Kids, How I Met Your Mother is ending after this season, but the creative team can continue to rest on their laurels even after nine(!) years because the spin-off (How I Met Your Dad) was just picked up.
Viewers met Ted Mosby in 2005 when he decided he was ready to settle down and set off to find himself a wife and he’s been falling for the wrong girl ever since. And notice I don’t say “viewers fell in love with Ted Mosby in 2005” because for its first few seasons, HIMYM was continually on the verge of being cancelled. I personally didn’t start watching until 2009 (as season three was ending) and I remember worrying that the show would end and I would never get to find out how Ted met the mother of his future children.
Obviously, that has not been the case.
Let me say for the record that I genuinely like the show. The characters are charming and likeable, the dialogue is appropriately witty, and what I liked best in the first few seasons was seeing the gang’s comings and goings in New York City because I’d just come home from my third trip to the city and I secretly wished I could live in NYC and see Barney’s one man off-Broadway show.
How the final season is structured is interesting – it’s pretty clear (to me, anyway) that the final moment of the show will be Ted meeting his future Mrs. (maybe we’ll even learn her name.) We’ve been invested in many (many) of Ted’s previous relationships, so to make sure we have the same investment in this relationship, we’re not being denied the important moments – we’re seeing them in flash-forwards.
Also, every other character on the show meets the mother before Ted does. I really dig the way they’re introducing her into the gang – it’s just as important that she fits in with the other characters; I respect that the writers found a clever way to work that in. It’s cool.
But having said all that, I will probably not watch How I Met Your Dad. Because after nine seasons, I’m really tired of this concept. There are very few TV shows that can go on for nine or ten seasons and still be interesting and pull new tricks out of their hats. HIMYM is not one of them. I don’t remember much from the past three or so seasons because it’s a blur of repeated jokes and story lines.
Also – THOSE POOR KIDS. First, their dad told them a nine-year-long story, and now their mom is going to do the same. And if you were wondering how they’re going to incorporate the kids when the actors look nine years older, they’ve already filmed those scenes. Which makes me wonder if they’re going to keep using the same stock footage of those kids for a new show.
Well, maybe the kids won’t be subjected to a nine-years-long version of the story from their mom’s perspective. I’d be pretty shocked if the spin-off turns out to be as popular as the original, because I doubt I’m the only HIMYM fan who’s burned out on this show. But who knows – maybe it’ll be hugely successful and they’ll just keep making How I Met Your … series indefinitely.
Addendum: It’s been clarified to me that the mother of “How I Met Your Dad” will not be the mother of the same kids; the show will feature an entirely new cast. HOWEVER, I stand by my argument that this is no longer a clever or original premise and I do not intend to watch.
