How I Met Your Mother: The Final Season

[Professor Zoom]

First, I thought the finale was bullshit...

Now....

You guys are missing the entire point. The Mother has always been a McGuffin. She's the Island on LOST. The story has never actually been about how Ted met her. It's about the growth and maturation he had to do in order to be ready to be with Robin.

I'm calling shenanigans on this point. Then why did we spend a season, a SEASON of Ted "growing up" and realizing he wasn't in love with Robin? That they weren't ever going to be a good couple? They hammered that point home again and again and again. The balloon thing, the episode that had the wedding where she wanted to run away...

It was about saying good bye to a part of your life, to welcome in a new part.

And then, they quickly dispose of the mother off screen and somehow that means he's suddenly mature enough to get with Robin? What about Robin, did we see any of her maturing in those two minutes?

It may have been their intention to tell a story about a guy having to go through all of this stuff to be "mature" enough to get with Robin, but that's not what they ended up telling.

The Ted Mosbys out there are searching for "the one." The perfect soul mate who completes their expectation of what an ideal relationship should and must be. Tracy was exactly that. The reality of the situation is that most of the Ted Mosbys out there probably won't find her.

TV is not reality. And it wasn't the story they were telling. Again, perhaps their intention, but then the story got away from them.

Too, and I seem to go back to this over and over again this season, this is the story the writers wanted to tell and the show they wanted to make.

Then they didn't do a very good job of it. If it really was about a man seeking permission to date again... that he's trying to get over the death of his wife... they didn't do a good job of seeding that.

They basically did a punchline to a joke. So, him getting with Robin, for me, was lame, unearned, and sorta out of left field after all the work they did to 1. Have Ted get over Robin and 2. Make it a story about getting the "one."

From a certain perspective, there is the entirely legitimate ownership of that that the writers have every right to. Call me a Hollywood douche for agreeing with it, but we're fans; they're the creators. They know what they're doing. This is the story they chose to tell. Nothing they shot seven years ago made them do it; this is what they WANTED to do.

I don't think anyone is arguing whether or not the writers had a right to tell the story they wanted to tell. I think people are arguing whether or not it was SUCCESSFULLY told. And, honestly, if they story is about Ted getting with Robin, I don't think they did it very well.

We didn't see how Ted was maturing in the future, how Robin was maturing in the future in those not even two minutes.

Sorry, I don't think they executed their story very well at all.

 

[auntiehill]

To all that didn't like the ending... I give you this:

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

I like this one better.

 

[Professor Zoom]

To all that didn't like the ending... I give you this:

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

I like this one better.

Ditto.

 

[JarodRussell]

Another reason why the end was tacked on and pointless. You only need to remove 5 minutes and the mother is alive and Robarn never got divorced.

 

[Skywalker]

To all that didn't like the ending... I give you this:

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

Much better.

 

[davejames]

It may have been their intention to tell a story about a guy having to go through all of this stuff to be "mature" enough to get with Robin, but that's not what they ended up telling.

Yeah I don't think I would go quite that far with it. The story may have been about all the ups and downs that occurred in the lives of Robin and Ted along the way, but it wasn't about how the two of them "matured" enough to finally get together.

Instead the point was more about how Ted's feelings for Robin were a recurring theme that continually popped up in the story, and which the kids were clearly able to pick up on. Nothing more complicated than that.

 

[davejames]

To all that didn't like the ending... I give you this:

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

Yeah it does work that way as well, although it's a bit too cute and perfect and fairytale for my taste-- coming at the end of a series that was much more about the ups and downs and difficulties of real life, and about how great things don't always last.

This just wants to pretend that "yup, everyone lives happily ever after and they never have any other problems ever again!"

 

[Timby]

this is the story the writers wanted to tell and the show they wanted to make.

That doesn't make it good. The producers of Highlander: The Source made the movie they wanted to make and told the story they wanted to tell, but that didn't make it any less shitty.

 

[Professor Zoom]

It may have been their intention to tell a story about a guy having to go through all of this stuff to be "mature" enough to get with Robin, but that's not what they ended up telling.

Yeah I don't think I would go quite that far with it. The story may have been about all the ups and downs that occurred in the lives of Robin and Ted along the way, but it wasn't about how the two of them "matured" enough to finally get together.

Instead the point was more about how Ted's feelings for Robin were a recurring theme that continually popped up in the story, and which the kids were clearly able to pick up on. Nothing more complicated than that.

For me Robin and Ted were the whole Ross and Rachel will they won't they cliche... And that the point of How I Met Your Mother, was that Ted had to go through all of that bullshit to finally grow up enough to be ready to meet the Mother.

Which was a lovely comment ON the sitcom problem--characters for years and years stay in a sort of status quo, never growing, never REALLY changing. And that the show was leading to this one big moment...

But, alas... in the end, the writers dived right into the cliche.... three out of the five cast members... all of their growth, went right out the window. Especially Barney. Just made him a fucking cartoon character.

 

[C_Miller]

To all that didn't like the ending... I give you this:

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

Yeah it does work that way as well, although it's a bit too cute and perfect and fairytale for my taste-- coming at the end of a series that was much more about the ups and downs and difficulties of real life, and about how great things don't always last.

This just wants to pretend that "yup, everyone lives happily ever after and they never have any other problems ever again!"

I think that's okay though. I think there's a big gap between the love of his life not dying and everything being perfect. To me it just didn't feel like this was the end of the story that I had been following since I was 16. Not because I didn't want it to be, but because save for a couple sad scenes in the last few years, the story was about the mother and how she was his one true love. But it ends with him, Robin and the Blue French Horn like nothing has changed.

I think that's more of my problem than anything else. It's how he went back to Robin. In my option that makes it harder to believe and less realistic than if he had lived happily ever after with Tracy.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I'll be honest: I think I still think that the mother should've died. I think it would've been really moving. Ted had the true love of his life for this moment in time. Life is complicated, and that's ok. Would it have been a sad ending to the series? Perhaps. But, I think if it ends with them meeting, even if we know she's dying, I think it would've been really moving. And the reason he's telling the kids: maybe they are finally old enough, mature enough, to get the story, to get what it means to make it through your 20s.

I don't know, this whole bullshit, I'm really asking permission to date Aunt Robin.... ugh.

 

[ryan123450]

What a unique finale in the history of television.

My heart HURTS for Barney, Robin, Ted, and Lily. Marshall passed through the years relatively unscathed, but horrible tragedies befell the others. In the end things worked out for everyone in positive ways. But it was painful to see such horrible events occur to everyone over the years. As I told my wife a few weeks ago, I have known Ted Mosby longer than I have known my son (who is seven). These characters have meant an immense amount to me over almost one third of my life. Never before tv, films or literature have I experienced a sweeping and rapid telling of characters lives after growing to know them so deeply first.

You may read the life story of some characters over the course of a book, over in a few days. You may watch the life story of some characters in a film, over in two hours. But to grow to know these characters deeply over the course of 100 hours throughout a decade, and then see almost 20 years of their lives, ups and downs, play out over 45 minutes was very emotional. There were 'ups', and everything ended with those 'ups', but all those 'downs' thrown at us all at once was hard.

I loved it thought.

The finale was very realistic about the ups and downs of life. I love that it wasn't "and they all lived happily ever after.' This was much better.

 

[C_Miller]

Yeah. I would have done it a lot differently, perhaps dropping more blatant hints sooner. It might be one of those obvious things when you go back and watch, but it definitely didn't feel right watching it last night (especially with the kids acting bratty through the whole thing).

And I DEFINITELY would have spread out the 11 years into a one season rather than one episode. Have Barney and Robin's wedding in the first episode of Season 9 (not the end of Season 8, but I think the Mother reveal there was pitch perfect) and then go on from there in the ever changing lives of the gang. Therefore the growing apart will feel more organic and it'll actually give us all to say goodbye to the characters and see where they truly end up.

Then when the mother dies, yes it will be tragic, but it will be less of an after thought. Also I wouldn't have showed Ted at all in the final scene, just so they could keep the Bob Saget voice over. I think Radnor is extremely talented, but there's something in Saget's voice that just sells every aspect of the story. He has a wistful world weariness that sold a lot of the more meloncholy parts of the show and I think if Bays and Thomas wrote a final monologue about love, friendship, loss and moving on (which is something they can definitely do), it would have been a much better ending.

 

[TemporalFlux]

I liked the finale, and it fit perfectly with the tone of the series. I think that some people were expecting a different show in the final episode; but we got what HIMYM has been delivering for 9 years - a touching look at how life seldom gives us what we want, but we enjoy it while it lasts and then pick up the pieces and move on.

As for Robin, I believe she is a very different person in the final scene. You have to remember that she spent the better part of the decade traveling the world. She has now become a much more worldly person looking at the big picture - much like Ted always did. I would imagine that Robin is now much closer to Ted's level; she grew up.

And the mother - well, I'm sad for it; but why give us a long agony of her funeral? Let's remember her for the brief good times. And Ted had six years to move on after she died; six years is a long time before looking back to Robin.

 

[doubleohfive]

this is the story the writers wanted to tell and the show they wanted to make.

That doesn't make it good.

It does not, either, necessarily make it bad and certainly not as terrible as people are making it out to be.

 

[Scout101]

Come on now, it's the internet. Everything's either the best thing in the history of time, or traveling back in time to ass-rape your childhood while playing Michael Bolton songs. No in-between!

 

[Finn]

What a unique finale in the history of television.

My heart HURTS for Barney, Robin, Ted, and Lily. Marshall passed through the years relatively unscathed, but horrible tragedies befell the others. In the end things worked out for everyone in positive ways.

Marshall's Dad died

 

[ryan123450]

I just meant during the finale.

The only other thing I can add is that I hope there is an extended cut. It easily could have been three hours long and I wouldn't have minded at bit.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I enjoyed it, I didn't think we got enough of the Mother though.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

The more I think about it the more I am moving towards the opinion that ending was not only lame, but actually pretty offensive. It really undercuts the whole existence of the mother. Ted tells his kids the story of the mother, but it focuses so much on Robin that it is obvious he still has feelings for her. So was he still carrying this torch for her the whole time? Was that the reason it took 7 years for Ted and Tracy to get married? Was he secretly pining for Robin throughout the marriage? Maybe they thought they were just showing us a guy getting back into the dating game after being widowed for a long time, but the ending really seems to suggest that Robin was the one for him all along and if that is true then ostensibly we were supposed to be happy the mother died.

Oh, and his kids are actually happy and not completely creeped out that Dad is going to hook up with someone they call "Aunt Robin"?