How I Met Your Mother Ending [MAJOR SPOILERS (*salutes*) WITHIN]

[Conor]

Loved it until the final few minutes. In my opinion the best ending would've been if it'd turned out the mother recovered from her illness. My own mother passed away recently so that hit home pretty hard, and I thought it was brilliantly done. The episode itself was one of the best in the last few years, but I really didn't see the need to get Ted and Robin together in the end. The way I see it, they could have had the poignant aspect with the mother's illness, and the happy ending with her making a full recovery. That way you've got Marhsall and Lily in their happy family, Barney with his true love, Robin travelling the world like she wanted, and Ted and Tracy settling down with their family to ever after.

Great episode, really great, but the absolute ending felt rushed and unnecessary to me. As a huge fan of the show though, I wasn't disappointed.

[Nobodys_Fault]

How I Waited for Your Mother to Die So I Could Finally Be with Your Aunt Robin

I knew this would be the ending after the episode 'The Time Travelers' in season 8. I did not think they would execute it this poorly though. Why they decided to waste 21 episodes on a wedding weekend(that would be rendered irrelevant minutes in to the finale) and then attempt to cram entire lifetimes in to one hour is beyond me.

[dalsh327]

It's actually a lot more similar to AD than you might think. There was a real continuity throughout the whole series...flashbacks, flashforwards, callbacks to old gags. It rewarded attentive viewers the same way AD did. And other than Lily, most of the characters were likeable.

The Bluth family is funny...but not exactly likeable. There's a difference between laughing at detestable people that get themselves into bad situations through their own stupidity or greed and actually caring about the characters. I mean...GOB is fucking amazing but he's an asshole with zero redeemable qualities so I don't really CARE what happens to him. I honestly wanted things to work out for Ted and the Mother.

Wow, never would I imagine someone trying to find similarities between Arrested Development and HIMYM. I have to disagree that simply because both shows used flashbacks and callbacks that they're in anyway similar. Family Guy uses those devices and its connection with AD or HIMYM is pretty weak (or at least how I see it).

And I don't know if a comedy requires good people to care about. There were very few redeeming qualities about the cast of characters in Seinfeld but people still tuned in because it offered a unique brand or style of comedy. It had an existential, simplified tone and feel to it. The Drew Carey Show was the natural evolution from the Bob Newhart comedies - it's foundation was based on self-deprecating humour that almost nobody was doing at the time or had done so effectively. My problem with shows like HIMYM, Two and a Half Men, and The Big Bang Theory is that the jokes employed and the topics addressed are the same ones we've seen in better shows. There's nothing new or innovative about the brand of humour employed. Had they come before shows like Cheers, Seinfeld or Friends they would be deserving of praise - but it's the same basic setups and viewer manipulations that we have seen for decades.

Even a show like Friends became derivative after a few seasons. And as much as I like Seinfeld, the last two seasons simply played off who the characters were rather than offering anything new or innovative.

Once the format moved away from the laugh track, that's when we finally started to see some innovation in television comedy. When writers and show creators took the risk and no longer relied on inserted laugh tracks to tell viewers when to laugh is when they upped their game. And once the new standard was set, I can't go back to watching forced jokes and canned laughter. Unless the tone or structure of the comedy employed is something we haven't seen before or it's highly innovative, I can't get into anything with a laugh track. Not now, having seen shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office, Louie, and Arrested Development.

It's more like forced laughter when they tape in front of a live studio audience. 4 hours of sitting on fucking bleachers while they do take after take and the audience gets a slice of cold pizza, and you hear the people behind the cameras doing some exaggerated clapping and laughing, and I guess whatever falls flat with the audience there, is fixed in post production and enhanced. Been to 3 sitcoms, Friends was the last time I'd ever go watch.

[username]

In my opinion the best ending would've been if it'd turned out the mother recovered from her illness.

This is what I was secretly hoping for as soon as you saw her in that hospital bed. But instead they threw it down the crapper. I really do have 3 big problems with this.

1. Why on earth did Barney have a kid with "number 31" who was left anonymous and really never became part of the gang (apparently) and become a single dad. Terrible way to kill off his character.

2. The entire season 9 wedding was made irrelevant within 10 minutes.

3. The ending made the entire series after season 2 irrelevant. I really hoped they wouldn't let her die, and even if they did I'd still rather have Ted hug his kids and say something deep and meaningful rather than run off to Robin... AGAIN. I liked them as a couple, but then they spent multiple seasons killing that idea entirely. So why the hell do you expect me to like it if in the final minute Robin (who was STILL a career junkie) pops up in his head again? It really pisses me off as it goes against they've grew towards in the past few seasons without the slightest explanation of why and how. Very poorly done!

Sorry to hear about your mother by the way.

Edited April 2, 2014 by username

[Angelica]

Question - I hate Friends, and most conventional, happy cuddly sitcoms. Aside from Harris, is this worth checking out?

At any rate, I'm glad Harris is free. I saw him in Hedwig and the Angry Inch on broadway last night, he is a motherfucking monster talent wise. Supernaturally gifted.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Harris and Siegal are the highlights of the show.

[Angelica]

Harris and Siegal are the highlights of the show.

But...writing wise?

[Georgy Zhukov]

Harris and Siegal are the highlights of the show.

But...writing wise?

It is silly but they pull it off. Siegal has his quirks and Harris is over the top and rediculous. If the show edits out just about every other character (Will have to deal with Lilly) it would have been a lot better.

[downzy]

Question - I hate Friends, and most conventional, happy cuddly sitcoms. Aside from Harris, is this worth checking out?

At any rate, I'm glad Harris is free. I saw him in Hedwig and the Angry Inch on broadway last night, he is a motherfucking monster talent wise. Supernaturally gifted.

If you hated Friends you'll absolutely hate HIMYM. I'm someone who enjoyed the first two seasons of Friends but came to dislike the show. Ever since the late 90s I haven't been able to get into on traditional sitcom. For me, the format is dead.

So if you enjoy conventional sitcoms with obvious setups and formulaic story lines, HIMYM might be for you. Otherwise, avoid at all cost.

Edited April 2, 2014 by downzy

[Streetchild]

By the way, did we ever found out where the pineapple came from?

That's one question they didn't answer in the last episode.

[Powerage5]

By the way, did we ever found out where the pineapple came from?

That's one question they didn't answer in the last episode.

Thank god we didn't find out - it's bad enough they spoiled Barney's job after 9 seasons of teasing us. Some things just can't live up to the hype; remember the goat?

[Anguyen92]

By the way, did we ever found out where the pineapple came from?

That's one question they didn't answer in the last episode.

Thank god we didn't find out - it's bad enough they spoiled Barney's job after 9 seasons of teasing us. Some things just can't live up to the hype; remember the goat?

Barney did say "PLEASE" all along in the series when people asked him that question right? We just didn't think that it meant anything or that it stood for something.

Though, I could see your point where maybe it's one of those things we were not meant to found out since that information is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things in the story.

[Powerage5]

By the way, did we ever found out where the pineapple came from?

That's one question they didn't answer in the last episode.

Thank god we didn't find out - it's bad enough they spoiled Barney's job after 9 seasons of teasing us. Some things just can't live up to the hype; remember the goat?

Barney did say "PLEASE" all along in the series when people asked him that question right? We just didn't think that it meant anything or that it stood for something.

Though, I could see your point where maybe it's one of those things we were not meant to found out since that information is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things in the story.

I mean to me, it doesn't really matter whether or not they were foreshadowing what his job was - in the end the fact remains that he was just a fall guy for a slimy corporation. Even if I hated his actual job, the bit about him working with the Feds was awesome I'll admit.

The other thing about the pineapple is Ted explicitly said they never figured out where the pineapple came from. I can't think of any scenario (at least given the ending we got) where they could've revealed the pineapple without going back on that.

[Daedalus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0caCEG1nH3E
Well, fan-made, but this is how it should be...

Edited April 2, 2014 by Daedalus

[RussTCB]

The best thing I've heard said about the finale is that it should have been called "How I Settled For Your Mother"

[Thin White Duke]

Question - I hate Friends, and most conventional, happy cuddly sitcoms. Aside from Harris, is this worth checking out?

Yes it is. The show is anything but conventional, and the comedic writing is top notch.

INo, it's not. I find unlikely that someone who hates Friends would enjoy this. It's like a try-to-be witter-21st century Friends. It's also true that Friends didn't have a Harris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0caCEG1nH3E

Well, fan-made, but this is how it should be...

That should be the logical end.

I think the problem was that Robin was an unlikeable character. And that made the end even worse.

[Powerage5]

Question - I hate Friends, and most conventional, happy cuddly sitcoms. Aside from Harris, is this worth checking out?

Yes it is. The show is anything but conventional, and the comedic writing is top notch.

INo, it's not. I find unlikely that someone who hates Friends would enjoy this. It's like a try-to-be witter-21st century Friends. It's also true that Friends didn't have a Harris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0caCEG1nH3E

Well, fan-made, but this is how it should be...

That should be the logical end.

I think the problem was that Robin was an unlikeable character. And that made the end even worse.

I hate Friends but HIMYM is my favorite show. I think the characters are more relatable, and I love how they play around with the timeline - led to some very clever episodes like Three Days Of Snow.

[Thin White Duke]

I will never understand humans. Of all the shows that started in this century, the one I see more similar, for several reasons, to Friends is this one. From the ensemble cast made by a group of very close friends with totally different personalities to the, let's say, two main characters falling in love in the first season but not being definitely together until the end. Even the bar/pub where they always hang out and where they always sit at the same table. Since the first day I started to watch the show it reminded me of Friends. But, well, maybe it's just me.

Edit: Playing around with the timeline is one of the best things of HIMYM, I agree on that and it's one of the things that caught me... but, if I recall, Friends also did that a few times.

Edited April 2, 2014 by Thin White Duke

[Lithium]

I will never understand humans. Of all the shows that started in this century, the one I see more similar, for several reasons, to Friends is this one. From the ensemble cast made by a group of very close friends with totally different personalities to the, let's say, two main characters falling in love in the first season but not being definitely together until the end. Even the bar/pub where they always hang out and where they always sit at the same table. Since the first day I started to watch the show it reminded me of Friends. But, well, maybe it's just me.

Edit: Playing around with the timeline is one of the best things of HIMYM, I agree on that and it's one of the things that caught me... but, if I recall, Friends also did that a few times.

You're wrong.

[Powerage5]

No, I can definitely see the similarities, I just don't find Friends particularly funny. Never seen an episode that's non-Linear A la HIMYM though.

[Thin White Duke]

Fair enough then.

About the non linear episode, I haven't seen Friends since it finished 10 years ago but I remember episodes where they looked back on their teenage years, when Monica was fat and Rachel is her best friend and go to the prom and things like that. I can't say right now properly but there was some moments like that. Obviously, it's not daily as it is in HIMYM, but the reminiscence is there.

[ZoSoRose]

I love both shows (fuck HIMYM right now because of the garbage ending, actually) and I defiantly see the similarities.

Question - I hate Friends, and most conventional, happy cuddly sitcoms. Aside from Harris, is this worth checking out?

Yes it is. The show is anything but conventional, and the comedic writing is top notch.

INo, it's not. I find unlikely that someone who hates Friends would enjoy this. It's like a try-to-be witter-21st century Friends. It's also true that Friends didn't have a Harris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0caCEG1nH3E
Well, fan-made, but this is how it should be...

That should be the logical end.

I think the problem was that Robin was an unlikeable character. And that made the end even worse.

I hate Friends but HIMYM is my favorite show. I think the characters are more relatable, and I love how they play around with the timeline - led to some very clever episodes like Three Days Of Snow.

Holy shit that was perfect. How did they fuck shit up this bad? That was a perfect ending.

I honestly thought nothing could top the shit that was Mass Effect 3's original ending. This came close and is worse simply because they fixed Mass Effect's finale

[Powerage5]

I've watched the finale 3 times now and I'm honestly okay with the ending - it's the episode that I had problems with. Too many major plot points crammed into too little time.

[gunsfanoldie]

Every 20/30 something oriented group show has been considered the new "Friends". Whether you like Friends or not, it was better and more original than these shows. What Friends had going for them was they came right at the tail end of when that type of show was fashionable, and right at the end of network sitcom television, so it gets remembered fondly for that. Friends have the advantage of coming first, for better or worse.

HIMYM is a less good Friends. Everyone says that. And if you disagree, the highest anyone goes is that it was on the same level as Friends. It was a better and more inventive original concept, but by season 2 it was as formulaic as Friends.

And as for Friends not have a Neil Patrick Harris, you are wrong. They had Joey who stole the show. And also the thing about Friends was every character was good. All the guys from Joey, Ross and the hilarious Chandler were great, and Aniston and Courtney Cox were great as Rachel and Monica. Everyone had the laughs, with the exception of Phoebe. But seriously, there's a reason people speak so highly about Friends and why that is now the standard for these group TV shows. Whether you like it or not, they were the last ones to do it the most right.

Edited April 3, 2014 by gunsfanoldie

[batman007]

I have been a fan since the beginning, and I thought it was a good way to go. The last season was definitely the weakest season though. Sure the ending was a slap in the face, but that was the intention all along.