Reasons Why the HIMYM finale Worked (But also didn't)

I consider How I Met Your Mother one of the best sitcoms made in my generation. Sure I grew up in an age when Friends and Seinfeld were big hits but I was never really a huge watcher of Friends and Seinfeld never had the emotional arch that How I Met Your Mother got.

Unfortunately, I am rarely a scheduled watcher of any television show. I've spent too much time away from commercials that watching shows live just make me angry, (See my Doctor Who Season 7 review)

On top of that, I got caught up with my girlfriend and it would be heresy of me to go on without her. With that caveat, I have only now seen the season finale of the show. I did however know the backlash it got when it first aired. At the time I was so confused. How could a show this good have such a horrible ending? Sure the last two seasons were a tad weaker but they weren't bad. It still had the humor I loved, it still had the awesome characters. I chalked it up to people just not wanting the show to end and therefore hating on the ending.

After watching it once, then again... well...

Before you continue, you should know that this review has major spoilers. You've been warned.

When my girlfriend and I finished the season finale we both took a minute just to kind of digest it. It wasn't at all what we had expected for the ending and suddenly we understood all the criticisms that people had over it.

Now I should say that I've never been the type to say that endings are so horrible they should be redone or the writer's should apologize. And I've played through Mass Effect 3. And the same stays true for this ending. While some people didn't care for it, the writers should still be proud of what they produced.

That being said, I'm going to go through the things in the finale that worked... and the things that didn't work and prompted so much backlash.

The first thing of course was the fact that Barney and Robin got a divorce.

Now to be fair, I know why they had to do this. They wanted a specific ending and that ending would require Robin and Barney to not be romantically involved. So they could either go with the divorce or one of them has to die... and since Robin is quintessential to the ending they're going for it would have to be NPH... and they're not going to kill of NPH.

The problem however is that I've been spending the last 3-4 seasons being force fed the idea that Robin and Barney were going to be together. They hammered that so hard, and it worked.

I used to be totally on Team Ted. I wanted Robin to be with Ted from the very beginning. But slowly throughout the later seasons, I began to warm up to Robin and Barney ending up together if it meant that Ted got a great girl and in the end it was all worth it.

So they spend multiple seasons force feeding me Barney and Robin, Barney and Robin, Barney and Robin. Then they get married and its really really good... and then they get a divorce.

And they don't just get a divorce, they get a divorce not 10 minutes after they just got married.

Now when I say 10 minutes, I mean 3 years, but in my mind its 10 minutes because I had just watched their wedding 10 minutes before they announced they got a divorce.

And this wouldn't bother me if they hadn't spent THE ENTIRE 9th season getting me to accept Barney and Robin.

Like I mentioned before, they had been hitting me over the head with that idea for multiple seasons but this was the one where I actually accepted it. Ted and Robin had their closure episode, Barney develops as a great husband for Robin and Ted seems happy with the mother. I got my closure, I am now on board to see Barney and Robin married... and then they get a divorce.

Like I said before, in order for the ending they wanted, it needed to happen, and it needed to happen early. But it was a choice that I understand why it got so much backlash.

And that brings me up to Barney.

Let's be honest, NPH is half the reason people watch How I Met Your Mother. The others bring great things to the show and it wouldn't be the same without them but NPH was probably the reason you started watching the show in the first place.

Now NPH has always been a difficult character because Barney is a ladies man through and through. But in the later seasons, there is some great development with him. He starts putting aside his reckless and selfish ways and starts thinking about things as if he could actually have something like a meaningful relationship. And like I said before, they force feed Robin and Barney together.

But not only that, they force the idea that Barney is changing and is turning away from his ladies man days and really wants to settle down with Robin.

But after the divorce, NOPE. He's back. And then they have the audacity to have Barney say, this is who I am, can you just accept it? Now he's saying it to his friends but in a way I felt he was saying it to the audience. Like Barney was saying to the audience, I'm not going to settle down, can you all accept that?

WE ALREADY DID!

We had already accepted Barney for the cheesy caricature of a ladies man from the very beginning. It was you, writers, who force fed us the idea that Barney had changed and was starting to think about settling down. Not once, not twice, but three times, there were women we thought Barney may end up with.

And all of a sudden, he's back, he's doing the exact same thing he used to do and you're saying that we should just accept him for who he is?

The hell writers? I'm glad you took some time to develop Barney's character, there are a lot of serious moments with Barney that are just stellar and brilliant. An example is the episodes about him and his father. However, when one of those developing points is no longer relevant to the ending you want, don't turn it around and say that we demanded more out of Barney, that we demanded he change. It was you!

Before I go onto the next point that didn't really work, I want to talk about something that did work.

Ted and the Mother, or Tracy as her named ended up to be.

This is a point that transcends the finale because this was something they had been developing throughout the entire season. They had been developing the mother as that one thing that Ted had been waiting for for 9 seasons and it was finally here.

And it worked.

The chemistry and relationship between Josh Radnor and Cristin Milioti was very, very good.

I don't know if its the writing, or Josh Radnor himself but I don't think this would have an issue anyway. This is not the first time the show has sold us on a relationship of Ted's and they really pulled out all the stops.

So I guess that brings me to the part that I didn't like. Now this is not a huge complaint, it was just kind of weird when I watched it.

They wait 5 years to get married!

There are two kinds of people in the world. One if they hear that they are pregnant out of wedlock, they want to get married right away. The other ones have the kid and then get married. I don't think either of those wait 5 years and another kid later to get married, unless there is something wrong.

Now I'm not expert, maybe there are people out there that do that. And I get that Ted is really picky about the wedding but dear lord, this is a guy who has wanted to get married since the first episode. In the first episode he describes his perfect wedding. And he waits 5 years after his engagement to get married? It just didn't really fit with the character.

That being said, the wedding was great. The part where Tracy says she's pregnant was great. The family dynamic they have is great. I liked almost everything about the relationship between Ted and Tracy from the very beginning (or end I guess, when they meet)

Speaking of which. -->

That was a great moment. While re-watching and really thinking about it made it seem a little bit strange, I realized that it was all in the feeling of the show. It was very good for the viewer and it was great for a finale.

There's one more thing that I'm still not quite sure if I liked or if I didn't like, and that's the ending. But before I get to that, I want to talk about the other things that worked for the finale.

The first is really giving the gang a great closing episode. It extenuated how much these people mean to each other and in part, how much they mean to the audience.

This group of 5 talented actors ran for nearly 10 years and they did provide a lot of laughs. A great part about it was reflecting back on past episodes. In fact the last few seconds of the finale was going back to the first time we saw them. Damn they got old in that short time.

Put aside, the ending and whether or not you liked it. The really does give closure and wraps up all the conflicts and hanging dilemmas all these characters have and really give them all a happy ending. Sure there's a weird dilemma where after the divorce, Robin kind of drifts from the group. That was a little bit strange. But there's a great scene where its almost her break up scene with the group where she says, the gang consists of, a married couple I never see. My ex-husband hitting on slutty cops, and the man I probably should have ended up with with the gorgeous and perfect mother of his child.

While I'm not wild about the group splitting apart like that, its actually done well and it does resolve itself pretty well in the end.

When the gang does come back together after all the trials they've been through, they finally come back for that big moment they always wanted to see, Ted's wedding.

While everyone brought their own strengths and funny and serious moments, this show has always been driven by Ted and his desire to get married and it all comes to a close when they come together for that final moment we've all been waiting for.

Marshall and Lily of course are going to end up great regardless of what happens because they've been together for the longest and there was no doubt they were going to be together in the end. Was it great that Marshall got the judge position in the end? Yeah, but would it have mattered if he didn't? No.

The other strange part about the show was the ending for Barney. I've mentioned before that I wasn't wild about him and Robin getting a divorce and him going back to his old ways as if we, the audience, were trying to change him.

But this scene was brilliant. 

Is it the ending I wanted for Barney, not really. Did it make sense? Yes. It was a brilliant way to show off Neil Patrick Harris's acting and if anything was going to be that last closing development of his character, it was going to be him having a kid. It just solidifies my belief that Neil Patrick Harris is just one of the most talented people out there today. Think about it, he brings it with a dramatic performance like this but then he can do something silly and just down right stupid like A Million Ways to Die in the West.

So while I wasn't wild about the way things just kind of went back to the old ways with Barney, it was executed well.

And then we get to the ending.

It definitely took me by surprise when I heard the words, I loved her even when she got sick. And then to hear the daughter say that the mom had died.

This was just so weird to me. This was something that again, had been built up for years. Longer than Barney and Robin had been built up. This was the culmination of the show... and she dies.

It was a bold move for the show and it was totally out of left field.

The circumstances of her death really just come down to, she got sick. We don't know how she died or how the family reacted to it. While I know that that's not totally relevant as the kids already know how that went down, the audience doesn't and I wouldn't have minded seeing a little bit more into that.

However it does open up for the final scene where its revealed that Ted wants to ask Robin out 6 years after his wife died.

The show ends with a recreation of the first episode where Ted brings the blue french horn to Robin, making us assume that they lived happily ever after.

The show needed to tread a fine line when doing this because in a sense, they wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They wanted Ted to have a good relationship with the mother who is not Robin, and still have Ted end up with Robin.

I think the thing you have to ask yourself when you think about whether not you liked this finale or not was did they give enough credit to the relationship between Ted and Tracy and did they create a situation in which Ted and Robin could get back together in the end?

To me the answer is yes to both. Did they screw up a little by, again, force feeding the fact that Robin and Barney were better than Ted and Robin? Yes. But in the end, this wasn't a story about Robin and Barney. This was the story about Robin and Ted.

The thing that worked was when the kids say, "This story isn't about meeting mom". Which it really isn't. Its mainly about the adventures Ted has growing up and the experiences he had in his adult years. In reality, the mother is rarely in it. Yeah it would have created for a funny dialogue between the kids and Ted saying, You took this long to say you met mom on a train stop? I mean think about if the mom had survived, the kids would have been like, so you had the hots for Aunt Robin all these years? What does mom think about that? In the end, it really is clever how they turn it around. You may not like that he ends up with Robin, but if they were going to have him end up with her, this is a very good way to do it.

It took me a second watch of the finale to really enjoy the ending.

Sure it wasn't what we expected. It does beg the question that maybe Ted never truly got over Robin and what the hell was Robin doing when she just flat out told Ted she didn't love him. But despite a few hiccups, the show actually performs the maneuver of giving Ted both a meaningful relationship we've all be waiting for, and the relationship he's been wanting this entire time.

I go back and forth sometimes with this ending the more I think about it but after watching it a second time, I've come to actually like it. It created closure for the show, it put focus where it needed to and while the entire finale wasn't perfect, I don't think there was any ending that would have been perfect for everybody.

I think the most important part was that it gave closure for the audience and ended on a relatively happy note. It fulfilled what it set out to do and gave its own personal twist on an ending that was long awaited. Like I've said before, there are some things that didn't work but I think the good things out weigh the bad things.

Apparently there's a pilot written for a spin off called, "How I Met Your Father". It wasn't picked up by CBS but there's a possibility that it will be picked up somewhere else. Personally, I hope it doesn't.

How I Met Your Mother has been such a solid funny, and heart touching series that I just don't think it can be recreated. I want those writers to get work but I want to see new things from them. There's not much point dwelling on something that just worked really, really well.

Love the finale or not, there's no doubt that How I Met Your Mother will go down as one of the best sitcoms of all time just because of its pure comedy, heart, and just down right fun.

But those are just my thoughts, what did you think? I want to hear some opposing views. Comment and discuss below.

I'll leave you with this. There's a lot of things pertaining to How I Met Your Mother I can put up but I thought I'd leave you with NPH and Jason Segal sing the confrontation for Les Miserables. If you haven't seen it already, its quite the sight. Enjoy!