How I met your mother finale?

[Brandon122]

Posted: 4/2/14 at 4:28pm

I've been hearing about the finale all day, and I don't watch the series myself, but can anyone just give me a brief description of what happened??

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 4/2/14 at 4:33pm

They all turned out to be aliens

[Brandon122]

Posted: 4/2/14 at 4:36pm

Well now that I know what happened, I can now say that is probably the worst finale ever..

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 4/2/14 at 5:58pm

No, that would be the Dexter finale. The series is great as a whole, don't judge it on the series finale.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 4/2/14 at 6:07pm

The Dexter finale has absolutely nothing on the HIMYM finale. It was not the abortion that HIMYM was. You cannot compare the two at all. They're on completely different levels.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 4/2/14 at 6:08pm

The Dexter finale has absolutely nothing on the HIMYM finale. It was not the abortion that HIMYM was. You cannot compare the two at all. They're on completely different levels.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 4/2/14 at 6:26pm

Disagree. Dexter was far worse. Will & Grace takes top prize, though.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 4/2/14 at 6:34pm

YES. How the audience is supposed to believe that Will and Grace didn't talk for 18 years because of some dumb disagreement was beyond me.

And yeah, Dexter was horrible. I will just skip the third, sixth, and final season if I ever rewatch it again.
Updated On: 4/2/14 at 06:34 PM

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 4/2/14 at 6:34pm

Wow. I hated Dexter, but not as much as I hated HIMYM. Sorry - I think Dexter's was so f*cking ridiculous and lame but it didn't just throw away multiple seasons of character development. It made sense on some kind of level. HIMYM truly did not. It went against what had been established by the last couple of seasons. At least with Dexter we could understand their reasoning. I think it was more of an unpopular finale but at least made sense. Unlike HIMYM.

Also, maybe I'm in the minority but I thought Will & Grace finale was sweet and befitting for a show like that. What did you not like about it??

[ArtMan]

Posted: 4/2/14 at 7:09pm

Same as the Mary and Rhoda tv movie that came after the series ended. They both had daughters, but did not talk to each other for 20 years due to a disagreement. Even then, it was absurd, that they wouldn't speak all that time.

[lovepuppy]

Posted: 4/2/14 at 11:52pm

I've thought about this since the HIMYM finale, and disagree with whoever said it "goes against what they've established in the last couple of seasons."

The thing is, it absolutely does not go against that. The entire series always has Ted going back to Robin. Yet, the last couple of season's actual *plot* has Robin giving up on Ted, and marrying Barney. She's *with Barney*. Ted had no choice but to move on, because of Robin's choice, a couple of years ago. The more I thought about it, it makes complete sense that a spurned man would move on, find love, be happy, have kids, and the wife could die, and, in his early 50's, still be youthful enough to seek out love again. So, he went back to Robin in the end, when they were both available what, 10-15 years in the future? Makes perfect sense when you think about it.

[willep]

Posted: 4/3/14 at 12:09am

I'm with Liza's Headband on this one. I was perfectly ok with the finale until those final couple of minutes, which to me rendered the whole series pointless. I've never been so angry at a series finale before...haha.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/3/14 at 12:19am

"They both had daughters, but did not talk to each other for 20 years due to a disagreement."

I don't remember a specified reason, just that they lost touch.

The finale of How I Met Your Mother was perfectly fine. It was just the last episode of a television show.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/3/14 at 12:26am

Did people actually still watch by this point to find out the answer to the title question? I was a casual fan, so I guess was never invested, but I don't quite get the anger. It's not like, say the ending of Lost.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 4/3/14 at 4:22am

I wasn't too invested, either. I don't really care either way. In my own life, I have a cousin and two friends who are currently back with their first loves after many years and several kids with their first husbands. No, death wasn't involved, but they still reached a level of maturity that made them able to realize what they had had before.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/3/14 at 8:21am

lovepuppy-On both these threads you've defended the finale, which is fine, but I really disagree that cryptic 'clues' are great storytelling and that everyone should back off on the writers because they were clever or something. Pre-panning is not a great virtue and one of the perks on working in TV is that situations can change and are allowed to change. Vince Gilligan freely admits he didn't have the Breaking Bad finale plan at the start of the final season. Matthew Weiner has often copped to changing original courses and adding things he didn't originally plan in Mad Men. Often those readjustments to those shows feel seamless as they are well incorporated into the storytelling on already well-written shows. Meanwhile, I dare there be a more shoe-horned wedding bells manufactured TV drama than Barney, Robin, Ted, and the locket.

I guess my main issue is Robin had a 180 degree character turn from when she and Ted were a thing when this whole plot was planted and it is one of the reasons their ending up together didn't work for me. It wasn't even that being with Barney turned her into a shrew; the life was sucked out of her. She was near accepting of being alone with no kids or a spouse- until Ted shows up again. She got the career she wanted, I guess, but the framing of the character's positive qualities earlier in the series were made into something sad and depressing. Even Barney never had his fate of being eternally single be treated like a weird death sentence- and the finale allowed him to substitute commitment with fatherhood. Robin didn't get afforded that kind of rope by the writers.

Will & Grace and Friends finales also were both bad, although one was just unimpressive in executing something everyone knew would happen and the other just felt like an insistence on making a show that always always silly also have high emotional stakes- even when the conflict and resolution felt so unbelievable.

There are bad finales but often on shows with that many episodes, the last just feels like the last than an end. I'm sure if Seinfeld and Roseanne re-runs are enjoyed without needing to see their controversial endings- so can this (even if it could not hold a candle to either of those two shows).

Updated On: 4/3/14 at 08:21 AM

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 4/3/14 at 9:32am

"but they still reached a level of maturity that made them able to realize what they had had before"

Except that Robin and Ted's relationship was built on a level of young and naive immaturity. The point of a character arc is that they have at least learned SOMETHING from their experiences, mistakes, and tribulations as they come to the end of their arc to fully evolve (ie. Protagonist has changed).

By reverting back to his old relationship, he's completely jumped back to the beginning of his original arc and essentially disqualified all the years spent maturing and learning. What changed between Ted and Robin since their original relationship? And how has Robin changed?? She was the one who spontaneously suggested the two marry when she got cold feet. That is character regression, not development.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 4/3/14 at 9:59am

I haven't seen every episode, so I can't comment on every detail from the past. It was a disappointing ending for me, but I certainly will live. I don't see why 1 side in liking or disliking something always has to be right or wrong. It drives me crazy. This isn't just about this show or anyone here specifically. Unless something is 100% wrong in interpretation like saying Robin's dogs were cats, nobody is wrong in how they feel.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/3/14 at 12:55pm

Welcome to the internet? :P

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 4/3/14 at 3:20pm

My favorite TV finale : Mad About You

My least favorites : Medium, Will and Grace

Updated On: 4/3/14 at 03:20 PM

[lovepuppy]

Posted: 4/3/14 at 4:47pm

I dunno...I wouldn't say I "defended" the ending. But I've reconciled it by noting that nothing in life ends up in nice, neat little packages. "Happy ending" tendencies--and audience expectations--aside, so much vitriol against it isn't really necessary. The final scene is a depiction of probably the most realistic behavior all these zany folks have exhibited during the entire series, since they were younger, then, previously.

I do disagree with someone who said Ted "regressed" by showing up at Robin's window in the final scene. I don't think that that's an indication of regression. It's an available widowed man going back to a lost love because the timing for them was finally right. We don't get to see how--and if--their relationship continues past the gesture of the Blue Horn, so we can't really presume he regresses. I think that any person in their 50s is going to have a perspective and behave differently than in their 20s, even with the same person. I'm in my 40s. I definitely look at life, and past loves, and people in my life now vs. if they were in my life then, differently than in my 20s. That's life. So the ending was fine.

Updated On: 4/3/14 at 04:47 PM