Day 21: How I Met Your Mother Finale

How I Met Your Mother Season Finale

So I am a huge fan of How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM). I might even go as far to say that it is my favorite sitcom. Fandom aside I feel the need to  comment on the 7th Season Finale. Now earlier this year I wrote a very mixed review of the where the show has been this season. In this post I really worked to give the show the benefit of the doubt (you can read those comments here) . Now I have seen the end of this season and where the show has gone it is time to take the gloves off.

Spoiler Alert....

So I have a million problems with this season finale. I will list them and go into detail with them. Some of these points will tie back to this season as a whole.

• Firstly, part one of this finale was super lazy writing. In this episode we witnessed the birth of Lilly and Marshall's new baby boy Marvin Wait-for-it Erickson (love the middle name joke). The majority  of the show was little Family Guy-like vignettes of one off jokes that couldn't be developed into full length episodes. This might be ok, expect the show this season has had several episodes like this and it feels like unnecessary filler. I want the show to go on for as long as it needs to finish the story, but it feels like the writers of the show are adding more and more of episodes like this to drag it out to make more money. 

• Secondly, Robin and Ted. Robin and Ted's romantic interaction was put to rest several seasons ago. They tried being friends. they tried dating. They they revisited it, and then they tried just being fuck buddies. They have explored every possibility angle of being together. It never worked. About Five episodes ago the writers decided Robin and Ted still loved each other. They got back together for one episode and then broke up and didn't talk to each other. The writers made a very big deal out of this new division. Robin and Ted were NOT talking to each other. How did they solve this major impass that shook the strongest friendship on the show? One line! Robin said (paraphrasing but the line really was this bad) "I don't want this new baby to come into the world where we aren't talking. Let's Make up!" And they did. Why Revisit Robin and Ted to just undo it all? Why build up this Major fight if you are just going to undo in one shitty line?

• Thirdly, Barney and Quinn. Now Barney has developed all over the place this season as well. He went from being Barney to deciding he wants a marriage and family. He fought to get back together with the best woman he ever had, Nora. They got together and then he threw it away to be with Robin who just decided she didn't really love him. Then he met Quinn who is literally the female version of Barney. They worked through there issues. Barney finally purposed. It was beautiful sweet and romantic. Quinn gave up her job she love, being a stripper, to be with Barney. The plot lines and development was all tied up, Then in the last 30 seconds we find out that Barney is marrying Robin. WTF? WHY? 

• Fourthly, I hate Robin. hate Hate HATE her! Her writing this season has been the dumbest thing on the show. Let me walk you through all of the Robinism that have ruined the character for me.
• She Got with Kevin, (basically an Indian version of Ted). Knowingly that she cannot have a future with him because he wants kids and a family and she does not. 
• Then she finds out she can't have kids, and has a huge dramatic episode about how she wants kids now that she can't have them, just to reach the point where she realizes, she doesn't want kids.
• Then she hooks up with Barney and they realize they still love each other and NEED to be together even though Robin is with Kevin and Barney is with Nora. They agree to break up with their partners to be together. Barney dumps the best thing to ever happen to him in a very big leap in character develop admitting for the first time he loves Robin and needs to be with her. Robin gives the big middle finger to Barney and stays with Kevin.
• Next Kevin proposes to Robin even though she can't have kids and doesn't want them. She kind of says yes and then realizes that its really a no she doesn't love him and they want different things. She breaks Kevin's heart. After she has broken Barney's heart.
• Then, at a state of vulnerability she lets Ted reconfess his love for her and leads him on like she feels the same way. Then she breaks Ted heart (again) and destroys the strongest friendship on the show. 
• Now with the teaser at the end of the finale we find out that Barney and Robin are going to be getting married, which means that Robin is going to break up an engagement and break Quinn's heart. Bringing the total up to 4 heartbreaks in one season. Not to mention Barney has now developed to wanting kids and family and Robin firmly does not want this.  
• In the episode where Robin's life was threatened and it looked like she was going to crash in a helicopter I wanted the bitch to just go down in flames. 

I actually have one more point on Robin's awful writing but it ties into my last point so I will save it for that.

• My last point is Ted and Victoria. I and dumbfounded by this entire plot point. Ted tried with Victoria and then left her for Robin. They he tried to reconnect with her later and she was with someone else. Done. No more. She is a finished point. But ROBIN being Ted's best friend again for about three minutes starts telling him he has to find a woman who wants what he wants if he is going to get what he wants. He needs to reconnect with Victoria. So he calls her to reconnect and then she arrives in a wedding dress. They then talk about running away together and leaving her husband-to-be at the alter. Then Ted comes to his senses and realized, "Hey wait I was left at the alter and it almost killed me!" He tells Victoria that it is too late and she has committed to her husband-to-be. THEN he goes "hey wait fuck that," and they drive away into the sunset holding hands. What is the point of any of this? We know that Ted meets his wife at Barney and Robin's(grrr...) wedding and therefore she cannot be Victoria. This seems like another device to just  add unnecessary drama to the show and extend the length of the run. 

This series could have ended this season in a very satisfying way. Robin could have found she wants kids and since she can't have them married Kevin and they could have adopted. Barney could have married Quinn or Nora and gotten what he wanted. Lilly and Marshall already have had what they wanted. Ted could have met the woman with the Yellow Umbrella at either of Barney's possible weddings. We could have had all of that in this season by cutting out all of the junk filler episodes and the series cold have ended on an all-time peak. Instead we get all of the junk filler episodes, insane plot twists, and we see our characters developed to the point where they are unrecognizable. I hate Robin, I almost can't stand Ted, and Barney almost lost me and then he proposed and I was finally happy again and then we find out he is going to leave Quinn  to be with Robin. WHY?!?

How I Met Your Mother has a huge fan base and I have a feeling that most of this post will read as nitpicky bullshit from a person that wants to hate on someone. But I hope the fan outcry deafens the Internet and the writers hear that they can't just do whatever they want with characters we have lived with for 7 years and expect us to be ok with it. 

If the show continues on the trajectory it is on it is going to end as embarrassingly as Scrubs did. 

I hope everyone found my rage entertaining,

Will

PS: I am so happy the duckie tie made a comeback for the finale!