Laugh track or no laugh track, sitcoms have come and gone from our airwaves in quick succession for years… kind of like patrons in a cheap motel. Blink and you’ll miss them, because let’s face it, most of them are incredibly forgettable. It isn’t very often that we run into incredibly memorable sitcoms. A few mentionable shows that received wide recognition was F.R.I.E.N.D.S., which ran for a full decade and Seinfeld, which ran for nine full years. Maybe they are memorable because they lasted for so long, or maybe they lasted so long because they were so memorable, all I know is that they are indeed memorable, and they did indeed last years on air… there had to be a reason for that.
How I Met Your Mother is one of these sitcoms, ranging over nine long years, and on the thirty-first of March, the long-awaited series finale aired. However, reception for the last episode is mixed with a lot of hatred and disappointment. Having seen the episode myself, I can’t help but ask myself why? What has set these people off so much? The only thing that I can think of is that people haven’t been paying attention…really paying attention to the show all this time, because the finale puts it all together perfectly, as if it were a complicated jigsaw puzzle with every piece delicately designed and put together seamlessly.
SPOILERS FOLLOW.
TURN BACK NOW TO AVOID THEM.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
SERIOUSLY, THOUGH. WARNED.
SPOILERS.
What are some of the main arguments? Well first and foremost, let’s look at the Barney and Robin marriage that they’ve been building on for three years.
In the series finale, Barney and Robin get divorced suddenly, Barney reverts to his old ways, and suddenly every viewer out there cried out in an outrage. Well, hold on there. Before you start hiring a hitman to kill the writers, hear me out. Yes, parts of the finale feel a bit forced, and a lot of people don’t understand why this even happened, but I think I have a good handle on it. First of all, the scene at the end with the kids talking about Robin was filmed 8 years ago, they always knew Ted would end up with Robin, so obviously, Barney wasn’t going to ultimately end up with her… so why did they even take 3 years of our lives to build up to something pointless?
It wasn’t pointless… YOU just aren’t understanding the point. Robin’s role in the last three years was to mold Barney into humanity, to show the audience that there was good in Barney. He never reverted back to old Barney, that was him not knowing what to do, and he went back to his safety zone… but it was all a lie. There was still good in him, he just had nowhere to put it. So along comes his child.
OH HIS CHILD WAS ALSO RANDOM, I DON’T GET IT. Well, before you pass out, let me continue to explain. His child wasn’t random, it was poetic. There was only one “forever girl” for Barney Stinson, and it wasn’t a romantic interest, it was his child. Robin could have never bore a child for Barney, and he would have never asked for one either. Having a child suddenly and unexpectedly changes a person, and that is obvious with Barney that that was the only thing he ever needed.
Please notice how you never see his baby mama. I’m willing to bet he is a single father, because again, his only forever girl is his daughter. Again. Seriously poetic.
So let’s just kill off the mother and have Ted end up with Robin. THAT MAKES SENSE. Hey there, cowpolk, here’s a chill pill, place firmly up your butt, take a seat, and listen. It does make sense. Like I said, 8 years ago, they filmed the scene with the kids that acknowledges that their mother isn’t in the picture anymore, and that Ted is in love with Robin. The writers have also said Robin is not the mother, yet year after year Ted fawns over her. Through every relationship, through every obstacle, it was always about her, and it was always going to end with her. Fair and square. The fictional purpose behind the storytelling session with his kids could be for a variety of reasons, likely because he wanted to reminisce and let his kids know more about his life and some stories of how fate brought them together. There are a number of reasons he could be telling the story, but the end result is that it helps the kids understand why and how deeply their father loves “Aunt Robin”, and because of all the stories, they help open his eyes to what he should do: reunite with Robin. Just remember… that was the plan for 8 years, and the episodes written after that filming was shot with that in mind.
This entire show is a series about friends, life, and love, and ultimately about growing up. Any television show that you can get your hands on that lasts as long as this does, you’ll notice the actors and their respected characters…grow up. They learn life lessons, they find new loves, they experience loss… together… as a whole. Yes, the show was all about how he met the mother, which in itself is a unique concept for a television show, but it also has one of the most down-to-earth honest representations of soul and character. The show is hilarious, but it’s also beautiful in the world that it created for itself, and people continually break it down for not doing things how they would do it. All of that breaking down, and they are missing the whole point of the show; they are misunderstanding what it was going for the whole time. That’s what nitpicking does, ladies and gentlemen. You forget that all of these little things are connected to a larger picture, one that has been in construction for nine years.
The How I Met Your Mother series finale was absolutely satisfying, it finally feels complete.
Because people continually throw hate at it, I must rush to its defense and congratulate it on a job well done. There are no words. HIMYM was equal in its heartwarming parts as well as its exceptional sense of humor. It does not and will never deserve the bad words that are thrown at it.
As soon as I can, I will buy the series collection set, and I cannot wait for How I Met Your Dad.
The only bad thing I can really say about the finale? Where was Bob Saget? I was so hoping he’d show up.
