'HIMYM' Finale Instant Reaction
How I Met Your Mother has finished its story.
And I'm left kind of numb.
After nine seasons, we finally know why Ted was telling his kids the story of how he met their mother. It turns out, though, that Penny and Luke didn't buy his reason for telling their story. Confirming my theory after seeing "Vesuvius," The Mother had passed away and Ted was really looking for his kids' approval to ask out their Aunt Robin, who had divorced Barney just three years after their wedding.
The very ending of HIMYM felt empty, though.
Years ago, I rooted for Ted to wind up with Robin, despite every sign the show gave us that it would be impossible. Seeing a gray-haired Ted hold up that blue french horn outside Robin's apartment in 2030 was hollow. It wasn't earned. Over the course of this finale season, HIMYM made us care about Tracy. It made us believe that she and Ted belonged together. It was earned.
That's why it was sad to see HIMYM just brush Tracy away. We didn't even get to watch Ted fight for her or mourn her. A little bit of catharsis would have been nice here. Maybe I would feel better about The Mother passing away and Ted moving onto Robin if HIMYM gave us the chance to say goodbye to her. The Mother — and Cristin Milioti — was the best part of Season 9. Where was our closure?
My lukewarm reaction to this finale doesn't hurt my love for HIMYM. I almost jokingly suggested to one of my friends today that we should just never watch the finale in order to preserve the nine years of memories we have with the show. Those nine years still mean something.
I'll be back later with a full recap of "Last Forever."
'HIMYM' Finale Instant Reaction
Reviewed by Bill Kuchman
on
3/31/2014
Rating:
Reviewed by Bill Kuchman
on
3/31/2014
Rating:
My heart too mourns for Tracy that we never really met, but we love nonetheless. I wish we could say goodbye or that she was it but what was is what we got. Not taking away from what this meant to me, but the story seems a bit hollow now and do Ted and Robin really end up together?
ReplyDeleteThe moral of the story is that Ted was meant to be with Robyn. But he will never love her as much as he loved the mother.
ReplyDeleteThe whole nine years was about how we met the mother, and when we finally did, we fell in love too. I guessed she had met a short and sad end in the Vesuvius episode. It was spelt out so clearly. The only thing Bays and Carter owed the fans, was a chance to say goodbye to the woman we had been dying to meet. It would have been heartfelt to grieve with Ted, but I guess the show couldn't lose its snappy comic edge. Robyn somehow felt lost to us and perhaps a little bitter, something Robyn could never be. In the end, the show had come around, full circle. It had to. Bravo to the team, they did an amazing job holding it together. And kudos to Cristin Milioti, she made it worth the wait.
ReplyDeleteYou precisely described what I am thinking now.
ReplyDeleteI'm so disappointed - and it's not because of Barney and Robin's divorce nor even Mother's death; it's because the writers so easily threw beautiful love-story down the drain by showing it was told only to get an excuse to pursue Robin.
If they wanted to keep it more realistic instead of having a typical, happy-sappy ending - the B&R divorce would be enough. They didn't have to ruin Ted's character.