How he finally met the mother (Season 9)

Finished last night. I was fine with the ending. But then, I've never been the harshest pop culture critic here.

 

Do you think you would have felt differently if...

1. You had watched the show over nine years?
2. You didn't know, going to the finale that the ending was not well-received.

 

1. Maybe.
2. The only reaction I was aware of was how it was received on here, which I take with a grain of salt. Trash/treasure, etc. I really wasn't aware of any general public reaction to the ending of it because when it was airing it wasn't a show I watched.

 

The general public reaction was similar to what you saw here, perhaps not quite as angry.

 

The general public's reaction was more like, oh that show is still on? I heard it was funny, but I never watched it.

It was the rare show to run for as long as it did with middling ratings and a general shrug of the shoulders for awards and critical response.

 

I was just as angry in real life as I was here.

 

I meant general public as in people who actually watched it. The opinions of those who did not watch are irrelevant.

 

The last few seasons were just so hard to watch for me. It still had it's moments, and yes in the end it was a dumb sitcom, but the whole idea of the show was how he met the mother. Yet they tried to stuff Barney and Robin down our throats and kept coming back to Ted and Robin over and over and over again. Don't know if they thought the latter is what people wanted or if they never intended for the show to go that long and didn't know what to do or were regretful that they eliminated Robin so early, but ugh.

But because the payoff was the point of the show I kept with it after enjoying the early years very much. It was just such a letdown to have such an ultimately pointless final season and such a quick and rushed conclusion to the mother and to jump right back to where they always were. I said it before on this thread, but if that last episode had been fleshed out into the whole final season it maybe would have gone over better.

Still, I've never been more disappointed in the ending of a show or that I watched an entire show from beginning to end. It is sort of sad to say that because again the first years were quite entertaining, but it's just how it is. Maybe it would have been better binge watching, but most of us got started on it before that was even remotely a possibility!

 

You must not spend that much time on the internet. Not knowing what you are talking about but posing as an expert is the new normal.

 

Oh, I know people do it. They just aren't relevant, at least not to anybody with a clue.

 

Where is Rosie when you need her?

 

I think the issue was the limits of the cast.
They had already had a Marshall/Lily breakup and then gave them kids. So by about season 7, there wasn't much more for them to do.
They did the Ted/Robin carousel so many times. They then put Robin with Barney and had amazing chemistry there. But unless they decided to add more regulars to the main cast, there was nowhere else for them to go but through the Ted/Robin/Barney because they couldn't give us the Mother until the very end.

I think one of the smartest things the Big Bang Theory (I can sense you all rolling your eyes) did was add on the extra full-time characters. It gave extra people to plot for. One of the best episodes in recent seasons was the scavenger hunt episode because it plotted for different combinations of people to interact with each other. In HIMYM, the last few seasons was just treading water until they could introduce the Mother. They had already paired off in every conceivable way. It didn't feel like there was any new ground being covered. I would have given up but I wanted to see how he met the damn mother. And then they make this amazing new character and she fits in well with everyone and then kill her off. The first breath of life in about four seasons to the show and she's treated like no big deal.

If they had introduced the Mother in about season 5, had more of the Mother's backstory rather than cramming it into one episode, and then ended it in season 6, I would have been more okay with how the show ended.