you watch and love the show, here’s your chance to share your thoughts on the series finale.
Was it everything you thought it would be, or was it a slap in the face?
Stephen Schleicher
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
9 Comments
All things considered, Ted has been revealed as an unreliable narrator, the story was told to convince his kids, and maybe himself. So the validity of the entire series is questionable. But it also fills some of the inconsistencies, like Ted’s description of love just a few episodes ago.
I know they were trying to be cool with the whole, we planned and filmed the exchange between Ted and his kids years in advance, but the scene just looked awkward.
Liked the whole thing though. Especially, Barney’s fate.
It never explained Bob Sagat though.
“Was it everything you thought it would be, or was it a slap in the face?”
I don’t think these are mutually exclusive. A lot of people had very low expectations. Though, maybe it’s not a slap in the face if you expect it?
I will premise this with a “Your mileage may vary.” So I lost the need to have to watch HIMYM a while ago but last night the wife had it on. It was okay, till the end. And that’s all I can say without being super spoiler’ish.
I had the ending spoiled for me by a someone spouting wingnut theories about the show a few months back so I was a little prepared.
The show ended on a bit of a ‘popcorn’ note when they had a great opportunity for a more touching and meaningful end.
I’m equally sad and glad that it’s over.
I liked it, the holly shit moment got me floored, but I think it really worked. It was really a superb ending, a classic ending even.
Though they really should have given some explanation for the Bob Saget voice.
This is going to be a long one, if you can bare with me.
If you can summarize the series, HIMYM has always been about how things almost never go according to plan, how many things the characters set up to do and goes nowhere or somewhere entirely different.
Lily wants to be an artist but she is just not good at it, but she manages to make art her living eventually just not how she expected; Marshal wants to be an environmental lawyer, it goes miserably every way he tries, but after years he makes to the Supreme Court; Barney always aim to immediate gratification so it generally goes smoothly to him, but the few times he tries (and he really tries) his hand at love he loses, and he never gets it right ever, he ends single but he has daughter he loves more than anything; Robyn wants to make it big at her profession, she goes through a lot down times but she actually makes it, but it costs her her marriage and friends; and then there is Ted, the whole show is about his never ending failure to get the love of his life and after almost a decade he gets her, but he also only get a decade with her before she’s taken from him.
Even the premise of the series follows this pattern, Ted sits with his kids to tell the story of how he met their late mother, he wants convince himself not to go after Robin again, and he fails at it, all he can do is remember how his life was before he met her and and how Robin was special to him, through the story he moves beyond his grief and remembers he can still live without the love of his life, and maybe even try and love again.
The theme of the story still remains the same, you might not get what you wanted but you manage to get what you needed anyway. The ending actually fits the story, it closes the circle.
The last few seasons have been declining quality and this season was almost unwatchable at times. They did a good job of dropping hints about what would happen so the ending wasn’t a surprise, but I honestly didn’t think it worked well.
The ending was…… Hmm, after almost 48 hours I still am having trouble putting it into words. It was a happy ending in a sense. The scene under the umbrella showed what a perfect match was and the idea that Ted would love her for “as long as he could” allowed the result to work without cheapening what he had with Tracy.
Life is imperfect and pretending otherwise has always bugged me about series finales. You play the hand you are dealt and love life and those around you no matter what circumstances dictate.
In the end, to see Ted make a huge gesture instead of just calling made me laugh and cry. It was Legen wait-for-it….
Oh! Marshall needs to get his money back. He won the bet.