How the 'How I Met Your Mother' Finale worked just as much as it didn't work

And why it's the 'LOST' of sitcoms

Welp! It happened, kids. Ted met the mother. And it only took nine whole years of build up. And oh, look. EVERYONE's disappointed.

Yes, I'm going to dive in to this bittersweet send-off for Ted, Robin, Marshall, Lily and Barney... and, erm-- Mother Tracy so obviously if you HAVEN'T seen the "hey, nice to meetcha!" exchange that this near-decade has been building up to, then you may want to leave the room.

I'll dub the following with a respectful SPOILER ALERT, before I begin as I will in fact dive into the meeting of the mother, that unexpected (expected?) M. Night Shyamalan-style twist and why everyone shouldn't be complaining as much as they are.

Ready?

Here we go.



First and foremost I would just like to point out that while I love these characters, this setting and above all else, the stories along the way, I am also not HIMYM's #1 fan; not a die-hard fan; not even a big fan. So if that upsets you, you may leave the room as well.

  But I am here to express my joy as a filmmaker someone who loves film to praise the fact that there are still great writers out there (or writers who are willing to be ballsy, brutally honest and have no problems slapping their audience in the face), proving once and for all that we are currently living in the golden age of television, and HIMYM's nine-year bedtime story proves it for all the right and wrong reasons, even if they are not the reasons you wanted them to be.

  NOW, before I become too vague and get off tangent, let's just cut to the chase already. Let's rip off the band-aid and address the mother elephant in the room:

The whole thing wasn't about "how I met your mother" rather than "how I reconnected with your Aunt Robin"!?!?!?

WOOOOAAAHHHHHH


TO WHICH I SAY, "YES," a THOUSAND times yes.

Listen folks. I know it's April Fools Day but it happened. That JUST happened. And, like you, I was initially startled, shocked and disappointed by such a laughably bad twist.

It JUST doesn't make sense, right?? Let's play my favorite game and

"LET'S-CALL-A SPADE-A SPADE!"

Shall we???

Here are the facts:

• Ted and Robin have NO chemistry
• Robin is KIND of the worst
• Cobie Smulders also kinda sucks a little bit
• Ted and Tracy were so perfect together

Right?

Here's the thing though.

THAT'S THE POINT.

One thing I've always respected about the show is that above the cookie-cutter cliches that it, like every sitcom, inevitably succumbs when you've been on the air for more than five seasons, it also has the balls to be honest and realistic. And is Ted and Robin ending up together realistic? Not really. It's kinda disappointing actually. But life is FULL of disappointments and sometimes we have to settle for something less than our idealistic vision of "happily ever after."
  Now, I'm gonna get cynical for a moment. Am I SAYING life sucks and we just need to settle for people who suck because we're in love with them? ....Eh, reading the above you may gather that but that couldn't be further from the truth.

  I'm looking at this from a writer's standpoint. I look at dozens of scripts that have the expected, predictably fitting "Happy Ending" endings and I enjoy that this show avoided just that. I mean let's be honest. Ted and Tracy makes sense. Why? Because she accepts Ted for all his flaws; for all his goofy traits and she not only loves him for it but she balances out all his insecurities. She kept him in New York. She kept him on his feet. She looks at him and he looks at her and we look at them and EVERYONE can agree that "ohhhh THIS makes sense."

  Because the casting was so crucial in the role of the mother, everyone was able to sigh with relief when she turned out to be a glove; a perfect fit for Ted. Which is why it was so sad to see her go and why the Robin-twist was SO frustrating.

  One might look back on this final season as a whole and feel even more gypped than they did upon watching just the finale alone for multiple reasons; building up to a big wedding that's brushed off in five minutes? Meeting the mother before Ted actually MEETS the mother (JUST to have her DIE?)? A 22-episodic event that takes place over one weekend that time jumps, including flashbacks and flashforwards in the style of the final season of LOST!? 

Cripes, let's hope they're not all actually dead and the mother actually represents God. 

Needless to say, one can't help but feel disappointed because when you bank your entire show on ONE premise; one twist; one final reveal behind the curtains, you can only be so satisfied as to what the writers have to offer. It's the danger of dishing out such a simple, brilliant concept to audiences because you're choosing to rope your audience in with the promise that you'll pay them back with what you've spent so much time hyping up for them.
  To which point, I would like to address the fact that while yes, some writers happen to cop out of their endings and run away (arguably The Sopranos but that's a whole separate note), the biggest problem with TV finales is that while it's damn-near impossible to live up to years worth of laid out ground work of hype, I find that the real problem lies with audiences who just expect far too much from writers.
  Because with the exception of shows like Breaking Bad or The Wire (which people have claimed have flawless endings), not everyone is a creative genius (or sometimes the point isn't to be so elaborate but to just stick to the point) and given the way people lash out against JJ Abrams (will get there in a minute), you'd think they were talking about Hitler because they expected him to be the damned Wizard of Oz when he ended up just being a simple man behind the curtain pushing the controls.

Oh wait. THAT'S THE POINT.

Oz pretty much sums up every fanboy-TV show rivalry

  I get that it doesn't save the inevitable disappointment.
Barney and Robin have split for good (that relationship somehow just makes more sense), Barney was weakly written off by finally getting a girl pregnant and tending for her baby girl (a truly tender moment that only NPH could sell, though writing off Barney in such a way was as fitting as it was tacky), Lily and Judge Marshall continue to make it work (they've always been the cynical Jim-Pam-glue of the show IMO), Ted met the mother (and it was glorious) but the whole thing ends with a punch to the gut of Ted being in love with Aunt Robin.

Again, you moan and groan with disappointment at such a lack of confidence in the writers but as the final scene with the kids was shot nine years ago, this was clearly planned from the very beginning of this long story but one thing stands out that many fans seem to be glossing over and here's why I give the writers some credit.

  The camera slowly pans in on Ted's teenage daughter as we're supposed to soak in her moral on the near-decade of how Ted met her mother while we try our hardest to not change the channel as our jaws universally drop at what feels like a true cop-out but listen to what she, and ultimately the writers are saying. The girl flat-out points to the fact that this was supposed to be a story about mom, yet she was barely in it. This wasn't about how he met mom, but how he's in love with Aunt Robin.

But that's why the finale works. It's as brilliant as it is lazy. It's a simple concept that the writers concocted and they stuck to it... For nine long years of story telling.

*HERE'S THE MORAL THESIS STATEMENT OF EVERYTHING I'M SAYING*

  To me, it's genius because for the first time, maybe ever, almost 10 years worth of a sitcom is resting on the shoulders of a twist that sits upon the back of a character who's telling a story to not just a physical audience (his kids) but a figurative audience (us) and the story that's being told not only doesn't live up to the title but the title kind of ends up being a lie. Well, not a lie, more of a misinterpretation (a big one at that) and because THAT was the plan from the get-go, it makes me praise these writers all the more.

*END OF THESIS STATEMENT*

 Because like I said, looking at it from a writer's point of view, I analyze the narration and what over 200 episodes of nine years amounts to in the protagonist's eyes and let's face the music. Ted is one of the most flawed and therefore relatable characters on television. So to have the moral of Ted's story (and ultimately the show) NOT actually be the correct moral, is kinda really smart.
  If Ted told a nine-year long buildup of a meat-and-potatoes "boy meets girl" bed time story to his kids that ended with "and that's how I met your mother" and there WAS no final twist, the show would not be talked about the way it's going to be talked about years from now (people won't be talking about the Friends finale years from now, mark my words, and it's because it had the most heartfelt, sappy "everyone's happy in the end" send-off that sent everyone crying that they were saying goodbye) and whether it's for positive or negative reason to bring it up, you know I'm right.

  It would be like LOST ending with the survivors being rescued or actually destroying the island (sans the end of season 5) with some ending that people actually wanted. People wouldn't be talking about it as much. Sure, 97% of what you hear regarding LOST from people these days is "UGH! THAT ENDING!" But that's because people are stubborn and can't appreciate the most cliche moral of all time when it comes to storytelling, in the sense that it's not about the end of the story but the story itself; not the destination but the journey; it's to enjoy the ride for Christ sake.

  You can roll your eyes all you want but that's the point of ANY story and this was HIMYM's way of giving that cliche moral a fresh new coat of a disappointing twist with some edge that arguably hasn't been sprayed over since the LOST series finale four long years ago.

  Am I into the twist? Not really. But like I said, it's not your average TV ending. It can't be easy ending a TV show, especially one that's grown as popular as HIMYM but they went with their gut and did not what the people wanted, but what life would probably throw at them. Life is full of unexpected twists and surprises that disappoint us and it's about making the good out of the bad and this finale is sort of an ironic metaphor on life kicking you when you're down. Like I said, I think Robin sucks and I think she and Ted share no chemistry. Their story got old years ago and if we knew from the start that this whole thing would only amount to Ted and Robin, we would have thrown in the towel by season 5 and THAT's why the finale is as brilliant as it is disappointing. It's about stringing us along as far as it will take us until it dishes out something that's been laid out right before our very eyes in the mere pilot.

  Think about it for a moment. Is it not even a little strange that the first episode of this entire story tricks its audience into thinking the mother is Robin until the closing moments of the pilot when Ted Bob Saget says "And that's how I met your Aunt Robin" when in the end it was ALWAYS about her...???

Strange isn't the word

 It's the most SIMPLE concept and because it's SO simple, it disappoints so many. But what's more fitting to THIS specific story in THIS specific time period (whether it be 2014 or 2020 or beyond) than to have hopeless romantic Ted hold up a blue French horn (THE blue French horn) outside troubled Robin's window as a closing image?

 It's a perfect end-cap to a story that ultimately points out all the flaws of real life. On one hand, if the show was going to be about Ted and Robin from the start then yes, it should have ended years ago but because we didn't know that until last night, we continue to piss and moan that it was all for nothing. Yet, through NINE years, we've been through SO much with these characters. It's why I keep coming back to LOST (and why the island will never let me leave [thank you metaphors]). People consistently MISS the point ENTIRELY.
  Think about the show's most poignant moments: Ted and Robin's big breakup the first time, Marshall's dad dying, Barney admitting he was in love with Robin and the ecstatic joy we all felt following him as he chased her (while in denial) until they tied the knot (which DIDN'T work in the end), Robin finding out she couldn't have children, Ted potentially moving to Chicago, etc. ETC. This show is BUILT on a mountain of fleshed out characters with true flaws that we wouldn't have grown to love so dear unless we followed them around for this long.

Is the ending the equivalent of a really long joke that has a really crappy punchline? (It is April Fools after all) The answer is yes. But because it strung us along the way it did, it's so much more. The problem is, it's a sitcom that's not meant to be as heartfelt as it is but as with any great show or film, when you follow the characters long enough you can't help but fall for them and we fell for these characters in the first season.

so needless to say, we've all fallen pretty hard.

Am I brushing this off a little too easily? Yes, but as I stated I also haven't been a die hard fan. I personally stopped avidly watching after season 4 but I HAVE TUNED IN SINCE. I'm no hypocrite; I haven't felt what you've all felt and I haven't emotionally attached myself in the way you all have, but as someone who's checked back in with these characters, I'm glad to see them go in a way that JJ Abrams or Joel & Ethan Coen would send off their characters. Maybe it's because I'm one of twelve people who was not only satisfied with the LOST finale but was thrilled with the Seinfeld finale (because there IS no real way to write off characters like Jerry and the gang so what do you do? Lock 'em up for every crime they've ever committed at the hand of nearly character they've come across over nine years). I actually find a lot of similarities between HIMYM and Seinfeld in the sense that there truly is no "proper" method to writing off these characters. It's either the cookie-cutter 'Friends' ending (where the show was heading until the last five minutes) OR it's the unexpected "Really!? That's it!?" Seinfeld ending. Only HIMYM's ending is obviously a little more sentimental and heartfelt in its final moral, but that's besides the point.

Welp, It's been legen-wait for it, because it's a little dark and cynical of me to root for the crappy ending that sums up the realities of how life can throw you unexpected twists, but as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate the seminars of reality in a script rather than the "Hollywood ending" whether it be a two-hour film or a two-hundred episode story that took nine-years to tell-dary.

I am glad to have met you.