**WARNING – SPOILERS AHEAD. DUH.
Honestly, I actually loved How I Met Your Mother for 8 of the 9 seasons. Sadly, this season just dragged on, but Charlie and I slogged through it out of respect for the previous eight seasons that we loved. Heck, our daughter Stella’s name was inspired by Ted’s girlfriend STELLA from Season 3/4. After the finale last night though, I was left just shaking my head, admittedly because of my own issues in life, but still!
In no particular order, here are the top 5 reasons (#withhashtags) I wish I’d have quit watching this show a season early…
5) The entire finale season centered around a wedding that ended in 3 years because the husband just couldn’t support his wife who had landed her dream job, even though he knew going into it that had always been her dream & goal. #FamilyIssuesPTSD
4) Barney was actually growing up and turning into a pretty great guy… and then WHAMMO, his character is back to square one. And of course he ended up with a kid from the [thirty-one] night stand. #InfertilityPTSD
3) We finally get to know Ted’s sweet as pie wife – and then she died while their kids were young. I am SO over the best people dying lately. #IMissJaime
2) The entire show was apparently about how Ted can convince his kids it’s okay to hook up with their aunt after their Mom dies. #WTF?
1) I seems like Ted only hooked up with his dream girl to get the kids that the “one who got away” (who he ended up with anyway) couldn’t give him. #InfertilityPTSD #WhyDoGuysGetItAll?
So there ya go. I didn’t hate the entire episode by any means, but the way it was all wrapped up… *sigh* … I’m just super bummed with it.
What are your thoughts on it? Did you like the finale?
I can totally see where your real life would influence this episode for you. I mean it does for everyone, but the timing of this for you had to be really hard.
I thought the ending was sort of hard to stomach, but then again so is real life so I sort of didn’t mind it. Although I definitely was left feeling a little like I had whiplash it all happened so fast. I think they could have spaced this episode out over two weeks at least and it would have made it all easier to take. Also, it’s hard to judge because the kids parts were filmed 9 years in advance, but I think had they had their expressions shown a little more empathy and their attitude a little less flippant I would have had an easier time with the quick transition from the mother to Robin. Instead, I sort of felt like they were all “Of course you should go be with Robin stupid, what’s the big deal”. I don’t know, a different tone should have been struck I think. Although I definitely don’t blame the actors for that, they had no idea what the story was when they filmed that. I mean for all they knew this was going to run two season’s in which case we would have all been less invested and their acting would have felt more appropriate.
I will say this, I could not have loved the scene with Barney and the baby more!
So all and all I get and agree with everything you said, but I still sort of really was ok with all of it.
Yeah, the scene where Barney meets his daughter – his one true love – definitely had me in tears!
I definitely get that my gut reactions to the finale came from a place of frustration because of things going on in my personal life and the lives of my family members right now. I think you have a great point about the kids attitudes being too flippant and that being part of why it was so hard for me to stomach the quick transition from Mom to Aunt Robin.
I’ve never seen the show, but I do have a story about a series finale making you feel things you’d rather not. I was in 8th grade when Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ended. I watched it in my parents room, and that had people over downstairs. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed watching it. I was all set to attend the Catholic high school half an hour away the following year, and when my mom came up to check on me, I told her I didn’t want to go there. I wanted to go to the local public high school with all my friends. She and my dad agreed to let that happen, and I’m still best friends with those same guys. Literally, they and their wives (and now kids) are the non-family people we hang out with most. Anyway, all that to say, go ahead and feel what you feel. Who cares if it’s a tv show that made you feel that way. And also that Fresh Prince is awesome.
Hahaha, that’s one finale I never watched. We were more Saved By the Bell folks 🙂 True that TV can affect your life though!
Oh yes, we spent many, many summer days lying to our mom about how many SBTB episodes we watched while she was at work 🙂
We haven’t had it yet over here in Australia but it’s been all over everything and I am with you even though I haven’t seen it. I mean WHAT? the whole thing was about how I met your mother and excuse the disney princess side of me but fuck it I wanted a happy ending. the fans deserve it. barney and robin were MADE FOR EACH other they are so selfish and superficial. Ted deserved to have his cutie pie wife. I am a little devo.
My hubby and I watched the first season on Netflix, but when we found put how many seasons the show had been on and the kids still hadn’t found out how their dad met their mother, we pretty much abandoned the show.
When I heard that the series was coming to an end, I figured I’d watch because surely the kids would find out how their parents met.
There were moments that I loved: Barney meeting his daughter for the first time (#meltedmyheart #criedlikeababy); the train station scene with the umbrella (#fateisforreal); the epic high five (don’t ask…it relates to an inside joke with hubby); and how well the mom fit in with “the gang”.
The part of the story about the mom getting sick seemed to come out of nowhere, and the concept of seeking his kids’ approval to date Robyn seem like a last minute addition. However, having seen the first season and maybe a couple of others along the way (I love NPH), I guess I can see where that came from. It just made the entire series seem pointless in finding out how he met the mom.
Not many shows get to wrap up things up before they go off the air and I think I expected a little more from the finale since they had this opportunity.
I am so annoyed that it took almost an entire season to get through that wedding weekend and then they fly through 8 years in an hour. Bullshit. I wouldn’t have minded the ending if they hadn’t glossed over so damn much.
Never seen the show – sounds like you’d recommend it?
Definitely – we loved it for 8 of the 9 seasons! 9 wasn’t horrible by any means, but it dragged along a bit and I obviously wasn’t a huge fan of the ending. Great show overall though.
I didn’t like it for pretty much the exact same reasons. I loved the way Barney’s character had been evolving through his relationship with Robin, but then all of a sudden he was being a spoilt brat, they were divorced and he was back to his former man-whoring ways. I get his reasoning that if it couldn’t work with Robin then it wouldn’t work with anyone, but it was all just too quick and lacked any emotional depth. Plus, I recognise I have my own issues with him not being able to support her dream and her not being able to give it up, of course.
I didn’t like them giving Barney a baby either. I loved that he fell in love with her, but it seemed like a bandage to fix the player they just turned him back into. Why so many changes in one episode?! It was only necessary to split them up so Ted and Robin could get together, which brings me to…
I HATED that the whole thing was about Robin. Robin and Ted didn’t work for real reasons – they weren’t Ross and Rachel. I did not at all want them to get together at the end. I wanted to believe in Ted’s happily ever after that we all sat through nine seasons to get to, and it should have been there. Even if they wanted him to be telling his kids after the mother died (and agree that’s terrible timing for you *hugs*) it should have been about remembering her and how special she was and how much he loved her, because that’s what we all hung in there for, not a cheap ploy to throw him and Robin together at the end. I’m an incorrigible romantic and I still wanted there to be a fairytale ending for Ted.