Last night (March 31st 2014) was the series finale of How I Met Your Mother on CBS. After 9 long years of following Ted, Robin, Barney, Lily and Marshall did the finale live up to expectations? Here’s what we thought!
WARNING: Contains spoilers! If you haven’t watched it already stop reading now!
Lucy Overs (Fashion Writer)
Myself and my flatmate waited up until 1am eagerly anticipating the finale of a show we’d been watching together for years. The final season of HIMYM was the most dragged out thing I’ve ever seen, the episode’s mini story lines were funny but there was barely any progress towards Barney and Robin’s wedding, especially considering the season is 24 episodes long. In the season finale I expected, a huge emotional wedding, a dramatic moment of Ted meeting the mother, some kind of resolution for the poor kids who’ve been sat on that sofa for years and for Ted to finally be with “the one” he’s been searching for. None of this happened. After weeks of build up to Barney and Robin’s wedding we barely get to see it.
The absolute worst part of the episode was the last 5-10 minutes, after being disappointed for nearly an hour with constant time-skipping to seemingly irrelevant events we were hoping for the emotional moment of closure where everyone ends up happy. The writers absolutely copped out by basically going: “You know that moment you’ve been waiting for since episode one season one? Doesn’t happen. The mothers dead and Ted fancies Robin again.” All in the final 5 minutes! They completely glossed over the mother dying, you see her in the hospital for about 5 seconds then the kids laughing going, oh that was ages ago now! WHAT?! Ted seems to fancy Robin and try and get her back almost every season, it’s over-done and lame. The whole episode was very rushed and there didn’t seem to be any depth to any of the huge events that happened. I feel like they tried to add too much into the final episode whilst absolutely nothing happened over the final season meaning it was slow and dragged out for 23 episodes and then rushed and shallow for the final one. Mostly I just feel cheated out of a sense of closure and a resolution for poor Ted who can’t seem to catch a break.
Chris Hines (Editor)
Having watched the entire series since episode 1 you can say that I was more than a bit excited for the final episode. After watching though, I feel like I’m left with a huge hole that will never be filled. What should could have been the best ending of all time was shattered into pieces with some horrible plot choices.
Before we get onto the biggest rant let’s start with discussing Barney. As much as we have all liked Barney’s ‘Player’ persona, the one thing we have always wanted to see is that he settles down and changes for the better. Having him divorce Robin and have an accidental child after a ‘perfect month’ with a women who will forever be known as ‘number 31’ was not the way this should have ended. Yes, we see Barney fall in love with the child which was nice but the only change we see in him getting away from his ‘player’ days was him briefly lecturing the two girls in the bar. This to me was not enough to show any big change in Barney. He seems like he’s happy with having a child but with absolutely no reference to who the babies mother is, how he’s really adapting to fatherhood besides being tired, and how he is really trying to change for the better it just didn’t work. You could almost see him using the baby to pick up girls in the future. Having him stay with Robin would have been a far better ending as through this relationship we really did see him change for the better. They could of at least had Barney man up and create a relationship with ‘number 31’ for the good of the baby. Kind of left me feeling sorry for him and felt like he had been pretty hard done-by.
Now onto the main issue. Let me first say I have no issues with the decision that the mother dies. If this was done better it could have been a really good, emotional way to end to the series. Instead her death is pretty much brushed over like it’s nothing. You don’t even have time to get even slightly upset by it. Within just over 2 minutes, yes I checked this, it’s she dead and let’s get back with Robin. WTF! The kids don’t even sound slightly upset that their father has just reminded them their mum died either. All they care about is Ted should get with Aunt Robin! NO NO NO NO! All we have seen is Ted try to get back with Robin series after series. It’s a done storyline! Ted and Robin are NOT meant to be. Surely the whole series up until this point has been telling us this? They don’t work, or if they did the series should have ended a long time ago. The mother dying should have been enough of a plot twist, and given a whole purpose to him telling the story to his kids, to end it there. Would have been a sad ending but I think everyone would have accepted it. Dropping the bombshell that the whole entire series was not the story of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ but of ‘How I Want To Get With Robin’ just destroys everything. The last 5 minutes or so of the episode were just horrible to watch. For the whole of the last series we have got to know Tracey and got to really like her. By this point we have no interest in Ted and Robin getting together anymore. The ending should have been about Ted and Tracey.
And one last thing! Can the series really also end on Ted breaking the ‘Bro Code’. Surely hooking up with a bro’s ex-wife is a no go? They may have been together before but I feel once they have been married that must change things right? Hmmm!
I’ve always loved this series and will still continue to watch it again. The last episode though will always end at 18 minutes in for me.
Jenna Young (Rock Writer)
Having crammed 9 seasons of How I Met Your Mother into a few months so that I could watch the finale with my roommate, I had some high expectations. All the way through, the series had been good enough to rival my favourite, Friends, but I was let down.
For a show called ‘How I Met Your Mother’ there sure wasn’t much mother in it! I think I could have made my peace with her passing away, it would have given Ted’s telling the story a reason, but they should have made a bigger deal over it, instead of just glancing over it with an ‘oh dear, she’s ill’ attitude. But, even the hopeless romantic in me will never get over/forgive him ending up with Robin. While the divorce didn’t surprise me, and again I could make peace with it, I’m angry it was just a plot device to get Ted with the one person you’ve spent the whole show knowing he won’t end up with. I’m sure there are some Ted/Robin shippers who loved the ending, but in my opinion, it ruined one of my all time favourite shows.
Kayla Elliot (Rock Writer)
The season final of HIMYM was a complete joke and completely contradicts the title! The show should have been called ‘How I Met Your Step Mother’. And why would you build something up for 9 years just to have them meet and then not spend any time with them really being together? The accidental curly fry got more emotion than the mothers death. I’m just going to pretend that HIMYM ended on the second last episode.
Rhian Westbury (Rock Editor)
Rhian feels too empty to comment!
