By 
LEGENDARY.
How I met your mother is a series created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. It started back on the 19th of September of 2005 and ended on the 31st of March 2013. The cast features Josh Radnor (Ted Mosby), Jason Segel (Marshall Eriksen), Alyson Hannigan (Lily Aldrin), Neil Patrick Harris (Barney Stinson), and Cobie Smulders (Robin Scherbatsky). The series is set in the year 2030, with Ted telling the story of how he met his wife in the past. In order to do so, the series uses lots of flashbacks; starting from the year 2005 until it reaches present day (2030). Fun fact: Ted is inspired in Bays’ life, while Marshall and Lily are based off Thomas’ marriage.
WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
The first thing that comes to mind is Barney’s character arc. It’s without a doubt the best thing this series has to offer. While Barney starts off as an easy target for jokes, womanizer, and someone who can’t never be taken seriously; his evolution throughout the whole nine seasons is very interesting. You see that he’s in a fact a layered character, evolving from beginning to end. Starting off as a liar, immature and sexist; Barney ends up as a noble, respected, committed, honest, responsible, and loving man; leaving behind the triviality that characterized him at the start.
Adding that after a first failed relationship with Robin, he doesn’t give up and does everything that’s in his hand to come with her. This could not be possible without the changes Barney suffers throughout the entirety of the series. He endures mentally and demonstrates a lot of commitment in order to get back with Robin; showing he’s not with her for the possibility of having kids or to start a family, but because he really loves her. This reaches its pinnacle during the final ninth season; where he vows to be completely honest for Robin. This is by far the most interesting aspect of How I met your mother, despite being a sitcom.
If there’s another reason as to why this series shines; that’s Ted’s story. His life, despite what some people were hoping for, ends on a negative after knowing that Tracy dies. But that’s life. Not everything will ever be as we want it to be, and we grow stronger by facing those challenges, just like he does. Ted gets beaten down quite a few times throughout the nine seasons; like when he got left at the altar by Stella, or when Robin told him she didn’t love him back; or even when the love of his life dies after having searched for her for such a long time. But just like he says it, life wouldn’t be as fun if everything was so easy.
The fact that the creators of the show had to create an alternate ending that is in fact canon where Tracy lives, comes to show the incomprehension of Ted’s character by some part of the audience. Ted is an unlucky guy, since the very beginning as a matter of fact. It doesn’t matter how hard he tries; life always gets the better of him. Because, in al honesty, life does always get the better of us. Doesn’t matter if it’s a sitcom or not.
As a last strong point, I think that the intro song deserves all the recognition. Absolutely legen-wait for it-dary.
WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD ABOUT HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
For some reason, something that bugs me quite a lot about How I met your mother is Lily Aldrin. I don’t know if it’s because she dumps Marshall, or if it’s because she’s interfering in other people’s business; but I really cannot stand her at times. While it is true that she gives out great advice and acts as the group’s conscience, she sometimes does things that I can’t walk past them: leaving Marshall when she goes to San Francisco, only to come back because she failed as an artist (and seeing Marshall as a backup plan). Or how she breaks up a lot of Ted’s relationships just because she doesn’t like the girl he’s dating. Or hiding the enormous debt she has from Marshall, amongst others.
Retrospectively speaking, Lily is the only one who doesn’t reach her life goals. She fails as an artist and has to settle with her teaching job; and she lies about how she met Marshall (saying it the way she would’ve liked it to happen). Lily is the perfect example of how toxic unrealistic life expectations can be; when she feels as if she’s achieved nothing, ever. Nevertheless, the latter allows us to understand how she feels, but may result annoying since she sometimes acts on pure instinct.
Apart from Lily, if there’s something that stands out from the rest, it’s the ninth and final season. It was very anticlimactic; not for the idea it had, but because of how poorly executed it was. There are 23 episodes dedicated to Robin and Barney’s wedding, to then sum up how their lives have changed in a matter of 20 minutes.
We learn that after three years of being married, Robin and Barney end up breaking up; which feels as if all those episodes about their wedding didn’t really mean anything; not because of the outcome, but because of little time is taken to explain it. After the divorce, Barney tells Marshall and Lily that he accomplished “the perfect month” but leaving “girl number 31” pregnant in the process.
All of the development Barney goes through from the first season until that point is wasted in a matter of minutes; becoming the womanizer from the first season, despite being 40 years old. While making him a father makes him a more relatable character, throwing him back to the start-finish line was a very questionable choice. Barney was an honourable and happy man; to a divorced, laughable man, and womanizer.
On the other hand, Marshall and Lily end up living in Rome, where we’re shown that their quality of live has vastly improved. And that’s about it.
Ted and Tracy live happily in NewYork, along with two kids: Penny and Luke (the latter being a Star Wars reference, Luke Skywalker being the protagonist of the saga). Tracy’s death doesn’t feel earned because the audience hasn’t had time to empathize with her. We don’t really much know about her, and that’s a shame. Even though it’s sad to see her hold Ted’s hand, the emotional weight that one should feel when she passes away is just not there. If there were less episodes about the wedding, and explored the chemistry between Ted and Tracy, this ending would’ve worked much better.
Anyway, the ending that was aired on television seemed to be planned out since the first seasons, and even if the story tried to go one way, the writers then tried to steer it back to the original plan; which was having Robin as the real mother.
This last thing is really nitpicking, but I believe that canned laughter really harms the humour in any comedy. One should laugh when he/she believes he/she should, not when he’s/she’s told.
IN CONCLUSION
This show has a very interesting story, where one is constantly asking himself who will be Ted’s future wife. Its ending is quite anticlimactic, but just like life; it’s not something we were hoping for. How I met your mother tries to convey the message that what’s really important is to enjoy things while you can, because you can never know if it’ll be the last time you do so.
VERDICT: 8/10
