First of all, I am a huge fan of this show. I have watched quite a lot of sitcoms so far, and HIMYM is still one of my favorites. The Finale is pretty much a disappointment to me, not really the ending itself, but the pacing of it, which is very inconsistent with the show as a whole.
I am neither a Barney&Robin fan nor a Ted&Robin fan. No matter who Ted ends up with, I just enjoy watching the gang hanging out at the bar or wherever they are, doing silly crazy things together, loving each other at the same time. As far as I'm concerned, the friendship between the five is what the show is really about. The show used to very good at telling stories, flashing backwards or forwards, always ends up well.
However, this finale is very inconsistent. I am 60% sure that the writers were 'eating a sandwich' when they wrote this finale... They didn't answer many questions we have, like the pineapple. On the contrary, more questions popped up, like what happened to Barney after? Single father and die alone?? Okay, I am 100% sure that they were eating sandwich now.
If the writers decided to use the ending they shot 9 years ago, the ninth season shouldn't have been all about the wedding weekend! The ending scene Ted holding the blue french horn and standing at Robin's apartment again 9 years later is very heartwarming. (After all these years, many things have changed, but people are still there, feelings are still there... very romantic). BUT if there are gonna be these many twists and turns after B&R's wedding, how the hell did the writers think it could be a good idea to focus the whole season on one weekend?! Don't they have stories to tell? They have an entire episode for Barney got drunk before the wedding photo, but use only 3 minutes for Barney and Robin breaking up. An episode for 'Wedding Bride 2', but less than 2 minute for the mother Tracy's death? (Are you kidding me?) There is a whole episode about Marshall telling bedtime story to little Marvin, which includes several boring stories, but there is only 3 minutes to make Barney go back to be the sad womanizer again (this is just coming out of nowhere: didn't Barney grow at all in the 9 years? I mean, after Nora, Qinn and Robin, I thought he had grown up and been ready to have serious relationships. Where is the 'perfect month' idea coming from? Seriously? So he broke up with Robin, he couldn't move on and find someone else nice?).
Just changing either the finale or the season's storyline would save the show. I think, like most of the audience, I am able to accept any kind of ending as long as the show keeps its consistency by telling good stories.
The writers didn't manage to live up with this one single expectation... Dear writers, HIMYM fans have followed the show for NINE freaking years, so if you think the disappointment that fans complaining about is just because they only want B&R stay together and the Mother not die, then you are wrong. They want this ending because you use at least 2 seasons to convince them this is for the best. The expectation for this kind of happy ending is actually built by you, writers!
Please don't pull some 'bittersweet' crap on the audience. This is a sitcom for God's sake, of course fans are expecting a perfect ending. Please don't use 'this is closest to the reality' as an excuse. Playbook? Bro-code? Slap bet? does any of these sound realistic to you at all? The audiences are not looking for 'reality' in a sitcom!!!
Don't say the audience couldn't cope with bitterness happened in this show. When Marshall's father died, Barney reunited with his father, Ted got left at the alter, the audience are fine because those episodes are tastefully done.
Life is full of surprises, good and bad, people deal with them and move on. In fact, the stories of moving on are the best part, because it's like a journey, a journey we shared with our friends and loved ones. When you present those surprises in life on TV as form of sitcom, you can not just throw a bunch of bombshells and skip the journey.
I have to mention Friends here since these two shows are so similar in many ways. I love Friends' finale because they were simply celebrating love. The pacing is nice as usual. The audiences have some laughs when Phoebe shouted 'Flandge', teared down when Rachel stood at the door said 'I got off the plane.' They didn't rush the stories that Monica and Chandler couldn't have kids, Rachel and Joey were in love and broke up, Phoebe broke up with Mike started dating the scientist guy but finally got back to Mike into 40 minutes, because these are the key moments of those characters' lives. It takes time to show the audience HOW all of these happened. That is how a great show should end.
It feels like the writers are running out of time in HIMYM's finale, so that they have to compact so many moments in one episode, but they do have time, they have one whole season to end the show in a lovely way and they wasted it... Such a shame.
I am neither a Barney&Robin fan nor a Ted&Robin fan. No matter who Ted ends up with, I just enjoy watching the gang hanging out at the bar or wherever they are, doing silly crazy things together, loving each other at the same time. As far as I'm concerned, the friendship between the five is what the show is really about. The show used to very good at telling stories, flashing backwards or forwards, always ends up well.
However, this finale is very inconsistent. I am 60% sure that the writers were 'eating a sandwich' when they wrote this finale... They didn't answer many questions we have, like the pineapple. On the contrary, more questions popped up, like what happened to Barney after? Single father and die alone?? Okay, I am 100% sure that they were eating sandwich now.
If the writers decided to use the ending they shot 9 years ago, the ninth season shouldn't have been all about the wedding weekend! The ending scene Ted holding the blue french horn and standing at Robin's apartment again 9 years later is very heartwarming. (After all these years, many things have changed, but people are still there, feelings are still there... very romantic). BUT if there are gonna be these many twists and turns after B&R's wedding, how the hell did the writers think it could be a good idea to focus the whole season on one weekend?! Don't they have stories to tell? They have an entire episode for Barney got drunk before the wedding photo, but use only 3 minutes for Barney and Robin breaking up. An episode for 'Wedding Bride 2', but less than 2 minute for the mother Tracy's death? (Are you kidding me?) There is a whole episode about Marshall telling bedtime story to little Marvin, which includes several boring stories, but there is only 3 minutes to make Barney go back to be the sad womanizer again (this is just coming out of nowhere: didn't Barney grow at all in the 9 years? I mean, after Nora, Qinn and Robin, I thought he had grown up and been ready to have serious relationships. Where is the 'perfect month' idea coming from? Seriously? So he broke up with Robin, he couldn't move on and find someone else nice?).
Just changing either the finale or the season's storyline would save the show. I think, like most of the audience, I am able to accept any kind of ending as long as the show keeps its consistency by telling good stories.
The writers didn't manage to live up with this one single expectation... Dear writers, HIMYM fans have followed the show for NINE freaking years, so if you think the disappointment that fans complaining about is just because they only want B&R stay together and the Mother not die, then you are wrong. They want this ending because you use at least 2 seasons to convince them this is for the best. The expectation for this kind of happy ending is actually built by you, writers!
Please don't pull some 'bittersweet' crap on the audience. This is a sitcom for God's sake, of course fans are expecting a perfect ending. Please don't use 'this is closest to the reality' as an excuse. Playbook? Bro-code? Slap bet? does any of these sound realistic to you at all? The audiences are not looking for 'reality' in a sitcom!!!
Don't say the audience couldn't cope with bitterness happened in this show. When Marshall's father died, Barney reunited with his father, Ted got left at the alter, the audience are fine because those episodes are tastefully done.
Life is full of surprises, good and bad, people deal with them and move on. In fact, the stories of moving on are the best part, because it's like a journey, a journey we shared with our friends and loved ones. When you present those surprises in life on TV as form of sitcom, you can not just throw a bunch of bombshells and skip the journey.
I have to mention Friends here since these two shows are so similar in many ways. I love Friends' finale because they were simply celebrating love. The pacing is nice as usual. The audiences have some laughs when Phoebe shouted 'Flandge', teared down when Rachel stood at the door said 'I got off the plane.' They didn't rush the stories that Monica and Chandler couldn't have kids, Rachel and Joey were in love and broke up, Phoebe broke up with Mike started dating the scientist guy but finally got back to Mike into 40 minutes, because these are the key moments of those characters' lives. It takes time to show the audience HOW all of these happened. That is how a great show should end.
It feels like the writers are running out of time in HIMYM's finale, so that they have to compact so many moments in one episode, but they do have time, they have one whole season to end the show in a lovely way and they wasted it... Such a shame.