Wednesday, April 02, 2014

My Take on the HIMYM finale

I haven't read a lot of commentary on the How I Met Your Mother finale from Monday night, but I've a heard a little bit here and there.  A lot of people don't like that they killed off Mom and put Ted with Robin in the end.  I'm not really fond of the idea either, but that's not really my main complaint with the episode. 

To me, the problem was that it just wasn't funny.  HIMYM was a funny show.  The finale was sad, not funny.  There were so many comedic turns they could have taken to end the show on, but instead they go with the almost too obvious twist of putting Ted with Robin.  Yes, it makes sense, and, honestly, makes the majority of the series make more sense, but it makes the whole last season leading up to the finale make no sense at all.  Why spend this whole last season making us believe Barney has changed and Robin and Barney should be together, to then just have them get divorced?  Why make Tracy (Mom) be so perfect for Ted and then just kill her off?  And why have everyone's life be semi miserable after the wedding?  True, it may be more realistic to show that not everyone is happy in middle age, but since when was HIMYM based on realism? 

I'm all for twists and original endings, but for a comedy, the ending should be clever and, most of all, funny.  To me, this one just wasn't.  It was disappointing and sad.