The summer of 2007 was HOT. One of the great things about Toronto summers is that they are sultry all day and all night. The temperature doesn’t change at all, and so days and nights flow into each other in a way that’s gorgeous and exciting. The other thing I remember is that my friend Matt got us watching How I Met Your Mother at lunchtimes. I mean, it was too hot to go outside like real people.
I think we watched two seasons, and it was so clever and new and unusual, the way the show dealt with just about everything. But when they got their seasons three and four renewals, well, then the brakes got put on. I’d say most people I know jumped ship, including yours truly (Lainey: and me). I just had more compelling people on my TV I could be watching and real life friends intent on rehashing the same jokes ad nauseum.
Somehow the show just couldn’t sustain the magic of being crammed in a little office with my friends on an endless string of gorgeous summer days gulping it down.
Is that their fault?
How I Met Your Mother ended last night and there are barely even spoilers because the “How” in the title is really barely touched on. Which is a plot point in itself. Instead...
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
Ted winds up with Robin. As you suspected he might. Or hoped he wouldn’t. They took a damn-ass long time to get there. The mother, in the end, maybe was a love of Ted’s life, but not the only love.
Is that fair to you?
I am so shocked at this language of what’s fair and not fair and how people are angry at the way shows end, at the investment they’ve made in characters, only to have them sent off in a way viewers don’t agree with.
Is that the creator’s problem? I’m genuinely asking. Of course, if viewers started leaving the show in droves, that would be their problem, but it doesn’t seem like it is. It’s not just being disappointed in a story or feeling like it left you unsatisfied – those are totally valid reactions.
But the belligerence! The fury! The how DARE they – that’s what’s crazy to me. You love them because you’ve spent all this time with them – but the characters are not yours. They don’t exist to do your bidding. They’re there in service of a story and it might not be the one you want to hear and it might not turn out the way you want.
Are you entitled to an ending you wanted? Does your answer change if the ending is a big secret/reveal/maybe fib, as the HIMYM finale sort of was? If they asked you, begged you, cajoled you to stay on board? Or is it all on you?
I’m asking. I’m not entitled to write a review of the show or the finale, because I didn’t watch enough. But watching the fan reactions is turning out to be the better show anyway.
