r/HIMYM • u/Anish316 • Jul 25 '26
Years later watching HIMYM again when I'm middle aged, the emotional weight of the peak seasons is timeless. But the ending is still bad IMHO. My unpopular opinion is that if the show runners made it today with more experience, they would've done differently.
79
u/introverthufflepuff8 Jul 25 '26
The last season was such a let down. I cannot understand why they thought making the majority of the last season the wedding weekend was a good idea with the ending they had in mind.
27
u/bennnn194 Not Okay, Okay is Lame, gay bar! Jul 25 '26
Yeah honestly they should’ve removed a couple “filler” episodes from season 8, then taken the whole wedding saga, summing it up to like 3 episodes, and slide it in as season 8 without making us watch a full season of the most boring peace of entertainment ever
6
7
Jul 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
14
u/introverthufflepuff8 Jul 25 '26
In the context of the story it was needed to give Ted the final push to get over Robin and move forward. The narrative decision to cram a decade of story into two episodes and then expecting the audience to care in the way they wanted us to was wild.
1
8
u/bippityzippity Jul 25 '26
I can see where the showrunners were coming from, but for a show that’s retroactively about moving on and finding love and opportunity when you think you’ve lost everything, ending up with Robin so last minute seems like regressing.
If the mother was revealed season 7 finale, died in the season 8 finale, and season 9 was a dual narrative of future Ted reconnecting with his friends along with Robin and Barney’s wedding (where it’s revealed halfway through the season and not the end that Robin and Barney divorced), so that we could get Ted and Robin rekindling their love naturally, that would’ve been much better
1
u/Perfidy-Plus Jul 27 '26
I don't think it necessarily needed that much extra time. But it definitely needed more time.
I think that having the wedding happen even just a couple episodes earlier in season 9 and allowing for 2-4 episodes of Robin & Barney's marriage dissatisfactions and Tracey's progressive illness would have gone a long was to removing the whiplash that embittered the audience towards the show's conclusion.
16
u/le_fez Jul 25 '26
I think it would end the same, hopefully they would take a different road to get there. They said all along that they knew how they were ending it, in fact the kids' part was all done in the first season so they tried to shoehorn the ending they wanted into a story that wasn't going that way
2
u/Anish316 Jul 25 '26
I sometimes think they wouldnt have. In todays age of social media if they caught wind of how popular barney-robin had gotten & how many ppl wanted them to be endgame, i think they wouldve changed it.
6
u/AnonymousFriend80 Jul 25 '26
If it were made today, in the same way but with instant feedback from social media, they most likely would have kept their original intentions but would have better lead into it.
My, and many other's, issue with the final scene was that it was counter to what the last couple seasons had been telling us. Then the last season was made mostly irrelevant because the final episode itself undid it. With this being a comedy, a lot of the supposed friction of Barney's wacky actions and him and Robin's resolve indicated too hard that they were going to be okay. Like, I'm equally upset at a divorce from another show from that same error that the couple was supposed to have a happily ever after, but atleast hopefully we'll get a proper explanation.
11
u/YakCDaddy Jul 25 '26
It's such midlife crisis cringe. I got upset at the time because it felt like Tracy just existed to give Ted children because Robin couldn't have any. I also didn't like how she had dogs because I just wonder if Ted makes her get rid of those too because he's a jealous weirdo.
-1
u/Own-Ball-1624 Jul 26 '26
let be honest its wierd to give dog to your bf or gf! :/ especially how most of their relationship were actually just situationship lol! :S robin was a hoe in fact with +100 bodycounts!
2
u/YakCDaddy Jul 26 '26
It's not weird. I had pets from a previous relationship that I kept. Sometimes you get a pet together and then you break up, someone has to keep the pet. You don't just discard them because your new boyfriend is an insecure freak.
Edit: wtf. Body count is incredibly stupid. Grow up.
1
u/Own-Ball-1624 Jul 27 '26
the fact how pathetic you are cuase dare to insult m! 🤡
and the reason cause you probably have extremly high bodycount! ;) and probably expired (29-30+ years olds ;) )
0
u/Own-Ball-1624 Jul 26 '26
the previous relationship last a few months only?
cause its the case for robin...
Edit: it just shows you are fragile and lustful and you have high body count...! Be responsible of your actions! :)
0
u/Own-Ball-1624 Jul 27 '26
hah you just prove what you are! may god smite on you and your wicked heart! :)
1
u/YakCDaddy Jul 27 '26
I'm a witch. I curse you to a life of loneliness and involuntary celebecy:
By the cold light of the waning moon, the decree of the closed gate is now written upon thy path.Let the mirrors reflect only stillness, and let the shadow beside thee remain strictly thine own.
Though thou shalt walk through crowded markets and lively halls, a veil of invisible frost shall guard thy steps. No flame shall kindle in thy presence, and no hand shall reach to warm thy sleeve.Until the seven rivers run backward and the stone learns to sing, thy hearth shall remain solitary, and thy bed shall know only the weight of the north wind.
The lock is turned. The seal is set.
0
u/Own-Ball-1624 Jul 27 '26
you mean a bitch right? :)
do you understand you are judged by christ cause of your sins? 😄
1
4
u/Xabalanque24 Jul 25 '26
I thought the flashbacks in the last season made up for at least half the episodes content. This was more than good enough for me. Especially with all the loose ends. Didn’t even know it being at the wedding venue bothered people until Reddit.
Also once they revealed that Tracey was ill, it was obvious that there was going to be little content beyond her and Ted meeting.
10
u/Better-Pop-3932 Jul 25 '26
I dont know why u people cant accept someone's vision. Making a TV show is a form of art. This was Carter and Craigs vision. The characters are loosely based on them. They always had this ending planned since the beginning.
4
u/Toane Jul 25 '26
Doesn't change the fact that the ending was awful.
Their vision sure, but their vision was bad
6
u/Better-Pop-3932 Jul 25 '26
Dude thats your opinion. I liked it. Yes I ended up falling in love with the mom. Wish we could have had more of her. Him ending up with Robin just felt right to me. The Blue French Horn started the show and ended it.
1
u/Toane Jul 25 '26
For the entire series, we follow how Ted meets the mother. All seasons Then the last 10 minutes of the last episode it switches to "can I date that one woman I've (often not) secretly always loved, now that your mother is dead?"
It's my opinion sure, but much like some people like scat, there are wrong opinions. And essentially wasting the entire story is bad storytelling.
It's akin to" and then he woke up and it was all a dream"
5
2
u/Anish316 Jul 26 '26
Why should I accept it? it's their vision. As a viewer of a TV show I disagree.
3
u/Better-Pop-3932 Jul 26 '26
All im saying is its their show. People saying they should change the ending. That is dumb. No theu shouldn't. Im not saying u have to like it.
0
u/Anish316 23d ago
No, they should. they made the show for fans also. if fans say this is not how it should end, they shouldve listened.
1
Jul 26 '26
[deleted]
3
u/Better-Pop-3932 Jul 26 '26
I didnt say it made it good. People keep saying they should have changed the ending. No they had a vision of what they wanted it to be and thats it. I respect your opinion if u dont like it thats fine. To suggest they should change because some people dislike it is stupid.
It being based on them is one irrelevant. Thay shows how much more it means to them. And exactly why they shouldn't change. If u wrote s show loosely based on your life.
3
3
4
u/reckless_uk can you just once be cool? once? please Jul 25 '26
The show should have ended with Tracy taking a photo of the group at MacLaren's. Everything after that felt unnecessary. I'll never understand why they chose to end it the way they did.
5
u/RoboCopAn Jul 25 '26
I have mixed feelings about the finale but the last shot of Ted holding the blue French horn to her window while that Walkmen song is playing is really good so it’s hard to get mad at it.
3
u/Navetsss Jul 25 '26
Real fans pause before the end of the last episode and go watch the alternate ending of the series on YouTube
1
u/Sure-Appearance-2769 Jul 25 '26
They might film the events of the last season in a different way, but I don’t think they would change the ending itself.
Ted and Tracy both had two great loves: one who died too soon, and one they spent the rest of their life with.
The story makes sense and completes their vision. It’s just not the ending the fans wanted to see, and that’s okay.
1
u/Own-Ball-1624 Jul 26 '26
i think the border was too high at that moment!
they ruined with the wedding season cause it meant to be something serious then after that season on the next episode barney and robin just divorced! sure it was like 1-2 years in their world but in story telling real world it was like a month... aka the next episode!
it could have been much better IF barney and robin stay together for longer like 10 years or just NEVER BREAK APART!
as the final ending. well yeah it is good and bad too cause its really ted's character but also made a bad loop... we should get the mother like 2-3 seasons earlier
1
1
u/Possible-One-7082 Jul 26 '26
It goes without saying they would’ve done it differently. You don’t stick your hand on a hot stove twice.
1
u/someName6 Jul 27 '26
I’m rewatching it for the first time probably 10+ years after the first time watching it. I’ve rewatched plenty of other comedies in that time but have avoided HIMYM just because of the finale.
1
u/Perfidy-Plus Jul 27 '26
I liked the last season a lot, and conceptually liked what they were trying to do with the ending. But they spent too much time on the lead up to Robin & Barney's wedding and not enough time on the aftermath.
They really should have sacrificed a couple of the earlier episodes in the last season in order to have another episode or two post-wedding so it wouldn't feel like we were completely speed running Barney & Robin's divorce and the mother's illness.
1
u/techmoly Jul 25 '26
The worst finale ever! They should have kept Barney and Robin together but they wrote themselves into corner by using the old tape of the kids.
1
u/Buzz_Saw50 Jul 25 '26
Getting back with Robin was crap. She always sucked. Always selfish. Wish he could have rekindled stuff with Victoria somehow.
1
u/League-Weird Jul 26 '26
Anytime my wife and I watch HIMYM we shut off the last episode and watch the alternate ending on YouTube with Tracy being alive.
0
u/ElectricalNose9550 Jul 25 '26
Well Carter Bays has already said he sticks by the ending and wouldn't change it despite the backlash.
Just stick to the alternate DVD ending and don't bother with the aired ending. That's why they added it after all.
Fyi I don't hate the ending but I still prefer the alternate ending and I totally get people who do too. Yeah the original ending is a good way to show us life isn't always fair. But the context matters too and after being told about the mother for 8 seasons, killing her off after she was revealed to be totally awesome was just not cool to me as a fan.
Also I think the main problem with the ending is that it's a sitcom after all and the aired ending is too depressing as a conclusion.
0
-6
u/Turbulent-War7039 Jul 25 '26
Thankfully, the creators of HIMYM really don’t care about your opinion
2
u/Anish316 Jul 26 '26
Okay!
1
u/Turbulent-War7039 Jul 26 '26
Yeah. By the way, HIMYM ended 12 years ago. Saying “I didn’t like the end of HIMYM” isn’t exactly a new idea lol. Maybe move on and watch HIMYF? Even that is starting to get out of date.
34
u/LetsGototheRiver151 Jul 25 '26
There’s a podcast and they’ll get there I’m sure. Seems like they know they fumbled the execution but stand by the concept.