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LTTP: How I Met Your Mother (spoilers)

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R

Razgriz-Specter

Member
Ending was so damn bad it retroactively destroyed the show for me and any enjoyment I had ever gotten from it.

There are bad endings and then there is that ending.
 
V

Volimar

Member
Razgriz-Specter said:
Ending was so damn bad it retroactively destroyed the show for me and any enjoyment I had ever gotten from it.

There are bad endings and then there is that ending.
Click to expand...


When I saw the ending I said the same thing. But I've caught myself enjoying an episode now and then.
 
K

kiguel182

Member
The show was stretched way after the point of being funny but the alternative ending was so much better is unbelievable.

It's a good example of how stories evolve and you shouldn't get stuck to an ending you created years prior.

They could've redeemed themselves with the ending but nope.
 
J

jdstorm

Banned
ironmang said:
I liked the Chuck ending lol. The initial response was pretty harsh but I thought fans came around on it after a while.
Click to expand...

My origional comment was a bit hyperbolic. Its probably not the worst ending. What i think both the HIMYM and Chuck endings have in common is that they were both betrayls of the show's core concept. Both HIMYM and Chuck were ultimately stories about emotional wish fullfillment, the nerdy guy getting the girl ect. HIMYM's ending was less jaring only because it had betrayed its premise one too many times already. It had been circling the drain for a few years before it ended.

Chuck was going pretty strong, and basically did the perfect Series Finale in Chuck vs The Baby. That episode showed the audience how far both characters had come due to being in eachother's life. Chuck as a person of agency and Sarah as a human who was now well adjusted emotionally. To delete that progression and essentially make the entire series invalid was a bitter pill to swallow at the time. I wont speak to how others feel. Personally i was never mad, just disapointed
and a little empty. I was aparently way too emotionally invested at the time.
Ultimately my point of closure was to pretend that the series ends at Chuck vs The Baby. In the overall scheme of things losing 3 episodes isnt so bad. I mean to get HIMYM to a workable ending you need to invalidate 5 or 6 seasons and end at the episode called the leap. (Season 4 finale)
 
B

bremon

Member
I couldn't even finish the last season while it was airing. Season 8 my interest was waning and then season 9...couldn't do it. It just wasn't the same show anymore. Seasons 1-3 were excellent, I really liked season 4 as well, then it slowly started its descent from there I felt.
 
V

Volimar

Member
SG-17 said:
Ted was emotionally cheating on his wife the entire time she was alive.
Click to expand...


I don't think that's true. Throughout the series he's telling the kids little details of things that their mother did that makes it clear he really loved her. They probably could have pushed on that a little harder in the finale, but I don't think it's fair to say he was emotionally cheating.
 
N

Novel Mike

Member
Part of the problem isn't just that the final scene they filmed waaaay back when was used its that they tried to cram like 3-4 seasons into a single finale.

If they had not dragged the show along had us meet the mother earlier, have her and Ted establish a real relationship, show how much they truly love each other, see their lives and what happens to them as well as everyone else (the gut punch of Barry/Robin not working out wouldn't have been so fucking awful if they had properly built it up over a season or two instead of like 20 damn minutes) and we see the mother eventually get sick and pass away and Ted finding a second chance at love at the very end that honestly could have worked, it wouldn't have been great but you could at least see how it all played out but cramming all of this shit into the finale was god fucking awful.

It ruined all of the character development that Barney had through the last several seasons, as well as both Ted and Robins. Even if you liked Ted/Robin together you have to admit that they completely botched how they ultimately wanted to get them back together again and it made the mother character so forgettable I can't even remember her freaking name.
 
G

gforguava

Member
SG-17 said:
Ted was emotionally cheating on his wife the entire time she was alive.
Click to expand...
Ted ostensibly told his kids about how he met their mother...but really he just focused on his friends and all of the other relationships he had with women other than said mother. Ted Mosby is the scum of the earth.

The framing device of the show is one of the the dumbest things I've ever encountered in retrospect.
 
swarley64

swarley64

Member
Yeah, once Barney and Robin broke up they lost me. The build-up to that wedding was 3-4 seasons long, and then they divorce after ten minutes of screentime? Are you fucking kidding me? Everything else after that, I just didn't care.

EDIT: and the best character is Marshall, it's not even fucking close. I don't really have a least favorite.
 
D

Deadly

Member
Thinking about it now, the last season should have been used as season 6. You have Robin and Barney rush to get married instead of breaking up and everything actually makes sense. Most importantly Ted and Robin later on is somewhat believable because them being together wasn't that far off.

This is the problem when the show becomes too successful you have to keep the storylines going and it usually ends up ruining some of the characters.
 
Megatron

Megatron

Member
Fliesen said:
Here's what i feel happened:

The showrunners (obviously) always had this ending in mind. (duh, they shot it, scene with the kids and all).
The show got immensely successful and got renewed over and over again, 2-3 seasons too many for its own good.

Throughout the last 3 seasons, all the build-up about when we'd finally meet the mother was too much, that whole will-they-won't-they Robin shit was re-used too many times, always with increasing degrees of finality. (*cough* the beach scene ...)
(Too many times, Barney met that one soulmate that made him let go off his 'Barney' ways. Too many times Ted realized that Robin and him would never work out - this time for realsies.)

So the whole cocktail of: A shitty last season, over-stretching the audience's patience too many times, as well as their biggest mistake - making the mother just too perfect and loveable for the show's own good, as well as how we then were rushed from meeting her to having to let go off her within a few episodes - is what frustrated so many people.

Imho they should've course corrected. Read the room. Discard the pre-shot footage (they just were too much in love with their clever 'the ending was known almost 10 years ago' idea), and maybe make that the DVD-release extra ending.


I feel like the last season is what will make HIMYM - in my mind - a failed attempt to replicate Friends, which was on a great trajectory but due to a very "risky" premise had to one-up itself again and again and would finally - by not sticking the landing - go down in TV history as the inferior product.

Code: 
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/xl2k37d.png[/IMG]
Code: 
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/uprm04w.png[/IMG]
Click to expand...

I agree with every word of this.
 
J

Jest Chillin

Member
SG-17 said:
Ted was emotionally cheating on his wife the entire time she was alive.
Click to expand...

Not even close to true. He loved Tracy deeply and dearly and he waxes poetic about that throughout the series. Had she not died, he would've been happy with her for the rest of his life.

Future Ted: Kids, it's been almost 20 years since that cold April night in 2013, and I could safely tell you, if I could go back in time, and relive that night, there's no way in hell I'd go to Robots vs. Wrestlers. No, I'd go home. I'd go to my old apartment, see all my old furniture and stuff. I'd see my old drafting table, where I sketched out my first building. I'd sit on that old couch, and smell the Indian food cooking three stories below. I'd go to Lily and Marshall's place, back in that old living room where where so many things happened. I'd see the baby. I don't know if you can picture me holding your six foot seven cousin Marvin over my head, but back then I could. I'd go have a drink with Barney and Robin, watch them fight about their caterer, or whatever it was they were fighting about that night. But none of those things is the thing I'd do first. You know the thing I'd do first.

[Imaginary past Ted runs from MacLaren's through the streets of New York, until he reaches his future wife's apartment. He knocks on the door, and she opens]

Ted: Hi, I'm Ted Mosby. In exactly 45 days from now, you and I are gonna meet and are gonna fall in love, and we're gonna get married and we're gonna have two kids. We're gonna love them and each other so much. All that is 45 days away, but I'm here now I guess because ... I want this extra 45 days with you. I want each one of them - and if I can't have them, I'll take the 45 seconds before your boyfriend shows up and punches me in the face, because ... I love you. I'm always gonna love you to the end of my days, and beyond. You'll see.
Click to expand...

~~

Novel Mike said:
Part of the problem isn't just that the final scene they filmed waaaay back when was used its that they tried to cram like 3-4 seasons into a single finale.

If they had not dragged the show along had us meet the mother earlier, have her and Ted establish a real relationship, show how much they truly love each other, see their lives and what happens to them as well as everyone else (the gut punch of Barry/Robin not working out wouldn't have been so fucking awful if they had properly built it up over a season or two instead of like 20 damn minutes) and we see the mother eventually get sick and pass away and Ted finding a second chance at love at the very end that honestly could have worked, it wouldn't have been great but you could at least see how it all played out but cramming all of this shit into the finale was god fucking awful.

It ruined all of the character development that Barney had through the last several seasons, as well as both Ted and Robins. Even if you liked Ted/Robin together you have to admit that they completely botched how they ultimately wanted to get them back together again and it made the mother character so forgettable I can't even remember her freaking name.
Click to expand...

Having us meet the Mother that early wouldn't have changed anything, except it would have required due to the nature of sitcoms, that we see Ted and Tracy have actual relationship problems. Which would've ruined the concept of a Father telling his kids about all the mistakes, missteps, and lessons he learned on the path to meeting their Mother, to whom no one else can compare.

Barney didn't have true development. He seems to change over time but he consistently screws things up because he hasn't actually changed. He did it with Nora. He did it with Quinn. And while on the surface they paint his second attempt with Robin as him getting it, his massively fucked up proposal "play" illustrates plainly that he hasn't changed. Rather than proposing in a straight forward way, he drags Robin through an elaborate and screwed up series of emotional manipulations leading up to a proposal that she accepts because she's just so glad that all the horrible feelings she's been put through thus far are over. It illustrates that he doesn't understand relationships and still views women, even Robin, as things he controls to his own ends. This is what makes Barney's ending work. He's too emotionally screwed up to have a working romantic relationship and irony of ironies, he winds up with a daughter, conceived by the woman he slept with on the very last day of his "perfect month," who has his heart so completely that she manipulates him.

[Barney sees the baby girl he sired with No 31 from The Perfect Month]

Nurse: This is Ellie. [hands baby to Barney] I'll give you guys a minute. [leaves]
Barney: [teary-eyed at seeing his daughter] You are the love of my life. Everything I have, and everything I am... is yours [nearly breaks down] Forever. [kisses baby]
Click to expand...

I agree with the most level-headed criticism expressed about the show. That it's ending suffered due to the story being stretched for so long. I would also agree that the finale, even being 2 episodes was still too compressed. The final dialogue with the kids should have been less condensed and had Future Ted explain his feelings rather than having his kids correctly guess everything.

But people saying that the alternate ending should have been the regular one are missing the point of the story and the show. There are two quotes that really showcase the underpinning theme of the entire series.

Future Ted: You will be shocked, kids, when you discover how easy it is in life to part ways with people forever. That's why when you find someone you want to keep around, you do something about it.
Click to expand...

and

The Mother: Hi Max, it's me. Sorry to interrupt, I know you're probably up there playing baseball with your Dad. Um look, I've got a situation here. I think that I've been holding myself back from falling in love again and I think it's because I can't let you go but [nearly breaks down] you're not here anymore, so... I have to ask this. Would it be okay if I moved on? I realize that you have no way of answering that, but [feels sudden gust of wind] okay. I'll take that as a yes. In that case, I should get back in there. [moves to door, but] I guess this is it. For real this time... Bye, Max.
Click to expand...

Throughout the series Ted's stories always reflect on how the group had its ups and downs but largely they were there for each other because they love each other. Everyone of them except Marshall has character flaws that result in them hurting each other pretty badly but they accept each other regardless. Always intermixed with these stories, Future Ted mentions how much he misses those times, warts and all, because life has since separated them. After he lost Tracy, he has no close connection to anyone except his kids. And for 6 years he puts them first, as he should. But at by the time he tells the story, they're both teens. Nearly grown. They don't need his complete attention that way and that makes the empty parts of his life weigh on him more heavily. Most of his friends have their own things going on but Robin, for the first time in decades, is similarly alone having already achieved her career goals. They've always loved each other and they're finally in a place where their conflicting desires no longer conflict. There's no reason for them not to give it a shot.
 
I

IdreamofHIME

Member
aBarreras said:
can you explain what the fuck are you talking about?
Click to expand...

There's an episode in the last season where Ted is with a girl who gets drunk. She gets absolutely wrecked and he still thinks about having sex with her. He then takes her up to his room even though she's completely shit faced and it's only at the last minute when she's completely paralytic that he decided not to fuck her.,..and the frame of the show is that this is a story future Ted is telling his Son and Daughter about he he met their mother....but a few nights before he was gonna have non consensual sex with a drunk stranger.
It's a love story!
 
Z

Zetta

Member
The ending soured the whole show for me to the point I can't even sit down to rewatch an episode. The alternate ending was the better ending but damn that last episode just ruined it all.
 
C

cyba89

Member
Say what you will about the last season but "How Your Mother Met Me" was one of the best episodes of the whole show.
 
I

ItIsOkBro

Member
SG-17 said:
Ted was emotionally cheating on his wife the entire time she was alive.
Click to expand...

even the kids were like you spent way too much time talking about robin. and then they told him to go after robin. after hearing a story about their dead mom? god the kids are fucking weird.
 
R

Rue

Member
Razgriz-Specter said:
Ending was so damn bad it retroactively destroyed the show for me and any enjoyment I had ever gotten from it.

There are bad endings and then there is that ending.
Click to expand...

It really sucks. The first few seasons have some absolutely incredibly hilarious moments that had me crying with laughter. The running gags, constant in jokes, and characters themselves just elevated the show so much that at the time (before season 6 I believe ), I had seen the series a few times all the way through.

Now everytime I think about it, I just can't. That ending really soured the whole show for me, I can't even recommend it to anyone despite how strong most of the series is.
 
R

Razgriz-Specter

Member
Rue said:
It really sucks. The first few seasons have some absolutely incredibly hilarious moments that had me crying with laughter. The running gags, constant in jokes, and characters themselves just elevated the show so much that at the time (before season 6 I believe ), I had seen the series a few times all the way through.

Now everytime I think about it, I just can't. That ending really soured the whole show for me, I can't even recommend it to anyone despite how strong most of the series is.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

My work regularly played "500 miles" and every single time my first thought was
fuck that ending!

Any time my mom was looking for a new show when I called her i'd suggest it.
after years of suggesting it to her she finally caught like 3 episodes on a business trip and called me when she got back to say she was going to start it...
I quickly told her nevermind and to avoid it.
Same with my sister.
 
T

thoseAREmySHOES

Member
Fliesen said:
Here's what i feel happened:

The showrunners (obviously) always had this ending in mind. (duh, they shot it, scene with the kids and all).
The show got immensely successful and got renewed over and over again, 2-3 seasons too many for its own good.

Throughout the last 3 seasons, all the build-up about when we'd finally meet the mother was too much, that whole will-they-won't-they Robin shit was re-used too many times, always with increasing degrees of finality. (*cough* the beach scene ...)
(Too many times, Barney met that one soulmate that made him let go off his 'Barney' ways. Too many times Ted realized that Robin and him would never work out - this time for realsies.)

So the whole cocktail of: A shitty last season, over-stretching the audience's patience too many times, as well as their biggest mistake - making the mother just too perfect and loveable for the show's own good, as well as how we then were rushed from meeting her to having to let go off her within a few episodes - is what frustrated so many people.

Imho they should've course corrected. Read the room. Discard the pre-shot footage (they just were too much in love with their clever 'the ending was known almost 10 years ago' idea), and maybe make that the DVD-release extra ending.


I feel like the last season is what will make HIMYM - in my mind - a failed attempt to replicate Friends, which was on a great trajectory but due to a very "risky" premise had to one-up itself again and again and would finally - by not sticking the landing - go down in TV history as the inferior product.

Code: 
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/xl2k37d.png[/IMG]
Code: 
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/uprm04w.png[/IMG]
Click to expand...

This sums up my thoughts PERFECTLY
 
D

DeathyBoy

Banned
Jest Chillin said:
He didn't change though. His entire proposal "play" was massively fucked up and manipulative. It was definitely his greatest play in that it's the peak of the mountain that is his fucked up view on women and relationships.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's weird people give Ted shit but support Barney. Barney never stops being a child until he meets the right girl and grows up. While he's with Robin, he's still a child.
 
E

Entropia

No One Remembers
Familienoberhauptvogel said:
I for one loved the ending for everything but giving us too little of the mom.
Click to expand...

I honestly didn't like it at first, but... I'm actually glad they stuck with their guns on what the story was. On re-watching it all, I love it still.

Seasons 1-4 are absolutely amazing, 5-8 feel... almost out of place. I really wish they had went a different direction with season 9. All that buildup over the season for little payoff with the marriage.
 
S

Scipio

Member
The cast is unbelievably hatable. Fuck Ted Mosby. Can't stand Robin or Lily (what a sociopath) either.

Marshall is the only decent guy.
 
F

Familienoberhauptvogel

Banned
Entropia said:
I honestly didn't like it at first, but... I'm actually glad they stuck with their guns on what the story was. On re-watching it all, I love it still.

Seasons 1-4 are absolutely amazing, 5-8 feel... almost out of place. I really wish they had went a different direction with season 9. All that buildup over the season for little payoff with the marriage.
Click to expand...
I felt like the issue was people got too attached to the character of Barney Stinson which considering the push he got was understandable as the 2nd half of the series was much more about him than Ted. What I don't understand is that it completely ignores the degradation of Robin as a character as a result. They changed pretty much her whole personality to fit Barney. They also foreshadowed their relationship not working ostensibly. Robin and Barney were destructive and they took joy in it, Ted all the while was able to connect on another level with Robin that Barney never was privy to.

There's also the nice narrative that when Ted and Robin were first together they went in different directions with their lives and in the end after the both of them lived that life were able to reconnect.

I don't buy the argument that it shortsells Tracy as the love of Ted's life either. It does only of you believe there can only ever be one.
 
W

Wolf Akela

Member
Familienoberhauptvogel said:
What I don't understand is that it completely ignores the degradation of Robin as a character as a result. They changed pretty much her whole personality to fit Barney.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah this was one thing I didn't like around the middle seasons. Robin turned from some kind of ideal woman, to someone who sleeps with everyone.
 
F

Familienoberhauptvogel

Banned
Wolf Akela said:
Oh yeah this was one thing I didn't like around the middle seasons. Robin turned from some kind of ideal woman, to someone who sleeps with everyone.
Click to expand...
That wasn't my issue. Robin was always tomboyish but with Barney she turned into a crazy, unhinged, mean, short tempered, at times overly scheming person. That was of course deliberate by the writers but went against the more stoic yet still fragile personality she had in the early seasons. The strongest episodes in the later seasons was when Robin became that person again and it usually was with Ted around.
 
G

Gangster Bastard

Member
gforguava said:
Ted ostensibly told his kids about how he met their mother...but really he just focused on his friends and all of the other relationships he had with women other than said mother. Ted Mosby is the scum of the earth.

The framing device of the show is one of the the dumbest things I've ever encountered in retrospect.
Click to expand...

That's kind of the point though, isn't it? The whole story was really just a very roundabout way of telling his kids that he wanted to get together with Robin again.

I thought the ending did a pretty good job at contextualizing the rest of the show.
 
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