# HIMYM - Series Finale - Last Forever Parts One and Two - 2014/3/31



## jamesl

only one hour long, despite the title 

hoping they meet before the last 5 minutes


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## DevdogAZ

Why would the title indicate it's longer than one hour?


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## TonyD79

DevdogAZ said:


> Why would the title indicate it's longer than one hour?


"Forever?"

Just guessing.


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## jamesl

duh, I forgot how to add 

that's what I get for posting while I'm at work and doing 3 things at once - none of which are work related


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## jeff92k7

Man, that was an awesome finale episode. I'm so glad all the various story lines got so neatly wrapped up. I sure didn't see that twist coming though. Pretty shocking. [/sarcasm]

Oh wait.... It hasn't aired yet.


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## Mr. Soze

I'm now thinking the theory discussed in other threads will be wrong. Just a vibe I got from the last episode.


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## TonyD79

Mr. Soze said:


> I'm now thinking the theory discussed in other threads will be wrong. Just a vibe I got from the last episode.


 Uh oh.


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## Azlen

They better not be setting up a Robin and Ted thing.


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## Azlen

No fake out. The theory was true. Unfortunately so. 
Though the daughters point about why he told the story he told did make sense.


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## Gunnyman

No! God damn it. I'm crying.


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## YCantAngieRead

Ugh. I'm just pissed.

The only story line I enjoyed was Barney.


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## Gunnyman

I liked it.


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## Einselen

I save the Inside the Actors Studio until now. Going to watch it almost as a reunion episode.


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## Donbadabon

Well that was lame...wait for it....no, lame was right.


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## DUSlider

Am I the only one wondering who Mrs 31 was? lol.

I don't know about this finale yet...


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## MikeMar

I think it would have been a lot better if they shortened the time they spent on the future and the whole "big moments" thing and did a little more Mother stuff


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## Gunnyman

It's a sign of great casting and fantastic writing that we rooted for the mother this whole time.

I hope to see more of Cristen Milioti on my TV.


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## YCantAngieRead

Bah.

I seriously don't think the daughter would point out how little Ted talked about her Mother. Her lines there kind of totally ruined it for me.

Plus now they're going to have a Mom who never wanted kids and is always gone.

Bah. Psssh.


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## Peter000

If I would have watched every episode in the last season, I would have been kind of miffed that Barney and Robin got divorced, just like :snap: that. But I wasn't too invested in it and only watched 4 or 5 episodes.

Anyway, it was pretty good, but felt rushed to me. And a bit disjointed with the year long jumps. But satisfying, and I did tear up at points. Especially with Barney falling instantly in love with his daughter.

LOVED the kids at the end.


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## Gunnyman

Barney and his daughter felt very very real. Kudos to NPH.


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## TonyD79

Not as bad as I thought it could be but I'm disappointed. Obviously that was the early story plan and would've fit a few years ago. Doesn't fit anymore. Ted and Robin seems forced.


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## Azlen

Lyndsy Fonseca (the daughter) said they filmed the ending 8 or 9 years ago. Good for them for keeping a secret for a long long time.


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## magaggie

Did not love that. Pretty much turned into an episode of "How I Deleted My How I Met Your Nother Season Pass In A Disillusioned Rage."


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## TonyD79

The only thing I can laugh about is all the arguing over the title. It wasn't about the title after all.


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## Gunnyman

Azlen said:


> Lyndsy Fonseca (the daughter) said they filmed the ending 8 or 9 years ago. Good for them for keeping a secret for a long long time.


I had wondered about that. They kept the same "kids" for 9 years.
And the daughter played Alex on Nikita


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## billypritchard

I thought it was great. I don't 'love' the Robin thing, but they worked it well there at the end.

The first 15 minutes were awesome.

The moment in the rain was awesome.

Barney was great. And his moment where he pleaded to just be himself was well done.


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## firerose818

I cried. A lot. That's really all I can say.


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## firerose818

Gunnyman said:


> I had wondered about that. They kept the same "kids" for 9 years.
> And the daughter played Alex on Nikita


They had to sign a NDA, IIRC.


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## Gunnyman

The whole episode was emotional and I was ok with Ted ending up with Robin in the end. I might be alone there.


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## billypritchard

magaggie said:


> Did not love that. Pretty much turned into an episode of "How I Deleted My How I Met Your Nother Season Pass In A Disillusioned Rage."


I don't think you have to worry about that season pass.


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## Gunnyman

firerose818 said:


> I cried. A lot. That's really all I can say.


I choked up twice.
Barney meeting his daughter
and the mother's death.


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## Gunnyman

And Holy crap the Son was on Wizards of Waverly Place. (Yeah I have a kid)


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## magaggie

billypritchard said:


> I don't think you have to worry about that season pass.


 Oh I agree. But in my rage I shouted out "delete that ****!" And made him immediately delete the SP. It was the principle of the thing.

Maybe some anger management classes are in order... I think I woke the baby a couple of times.


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## billypritchard

I'm waiting to read Sepinwall's scalding review. I just don't get the hate.


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## Gunnyman

The show was never about the Mother. Once you become ok with that, the rage dies.


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## firerose818

I don't think the show could have ended any other way. We're mad because the mother was such a likeable character and we want Ted to be happy. But the show has always been about he loves Robin. Always.


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## KenDC

I liked it. I kind of lost touch with the series but watched the last half dozen and this one. I though the lead up was pretty bad but I thought the payoff tonight was pretty good. I am satisfied with the end of this story.


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## billypritchard

firerose818 said:


> I don't think the show could have ended any other way. We're mad because the mother was such a likeable character and we want Ted to be happy. But the show has always been about he loves Robin. Always.


That fact also mitigates the hate people had that they were still doing the Ted/Robin thing all year. And maybe it's okay to love two people tremendously? Ted Evelyn Mosby was a romantic after all.


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## TIVO_GUY_HERE

One season pass I'm not sorry to delete. I enjoyed the show, but it went on too long.


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## Neenahboy

It's clear that Bays and Thomas had a plan and were set on executing that plan, damn the consequences. They did so. So...congrats to them, I guess?

In all seriousness: I hated them killing off Cristin Milioti and opening the door for Robin, and the Barney/Robin divorce came out of left field (a reporter with global ambitions travels a lot? Perish the thought!). But if they were dead set on making those two things happen, I'm glad Ted ended up with Robin. The show was always their story.

More than anything, I'm sad again over the wasted potential of this season. Given the divorce, they were all essentially in purgatory this entire year. Build each episode around one of those future life moments. Give Barney more time to come to grips with being a father. Let Robin be okay with being alone for once (Ted tried and failed repeatedly, she realizes she screwed up...that's life. Get over it.). Show us more of the cancer storyline and some of their last moments together. We saw glimpses this year, but for a finale it was largely emotionless, rote, and inevitable, IMO.

But we shouldn't be surprised. We knew none of that was coming. We had nine months to discover that Bays and Thomas don't give a hoot about fan service down the stretch, and that was confirmed tonight.

Damn, now I'm pissed off again. I'm going to go watch the fantastic "How Your Mother Met Me" from a couple months ago.


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## Balzer

Seriously. Hated. The. Ending.


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## holee

Frigging recording cut off right as the camera panned to Ted standing outside. What happened afterwards? I only got 59 minutes.


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## Gunnyman

He held up the blue French horn.


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## MLR930

Gunnyman said:


> Barney and his daughter felt very very real. Kudos to NPH.


I teared up


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## Gunnyman

Me too


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## billypritchard

Neenahboy said:


> It's clear that Bays and Thomas had a plan and were set on executing that plan, damn the consequences. They did so. So...congrats to them, I guess?
> 
> In all seriousness: I hated them killing off Cristin Milioti and opening the door for Robin, and the Barney/Robin divorce came out of left field (a reporter with global ambitions travels a lot? Perish the thought!). But if they were dead set on making those two things happen, I'm glad Ted ended up with Robin. The show was always their story.
> 
> More than anything, I'm sad again over the wasted potential of this season. Given the divorce, they were all essentially in purgatory this entire year. Build each episode around one of those future life moments. Give Barney more time to come to grips with being a father. Let Robin be okay with being alone for once (Ted tried and failed repeatedly, she realizes she screwed up...that's life. Get over it.). Show us more of the cancer storyline and some of their last moments together. We saw glimpses this year, but for a finale it was largely emotionless, rote, and inevitable, IMO.
> 
> But we shouldn't be surprised. We knew none of that was coming. We had nine months to discover that Bays and Thomas don't give a hoot about fan service down the stretch, and that was confirmed tonight.
> 
> Damn, now I'm pissed off again. I'm going to go watch the fantastic "How Your Mother Met Me" from a couple months ago.


They packed these last episodes with 'fan service' moments.


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## cheerdude

Gunnyman said:


> Barney and his daughter felt very very real. Kudos to NPH.


And... She actually looked like a newborn!


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## Einselen

I am wondering when the fans/Reddit come up with the machete order to watch the series again. I feel like the finale could have been a lot stronger if this last season was done differently. Maybe because I heard the theories of the Mother I wasn't so shocked with the divorce, mother dying and getting back to Robin. I did love the Barney and daughter scene. If you want the shock/hit the gut scene watch S06E13 Bad News again. I saw that clip on the Inside the Actors Studio and I was like that is how the finale should have hit.


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## Hunter Green

The Mother's -- pardon me, Tracy's -- death was not as bad as I expected. They handled it pretty well. And the daughter making some sense of the fact that the story was more about Robin than Tracy, who barely appeared in it, justifies a lot of the story. It holds together.

It's just a perfectly held together story I didn't like. I don't like Robin that much, and Tracy was just plain fantastic. I never felt Robin and Ted belonged together, but Tracy really seemed like a perfect fit for Ted. And I don't just mean that Christine Miloti was a great casting choice, though she was. I actually am pretty fond of Colbie Smulders as an actress too; she did a great job portraying Robin as what she was. It's just that what she was, was kind of annoying.

I also felt like the divorce came out of nowhere. One week after a fairly sweet wedding, too. As did Barney's story completely changing; didn't buy that.

And is this why Barney was never in any of the flashforwards? Because he's busy with his child, because Robin's around and thus Barney can't be, or what?

Kind of disappointed. My wife, who had no clue of the theories around here, was upset with the mother dying, and also disappointed -- so, at least, having the theories here didn't spoil me, since her reaction was pretty much the same. At least there's that.


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## leeherman

Gunnyman said:


> The show was never about the Mother. Once you become ok with that, the rage dies.


The show should be re-titled "How I Met Your Stepmother" for syndication.



LH


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## billypritchard

I can't fathom anyone thinking this was worse than Seinfeld or Friends. That's crazy.

There is no moment in those shows that can match the umbrella scene. Even if they only got ten great years, it was worth it.


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## Peter000

I actually thought the scenes with the Mother mostly felt staged and forced. Maybe because they were shoehorning somebody completely new and unknown into the title role in the last season of a long run.


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## vman

Hated it. I agree with Hunter Green, the story made sense: the series wasn't about meeting the mother, it was about Ted and Robin. But I found it absolutely emotionally unsatisfying on every level. Lots of stuff was absolutely portrayed realistically: the drifting away of friendships; Robin and Barney not working out; the mom dying. But that's not what I wanted. Like Ted, I wanted the fairy tale ending. And he actually had it with the mother. And then they threw it all out the window. I would have rather they end with Barney and Robin together and miraculousy having a kid (or adopting even), and Ted and mother together, with closing scene the train station - even if it wouldn't have made sense why they focused so much on everything else for 10 seasons...


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## Neenahboy

Another point I'll make is that any comparisons to Friends and the Ross/Rachel "will they won't they" nonsense (I've seen quite a few tonight on Twitter) are quite off base. Ross was never happy with anyone but Rachel, and it showed. They took great pains to show that Ted could be, and indeed was, happy with someone other than Robin.

Which is primarily why, even though HIMYM ultimately _was_ the story of Ted and Robin, I'm immensely disappointed that Bays and Thomas felt it had to be.


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## Graymalkin

My thoughts on the finale are somewhat jumbled, so I'm just going to lay them out in no particular order:

(1) The scenes where Barney holds his daughter for the first time and where Ted and Tracy meet under the umbrella were wonderful. Even Alan Sepinwall admits that the writers _nailed_ it in those scenes.

(2) It's now obvious that the creators changed course several times in season 1. In the pilot, the big "...and that's how I met your Aunt Robin" twist was inserted to be just that -- a big twist. Then they decided that if the show was going to end after just one season, Victoria was going to be the mother. But they were renewed. And the chemistry between Ted and Robin was so palpable that they then decided that they were going to end the series with Ted and Robin together. Hence those final scenes with the two kids that were filmed years ago.

The problem was that they were determined to stick to that ending, come hell or high water. They had to find reasons to break up Ted and Robin. Then they had to find reasons why Ted's subsequent relationships couldn't end well. Then they hooked up Robin and Barney -- and people _liked_ that. And THEN for the final season, they hired Cristin Milioti -- who had fantastic chemistry with Ted. They painted themselves into a corner -- and the finale was the result.

(3) If you believed the show was about Ted and Robin, then you're probably satisfied with the ending -- except for how they had to wipe out years of Barney's growth into an almost adult person and spent nearly an entire season on a wedding that was undone in three years.

(4) If you believed in Barney/Robin and in Ted/Tracy, well, you're just spitting mad right about now, and I don't blame you one bit.

(5) Let me see if I've got the timeline right: Ted and Tracy meet in 2014. They live together for seven years before getting married, which would be 2021. Then she gets sick and dies three years later in 2024. And Ted's a widower for six years, until 2030, when his kids tell him to get off the stick and go get Robin. Personally, I would have preferred that Tracy had lived at least four more years and that Ted's a widower for only two years. A little more happiness with the love of his life and a little less mourning, please.

(6) The show lasted too long. Had they kept it to five seasons, they could've broken up Ted and Robin, marry him to the mother, and then bring Robin back at the end. The show went seriously off the track when they 'shipped Barney and Robin. On the other hand, they wouldn't have found Cristin Milioti four years ago. She was amazing. Someone find that lady another series!


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## smak

TonyD79 said:


> Not as bad as I thought it could be but I'm disappointed. Obviously that was the early story plan and would've fit a few years ago. Doesn't fit anymore. Ted and Robin seems forced.


100% agree. I would have changed the ending.

Circumstances on the ground dictated that they should have, they probably knew that, and they wussed out.

Absolutely nothing tied them to their original ending...except the stuff they shot with the kids 10 years ago, but I hope that isn't a big enough reason to keep the ending, if they had thoughts on not.

That being said, I really liked the other 50 minutes or so.

I think everything worked.

But, I think the entire final season was done wrong. Things change in these situations all the time. Entire shows and characters have been re-worked due to inspired casting choices.

Oh well.

-smak-


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## laria

Overall, I thought it was ok. I was 110% on the dying mother theory ever since the episode earlier this season with Ted doing that whole 45 days, seconds, whatever speech at her door. But I was hoping they weren't going with the ending up with Robin thing at the end. I felt like the divorce came out of left field.

The scene with Barney and his daughter was the only one I got verklempt at the whole episode. 

The scenes at the end with the kids were reeeeeally awkward. The girl was not a good actress back then.


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## busyba

I'm glad that, while they went ahead and killed the mother (Ms. Milioti 's non-denial denials to the contrary), it wasn't done as a huge event in the episode.

I also liked how The Mother's name turned out to be McConnell. I would like to think that they went with that only because "McGuffin" would have been too huge of an anvil, so they went with just a nod in that direction instead.

That would be something that I called back in season 1, btw.


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## smak

Imo, if you start out a series knowing the ending, then get 10 years to lead up to that ending, you shouldn't make it as clumsy as this year was.

To have an entire season based on a wedding that they would then end in five seconds seems like a waste of a lot of prime final season time.

-smak-


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## smak

busyba said:


> I'm glad that, while they went ahead and killed the mother (Ms. Milioti 's non-denial denials to the contrary), it wasn't done as a huge event in the episode.
> 
> I also liked how The Mother's name turned out to be McConnell. I would like to think that they went with that only because "McGuffin" would have been too huge of an anvil, so they went with just a nod in that direction instead.
> 
> That would be something that I called back in season 1, btw.


I think I was pretty much with you back then as well. I think I probably even went as far as calling it a show about nothing.

-smak-


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## JYoung

firerose818 said:


> I don't think the show could have ended any other way. We're mad because the mother was such a likeable character and we want Ted to be happy. But the show has always been about he loves Robin. Always.


I'm not picking on you specifically since others have made similar comments but my takeaway from this episode was Ted essentially telling his kids, "your mother was never really that important as I have always been in love with Aunt Robin".

I see psychotherapy in their future because of this and the fact their father is a d*uchebag.

I'm guessing that the reason they killed off Tracy was so that Ted wouldn't look like a total scumbucket when going after Robin in 2030.

Yeah, count me among the unsatisfied.


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## Ereth

As I said previously... no, no, a thousand times no.

The what? 8 years? I've now spent watching this, completely wasted. I will not waste another second on it.


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## DUDE_NJX

I have been watching the sitcom for sit com. 
For the most part it delivered - until the last season or so. 
Those expecting a great story, no doubt will end up being disappointed.
Many individual episodes were much more enjoyable when the show was actually funny than the overall plot lines.


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## scooterboy

I liked it. I like that they switched it up at the end.


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## jamesl

great ending

we all knew the mother was going to die 
that should not have come as a shock to anyone

we were all pretty sure he was going to end up with Robin 
we just weren't sure how

we all wondered how the kids could be so bored and uncaring while their father was telling them how he met their mother (who is now dead)

and the writers brought it all together nicely 
they did a wonderful job

thank god he didn't end up with the mother 
I really like the mother, but 
that would have been the typical hollywood happy ending bs

it was shocking when Radar announced Col Blake died, but it was a great way to send him off
it was maddening on ER when Dr Greene stuck out how tongue and it unconsciously curved and you knew the brain tumor was coming back 
and it was heartbreaking when he died 





but those were some of my favorite moments on TV 
and so it will be with the mother dying and Ted showing up at Robin's door with the blue trumpet

Ted's little speech right before the kids gave him permission, 
where he talks about loving the mother at 5am on Christmas morning, loving her at every fight -- that showed a deep, mature and true love for her

that love was the only the writers could allow him to end up with Robin, and have the kids give their blessing and not have him look like a total ******bag

it was a great ending, a great episode


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## DevdogAZ

Wow. Not sure what I think. I liked the characters. I liked the actors. I was glad to see more of their story in the future. But I was bummed that they broke Barney and Robin up so quickly. I was bummed that they killed off the Mother, even though we all knew it was coming, and I was bummed they went back to the Ted/Robin well at the end.



Hunter Green said:


> It's just a perfectly held together story I didn't like. I don't like Robin that much, and Tracy was just plain fantastic. I never felt Robin and Ted belonged together, but Tracy really seemed like a perfect fit for Ted. And I don't just mean that Christine Miloti was a great casting choice, though she was. I actually am pretty fond of Colbie Smulders as an actress too; she did a great job portraying Robin as what she was. It's just that what she was, was kind of annoying.


During the first couple of seasons, Ted ending up with Robin would have been an awesome ending. Because back then those two characters were great together. And that's clearly when Bays and Thomas came up with the ultimate ending and filmed the part with the kids. But both of the characters of Ted and Robin grew and changed and by the end, they had no business being together, and as a fan of the show, I'm not at all satisfied with that ending.



Graymalkin said:


> My thoughts on the finale are somewhat jumbled, so I'm just going to lay them out in no particular order:
> 
> <snip>
> 
> (5) Let me see if I've got the timeline right: Ted and Tracy meet in 2014. They live together for seven years before getting married, which would be 2021. Then she gets sick and dies three years later in 2024. And Ted's a widower for six years, until 2030, when his kids tell him to get off the stick and go get Robin. Personally, I would have preferred that Tracy had lived at least four more years and that Ted's a widower for only two years. A little more happiness with the love of his life and a little less mourning, please.


You got it mostly right, except you're off by a year. Robin and Barney's wedding was in May 2013, so Ted and Tracy got married in 2020 and were married for four years before she died.

Speaking of that, what's up with the episode a few weeks ago where we all figured out that the Mother was going to die? I'm pretty sure that scene took place in 2017. So if she didn't die until 2024, was she terminally ill for 7 years?


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## jamesl

DevdogAZ said:


> ...
> 
> During the first couple of seasons, Ted ending up with Robin would have been an awesome ending. Because back then those two characters were great together. ... But both of the characters of Ted and Robin grew and changed and by the end, they had no business being together ...


I see it totally differently 
in the beginning he wanted kids - she didn't 
he wanted to settle down and live in NYC - she wanted to travel and really be on her own

although they were attracted to each other there was no way they could have lasted if they had gotten married in the beginning

it was only after each of them had fulfilled their own dreams, their own goals, that they could be there for the other


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## pahunt

busyba said:


> I'm glad that, while they went ahead and killed the mother (Ms. Milioti 's non-denial denials to the contrary), it wasn't done as a huge event in the episode.


Funny, because that was my major issue with the whole thing. The mother dying should have been a huge event but it was just thrown out there so casually that it ruined any emotional impact it could have had. And I wanted emotional impact, instead what I got was disappointment and frustration.


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## JasonLP

I seem to be in the minority, but I loved the story they told, and the way it ended.

We weren't supposed to grieve for the Mother, we were supposed to appreciate her for what she was in Ted's life, from the point of the view of their kids. At their age, they'd have had sweet fond memories of her, and enough time has passed for them not to feel the pang of sorrow. Carter and Bays did a great job in giving us these glimpses of her in a way that feel like those memories. When she dies, it's sad, yes, but we know enough time has passed that we can forgive Ted for wanting to move on.

Ted's story parallels Tracy's in the "How Your Mother Met Me" episode. Tracy's boyfriend Max, the love of her life, has died, and it took her about 8 years to finally move on. Ted and Tracy were perfect for each other, truly loved each other. But death came between them. And Ted moves on.

Sometimes life happens that way.

I'm glad to have been caught up in Ted's story, one that's never been afraid to be bittersweet.


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## Robin

Gunnyman said:


> Barney and his daughter felt very very real. Kudos to NPH.


Wow, yes. That was amazing.



cheerdude said:


> And... She actually looked like a newborn!


I was shocked by that! I'm used to the standard three month old "newborn".



Hunter Green said:


> I also felt like the divorce came out of nowhere. One week after a fairly sweet wedding, too. As did Barney's story completely changing; didn't buy that.


I thought it was three years?

Off the top of my head I know one person who got divorced after a year and two others who nearly got divorced in the first year or two. I don't think it's uncommon to realize after the dust settles that things aren't working.

I liked the season (although it wasn't my favorite) and liked the episode. I liked that they didn't dwell on her death.


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## whitson77

It was an okay ending. Actually better than I expected after really not enjoying the last few seasons.

It did seems strange to redeem Barney. Then destroy him after his divorce and then redeem him after the birth of his daughter. But I guess that was pretty true to his character. He had depth at times, and then could be legendarily shallow.

Lily (to me) has the biggest gripe about how they made her pretty unwatchable the last few seasons. It was nice to see her actually have some humanity this episode and not be a shadow of how she was early on.

And I like the blue french horn ending. I have zero interest in the spinoff, but their was some redemption for me in this final episode.


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## Gunnyman

Subtle thing I noticed. Ted looked like he had Bob Saget's hair in future Ted scenes.


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## cheerdude

One thing I would have changed about the ending. 

Keep Bob Saget's voice with Josh Rsdnor either lipsyncing the words... or simply not him on screen until he picks up the phone.


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## Gunnyman

Yeah I think I expected to see Saget on screen at the end with the kids, but a lip sync would have worked better.


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## dianebrat

Sepinwall is up!
http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-wa...ur-mother-last-forever-how-they-conned-us-all

He took it harder than I did, they managed to get me to be ok with the Mother/Robin swap, but I still feel this season wasted Milioti when it could have been their swan song.

Yes, I cried multiple times..


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## ScubaCat

What makes anyone think that Ted and Robin got back together? Just because he shows up yet again at her doorstep with that stupid blue horn doesn't mean she took him back. If the show ran for another 5 seconds I'm sure we would hear Robin tell Ted to take a hike. 

I'm really surprised that anyone felt any emotion from any scenes in this finale other than aggravation.


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## loubob57

I guess I'm in the minority. I liked the ending.


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## firerose818

JYoung said:


> I'm not picking on you specifically since others have made similar comments but my takeaway from this episode was Ted essentially telling his kids, "your mother was never really that important as I have always been in love with Aunt Robin".
> 
> I see psychotherapy in their future because of this and the fact their father is a d*uchebag.
> 
> I'm guessing that the reason they killed off Tracy was so that Ted wouldn't look like a total scumbucket when going after Robin in 2030.
> 
> Yeah, count me among the unsatisfied.


Pyschotherapy? They have had *six years* of mourning their wife/mother. I got no impression that she never mattered.


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## zordude

I did like the closing credits with the cast how they looked in the beginning.


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## Steveknj

Graymalkin said:


> My thoughts on the finale are somewhat jumbled, so I'm just going to lay them out in no particular order:
> 
> (1) The scenes where Barney holds his daughter for the first time and where Ted and Tracy meet under the umbrella were wonderful. Even Alan Sepinwall admits that the writers _nailed_ it in those scenes.
> 
> (2) It's now obvious that the creators changed course several times in season 1. In the pilot, the big "...and that's how I met your Aunt Robin" twist was inserted to be just that -- a big twist. Then they decided that if the show was going to end after just one season, Victoria was going to be the mother. But they were renewed. And the chemistry between Ted and Robin was so palpable that they then decided that they were going to end the series with Ted and Robin together. Hence those final scenes with the two kids that were filmed years ago.
> 
> The problem was that they were determined to stick to that ending, come hell or high water. They had to find reasons to break up Ted and Robin. Then they had to find reasons why Ted's subsequent relationships couldn't end well. Then they hooked up Robin and Barney -- and people _liked_ that. And THEN for the final season, they hired Cristin Milioti -- who had fantastic chemistry with Ted. They painted themselves into a corner -- and the finale was the result.
> 
> (3) If you believed the show was about Ted and Robin, then you're probably satisfied with the ending -- except for how they had to wipe out years of Barney's growth into an almost adult person and spent nearly an entire season on a wedding that was undone in three years.
> 
> (4) If you believed in Barney/Robin and in Ted/Tracy, well, you're just spitting mad right about now, and I don't blame you one bit.
> 
> (5) Let me see if I've got the timeline right: Ted and Tracy meet in 2014. They live together for seven years before getting married, which would be 2021. Then she gets sick and dies three years later in 2024. And Ted's a widower for six years, until 2030, when his kids tell him to get off the stick and go get Robin. Personally, I would have preferred that Tracy had lived at least four more years and that Ted's a widower for only two years. A little more happiness with the love of his life and a little less mourning, please.
> 
> (6) The show lasted too long. Had they kept it to five seasons, they could've broken up Ted and Robin, marry him to the mother, and then bring Robin back at the end. The show went seriously off the track when they 'shipped Barney and Robin. On the other hand, they wouldn't have found Cristin Milioti four years ago. She was amazing. Someone find that lady another series!


You've pretty much nailed how I was feeling about the ending. I have been going back and forth thinking about this most of the morning. There were definitely parts of the finale I liked. Barney and the baby was...awesome (pun intended), as was Ted/Tracy at the train station...although I would have preferred that they hadn't noticed each other at the wedding. I liked that Robin had become a big time reporter and that Marshall finally became a judge.

But...the whole last episode felt rushed and forced. We just spent 9 years on every meta detail of their lives and they show 15 years worth of their lives in 45 minutes. I never felt Robin and Barney were quite right for each other, so that when they got divorced, it kind of felt right to me...but....it telegraphed where they were going. As soon as they said they were divorced, I turned to my wife and said.....they are setting this up for Ted and Robin to get together, and so the rumors were true and they are going to kill off the mom. Oh, and the mom getting sick and dying REALLY felt rushed. Maybe it was because they tipped us off it was coming (although, I never believed it), or maybe they felt the mother was so insignificant to the story, which is I think what they were going for after all. The problem was, that the character was so endearing, and the actress played her so beautifully, that I felt that I wanted Ted to be with her forever and if she died it would be much more gut wrenching. It really wasn't...for me.

And lastly, I never felt the Robin that had emerged in the last 3 seasons or so, the ambitious Robin, who didn't want kids and fell for someone like Barney, would be right for Ted. He's such a romantic, and she turned out to be totally the opposite of romantic, I never felt it could work. If they were trying to show that Robin had changed, I never got that. Even her references to "Ted should have been the one I should have married" didn't seem right to me.

So while I agree that it's not as bad as the Friends of Seinfeld finales (which in retrospect I don't think were all that bad), it left me less than satisfied.

Tidbits...We found out the daughter's name (Penny), but did we find out the son's name?

I liked the part of the initials on the umbrella as a way to learn the mother's name.

Would have been nice to meet Barney's baby mom. Seems like she had ZERO role in the raising of her child? Not sure where they were going with that.


----------



## Steveknj

TonyD79 said:


> Not as bad as I thought it could be but *I'm disappointed.* Obviously that was the early story plan and would've fit a few years ago. Doesn't fit anymore. Ted and Robin seems forced.


This surprises me more than the ending. You've been the staunchest supporter of this show of anyone here 

I agree, Ted and Robin seems forced. But I've never been one of those "Ted and Robin are meant for each other" people.


----------



## Steveknj

DUDE_NJX said:


> I have been watching the sitcom for sit com.
> For the most part it delivered - until the last season or so.
> Those expecting a great story, no doubt will end up being disappointed.
> Many individual episodes were much more enjoyable when the show was actually funny than the overall plot lines.


Like Lost, another example of the journey being much much better than the destination.

Thinking more about it, it might have been better if they ended last season with the wedding and meeting the mom the first episode of this season, and play out the events of the last episode as the last season. I think that would have worked a whole lot better.


----------



## Steveknj

DevdogAZ said:


> Wow. Not sure what I think. I liked the characters. I liked the actors. I was glad to see more of their story in the future. But I was bummed that they broke Barney and Robin up so quickly. I was bummed that they killed off the Mother, even though we all knew it was coming, and I was bummed they went back to the Ted/Robin well at the end.
> 
> During the first couple of seasons, Ted ending up with Robin would have been an awesome ending. Because back then those two characters were great together. And that's clearly when Bays and Thomas came up with the ultimate ending and filmed the part with the kids. But both of the characters of Ted and Robin grew and changed and by the end, they had no business being together, and as a fan of the show, I'm not at all satisfied with that ending.
> 
> You got it mostly right, except you're off by a year. Robin and Barney's wedding was in May 2013, so Ted and Tracy got married in 2020 and were married for four years before she died.
> 
> Speaking of that, what's up with the episode a few weeks ago where we all figured out that the Mother was going to die? I'm pretty sure that scene took place in 2017. So if she didn't die until 2024, was she terminally ill for 7 years?


BTW, what was up with them not marrying for 7 years, especially after she got pregnant. That is SO not Ted. Ted would have asked her to marry him on the second date!! (well maybe not), but if she was pregnant and she's "the one". They tried to explain it as....well we're happy the way things are, but I didn't buy it.

It's possible that he first found out she had cancer in 2017, and was just thinking about the possibility of her not being there. My mom was diagnosed with cancer in the early 1980s and died in 1990. Throughout the whole thing, we always knew there was a strong possibility she was going to die, and she managed to last about 8 or 9 years after diagnosis. So I can see that in this case....with that said, the whole mom dying thing was WAY too glossed over and made fairly insignificant....it was a means to an end and not really fair to fans.


----------



## Steveknj

pahunt said:


> Funny, because that was my major issue with the whole thing. The mother dying should have been a huge event but it was just thrown out there so casually that it ruined any emotional impact it could have had. And I wanted emotional impact, instead what I got was disappointment and frustration.


If we hadn't gotten to know the mom (and many of us just LOVED the character and how well she and Ted meshed), I could see them doing it that way. But the build up to how important it was for him to meet the mom, and then, boom, we got, oh yeah, she dies, just really bothers me. And what made it worse is all the speculation and the clues that we've discussed for weeks now made it seem like it should be something played out more and it wasn't.


----------



## Steveknj

cheerdude said:


> One thing I would have changed about the ending.
> 
> Keep Bob Saget's voice with Josh Rsdnor either lipsyncing the words... or simply not him on screen until he picks up the phone.


When you think about it, with that ending, what did they need Bob Saget's voice in the first place? They could have used Josh Radnor's voice the whole way. I guess they wanted some star power at the beginning of the show? Bob and the two writers are buddies? Not sure.


----------



## Steveknj

So far I've read two negative reviews (Sep and Time Mag) and one positive (NY Times).


----------



## billypritchard

firerose818 said:


> Pyschotherapy? They have had *six years* of mourning their wife/mother. I got no impression that she never mattered.


This. If they had made the mom die in 2030, it would have been awful. But they had her die 6 years earlier. It's clear from the narration/daughter that after the wedding in 2020, Robin had been a part of their life again. Mother reached out to Robin.

Robin was there for the big things. She and the gang was there for Mother's passing. They were around enough for the kids to call them 'Aunt Robin, Uncle Barney'. And for some kids, 6 years would be enough time that seeing their Dad happy would be okay.


----------



## billypritchard

I thought of a comparison situation from another show.

Aunt Helen on Justified.


----------



## betts4

I just finished watching the finale. Over breakfast. 

So, random thoughts - 

Okay, big mistake to watch NPH say those words to his newborn this early in the morning. I was tearing up over my toast. He was wonderful and that scene was perfectly played and knowing he IS a devoted dad and watching his face on Actor's Studio as he talked to his son on the phone. Yep. He got it. 

I am not a HIMYM SP owner. I have watched the show over the years enough to know the characters, enjoy the changes and see them evolve. Sometimes I watched a whole season, sometimes it was just every couple episodes. 

I absolutely adored the umbrella scene. Perfect for both characters. 

I didn't get why they didn't marry. I agree it seems like it would not be a Ted thing to wait. 

I was waiting for the old lady on the bench to say something like "would you like some chocolate" ala Forrest Gump. 

The Mother dying thing. It sure did seem rushed. Maybe it was that way because he was telling the kids - and they had seen it so didn't need to know much about that part - or about any of those years because they were there. 

So the story was more about all those years before I met your mother. But I guess that wouldn't have been as catchie a title.


----------



## pendragn

I liked it. I was sad that the mother didn't make it, but like we've discussed before, there were enough clues that it wasn't a complete punch in the gut. I think they handled it well.


----------



## billypritchard

Yeah, people have complained for a while about 'Why is he telling the kids all this stuff when none of it actually has to do with the mother?'

And they answered that, by making the story more of a thing leading up to him being okay. They didn't need to hear about their mother. They lived with her for 9 years. They know she was awesome, and that Ted loved her deeply.


----------



## Steveknj

betts4 said:


> The Mother dying thing. It sure did seem rushed.* Maybe it was that way because he was telling the kids *- and they had seen it so didn't need to know much about that part - or about any of those years because they were there.
> .


This is part of the problem I think. Essentially there are two audiences for the show. One is the kids, and one is us. In context to him telling the story to the kids, I guess it does make sense to gloss over the death of the mother, but as we are an audience as well, but outside the context of the story, it's less satisfying for us.


----------



## pahunt

pendragn said:


> I liked it. I was sad that the mother didn't make it, but like we've discussed before, there were enough clues that it wasn't a complete punch in the gut. I think they handled it well.


Maybe I'm just a sadist but a punch in the gut was exactly what I wanted. The whole set up of the show revolved around the mother and for them to dismiss her death with 2 short scenes, one in the hospital when she was sick and one comment from the daughter that "she's been gone for 6 years" felt like a cop out to me. And it turns out that the whole premise of the show was just one big piece of mis-direction that allowed them to put Ted and Robin together and that just makes me feel cheated.


----------



## Robin

Steveknj said:


> BTW, what was up with them not marrying for 7 years, especially after she got pregnant. That is SO not Ted. Ted would have asked her to marry him on the second date!! (well maybe not), but if she was pregnant and she's "the one". They tried to explain it as....well we're happy the way things are, but I didn't buy it.


Isn't that the point? To show how Ted has grown from someone who just wants to be married to someone who appreciates the relationship for itself.



Steveknj said:


> When you think about it, with that ending, what did they need Bob Saget's voice in the first place? They could have used Josh Radnor's voice the whole way. I guess they wanted some star power at the beginning of the show? Bob and the two writers are buddies? Not sure.


I've always assumed it was so the voice would be that of a 50 - something not 20- something.


----------



## DUDE_NJX

Isn't the actor 40?


----------



## Robin

I have no idea but I'm fairly sure he wasn't 40 when the series started.


----------



## DUDE_NJX

Right, but his voice is the same. They should've gone with him for the voice-over from the beginning.


----------



## Robin

I'm confused. Should have gone with who?


----------



## cheerdude

He's 39; 40 on July 29th


----------



## Steveknj

Robin said:


> Isn't that the point? To show how Ted has grown from someone who just wants to be married to someone who appreciates the relationship for itself.


Even with that, the character from beginning to end was a romantic. The Ted i knew always seemed like the type that would want to marry "the one". There really wasn't a reason I could see NOT to get married. How they explained it was kind of lame.



> I've always assumed it was so the voice would be that of a 50 - something not 20- something.


Did early Josh have a voice that sounded young? I don't recall that. Even so, they could have transitioned to his voice at some point. Doing it during the very last episode was a bit jarring.


----------



## DUDE_NJX

Robin said:


> I'm confused. Should have gone with who?


Radnor for the whole series.


----------



## Steveknj

cheerdude said:


> He's 39; 40 on July 29th


Which means, early 30s when the series started. Not a kids voice by that point.


----------



## Robin

But Saget sounded notably older, which was my point. 

If the voice-over voice was the same as Ted's it would be hard to buy the voice over happening 25 years in the future.


----------



## firerose818

Steveknj said:


> Tidbits...We found out the daughter's name (Penny), but did we find out the son's name?


Luke. Several episodes ago.


----------



## TAsunder

It only took rebooting several characters, sweeping a death under the rug, numerous wigs, a baby birth cliche, a wedding cliche, and a few other convolutions to get an ending nobody wanted.


----------



## 2004raptor

I'm not sure if I hated it. Definitely didn't like the whole Barney/robin divorce. But if it was done in some other way I really wouldn't care if Ted and robin ended up together. 

My wife, who i never told about the mothers death rumor, didn't like it at all. Not that that should matter to anyone here but she thought it wasn't a very good way to end the show.

And she also didn't like the Barney/robin divorce.


----------



## Steveknj

firerose818 said:


> Luke. Several episodes ago.


I missed it. thanks


----------



## Steveknj

TAsunder said:


> It only took rebooting several characters, sweeping a death under the rug, numerous wigs, a baby birth cliche, a wedding cliche, and a few other convolutions to get an ending nobody wanted.


I'd say it's the ending that a LOT of people wanted.....for about 2 seasons, which is when the concept for the ending was probably conceived. By this time in the series, most of us have moved on from Ted and Robin. Sepinwall's article hits the nail on the head. The writers got trapped in their concept, one that just didn't play as well 7 or 8 years down the road. (and I have always stood in the camp that the revelation of the Mother mattered, but once revealed, then all bets were off).

Also, what's wrong with a sappy Hollywood ending anyway? I really don't get why that's such a bad thing? It works for a show like this.


----------



## billypritchard

Loved this bit from fashion bloggers Tom & Lorenzo (posted with some pics of Cobie Smulders).



> We are providing this post as a service to all our kittens who watched last nights How I Met Your Mother finale. Having watched not one second of the show, were finding ourselves entertained by all the requisite post-finale tsuris about disappointment and betrayals. It was ever thus in the internet age, darlings. Were just happy to not be the ones shrieking their disappointment, for once. We will say this: we didnt watch this show but it ended exactly as we assumed it would. We think, looking at it from the outside this time, a lot of post-finale shrieking comes down to people realizing that what they hoped wasnt inevitable turned out to be exactly that. Basically, it comes down to You didnt surprise me the way I wanted.


----------



## loubob57

They didn't actually say the mother died, just that she's been "gone for 6 years".
Maybe she went to live on a farm?


----------



## Steveknj

loubob57 said:


> They didn't actually say the mother died, just that she's been "gone for 6 years".
> Maybe she went to live on a farm?


She ran off with Chuck from Happy Days


----------



## DUDE_NJX

She's in prison for securities fraud and money laundering.


----------



## ScubaCat

She was #31.


----------



## soccergrunt

ScubaCat said:


> She was #31.


So will #31 turn out to be the Mom in the new series How I Met Your Father?


----------



## DUDE_NJX

They kept her ID secret for a reason....


----------



## billypritchard

ScubaCat said:


> She was #31.


Is that french?


----------



## Steveknj

soccergrunt said:


> So will #31 turn out to be the Mom in the new series How I Met Your Father?


That would be awesome!!

I wonder if there will be any appearances from our old gang. Is the show being set in NYC?


----------



## dimented

soccergrunt said:


> So will #31 turn out to be the Mom in the new series How I Met Your Father?


I would watch.


----------



## busyba

zordude said:


> I did like the closing credits with the cast how they looked in the beginning.


It was wild how NPH and Jason Seigel looked soooo much younger than they do now, while Radnor and Smulders looked almost exactly like they do now.

Alyson Hannigan was the only one who appeared to age an appropriate amount.


----------



## JasonLP

Does anyone know if there was a significance to the scene where Marshall leans back to the group sitting in the booth behind him and says that a lot of cool things happened at the bar?

Seemed strangely out of place, with no purpose. Wondering if I either missed something, or if it was some kind of inside joke.


----------



## billypritchard

JasonLP said:


> Does anyone know if there was a significance to the scene where Marshall leans back to the group sitting in the booth behind him and says that a lot of cool things happened at the bar?
> 
> Seemed strangely out of place, with no purpose. Wondering if I either missed something, or if it was some kind of inside joke.


Could be an inside joke, but I saw it more of a 'goodbye' to the location McLarens then anything else.


----------



## aindik

Or those dudes could be the cast of HIMYF.


----------



## kettledrum

The first words out of my mouth after we were done with the finale last night were, "the people on TCF are going to be pissed!"


----------



## DevdogAZ

JasonLP said:


> Does anyone know if there was a significance to the scene where Marshall leans back to the group sitting in the booth behind him and says that a lot of cool things happened at the bar?
> 
> Seemed strangely out of place, with no purpose. Wondering if I either missed something, or if it was some kind of inside joke.


I just saw it as Marshall having deep feelings of nostalgia and wanting to share them with someone outside the group. But then he started and realized he could never do it justice because they've lived through so much at the bar.


----------



## That Don Guy

JasonLP said:


> Does anyone know if there was a significance to the scene where Marshall leans back to the group sitting in the booth behind him and says that a lot of cool things happened at the bar?


I think it's an inside joke - the one guy who speaks was Patrick Kang, who is an "assistant to the producers" (which usually means "gofer") for most of the show's run. (I figured the three guys were sons of people involved with the show; for all I know, the other two, who were uncredited, are.) Sort of like how, at the end of the last episode of Cheers, Sam tells someone, "Sorry - we're closed," and the man was played by producer James Burrows.


----------



## JYoung

firerose818 said:


> Pyschotherapy? They have had *six years* of mourning their wife/mother. I got no impression that she never mattered.


Although it's a (relatively) short time for the kids, the producers have literally spent _years_ telling us _why_ Tracy is perfect for Ted and "the one".

Ted himself reenforces this many times while telling this story and no doubt, the kids have heard that their mother was perfect for Ted from Uncle Marshall and Aunt Lily (at minimum if not others as well) multiple times as well.

And the end of the story of how he met their mother is now he wants to bang Aunt Robin?
That's something of a WTF ending.

I stand by my psychotherapy predication.


(Of course, the fact that Ted is a d*uchebag is enough for the psychotherapy predication.)


----------



## spartanstew

I enjoyed it, but I've always just watched the show for the comedy factor, not necessarily the story line (if it would have ended without every actually meeting the mother I would have been fine with that too).

I did like the umbrella scene, because it tied so many things together, not for the "misty" aspect, and didn't really care for the Barney with a daughter portion of the show. I would have rather Barney stayed single and childless, and wait for it......legendary throughout old age. 

That being said, I'm actually glad Robin and Ted got together at the end (apparently), because they shared so much of their lives.

As for the mother, I thought she was OK, but I wasn't as enamored with her as a lot of people are. Just another actress with a bit part in a comedy IMO.


----------



## jamesl

Robin said:


> ...
> I thought it was three years?
> ...


yeah, it was 3 years 
people thinking they got divorced after one week were obviously not paying attention



billypritchard said:


> This. If they had made the mom die in 2030, it would have been awful. But they had her die 6 years earlier. It's clear from the narration/daughter that after the wedding in 2020, Robin had been a part of their life again. Mother reached out to Robin.
> 
> Robin was there for the big things. She and the gang was there for Mother's passing. They were around enough for the kids to call them 'Aunt Robin, Uncle Barney'. And for some kids, 6 years would be enough time that seeing their Dad happy would be okay.


this ^ exactly



billypritchard said:


> Yeah, people have complained for a while about 'Why is he telling the kids all this stuff when none of it actually has to do with the mother?'
> 
> And they answered that, by making the story more of a thing leading up to him being okay. They didn't need to hear about their mother. They lived with her for 9 years. They know she was awesome, and that Ted loved her deeply.


yup, exactly

not only was the ending great, but it also made sense



Robin said:


> Isn't that the point? To show how Ted has grown from someone who just wants to be married to someone who appreciates the relationship for itself.


ooh, awesome thought 
I was also wondering why he waited to get married 
excellent interpretation


----------



## billypritchard

JYoung said:


> Although it's a (relatively) short time for the kids, the producers have literally spent _years_ telling us _why_ Tracy is perfect for Ted and "the one".
> 
> Ted himself reenforces this many times while telling this story and no doubt, the kids have heard that their mother was perfect for Ted from Uncle Marshall and Aunt Lily (at minimum if not others as well) multiple times as well.
> 
> *And the end of the story of how he met their mother is now he wants to bang Aunt Robin?*
> That's something of a WTF ending.
> 
> I stand by my psychotherapy predication.
> 
> 
> (Of course, the fact that Ted is a d*uchebag is enough for the psychotherapy predication.)


I've heard this a lot. 'Ted wants to Bang Aunt Robin'. But that isn't what they said at all. It's six years after the mom passed.

My sister-in-law passed away at age 36 (f*ck melanoma). My brother remarried within two years. He didn't love her any less, but he moved on with his life. He did not remarry because he needed to 'bang' someone.


----------



## TAsunder

billypritchard said:


> I've heard this a lot. 'Ted wants to Bang Aunt Robin'. But that isn't what they said at all. It's six years after the mom passed.
> 
> My sister-in-law passed away at age 36 (f*ck melanoma). My brother remarried within two years. He didn't love her any less, but he moved on with his life. He did not remarry because he needed to 'bang' someone.


Just playing devil's advocate here, but to be fair, they did say that anyone who wanted to sleep with robin would have to marry her first in the flashback.


----------



## JYoung

billypritchard said:


> I've heard this a lot. 'Ted wants to Bang Aunt Robin'. But that isn't what they said at all. It's six years after the mom passed.
> 
> My sister-in-law passed away at age 36 (f*ck melanoma). My brother remarried within two years. He didn't love her any less, but he moved on with his life. He did not remarry because he needed to 'bang' someone.


No one is saying that someone can't move on after the loss of a love.

But you are superimposing a real life action on a story that was so clumsily told that many found the ending completely unsatisfying.

The kids have spent several hours and the hardcore fans (of which I do not count myself as such. I started watching in Season 3 primarily for the comedy) have spent nine years ostensibly listening to the story of how the parents met and why they were right for each other and the timing was right.

To all of the sudden declare that the story wasn't about Tracy but was about Robin is a total WTF indicative of trying to force the square peg into the round hole.


----------



## Ereth

You know, if they had told us up front that the mother was dead, and this was Ted telling his kids this story (which they clearly did not enjoy) well afterwards, that would have been different.

But we thought they were telling US the story of how he met the mother. We didn't know what the kids knew. And so the story has a different impact on us than it does on them.

And it hasn't been six years for us. She was alive and vibrant and wonderful just last night.


----------



## TAsunder

Ted has done a poor job of raising them if they are actively encouraging him to date their aunt.


----------



## Donbadabon

Ereth said:


> And it hasn't been six years for us. She was alive and vibrant and wonderful just last night.


This.


----------



## Robin

TAsunder said:


> Ted has done a poor job of raising them if they are actively encouraging him to date their aunt.


Why?

I think it's a sign he's done a great job.


----------



## TAsunder

Robin said:


> Why?
> 
> I think it's a sign he's done a great job.


That was an incest joke.


----------



## pendragn

Robin said:


> Why?
> 
> I think it's a sign he's done a great job.


You're just saying that because her name is Robin.


----------



## billypritchard

I won't say that the show ending wasn't a bit clumsy, and some things you need to fanwank. Like, the Mother invited Robin to the wedding. Robin is around so much post-death that the kids like her and see the attraction between her and Ted. Fanwank - Robin (and the gang) were Ted's rocks during his wife's illness and passing. The kids saw that strength, and endorse his love of Robin.


----------



## DreadPirateRob

Azlen said:


> Lyndsy Fonseca (the daughter) said they filmed the ending 8 or 9 years ago. Good for them for keeping a secret for a long long time.


According to various sources, they filmed that at the end of season 2.


----------



## TonyD79

Steveknj said:


> This surprises me more than the ending. You've been the staunchest supporter of this show of anyone here
> 
> I agree, Ted and Robin seems forced. But I've never been one of those "Ted and Robin are meant for each other" people.


Because they did things right. And this would have been right up until about two years ago, when they got the unexpected extension of the show and started the Robin and Barney dance. They changed Robin to match Barney.

If the show ran for three years, it would have made perfect sense (and there would have been no single scene divorce for Robin and Barney; it would have just been Robin faded from the group because of distance. And the "mother" could have been just about any other woman who was almost right for Ted.

I just think they got hooked on their ending and did not realize they wrote away from it and refused to adjust in the end. It would have been hard with the kids aging, but they didn't have to have the kids say anything at the end.


----------



## DreadPirateRob

My thoughts on the finale:

1) As others have said, the Barney/daughter scene and the Umbrella scene were perfect. Everything else felt rushed.

2) I'm fine that Barney and Robin divorced 3 years later - their relationship always seemed to be problematic, and if this season was good for anything, it showed that there were many problems with their relationship.

3) Sepinwall probably said it best, when he noted that Bays/Thomas painted themselves into a corner that they refused to try and get out of. They could have easily buried that pre-recorded scene with the kids and made it a DVD blooper, and done something totally different. 

4) I'm still irritated by how little time we got with Tracy as a character. She was delightful, and fit in seamlessly. 

5) I think it's perfectly fine for Ted to go after Robin know - it's been 6 years people. The kids certainly seemed to want their dad to find happiness. 

6) All in all, this ending was entirely unsatisfying from an emotional standpoint.


----------



## stellie93

Steveknj said:


> Even with that, the character from beginning to end was a romantic. The Ted i knew always seemed like the type that would want to marry "the one". There really wasn't a reason I could see NOT to get married. How they explained it was kind of lame.


This seemed really out of character to me, and I must have missed the explanation. How did they explain it?



TonyD79 said:


> They changed Robin to match Barney.


Yeah, I thought they made her more like Barney the last couple seasons. But if I remember right there was a time when she discovered she couldn't have kids, and that changed her too. Also, she was always into her career, but it just wasn't going anywhere. Then it took off and she was overwhelmed with it, and then probably that got old. Sometimes the timing of things works out like it should. I liked it.


----------



## TonyD79

stellie93 said:


> Yeah, I thought they made her more like Barney the last couple seasons. But if I remember right there was a time when she discovered she couldn't have kids, and that changed her too. Also, she was always into her career, but it just wasn't going anywhere. Then it took off and she was overwhelmed with it, and then probably that got old. Sometimes the timing of things works out like it should. I liked it.


That all fits if they never had Robin and Barney "find" each other. If they had Robin change outside Barney, it works. That is what I am saying. Looking at the series until they went down the Robin/Barney path, the ending makes perfect sense (including Barney falling in love with #31 Junior) without the Barney/Robin wedding. In fact, the ending is almost perfect for that.


----------



## smak

The weirdest thing about the final episode is that it kind of reminded me of a final episode of a series that was cancelled prematurely, but given a final episode to wrap things up. And they don't have enough time to do everything the way they wanted. 

Here, they knew this was going to be the final season in January of 2013. Why have everything feel so forced and rushed. Why spend so many episodes on a wedding they would end in a minute.

Why not have the wedding finish in 6 episodes, and explore some of Barney & Robin's issues in real time?

-smak-


----------



## DreadPirateRob

I agree that it felt far too rushed. They meandered around for 23 episodes recounting the events of 1 weekend, and then cram all of *that* into the last episode?

That's craziness.


----------



## DevdogAZ

When Barney said that he got #31 pregnant and wouldn't reveal her name, I was secretly hoping it would turn out to be Robin (at the time I forgot about the previous revelation that Robin was unable to conceive) and that by inadvertently having a kid together, they'd reconcile and the gang would be back intact.


----------



## DevdogAZ

Why was Ted continuing to wear the Hanging Chad costume in the future? I thought the whole reason he kept wearing that was to try and meet the Slutty Pumpkin again, but once he met Tracy and was happy with her, he should have retired Hanging Chad, since it represents something Ted is no longer looking for.


----------



## billypritchard

Just watched Slap Bet in syndication. Talk about a perfect companion to the finale! First, it's awesome. Everybody has good lines. Multiple slaps. Robin frickin Sparkles! And big plus, Robin and Ted in the middle of their great period.


----------



## JYoung

TonyD79 said:


> That all fits if they never had Robin and Barney "find" each other. If they had Robin change outside Barney, it works. That is what I am saying. Looking at the series until they went down the Robin/Barney path, the ending makes perfect sense (including Barney falling in love with #31 Junior) without the Barney/Robin wedding. In fact, the ending is almost perfect for that.


I agree that once they decided to have Barney and Robin marry, they should have changed the ending.

Robin is still very important to the story as if Ted hadn't met her, she wouldn't have fallen for and married Barney. And Ted and Tracy meet because of the wedding.

Actually, they should have changed the ending once they decided that Robin never wanted kids.
Because there really isn't anything to indicate that future Robin is ok with being in a relationship with a man that has two kids.


----------



## mattack

Before I read the rest of the responses.. I actually liked it. It was funny.... 

and to make somewhat of a joke about it, it was the LEAST SAD "wife/mother dies" episode I've ever seen.

You guys who were predicting it get it right, but with an asterisk.. since that's not actually how it ended, and I thought it ended up on an UPBEAT ending of him realizing Robin was really the one.


----------



## mattack

busyba said:


> I also liked how The Mother's name turned out to be McConnell. I would like to think that they went with that only because "McGuffin" would have been too huge of an anvil, so they went with just a nod in that direction instead.


I of course get the McGuffin reference.. but not McConnell...


----------



## jamesl

TAsunder said:


> Ted has done a poor job of raising them if they are actively encouraging him to date their aunt.


you do realize she's not really their aunt

the kids are teenagers 
they know all about sex and relationships 
they know their father loved their mother 
they know their mother wouldn't want their father to be lonely

he has done a great job of raising the children because they are not selfish and they are ok with wanting their father to be happy


----------



## jamesl

JYoung said:


> Because there really isn't anything to indicate that future Robin is ok with being in a relationship with a man that has two kids.


OMG
they're freaking teenagers
its not like she has to feed them or bathe them or wake up in the middle of the night to change their diaper

all the other couple had to experience sitting at the bar and calling it a night at 9:45 because they had to get home to the kids 
Robin doesn't have to be saddled with that responsibility or that "burden" because they can take care of themselves

and its not like Ted and Robin are going to get married in the next couple of weeks 
if they were to get married it'd probably be after the kids go to college


----------



## DUSlider

Ted and Robin still have their pact. lol She is divorced, he is widowed. They aren't married so they can marry each other now.


----------



## waynomo

Does anybody think they may have filmed several different possible endings with the kids 8/9 years ago?


----------



## Sparty99

I thought I would hate the ending if Ted wound up with Robin. I was wrong.

The creators explained - through the daughter's rant - that this story wasn't about the mother, it was about Robin. And I know people don't like that, but I also know that many people on these threads have said that the show was about the journey, not the meeting of the mother. I hope that's still the case with them.

The ending felt rushed, but I think there's a good explanation for that. I have always felt a kinship with the characters on HIMYM, because I'm basically a year older than them. And for a good part of the show's run, I hung out with the same people, at the same bars. And then they started getting married, and moving away, and having kids. All of a sudden our time together became shorter. We'd hang out less and less and we'd drink less and we'd talk about the old days. But there's no story when you see people every month or every year as opposed to every day and every week. You see people and it's, "How're the kids? How's the wife? I've got a new job." That's why the ending was rushed. The group's story essentially ended when Barney & Robin got married. The finale was catching up and seeing each other less and less.

There were two big takeaways for me from the finale:

-Barney never changed, not until his daughter was born (and I loved Loved LOVED how they transitioned his pickup line into how his daughter was the love of his life). Robin complained about him acting the same at the Halloween party, but she knew he had never changed. He admitted everything about him was a lie prior to their engagement. She knew he'd lied about the locket. He never changed. They were very similar at the beginning of the show - recall the scotch & strip club outing early on - but she was the one who changed, not him.

-Ted and Robin were always meant to be, but they met at the wrong time. They would be perfect in their 50's...not in their 20's. Ted got his family and his great romance, and Robin got her career. They have everything they want except each other, and now they have that too.

People feel cheated by the ending and I kind of understand that. But I think part of that is when Cristin Milioti was cast and was so absolutely perfect for the role that the show stopped being about the journey and started being about the mother. Sure, it was a twist we didn't like, but we knew this was coming (i.e., the 45 days speech from season 8). I'm curious if the mother had been Stella, or Victoria, or Zoe, if anyone would've been upset that Ted wound up with Robin. I think the writers kind of screwed themselves by casting someone so perfect.


----------



## Doh

I thought I was the only person who thought there was something off about the Barney/baby scene, but this pretty much sums up my thinking--

"Neil Patrick Harris played the heck out of the scene where Barney falls in love with the baby, but it still didn't make any kind of sense, nor did it resonate with anything else that had happened in the show up to that point."

I do think NPH did a good job with that scene, but I think the writers overdid it.

(rest of that article is pretty good too-- http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2014/04/01/297675381/oh-mother-an-awful-end-to-a-long-love-story)


----------



## DevdogAZ

waynomo said:


> Does anybody think they may have filmed several different possible endings with the kids 8/9 years ago?


I don't think they did. I think they came up with that one ending back at the end of S2, decided it was brilliant, filmed it, and ever since then that's been the only possible ending as far as Bays and Thomas are concerned. And to their credit, at the end of S2 that was a brilliant way to end the show. But then when Ted and Robin broke up because we found out Robin never wanted kids, and then when Robin turned into a beeyotch as evidenced by the way she treated Patrice and by the way she gravitated away from the gang in the future, then I think they kind of ruined the Robin character and it no longer made sense for them to put her together with Ted.

If there were any other optional endings available to them in the finale, they should have used them, because the one they did use didn't fit at all with the way the show and the characters evolved in the last 4-5 seasons.

If this show were like a normal TV show where they come up with the plot on the fly and don't know at the start of a season how that season will end, then I wouldn't have any problem with them breaking Barney and Robin up if that's what they needed to do to service the story. But given that they knew seven years ago that Robin had to be single in 2030, I find it especially appalling that they spent the entire ninth season on Barney and Robin's wedding, and with Ted learning to let go of Robin, and with Barney changing to become more worth of Robin, and with Robin realizing Barney was the one, etc. To spend an entire season leading up to and showing the wedding when they know that whole thing is going to be unraveled one episode later is just extremely poor writing, IMO.


----------



## busyba

mattack said:


> I of course get the McGuffin reference.. but not McConnell...


McConnell isn't anything in particular, it just has a "Mc", which I'm suggesting (more like hoping) _might_ be a subtle nod to McGuffin.


----------



## JYoung

jamesl said:


> OMG
> they're freaking teenagers
> its not like she has to feed them or bathe them or wake up in the middle of the night to change their diaper
> 
> all the other couple had to experience sitting at the bar and calling it a night at 9:45 because they had to get home to the kids
> Robin doesn't have to be saddled with that responsibility or that "burden" because they can take care of themselves
> 
> and its not like Ted and Robin are going to get married in the next couple of weeks
> if they were to get married it'd probably be after the kids go to college


Oh dear.
You're absolutely right.
I'm now convinced that because they're teenagers, there is no parental responsibility at all.
They need absolutely no parental guidance now as there's nothing left for Ted to do now.

There's nothing to stop Ted and Robin from getting married even though I said nothing about marriage.

And Robin would never, ever yell out, "*SHUT UP, PATRICE, I MEAN PENNY!*".

[/sarcasm]


----------



## betts4

Sparty99 said:


> -Ted and Robin were always meant to be, but they met at the wrong time. They would be perfect in their 50's...not in their 20's. Ted got his family and his great romance, and Robin got her career. They have everything they want except each other, and now they have that too.
> 
> People feel cheated by the ending and I kind of understand that. But I think part of that is when Cristin Milioti was cast and was so absolutely perfect for the role that the show stopped being about the journey and started being about the mother. Sure, it was a twist we didn't like, but we knew this was coming (i.e., the 45 days speech from season 8). I'm curious if the mother had been Stella, or Victoria, or Zoe, if anyone would've been upset that Ted wound up with Robin. I think the writers kind of screwed themselves by casting someone so perfect.


I think I am missing something here - maybe because I am not such a die hard fan that I watched every week.

Tracy was 'the one'. The one for Ted. His 'one'. Robin, well, I figured Robin as a great memory of a relationship that could have been and now has a chance to be again. But not as 'the one'.

However, the kids do say that they see her all the time and as such, there must be a relationship growing again that is just hinted at by them saying that. So that would be where the new Robin and Ted relationship has come from - him being widower and her divorced has left them open for each other again. She is really the second 'one', but as said above they met at the wrong time for it to be right.


----------



## Robin

jamesl said:


> OMG
> they're freaking teenagers
> its not like she has to feed them or bathe them or wake up in the middle of the night to change their diaper


This.

She gets to step in for "parenting lite". Still important but not nearly as demanding.

I don't remember the details of her not wanting kids v. being infertile. Could the latter have influenced the former?



waynomo said:


> Does anybody think they may have filmed several different possible endings with the kids 8/9 years ago?


I think they didn't but they should have.



betts4 said:


> She is really the second 'one', but as said above they met at the wrong time for it to be right.


Yes! I've never believed in "the one". There are multiple potential true loves out there.

Watching it again right now. I like Tracy 's pregnancy announcement. Not quite as cliche as most.


----------



## vman

billypritchard said:


> Robin was there for the big things. She and the gang was there for Mother's passing. They were around enough for the kids to call them 'Aunt Robin, Uncle Barney'. And for some kids, 6 years would be enough time that seeing their Dad happy would be okay.


Several people have agreed with this, but I don't know why. She came back for the wedding, but why does anyone think she was around more besides that? They spent most of the episode saying she wasn't around. My kids know lots of "up aunt Robin" friends of ours but that doesn't mean I hang out with them that often any more. It's just as likely the kids don't know Robin much at all, but they just heard their dad wax on about her for hours while supposedly telling the story of their mother. It may not be psychotherapy, but as presented it is definitely kind of "ewwww." (Theoretically I agree with the ability if someone moving on after six years, and with an old flame/best friend - but the presentation of this just didn't work for me)


----------



## billypritchard

vman said:


> Several people have agreed with this, but I don't know why. She came back for the wedding, but why does anyone think she was around more besides that? They spent most of the episode saying she wasn't around. My kids know lots of "up aunt Robin" friends of ours but that doesn't mean I hang out with them that often any more. It's just as likely the kids don't know Robin much at all, but they just heard their dad wax on about her for hours while supposedly telling the story of their mother. It may not be psychotherapy, but as presented it is definitely kind of "ewwww." (Theoretically I agree with the ability if someone moving on after six years, and with an old flame/best friend - but the presentation of this just didn't work for me)


As I said above, some of it is fanwank. But you also clearly missed the daughter saying 'When Aunt Robin is here for weekly dinners', telling us that they have become close again sometime between 2020 and 2030.


----------



## Anubys

so what's the inside story (or show story) about McGuff and McConell?


----------



## firerose818

DevdogAZ said:


> Why was Ted continuing to wear the Hanging Chad costume in the future? I thought the whole reason he kept wearing that was to try and meet the Slutty Pumpkin again, but once he met Tracy and was happy with her, he should have retired Hanging Chad, since it represents something Ted is no longer looking for.


Did you miss that Tracy was there in costume too, with a wig and "Gore/Lieberman" shirt?


----------



## Steveknj

Ereth said:


> You know, if they had told us up front that the mother was dead, and this was Ted telling his kids this story (which they clearly did not enjoy) well afterwards, that would have been different.
> 
> But we thought they were telling US the story of how he met the mother. We didn't know what the kids knew. And so the story has a different impact on us than it does on them.
> 
> And it hasn't been six years for us. She was alive and vibrant and wonderful just last night.


Exactly. While in the context of the story, it works, they forgot the most important thing and that's the audience. He is telling the story as much to us as he is to the kids. I think that's a problem with planning EXACTLY how you're going to end the story so many years in advance, without knowing exactly how the TV audience is going to feel about the characters. It's like reading a novel, where you realize that everything makes sense based on the story, but you feel completely unsatisfied with the ending.


----------



## Steveknj

billypritchard said:


> I won't say that the show ending wasn't a bit clumsy, and some things you need to fanwank. Like, the Mother invited Robin to the wedding. Robin is around so much post-death that the kids like her and see the attraction between her and Ted. Fanwank - Robin (and the gang) were Ted's rocks during his wife's illness and passing. The kids saw that strength, and endorse his love of Robin.


Sure we could all make up stuff to justify the ending. The Robin we know, from watching the last few years, was, and from what they actually DID show us, was off traveling to this and that place for work, and had a bit of a self absorbed personality, so the fanwink you presented doesn't really fit the character, no matter how they frame it as "I'm alwys there for the important things." Yeah, and then she runs away doing her own thing. And do we expect for 6 years after the death, she is always there for him? And if so, why would it take SIX years for Ted to even consider dating her? There's too much we don't know to just jump to those conclusions.


----------



## cherry ghost

billypritchard said:


> As I said above, some of it is fanwank. But you also clearly missed the daughter saying 'When Aunt Robin is here for weekly dinners', telling us that they have become close again sometime between 2020 and 2030.


But that's not what was said. The son said "whenever she comes over for dinner you guys are so obvious." I have a hard time believing that it's all that often considering Robin's schedule and Ted living in the burbs.


----------



## Steveknj

TonyD79 said:


> Because they did things right. And this would have been right up until about two years ago, when they got the unexpected extension of the show and started the Robin and Barney dance. They changed Robin to match Barney.
> 
> If the show ran for three years, it would have made perfect sense (and there would have been no single scene divorce for Robin and Barney; it would have just been Robin faded from the group because of distance. And the "mother" could have been just about any other woman who was almost right for Ted.
> 
> I just think they got hooked on their ending and did not realize they wrote away from it and refused to adjust in the end. It would have been hard with the kids aging, but they didn't have to have the kids say anything at the end.


Completely agree.


----------



## Steveknj

TonyD79 said:


> That all fits if they never had Robin and Barney "find" each other. If they had Robin change outside Barney, it works. That is what I am saying. Looking at the series until they went down the Robin/Barney path, the ending makes perfect sense (including Barney falling in love with #31 Junior) without the Barney/Robin wedding. In fact, the ending is almost perfect for that.


I always thought that Barney having feelings for the stripper made more sense to me than with Robin. It's more inline with how I thought about the character. They absolutely changed Robin to fit into a Barney typecast wife to the point where the character never felt the same (maybe up until the episode where she and Ted realize they weren't meant for each other..at that point anyway). They tried to bring back the old Robin the last few episodes, but by then, I think it was too late.

And you know, discussing this, and the ending, I really realized how invested I was in these characters and how much I enjoyed the show. Not finishing the series how I would have hoped is very disappointing to me.


----------



## Steveknj

Sparty99 said:


> I thought I would hate the ending if Ted wound up with Robin. I was wrong.
> 
> The creators explained - through the daughter's rant - that this story wasn't about the mother, it was about Robin. And I know people don't like that, but I also know that many people on these threads have said that the show was about the journey, not the meeting of the mother. I hope that's still the case with them.
> 
> The ending felt rushed, but I think there's a good explanation for that.  I have always felt a kinship with the characters on HIMYM, because I'm basically a year older than them. And for a good part of the show's run, I hung out with the same people, at the same bars. And then they started getting married, and moving away, and having kids. All of a sudden our time together became shorter. We'd hang out less and less and we'd drink less and we'd talk about the old days. But there's no story when you see people every month or every year as opposed to every day and every week. You see people and it's, "How're the kids? How's the wife? I've got a new job." That's why the ending was rushed. The group's story essentially ended when Barney & Robin got married. The finale was catching up and seeing each other less and less.
> 
> There were two big takeaways for me from the finale:
> 
> -Barney never changed, not until his daughter was born (and I loved Loved LOVED how they transitioned his pickup line into how his daughter was the love of his life). Robin complained about him acting the same at the Halloween party, but she knew he had never changed. He admitted everything about him was a lie prior to their engagement. She knew he'd lied about the locket. He never changed. They were very similar at the beginning of the show - recall the scotch & strip club outing early on - but she was the one who changed, not him.
> 
> -Ted and Robin were always meant to be, but they met at the wrong time. They would be perfect in their 50's...not in their 20's. Ted got his family and his great romance, and Robin got her career. They have everything they want except each other, and now they have that too.
> 
> People feel cheated by the ending and I kind of understand that. But I think part of that is when Cristin Milioti was cast and was so absolutely perfect for the role that the show stopped being about the journey and started being about the mother. Sure, it was a twist we didn't like, but we knew this was coming (i.e., the 45 days speech from season 8). I'm curious if the mother had been Stella, or Victoria, or Zoe, if anyone would've been upset that Ted wound up with Robin. I think the writers kind of screwed themselves by casting someone so perfect.


All good points I hadn't thought about. Still, I never felt the finale was presented that way, but maybe I just missed it. I'm not in the age range where Ted is now and I don't know about how I would feel at that point in my life. The thing is (and I admittedly was always one who was in the series as much for the eventual meeting of the mother as the story), by the time we got to season 9, it really was about meeting the mother and how the story would end. There were also two scenes during the last season that made me think it was completely over between Ted and Robin and it seemed the writers were trying hard to present that. One was the "floating" scene where Robin and Ted had the heart to heart and one was the penultimate episode where Ted tells Robin that he's not the one and Barney and her were meant to be. It really felt sincere. So if ultimately, you're going to bring them back together at the end, why portray it way differently earlier? The thing is we get no indication, through the rushed flash forward that Robin's feelings had really changed.


----------



## laria

vman said:


> Several people have agreed with this, but I don't know why. She came back for the wedding, but why does anyone think she was around more besides that? They spent most of the episode saying she wasn't around.


The girl said something about "everytime she's over for dinner" in the ending scenes, so it sounds like Robin was around more after the wedding.

Edit: Oops, I smeeked, and I guess it was maybe the son.


----------



## loubob57

Is that the only time we've heard the kids speak?


----------



## Steveknj

Doh said:


> I thought I was the only person who thought there was something off about the Barney/baby scene, but this pretty much sums up my thinking--
> 
> "Neil Patrick Harris played the heck out of the scene where Barney falls in love with the baby, but it still didn't make any kind of sense, nor did it resonate with anything else that had happened in the show up to that point."
> 
> I do think NPH did a good job with that scene, but I think the writers overdid it.
> 
> (rest of that article is pretty good too-- http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2014/04/01/297675381/oh-mother-an-awful-end-to-a-long-love-story)


I agree with the article 100%, and with Sepinwall too. I would have been totally happy with the ending proposed in the article, or the one I thought might happen, where the mother steps into the scene at the end (and I guess it would have had to be some sort of camera trick) and sat between the kids and said, "What were you and dad talking about?" Something like that. The problem I guess is they did TOO good a job with casting the mother and writing for her. The affection between Ted and Tracy was REALLY palpable, much more than it ever was with Robin. And the biggest mistake they made, if this is where they were going was the series title.


----------



## Steveknj

DevdogAZ said:


> I don't think they did. I think they came up with that one ending back at the end of S2, decided it was brilliant, filmed it, and ever since then that's been the only possible ending as far as Bays and Thomas are concerned. And to their credit, at the end of S2 that was a brilliant way to end the show. But then when Ted and Robin broke up because we found out Robin never wanted kids, and then when Robin turned into a beeyotch as evidenced by the way she treated Patrice and by the way she gravitated away from the gang in the future, then I think they kind of ruined the Robin character and it no longer made sense for them to put her together with Ted.
> 
> If there were any other optional endings available to them in the finale, they should have used them, because the one they did use didn't fit at all with the way the show and the characters evolved in the last 4-5 seasons.
> 
> If this show were like a normal TV show where they come up with the plot on the fly and don't know at the start of a season how that season will end, then I wouldn't have any problem with them breaking Barney and Robin up if that's what they needed to do to service the story. But given that they knew seven years ago that Robin had to be single in 2030, I find it especially appalling that they spent the entire ninth season on Barney and Robin's wedding, and with Ted learning to let go of Robin, and with Barney changing to become more worth of Robin, and with Robin realizing Barney was the one, etc. To spend an entire season leading up to and showing the wedding when they know that whole thing is going to be unraveled one episode later is just extremely poor writing, IMO.


Uhuh. At the end of S2 if you polled fans of the show, the vast majority would have wanted Robin and Ted to be together at the end. But if you polled the fan at then end of the previous episode, I wonder if 50% of the fans even wanted that?


----------



## Steveknj

Robin said:


> This.
> 
> She gets to step in for "parenting lite". Still important but not nearly as demanding.


If you've ever raised teenagers, I'd say it's parenting HEAVY. The Robin we know was not equipped to handle teenagers.

I get that there's no diapers and play dates and all that, but there's bf/gf drama, and peer pressure, and drugs/smoking/drinking and sex. In many respects that's a lot harder to deal with than changing a diaper or dropping the kids off at school.


----------



## Robin

I agree, I phrased that poorly! With babies it's physically demanding. With older kids, more emotionally so. I would think that as the step parent you could choose how involved to be. As the birth mother you don't really get that choice!


----------



## Steveknj

cherry ghost said:


> But that's not what was said. The son said "whenever she comes over for dinner you guys are so obvious." I have a hard time believing that it's all that often considering Robin's schedule and Ted living in the burbs.


We never did get the sense that was actually true because we never got the story about Ted/Robin falling in love again. We just had to assume it happened based on that line. It works after S2, but not with the Robin who became the female Barney or the Robin who became career first, even though she would come around for the important things. I have friends and family like that. One of my BIL is so busy working that he only shows up at family gatherings when it's something important. That's Robin for me.


----------



## TonyD79

vman said:


> Several people have agreed with this, but I don't know why. She came back for the wedding, but why does anyone think she was around more besides that? They spent most of the episode saying she wasn't around. My kids know lots of "up aunt Robin" friends of ours but that doesn't mean I hang out with them that often any more. It's just as likely the kids don't know Robin much at all, but they just heard their dad wax on about her for hours while supposedly telling the story of their mother.)


My best friend (who lives in another state and I see three or four times a year) has a daughter who calls me Uncle (includes me in lists of her real relatives) but I see her about once a year. She'd say (and has) glowing things about me. Doesn't mean I'm around all the time.


----------



## waynomo

Steveknj said:


> ...I think that's a problem with planning EXACTLY how you're going to end the story so many years in advance, ...


A lot more shows could benefit from this long range planning. There are many shows out there with a great first season and all the seasons after the first seem very contrived or convoluted because they never planned for the long term.

I think it's great that they had a plan and stuck with it.

Obviously, I am one of the people that have no problem how they ended the show.


----------



## DUDE_NJX

TonyD79 said:


> My best friend (who lives in another state and I see three or four times a year) has a daughter who calls me Uncle (includes me in lists of her real relatives) but I see her about once a year. She'd say (and has) glowing things about me. Doesn't mean I'm around all the time.


The question is, does she want her mom/dad to bang you?


----------



## Maui

Just watched this last night. There were some good moments but in the end I was disappointed. I feel like I should have just watched season 1 and stopped right there. It was, as I remember it, a romantic comedy on par with many rom-com movies. 

The middle seasons were a waste for me. 

As for this season, in retrospect I wish they would have spent the season on the decade or so that Ted and Tracey built there relationship. It would have allowed them to get back to more of a season 1 vibe. Spending 21 episodes building to a wedding you dismiss in one scene in episode 22 seems like a waste. 

I did say to myself that when ted hung up the phone at the idea and said he had a better idea that the Blue Horn needed to be brought back so I am glad they did that. I don't fully buy Ted and Robin anymore though because the writers totally changed her character through the years.


----------



## TonyD79

Steveknj said:


> I always thought that Barney having feelings for the stripper made more sense to me than with Robin. It's more inline with how I thought about the character. They absolutely changed Robin to fit into a Barney typecast wife to the point where the character never felt the same (maybe up until the episode where she and Ted realize they weren't meant for each other..at that point anyway). They tried to bring back the old Robin the last few episodes, but by then, I think it was too late. And you know, discussing this, and the ending, I really realized how invested I was in these characters and how much I enjoyed the show. Not finishing the series how I would have hoped is very disappointing to me.


And maybe you can now see why I defended the show (until now). I knew I was invested in the characters. And I feel the same disappointment.

I think I will just ignore the part beyond the meeting. For me, the show ended with the wonderful umbrella scene. Anything that included the divorce story on doesn't exist.


----------



## TonyD79

loubob57 said:


> Is that the only time we've heard the kids speak?


No.


----------



## TonyD79

Steveknj said:


> I agree with the article 100%, and with Sepinwall too. I would have been totally happy with the ending proposed in the article, or the one I thought might happen, where the mother steps into the scene at the end (and I guess it would have had to be some sort of camera trick) and sat between the kids and said, "What were you and dad talking about?" Something like that. The problem I guess is they did TOO good a job with casting the mother and writing for her. The affection between Ted and Tracy was REALLY palpable, much more than it ever was with Robin. And the biggest mistake they made, if this is where they were going was the series title.


Not just the casting. THEY wrote her as perfect for Ted. Pretty sure at least one of the other women who played his girlfriends could've played that role.


----------



## TonyD79

DUDE_NJX said:


> The question is, does she want her mom/dad to bang you?


I haven't asked.


----------



## verdugan

Robin said:


> Watching it again right now. I like Tracy 's pregnancy announcement. Not quite as cliche as most.


She's getting bigger boobs?


----------



## pendragn

Anubys said:


> so what's the inside story (or show story) about McGuff and McConell?


A MacGuffen is a plot device. In HIMYM the mother was a MacGuffen.


----------



## stellie93

It's funny how many times we've been here whining because the writers go season by season on the fly and then come up with a stupid ending for the finale. In this case they "have a plan" and most of us don't like it. We're kind of hard to please.


----------



## TonyD79

stellie93 said:


> It's funny how many times we've been here whining because the writers go season by season on the fly and then come up with a stupid ending for the finale. In this case they "have a plan" and most of us don't like it. We're kind of hard to please.


They had a plan like the cylons had a plan. In other words, none. It is a not a plan; it was and ending. A plan would not include writing away from the ending for two years.


----------



## Sparty99

betts4 said:


> I think I am missing something here - maybe because I am not such a die hard fan that I watched every week.
> 
> *Tracy was 'the one'. The one for Ted. His 'one'. Robin, well, I figured Robin as a great memory of a relationship that could have been and now has a chance to be again. But not as 'the one'. *
> However, the kids do say that they see her all the time and as such, there must be a relationship growing again that is just hinted at by them saying that. So that would be where the new Robin and Ted relationship has come from - him being widower and her divorced has left them open for each other again. She is really the second 'one', but as said above they met at the wrong time for it to be right.


I feel like Robin was the first "one" and Tracy the second. Keep in mind, Ted was ready to walk away from everything because he never could let go of Robin. Then he sees Tracy - or more accurately has a magic moment with her under the umbrella - and everything changed. Now - 2030 "now" - they've both done the things that separated them in the first place and they're at a different place in their lives and, IMO, in a better situation to be together.

Also, keep in mind that we don't know how much Robin has changed. We saw the last 15 years in the course of an hour. We never saw Robin with the kids, although we know she's spent plenty of time with them. Maybe she's evolved to the point where she's perfectly accepting of Ted and his children, since they're a package deal now.


----------



## Sparty99

Steveknj said:


> We never did get the sense that was actually true because we never got the story about Ted/Robin falling in love again. We just had to assume it happened based on that line. It works after S2, but not with the Robin who *became *the female Barney or the Robin who *became *career first, even though she would come around for the important things. I have friends and family like that. One of my BIL is so busy working that he only shows up at family gatherings when it's something important. That's Robin for me.


I struggle with the notion that Robin "became" either of the things you say here. We know she was always career first; that's why she and Ted could never be together. The time we saw her was when her career was just starting out, and it started to take off after she married Barney.

And she was always the female Barney. She loved scotch and hockey and she could relax and a strip club just like Barney could. She didn't become that, that's who she always was.


----------



## waynomo

Robin and Ted always had great chemistry even when it wasn't working between them.


----------



## 3D

I pretty much agree with everything Sparty99 has posted in this thread. I wish, however, that the entire final season jumped around in time rather than just the last episode. I wonder how much cast scheduling (particularly Jason Segal) played into the decision to have the majority of the season set in one location.


----------



## Hoffer

I liked the ending. At first, I was bothered by all the jumping around. The entire season had taken place at this wedding. Then the finale, they spend like 2 seconds there and then take off.

In the end, I liked seeing the future of everyone. I was surprised the wife died and that Ted ended up with Robin at the end. The fact that the kids had taped telling the dad to go after Robin all those years ago made it more acceptable. That they planned on the mom dying and Ted getting together with Robin from the beginning.


----------



## Anubys

3D said:


> I pretty much agree with everything Sparty99 has posted in this thread.


crap. His head is big enough as it is!


----------



## waynomo

Any thoughts about Robin and Barney getting divorced instead of Barney dying as some had speculated might happen?


----------



## Hoffer

I guess I read zero speculation about this show. I never thought for a second the show would end the way it did. I figured Ted married the mother and that was that. I just assumed that all 3 couples would live happily ever after.


----------



## betts4

TonyD79 said:


> My best friend (who lives in another state and I see three or four times a year) has a daughter who calls me Uncle (includes me in lists of her real relatives) but I see her about once a year. She'd say (and has) glowing things about me. Doesn't mean I'm around all the time.


I have an "uncle" and "aunt" that lives in another state and I have "cousins" - we are not blood related but rather, as this group did, our parents all hung out together for many years and as babies started coming, things did change.

I don't see them that often but never think of them as anything else. I am sure Lily and Marshall are "aunt and uncle" to those kids and Ted is Uncle Ted to their three kids also. It's just what close friends do.

I myself am an Aunt Betts to my best friend from high schools son. I didn't see her all that much for about five years but now we get together every month or so for an afternoon. I can totally see "Aunt Robin".

The difference is that none of my parents and their friends ever had a relationship with each other outside of them being married couples hanging out.


----------



## Steveknj

TonyD79 said:


> My best friend (who lives in another state and I see three or four times a year) has a daughter who calls me Uncle (includes me in lists of her real relatives) but I see her about once a year. She'd say (and has) glowing things about me. Doesn't mean I'm around all the time.


Heck, I only see my REAL nieces and nephews once a year


----------



## Robin

Yep, I see one set of nephews maybe once a year and the others every couple of years since they're on the opposite coast.


----------



## Steveknj

waynomo said:


> A lot more shows could benefit from this long range planning. There are many shows out there with a great first season and all the seasons after the first seem very contrived or convoluted because they never planned for the long term.
> 
> I think it's great that they had a plan and stuck with it.
> 
> Obviously, I am one of the people that have no problem how they ended the show.


A long range plan is fine. Where you really do well is your ability to change your plan if it no longer makes sense. Or, on the other hand, if your long range plan is to end up in one place, but you take the story somewhere else, then you've already deviated from your plan, and it no longer makes sense. I feel that's the case here. The characters that we see at the end of S2 have developed differently (outside of maybe Barney) to the point where it no longer made sense to put Ted and Robin back together. But they could have saved their plan if they had done this last season differently and not given us all the episodes pre wedding and then thrown together an hour that is supposed to make us think it's plausible for Ted and Robin to get back together. They did neither.


----------



## Steveknj

TonyD79 said:


> Not just the casting. THEY wrote her as perfect for Ted. Pretty sure at least one of the other women who played his girlfriends could've played that role.


I actually though of all his GF prior the one that seemed most plausible as the mom was Sarah Chalke's character. If they had ended the series at that point, Robin still would have been viable.


----------



## Sparty99

Anubys said:


> crap. His head is big enough as it is!


----------



## Steveknj

stellie93 said:


> It's funny how many times we've been here whining because the writers go season by season on the fly and then come up with a stupid ending for the finale. In this case they "have a plan" and most of us don't like it. We're kind of hard to please.


Lost had a plan too


----------



## Steveknj

Sparty99 said:


> Also, keep in mind that we don't know how much Robin has changed. We saw the last 15 years in the course of an hour. We never saw Robin with the kids, although we know she's spent plenty of time with them. Maybe she's evolved to the point where she's perfectly accepting of Ted and his children, since they're a package deal now.


And that's the problem. The Robin we are left with, is the Robin who felt Barney was her soulmate. You can't erase 2 years of that with a quickie divorce scene, her showing up at "important things" and a couple of lines by the kids. You may be absolutely right, over those 6 years she became the woman that you are describing, but we really have to take a leap of faith to accept that. Especially when you compare her to the woman Tracy was and it was what Ted fell in love with. We just don't know. To me it felt like the writers said, "And oh yeah, Ted and Robin get back together".


----------



## Steveknj

waynomo said:


> Any thoughts about Robin and Barney getting divorced instead of Barney dying as some had speculated might happen?


I guess I actually saw the divorce as plausible, mostly because I never thought of Barney as the settle down, marriage type. I think of them this way. They were kind of a power couple, he the wealthy bank exec and she the big name TV reporter. Kind of like a Hollywood marriage. And what happens to most of those? They last for awhile, the lifestyles intervene and they get divorced. So while it happened so early in the episode surprised me, it didn't surprise me that it happened.


----------



## cherry ghost

A quick shot of Robin at the hospital when Tracy was sick would have gone a long way.


----------



## Steveknj

cherry ghost said:


> A quick shot of Robin at the hospital when Tracy was sick would have gone a long way.


Heck, if they actually showed us a couple of those dinners with Robin there and them really bonding again would have worked for me. But, I have to admit, as soon as Robin and Barney divorced I said to myself this is leading to Ted and Robin getting back together.


----------



## cmontyburns

Steveknj said:


> Heck, if they actually showed us a couple of those dinners with Robin there and them really bonding again would have worked for me.


That's interesting. This would have done nothing for me. I didn't like the ending not because they didn't set it up properly (for example by omitting scenes like the one you suggest), but because the show has completely trashed Robin's character over the past several years and made her one of most unappealing people on TV. Putting Ted with her had zero emotional resonance: the time when their relationship was sweet was way, way too long ago, and a few bits of connect-the-dots plotting here at the end would not have made the two of them remotely seem like they belonged together. (As far as I'm concerned.)

Ted hasn't exactly been the most appealing person, either. But what Tracy (and Cristin Milioti's performance) did was to help redeem him. The more scenes we got of the two of them together, the more the old Ted that used to we root for came to the fore. Robin got no such reclamation. So it was even worse that Ted ended up with that harridan.


----------



## Sparty99

Steveknj said:


> And that's the problem. The Robin we are left with, is the Robin who felt Barney was her soulmate. You can't erase 2 years of that with a quickie divorce scene, her showing up at "important things" and a couple of lines by the kids. You may be absolutely right, over those 6 years she became the woman that you are describing, but we really have to take a leap of faith to accept that. Especially when you compare her to the woman Tracy was and it was what Ted fell in love with. We just don't know. To me it felt like the writers said, "And oh yeah, Ted and Robin get back together".


But Robin was changing, and there was no leap of faith necessary. Robin started getting inklings that she should be with Ted when he sat with her in the rain to look for the locket, and she saw it even more when her mother had the discussion with her about marrying someone who would always be there for her, and she realized it was Ted (and the comparison Robin drew of Barney to her father didn't help). She knew when she showed up for the Halloween Party that she didn't belong, because she saw the guy she should've wound up with was there with his perfect girlfriend/wife. If anything, more than a power-couple marriage that was destined to end in 3 years, this was a marriage that never should've taken place (maybe it's the same thing).

Ted became happy that night, and Robin became Ted. Ted had to leave because everything reminded him of Robin. In the future, Robin doesn't show up except for the important things not just because her career is booming, but also because everything reminds her of Ted. Why would she want to be there when Ted is suddenly - or not so suddenly - so happy.


----------



## JYoung

Robin said:


> I agree, I phrased that poorly! With babies it's physically demanding. With older kids, more emotionally so. I would think that as the step parent you could choose how involved to be. As the birth mother you don't really get that choice!


I'll defer to those who are actually step parents but at least one of them has told me that it really isn't a choice, it's a package deal/



Sparty99 said:


> Also, keep in mind that we don't know how much Robin has changed. We saw the last 15 years in the course of an hour. We never saw Robin with the kids, although we know she's spent plenty of time with them. Maybe she's evolved to the point where she's perfectly accepting of Ted and his children, since they're a package deal now.





Steveknj said:


> And that's the problem. The Robin we are left with, is the Robin who felt Barney was her soulmate. You can't erase 2 years of that with a quickie divorce scene, her showing up at "important things" and a couple of lines by the kids. You may be absolutely right, over those 6 years she became the woman that you are describing, but we really have to take a leap of faith to accept that. Especially when you compare her to the woman Tracy was and it was what Ted fell in love with. We just don't know. To me it felt like the writers said, "And oh yeah, Ted and Robin get back together".


Exactly right.
We know nothing of the Robin of 2030 but the one in 2013 was career first, travel the world, and NO KIDS.

Robin and Ted previously split because of this and it was a deal breaker with Kevin the therapist when Robin wouldn't even consider adoption (which isn't limited to babies, BTW).

Now, it is possible that things changed for her later but since we were never shown or told that she did how are we supposed to accept that everything's hunky dory for Ted and Robin in 2030?

We can't because the writers failed to give us any indication that they could make it together.

Elsewhere, I saw someone describe the finale as "cheap" and I think that it's very accurate.

It was cheap in the way they blew up Robin and Barney's marriage after just ten minutes (yes, I know it was three years in show time but since the writers again failed in giving us enough back story leading up for this...) after leading up to their wedding for _years_ and it was just cheap the way they had Ted wind up with Robin after the years of laying the groundwork for Tracy and why she's perfect for Ted.

I thought the Buzzfeed review was interesting as well.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/emilyorley/why-we-deserved-more-from-the-how-i-met-your-mother-series-f



> Though we spent little time with her, Tracy was someone the writers wanted us to love. She instantly connected with each of Teds friends. She had almost all of Teds quirks and truly appreciated the ones she didnt share. She was the perfect girl, the girl whos actually worth waiting for.
> 
> And then she was gone and we were expected to be thrilled that Robin and Ted found their way back to each other again. Maybe even last season, I would have felt differently. But after Robin tried to get Ted to run away with her an hour before her wedding, as a viewer, it was hard not to feel tired of this merry-go-round. Robin only ever wanted to get serious with Ted when she couldnt have him. But he deserved someone that wanted him just as much as he wanted her. And that person was Tracy. You cant throw a wrench and a blue french horn into the mix and expect the viewers to find comfort in it.


----------



## DreadPirateRob

Sepinwall revisited the finale today with a slightly more measured response (though he still hated it), and this fan-cut alternate ending was linked at the end:


----------



## Sparty99

DreadPirateRob said:


> Sepinwall revisited the finale today with a slightly more measured response (though he still hated it), and this fan-cut alternate ending was linked at the end:


Sonova beeeetch. Why couldn't it end like that!?! That was PERFECT!

(And yes, I realize this flies in the face of pretty much everything I've said in this thread.)


----------



## betts4

Steveknj said:


> And that's the problem. The Robin we are left with, is the Robin who felt Barney was her soulmate. You can't erase 2 years of that with a quickie divorce scene, her showing up at "important things" and a couple of lines by the kids. You may be absolutely right, over those 6 years she became the woman that you are describing, but we really have to take a leap of faith to accept that. Especially when you compare her to the woman Tracy was and it was what Ted fell in love with. We just don't know. To me it felt like the writers said,* "And oh yeah, Ted and Robin get back together"*.


Heck, as I said, I haven't watched it as much as you all, but that's what it felt like to me too.

As for Robin, over those six years her job must have changed. You can't have 3,4,5 dogs and still travel as she did. It actually looked to me like she had become stagnant - maybe her job was now just a desk job in front of the camera for the station.


----------



## smak

Robin said:


> I agree, I phrased that poorly! With babies it's physically demanding. With older kids, more emotionally so. I would think that as the step parent you could choose how involved to be. As the birth mother you don't really get that choice!


Did we ever actually hear Robin explain why she didn't want kids? If not, maybe she just didn't want to be pregnant? Maybe most of her fears of being a mom were about years 0-3, and the different, yet still challenging aspects of being a mom to teenagers was totally in her wheelhouse.

-smak-


----------



## Steveknj

cmontyburns said:


> That's interesting. This would have done nothing for me. I didn't like the ending not because they didn't set it up properly (for example by omitting scenes like the one you suggest), but because the show has completely trashed Robin's character over the past several years and made her one of most unappealing people on TV. Putting Ted with her had zero emotional resonance: the time when their relationship was sweet was way, way too long ago, and a few bits of connect-the-dots plotting here at the end would not have made the two of them remotely seem like they belonged together. (As far as I'm concerned.)
> 
> Ted hasn't exactly been the most appealing person, either. But what Tracy (and Cristin Milioti's performance) did was to help redeem him. The more scenes we got of the two of them together, the more the old Ted that used to we root for came to the fore. Robin got no such reclamation. So it was even worse that Ted ended up with that harridan.


Agree 100%. My thought was maybe a scene or two of Robin acting like the Robin we used to like with Ted after the mom died could have helped bring me back to that place.


----------



## 3D

Sparty99 said:


> Sonova beeeetch. Why couldn't it end like that!?! That was PERFECT!
> 
> (And yes, I realize this flies in the face of pretty much everything I've said in this thread.)


Well now I'm very confused


----------



## cherry ghost

betts4 said:


> As for Robin, over those six years her job must have changed. You can't have 3,4,5 dogs and still travel as she did. It actually looked to me like she had become stagnant - maybe her job was now just a desk job in front of the camera for the station.


Most likely, but they could have found a better way to show that other than her having 3,4,5 dogs. It would make it easier to accept that she did go to Ted's for dinner often and did have a relationship with the kids.


----------



## JYoung

betts4 said:


> Heck, as I said, I haven't watched it as much as you all, but that's what it felt like to me too.
> 
> As for Robin, over those six years her job must have changed. You can't have 3,4,5 dogs and still travel as she did. It actually looked to me like she had become stagnant - maybe her job was now just a desk job in front of the camera for the station.


Five.
Maybe she boards them when she's on the road.
Or Patrice takes them in.

Didn't Robin have dogs in the beginning of the show?


----------



## TAsunder

That would have been ten thousand times better of an ending.


----------



## Sparty99

3D said:


> Well now I'm very confused


I think it's a case of being fine with the ending and looking for meaning in something that was somewhat unsatisfying, versus knowing that the fan created ending would've been worlds better.



JYoung said:


> Five.
> Maybe she boards them when she's on the road.
> Or Patrice takes them in.
> 
> Didn't Robin have dogs in the beginning of the show?


She had 5 at one point, all of them gifts from old boyfriends. I think Ted made her get rid of them because they were a reminder of those boyfriends.


----------



## betts4

cherry ghost said:


> Most likely, but they could have found a better way to show that other than her having 3,4,5 dogs. It would make it easier to accept that she did go to Ted's for dinner often and did have a relationship with the kids.


I agree.


----------



## betts4

Sparty99 said:


> She had 5 at one point, all of them gifts from old boyfriends. I think Ted made her get rid of them because they were a reminder of those boyfriends.


I wonder what will happen these dogs....


----------



## Graymalkin

I would hope that old Ted has grown enough that he won't mind the dogs anymore.

Also, the fan-edited ending is vastly superior to what Bays and Carter did. Their ending with Ted and Robin would've worked only if the show had lasted just three or four seasons and if Robin had never hooked up with Barney and become a shrill caricature.


----------



## waynomo

Graymalkin said:


> ... and become a shrill caricature.


All main sitcom characters eventually become caricatures of themselves.


----------



## TonyD79

Steveknj said:


> Heck, I only see my REAL nieces and nephews once a year


True dat. Same here.


----------



## TonyD79

DreadPirateRob said:


> Sepinwall revisited the finale today with a slightly more measured response (though he still hated it), and this fan-cut alternate ending was linked at the end: YouTube Link: HIMYM Alternate Ending


Isn't that how it ended? I think I wrote that is *my* ending a few posts back.

Except they edited out Barney saying in voice over "And kids, their marriage was legend----wait for it...."

Credits.


----------



## Doh

It's crazy how much better that alternative ending was.


----------



## Balzer

DreadPirateRob said:


> Sepinwall revisited the finale today with a slightly more measured response (though he still hated it), and this fan-cut alternate ending was linked at the end:


Yes. I choose to believe THIS is the real ending and that other crap they aired is the "alternate".


----------



## vman

I totally agree this was the ending I wanted. And what's funny is they just had to add this 2 minutes to the end of the previous episode, and we didn't need ANYTHING from the finale. That is actually sad...what a waste.


----------



## cmontyburns

As lovely as that edit was, it really couldn't have sat at the end of the finale we watched. They would have had to redo the previous hour&#8230; not that I would have minded.


----------



## vman

cmontyburns said:


> As lovely as that edit was, it really couldn't have sat at the end of the finale we watched. They would have had to redo the previous hour&#8230; not that I would have minded.


That's just it - I don't think they needed any of the previous hour. It was pretty much all Robin/Barney breakup stuff, and a little bit of Ted/mother wedding. But none of it would be necessary if they kept Robin/Barney together, and just gone straight from their wedding to the train station. The only other good part of the finale was Barney meeting his daughter, but I'd gladly trade that for the better Ted/mother ending. Had they cut out 2 minutes of previous Robin/Barney wedding episode, and added in umbrella scene as shown above at end of that episode, that is a finale I would have loved.


----------



## betts4

DreadPirateRob said:


> Sepinwall revisited the finale today with a slightly more measured response (though he still hated it), and this fan-cut alternate ending was linked at the end:


That was the perfect ending.


----------



## Donbadabon

DreadPirateRob said:


> Sepinwall revisited the finale today with a slightly more measured response (though he still hated it), and this fan-cut alternate ending was linked at the end:


It must've been too good, the networks had it taken down.


----------



## waynomo

Donbadabon said:


> It must've been too good, the networks had it taken down.


Yeah, I waited too long to check it out also.

Anyone care to fill in the details?


----------



## DUDE_NJX

Umbrella scene. 
Cut to old Ted: "this kids is how I met your mother"
Credits


----------



## Hunter Green

Damn, I missed it. Hope someone stashed a copy somewhere...


----------



## DUDE_NJX

It just dismisses whatever followed the umbrella scene. No crazy-clever editing.


----------



## Donbadabon

I found a copy and uploaded it to my google drive. Hopefully this link works.

I would've been very happy with this ending.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2khcCYFHQmTMnk4UHY5UDViQjg/edit?usp=sharing


----------



## betts4

DUDE_NJX said:


> Umbrella scene.
> Cut to old Ted: "this kids is how I met your mother"
> Credits


That's all they needed. The Robin stuff was fluff.


----------



## 2004raptor

Now that the finale is over has any of the actors commented on the ending/show?


----------



## sushikitten

Thanks for hosting that. 

Yep, much better ending.


----------



## Robin

I prefer the ending as in aired.

Not because I care about Ted and Robin, but because there's something about Tracy dying that makes his story more epic. Maybe I'm morbid.

Also: this thread is incredibly strange to read. I don't think I've ever seen my name repeated this many times!


----------



## Steveknj

Robin said:


> I prefer the ending as in aired.
> 
> Not because I care about Ted and Robin, but because there's something about Tracy dying that makes his story more epic. Maybe I'm morbid.
> 
> Also: this thread is incredibly strange to read. I don't think I've ever seen my name repeated this many times!


Was there a Batman and Robin movie thread? 

I've probably read about 10 reviews from different publication and only the NY Times review was positive. All of the others echoed what most of us who didn't like the ending have posted here.


----------



## Robin

I don't even think that Robin could get so many mentions!

It's not that I like the current ending. I think they should have filmed a bunch of different endings with the kids so they didn't get boxed in, either that or not have the kids in the ending.

I just like the aired ending better than the fan ending.


----------



## Sparty99

Steveknj said:


> Was there a Batman and Robin movie thread?
> 
> I've probably read about 10 reviews from different publication and only the NY Times review was positive. All of the others echoed what most of us who didn't like the ending have posted here.


This is the one thing I dislike whenever there's a divisive television show or movie like this. I watched this show from day 1, and I liked the ending (although admittedly the fan-created one would've been worlds better). Is my opinion - and those of us who liked the ending - somehow invalid because 10 publications said they hated it? Whether we like it or not, television shows are still forms of art and they are open to interpretation and they are subject to people's opinions. I don't care if he gets paid to watch TV, just because Alan Sepinwall hated the ending doesn't automatically mean that the ending sucked.


----------



## DevdogAZ

Donbadabon said:


> I found a copy and uploaded it to my google drive. Hopefully this link works.
> 
> I would've been very happy with this ending.
> 
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2khcCYFHQmTMnk4UHY5UDViQjg/edit?usp=sharing


Thanks for re-hosting that. I would have much preferred this ending to what aired.

But rewatching the umbrella scene, one of the first things Ted says to Tracy is "You were Cindy's roommate, right?" Can someone remind me how he knew that at that point? I mean, back when he was dating Cindy, we knew from the Future Ted voiceover that Ted would eventually marry Cindy's roommate. But at the time of the train platform meeting, what info did Ted have about her that would link her to Cindy?


----------



## jjd_87

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/04/03/18-minutes-were-cut-from-how-i-met-your-mothers-series-finale

This article makes sense. Overall I liked the finale but I'd like to see what was cut.


----------



## DreadPirateRob

Sparty99 said:


> This is the one thing I dislike whenever there's a divisive television show or movie like this. I watched this show from day 1, and I liked the ending (although admittedly the fan-created one would've been worlds better). Is my opinion - and those of us who liked the ending - somehow invalid because 10 publications said they hated it? Whether we like it or not, television shows are still forms of art and they are open to interpretation and they are subject to people's opinions. I don't care if he gets paid to watch TV, just because Alan Sepinwall hated the ending doesn't automatically mean that the ending sucked.


Of course not. I stand by the _Lost_ ending to this day, even though it seems like the universal consensus is that it sucked (or was too confusing). But it worked for me.

So, if you liked it, good on you. I didn't hate the HIMYM ending either, but I would have much preferred that fan-cut alternate, and I disliked several choices that the writers made with regard to the finale and the whole final season. But to be honest, I haven't truly enjoyed the show for several years now. To me, HIMYM will always be remembered as a show that was legen-wait for it-dary for its first 4-5 seasons, and then limped through the last 4-5 seasons as a shell of its former self, and the ending will be part of that.


----------



## aindik

DevdogAZ said:


> Thanks for re-hosting that. I would have much preferred this ending to what aired.
> 
> But rewatching the umbrella scene, one of the first things Ted says to Tracy is "You were Cindy's roommate, right?" Can someone remind me how he knew that at that point? I mean, back when he was dating Cindy, we knew from the Future Ted voiceover that Ted would eventually marry Cindy's roommate. But at the time of the train platform meeting, what info did Ted have about her that would link her to Cindy?


Didn't Ted see Cindy on a train at some point? And wasn't that how Tracy's band ended up hired for Robin and Barney's wedding?


----------



## betts4

Okay, so I missed a chunk of the show in the middle of the seasons. What was the remark about him being a professor of economics?


----------



## Jonathan_S

betts4 said:


> Okay, so I missed a chunk of the show in the middle of the seasons. What was the remark about him being a professor of economics?


His first day as teaching architecture at college he went to the wrong classroom and dove right into his Architecture 101 lecture to students there for an Economics class; got through a lot before someone was able to break in and let him know he was in the wrong place. The mother was in that Econ class.


----------



## Donbadabon

betts4 said:


> Okay, so I missed a chunk of the show in the middle of the seasons. What was the remark about him being a professor of economics?


"Kids, you remember the wrong classroom story. I thought it was Architecture 101, but it was Econ 305. Of course, I didn't know that your mother was in that class...and she thought I was a complete idiot."

First day of teaching and he went into the wrong classroom.


----------



## waynomo

Maybe the goal of the ending was to get people talking. It was certainly successful from that standpoint.


----------



## TAsunder

I would have been fine with an ending where the mother died if it ended with him telling the kids how he met her and maybe thusly explaining why they were ok listening to him talk about it for hours/weeks/years. Adding in the going back to Robin part is what I find objectionable.


----------



## JYoung

Apparently, there's a online petition for CBS to reshoot the finale.

I'm sure that CBS will get right on it.


----------



## DUDE_NJX

Online petitions are so cute.


----------



## TonyD79

JYoung said:


> Apparently, there's a online petition for CBS to reshoot the finale. I'm sure that CBS will get right on it.


All they have to do is get it from YouTube.


----------



## DUSlider

DevdogAZ said:


> Thanks for re-hosting that. I would have much preferred this ending to what aired.
> 
> But rewatching the umbrella scene, one of the first things Ted says to Tracy is "You were Cindy's roommate, right?" Can someone remind me how he knew that at that point? I mean, back when he was dating Cindy, we knew from the Future Ted voiceover that Ted would eventually marry Cindy's roommate. But at the time of the train platform meeting, what info did Ted have about her that would link her to Cindy?


IIRC,

Ted ran into Cindy on the train and Ted was talking about how he needed to help get a band for Robins wedding. Cindy mentioned her roommate Tracy and her wedding band and gave him the info.


----------



## jilter

I cant read all 18 pages right now, but it is interesting to me the unanimous adoration the Mother receives. Or rather the adoration Cristin M. receives. I think this is partly excellent casting, but also a huge pay-off for a brilliant execution on the part of the creators of a long-running series. Her deathbed scene is mentioned over and over as tear-worthy.
Really? For a character and actress we really do not know well at all (compared to the other main characters.)
Well-done, Thomas and Bays. Well-done.


----------



## DevdogAZ

firerose818 said:


> Did you miss that Tracy was there in costume too, with a wig and "Gore/Lieberman" shirt?





aindik said:


> Didn't Ted see Cindy on a train at some point? And wasn't that how Tracy's band ended up hired for Robin and Barney's wedding?





DUSlider said:


> IIRC,
> 
> Ted ran into Cindy on the train and Ted was talking about how he needed to help get a band for Robins wedding. Cindy mentioned her roommate Tracy and her wedding band and gave him the info.


Thanks. I vaguely remember Rachel Bilson making another appearance on the show relatively recently, but didn't remember the details.



jilter said:


> I cant read all 18 pages right now, but it is interesting to me the unanimous adoration the Mother receives. Or rather the adoration Cristin M. receives. I think this is partly excellent casting, but also a huge pay-off for a brilliant execution on the part of the creators of a long-running series. *Her deathbed scene is mentioned over and over as tear-worthy.*
> Really? For a character and actress we really do not know well at all (compared to the other main characters.)
> Well-done, Thomas and Bays. Well-done.


Her deathbed scene is mentioned over and over? Where? I think you're the first person in this thread to mention it. People have mentioned the umbrella scene and the scene with Barney and the baby as being tear inducing, but I haven't heard/read anyone talking about the deathbed scene as being particularly moving. Especially since it was just a quick shot of her in the hospital bed while Future Ted narrated. There really wasn't much there.

But if you want to give Bays and Thomas kudos for something, you're entitled. I'm sure they'll appreciate it given the overall lambasting they are taking this week.


----------



## waynomo

I agree. The deathbed scene was kind of meh.

And FWIW, I was not particularly fond of the mother/Tracy. I realize I'm probably in the minority here, but I really don't get all the adulation.


----------



## JYoung

TonyD79 said:


> All they have to do is get it from YouTube.


Not anymore they can't.


----------



## DevdogAZ

TonyD79 said:


> All they have to do is get it from YouTube *Donbadabon's Google Drive*.


FYP


----------



## cheerdude

I don't know if I would call it a deathbed scene... but there was a scene in the finale where Ted is reading to Tracy who us in a hospital bed.

I think there was a similar scene in an earlier episode that led people to start speculating about the Mother's death.


----------



## laria

I didn't really take that for a deathbed scene. It was just a scene of her in the hospital where narrator Ted was talking about when Tracy got sick.


----------



## Donbadabon

The writers took to Twitter to respond to the backlash surrounding Monday's episode: 

"We did a finale about life's twists and turns and that is not always what happens...but THANKS!" Craig Thomas wrote.

In other words, we thought we were being very clever and are sticking to our guns no matter what.


----------



## 3D

Robin said:


> I just like the aired ending better than the fan ending.


Me too. So long as we're going down the "what do I prefer" trail, then I prefer the ending we got, but I also prefer to pretend that the two seasons leading up to it never happened. Even with those two seasons, however, I was fine with the ending. I understand those that didn't think it worked, but am floored by the near universal over-the-top hatred for it. When all is said and done, it was a sitcom. Not sure why the ending would ruin the replay value for so many (seriously, who would want to re-watch the past couple of seasons anyways?)


----------



## Steveknj

Sparty99 said:


> This is the one thing I dislike whenever there's a divisive television show or movie like this. I watched this show from day 1, and I liked the ending (although admittedly the fan-created one would've been worlds better). Is my opinion - and those of us who liked the ending - somehow invalid because 10 publications said they hated it? Whether we like it or not, television shows are still forms of art and they are open to interpretation and they are subject to people's opinions. I don't care if he gets paid to watch TV, just because Alan Sepinwall hated the ending doesn't automatically mean that the ending sucked.


I agree. I just found it interesting that so many critics agree with ME 

And I usually disagree with them more often than not.


----------



## Donbadabon

Wonder if this backlash is going to affect their new 'How I Met Your Dad' series? Could people be so disappointed in HIMYM that they don't give HIMYD a shot?


----------



## Steveknj

Donbadabon said:


> Wonder if this backlash is going to affect their new 'How I Met Your Dad' series? Could people be so disappointed in HIMYM that they don't give HIMYD a shot?


I doubt it. I think in retrospect, like other series with disappointing endings that are popular and generally liked, people will appreciate the journey more than the ending.


----------



## lambertman

Donbadabon said:


> Wonder if this backlash is going to affect their new 'How I Met Your Dad' series? Could people be so disappointed in HIMYM that they don't give HIMYD a shot?


I think pretty much the last two seasons as a whole have soured me on HIMYD.


----------



## gweempose

I finally watched it last night. The best thing I can say about it is that it was better than the Dexter finale.


----------



## gweempose

I also can't believe it took me nine seasons to realize that the show runners were both named after English muffins.


----------



## DevdogAZ

Donbadabon said:


> Wonder if this backlash is going to affect their new 'How I Met Your Dad' series? Could people be so disappointed in HIMYM that they don't give HIMYD a shot?


I doubt the backlash will have any effect. More likely is that the massive ratings and buzz for the finale will almost guarantee it gets a pickup.


----------



## DevdogAZ

gweempose said:


> I also can't believe it took me nine seasons to realize that the show runners were both named after English muffins.


I've heard of Thomas' English muffins but never Carter or Bays brands.


----------



## 2004raptor

Apparently there were 18 minutes cut from the finale. It that it would have changed the outcome but maybe they'll be released on the DVD or find there way to YouTube, etc.

link.


----------



## DevdogAZ

2004raptor said:


> Apparently there were 18 minutes cut from the finale. It that it would have changed the outcome but maybe they'll be released on the DVD or find there way to YouTube, etc. link.


Interesting. I'd definitely find a way to watch the uncut finale if they do release it that way on DVD/BD. I won't buy it, though.


----------



## gweempose

DevdogAZ said:


> I've heard of Thomas' English muffins but never Carter or Bays brands.


Bays English Muffins are very popular where I live, but it might be a regional brand ...

https://bays.com/


----------



## Ereth

Donbadabon said:


> Wonder if this backlash is going to affect their new 'How I Met Your Dad' series? Could people be so disappointed in HIMYM that they don't give HIMYD a shot?


Raises Hand. I won't watch it now.


----------



## Mr. Soze

DreadPirateRob said:


> So, if you liked it, good on you. I didn't hate the HIMYM ending either, but I would have much preferred that fan-cut alternate, and I disliked several choices that the writers made with regard to the finale and the whole final season. But to be honest, I haven't truly enjoyed the show for several years now. To me, HIMYM will always be remembered as a show that was legen-wait for it-dary for its first 4-5 seasons, and then limped through the last 4-5 seasons as a shell of its former self, and the ending will be part of that.


Well put. And I was dead wrong about the mother/Tracy.  Fan version FTW. If it ended like that, I would have been bawling and applauding, instead of the boo-hiss I did give it.


----------



## gweempose

So where do you guys think this falls in the rankings of bad series finales? I'm thinking at least top five, probably top three.


----------



## bareyb

gweempose said:


> So where do you guys think this falls in the rankings of bad series finales? I'm thinking at least top five, probably top three.


What would the other two be? Are we talking _Lost_ and _Sopranos_ here?


----------



## gweempose

bareyb said:


> What would the other two be? Are we talking _Lost_ and _Sopranos_ here?


To me, nothing is worse than Dexter. The finale was just absolutely awful in every way. I happen to like the Lost finale, but I'm sure a lot of people would rank it as bad or worse than HIMYM. A lot of people strongly despise the BSG and Seinfeld finales as well.


----------



## bareyb

gweempose said:


> To me, nothing is worse than Dexter. The finale was just absolutely awful in every way. I happen to like the Lost finale, but I'm sure a lot of people would rank it as bad or worse than HIMYM. Most people strongly despise the Seinfeld finale as well.


Ah yes... Dexter and Seinfeld. I'd say that's a pretty strong top five. A lot of folks were pretty disappointed in the X-files ending too as I recall. I really thought they could have done so much more with Lost. I still stuck it out to the bitter end though. 

Worst to least worst. My Rankings:

1. Dexter
2. Lost
3. Sopranos
4. HIMYM
5. Seinfeld


----------



## billypritchard

gweempose said:


> So where do you guys think this falls in the rankings of bad series finales? I'm thinking at least top five, probably top three.


I wouldn't put it in the top five.

Part of the trouble with your list is that only long-running beloved shows are probably going to be eligible for 'bad series finales'.


----------



## cheerdude

You could say that the final episode of Farscape was one of the worst series finales... yes, there was the miniseries that helped wrap things up -- but it is not necessarily part of the series.


----------



## TAsunder

I would place it near the top. I certainly disliked it more than the Lost or Sopranos finales. The only one I thought was worse that comes to mind immediately was Dexter. I am sure there are more I am forgetting, however.


----------



## DevdogAZ

I think Dexter has to be #1 on any list of bad finales. BSG and The X-Files would also be high on that list. I didn't watch Sopranos, so I can't speak about that finale in the context of the rest of the series, but cutting to black right at the most crucial moment certainly is a massive F U to the loyal viewers of the show, so that one has to be near the top of the list. Lost and Seinfeld weren't as satisfying as they could have been, but were not complete betrayals of the long-running premise of the series, and therefore I don't consider them to be near the top of any bad finales list. 

I think I'd put HIMYM somewhere in the middle of these. Bays and Thomas were trying to do right by the fans, but unfortunately they were too close to the material and unable to see how the characters had evolved since the end of S2 when Ted and Robin ending up together would have been a perfect ending.


----------



## gweempose

cheerdude said:


> You could say that the final episode of Farscape was one of the worst series finales... yes, there was the miniseries that helped wrap things up -- but it is not necessarily part of the series.


It's probably not fair to include a show like Farscape, since it was unexpectedly cancelled. They thought they had two full seasons to wrap up the story, but then Sci Fi pulled the rug out from under them without warning.

HIMYM literally had years to figure out the perfect ending, and yet they still managed to f*** it up. This is what's so infuriating about it. On top of that, the entire series was based on the concept of a big payoff at the end. In many people's minds, the finale basically nullified everything that came before it. The more I think about it, the more I have to rank HIMYM #2 behind only Dexter. Bays and Thomas really screwed the pooch on this one.


----------



## JYoung

DevdogAZ said:


> I think I'd put HIMYM somewhere in the middle of these. Bays and Thomas were trying to do right by the fans, but unfortunately they were too close to the material and unable to see how the characters had evolved since the end of S2 when Ted and Robin ending up together would have been a perfect ending.


I also think that since (most likely) very few people outside of Bays and Thomas knew what the ending actually was, there was probably no one who could say to them, "Hey, with the way you've set things up in the last few years, this ending doesn't really work anymore".


----------



## 2004raptor

Slightly off topic but since a few of the shows I watch are finished for a season or the series I was going to start watching Dexter. I actually watched the first episode on netflix a month or so ago. Now, I'm not so sure I should invest any time.


----------



## gweempose

2004raptor said:


> Slightly off topic but since a few of the shows I watch are finished for a season or the series I was going to start watching Dexter. I actually watched the first episode on netflix a month or so ago. Now, I'm not so sure I should invest any time.


Dexter was a fantastic show for its first 3-4 seasons. It's definitely worth watching for those alone.


----------



## bareyb

2004raptor said:


> Slightly off topic but since a few of the shows I watch are finished for a season or the series I was going to start watching Dexter. I actually watched the first episode on netflix a month or so ago. Now, I'm not so sure I should invest any time.


When the series was based on the book (Darkly Dreaming Dexter), it was absolutely the best show on TV. The last few seasons were still very good, but not anywhere as good as the first one. I'd watch at least seasons one and two and see how you feel. Definitely worth it.


----------



## aadam101

gweempose said:


> Bays English Muffins are very popular where I live, but it might be a regional brand ...
> 
> https://bays.com/


There is a whole thread about english muffins here

I tried Bays because of that thread. They are delicious.


----------



## stellie93

I'm curious what you all think is the BEST series finale ever. Mash? I can't think of any others. I think ending a long running show is tough. Of course a series with lots of loose ends to tie up like Lost is more tricky.


----------



## DreadPirateRob

_FNL_ is probably the best one for me. Completely satisfying on just about every level, plus gave a nice little coda at the end so that we could see the characters moving on. Plus, _FNL_ was as consistent a show as you'll ever see. S1 was fantastic. S2 was not, but S3-5 were nearly as good as the first season even as they rather dramatically changed the plot arcs and characters.


----------



## DreadPirateRob

I'd say that you have last a minimum of 5 seasons to even be in the conversation though.

_Breaking Bad_ was a pretty good finale, although it's a little bit upstaged by one of the last few episodes ("Ozymandias") being maybe the show's best episode over.

I really liked the _Buffy_ finale, but it's impact is somewhat lessened by the fact that its last 2 seasons were very up and down.

I liked the _Friends_ finale, but mostly just for sentimental reasons. We had spent a decade with these characters, so I wanted an emotional payoff, which we got.


----------



## waynomo

gweempose said:


> Dexter was a fantastic show for its first 3-4 seasons. It's definitely worth watching for those alone.


+1

Yep, worth the investment.


----------



## DevdogAZ

stellie93 said:


> I'm curious what you all think is the BEST series finale ever. Mash? I can't think of any others. I think ending a long running show is tough. Of course a series with lots of loose ends to tie up like Lost is more tricky.


I didn't watch, but Six Feet Under is often cited as one of the best ever.

And I'll second DPR's votes for FNL, BB, and Friends.


----------



## Azlen

The Newhart finale was up there as well.


----------



## billypritchard

Azlen said:


> The Newhart finale was up there as well.


Do you mean as bad or good? At the time, it was pretty much hated as much as HIMYM.

St. Elsewhere would be another FU ending of a show.

How did ER end for its viewers?


----------



## Ereth

that's odd. I never heard of anybody who didn't love the Newhart finale, even from the day it aired.


----------



## Doggie Bear

stellie93 said:


> I'm curious what you all think is the BEST series finale ever. Mash? I can't think of any others. I think ending a long running show is tough. Of course a series with lots of loose ends to tie up like Lost is more tricky.


I remember, as a young teen, thinking very highly of the "M*A*S*H" finale, but I wonder if it still holds up today.

I liked the (not quite so final) series finale of "24" even though I thought the last season was one of the weaker ones.

If "Once Upon a Time" had ended with the season 3 mid-season finale, I would've considered ranking that at or near the top, as I thought it struck a perfect, bittersweet, and logical ending.

"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" had a very solid finale, wrapping up loose ends without taking any easy ways out.

But . . . so far, I think I'd rate "The Shield" as having the BEST finale. It's just absolutely dead-on to the spirit of the show.


----------



## smak

Ereth said:


> that's odd. I never heard of anybody who didn't love the Newhart finale, even from the day it aired.


And even if somehow somebody didn't like it, would they really think that it made the whole series non-existent?

It was a fantastic joke, and wink at the audience, but I never took at is anything but that.

Same as St Elsewhere.

-smak-


----------



## Azlen

smak said:


> And even if somehow somebody didn't like it, would they really think that it made the whole series non-existent?
> 
> It was a fantastic joke, and wink at the audience, but I never took at is anything but that.
> 
> Same as St Elsewhere.
> 
> -smak-


What don't you understand that because of the finale, all the happenings in a fictional television show never really happened? It takes all the humor out of the reruns if you know it wasn't really funny but was all just a dream. Duh.


----------



## TonyD79

smak said:


> And even if somehow somebody didn't like it, would they really think that it made the whole series non-existent? It was a fantastic joke, and wink at the audience, but I never took at is anything but that. Same as St Elsewhere. -smak-


Anyone who truly followed and watched St. elsewhere would have appreciated the ending. It was full of oddities that bridged reality and the fake world of the show.

Newhart was seen is nothing more than a very funny joke and brought back beloved characters. Plus it was really only one scene at the very end.

Both rank very high for me as did the Mary Tyler Moore show itself.


----------



## billypritchard

Ereth said:


> that's odd. I never heard of anybody who didn't love the Newhart finale, even from the day it aired.


Huh, I guess I am simply remembering the discussion around it.

I wonder how perception of some of these shows would have been different in the twitter/blog/forum era?


----------



## Peter000

The DVD complete series release is going to contain an "alternate ending." 

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/04/04/how-i-met-your-mother-dvd-alternate-ending/


----------



## Donbadabon

"We only shot one script, but through edit-room magic we had two possible outcomes for the series."

In other words, they are going to copy the re-imagined fan ending that has been posted.


----------



## aadam101

DevdogAZ said:


> I didn't watch, but Six Feet Under is often cited as one of the best ever.


It totally is.


----------



## Peter000

Donbadabon said:


> "We only shot one script, but through edit-room magic we had two possible outcomes for the series."
> 
> In other words, they are going to copy the re-imagined fan ending that has been posted.


No, in the alternate ending he goes after Barney.


----------



## JYoung

Peter000 said:


> No, in the alternate ending he goes after Barney.


In my version, Tracy faked her death to run off with Barney.


----------



## gweempose

I just rented The Wolf of Wall Street, and was shocked to see Cristin Milioti as Leonardo DiCaprio's wife. I had no idea she was in the movie.


----------



## busyba

gweempose said:


> I just rented The Wolf of Wall Street, and was shocked to see Cristin Milioti as Leonardo DiCaprio's wife. I had no idea she was in the movie.


According to her, neither did some of the HIMYM vrew members. She tells a story of a conversation with one of the grips or something and he said to her, "I just saw Wolf of Wall Street, it was really good. Have you seen it?" And then later in the day he comes back to her and says, "wait... That was you?!"


----------



## pahunt

I've never understood all the hate for the Seinfeld finale myself and while I detested the Sopranos finale when I saw it, I've grown to respect it if not actually like it as time has gone on. 

The problem is that I've never seen seen a series finale that I found completely satisfying, although the Wire and the Shield both came close. I always thought that if I were to write a TV show I would come up with a killer ending first and then work backwards from there, after all, how could that go wrong? Except Carter and Bays have now blown that theory out of the water.


----------



## Silverman

It can go wrong because you don't know how many episodes you will get to make, that's how. If there are a lot you must then just drop major plot points to keep some ending you wanted before you added more to the plot. This is how LOST got ruined, so don't ever try that fixed ending idea. Wonderland just was cancelled and I suspect major reason was in ads they stupidly said "by the writers of Lost". That told everyone the whole show would never make any sense so why watch? And they didn't.


----------



## DevdogAZ

Silverman said:


> It can go wrong because you don't know how many episodes you will get to make, that's how. If there are a lot you must then just drop major plot points to keep some ending you wanted before you added more to the plot. This is how LOST got ruined, so don't ever try that fixed ending idea. * Wonderland just was cancelled and I suspect major reason was in ads they stupidly said "by the writers of Lost". That told everyone the whole show would never make any sense so why watch? And they didn't.*


I guarantee that's not why Wonderland failed. I'd be surprised if that even affected the ratings much at all, and had just as much chance of having a positive effect.

The reason Wonderland failed is because ABC was greedy. Instead of sticking with their original plan of airing it in the OUAT slot during the midseason hiatus, they thought they could run both shows at the same time. And then they put Wonderland in the worst possible timeslot, one where ABC hasn't had success in many years, one that is dominated by the highest-rated show on broadcast TV.


----------



## Sparty99

Silverman said:


> It can go wrong because you don't know how many episodes you will get to make, that's how. If there are a lot you must then just drop major plot points to keep some ending you wanted before you added more to the plot. This is how LOST got ruined, so don't ever try that fixed ending idea. Wonderland just was cancelled and I suspect major reason was in ads they stupidly said "by the writers of Lost". That told everyone the whole show would never make any sense so why watch? And they didn't.


Did you have a family member who was killed on Oceanic 815? Somehow everything comes back to Lost with you.


----------



## Sparty99

Even understanding the vitriol for this finale, I just don't see how anyone puts this up there with the worst finales of all time. I admit I was fine with it but it just wasn't that terrible to me. And the fan-created finale definitely would've been in the top 5 of all time, I believe.

Dexter was an all-time POS. I hated the end of 24 (the last 4 episodes were essentially Jack turning into a cold blooded murderer and when they should have killed him, they kept him alive for movies/miniseries). I never had the issue with Lost that others did but I understand why people hated it. Sopranos to me was just such a gut punch but when you factor in the line that Bobby dropped in the last few episodes (something like, "I bet when it comes you don't even know it happened.") it makes perfect sense and was kind of brilliant.

I never understood the hatred for the Seinfeld finale. There were tons of in-jokes (I loved the bit where Geraldo said something about Jerry and Elaine possibly getting married after the trial) and it was kind of the perfect ending - 4 terrible people getting thrown in jail for being terrible people.

Cheers will always be an all-time great for me. Breaking Bad was fine but unsatisfying...



Spoiler



I felt Jesse should've been the one that took Walt down, not him getting taken down by his own machine gun contraption.



...Friends was good, Friday Night Lights was perfect.

HIMYM was neither great nor terrible (IMO, obviously). It just sort of was.


----------



## DevdogAZ

Sparty99 said:


> I never understood the hatred for the Seinfeld finale. There were tons of in-jokes (I loved the bit where Geraldo said something about Jerry and Elaine possibly getting married after the trial) and it was kind of the perfect ending - 4 terrible people getting thrown in jail for being terrible people.


I never understood all the hate for the Seinfeld finale, either. Given the nature of the show, I don't think there was any way it could have had a satisfying finale. It was a "show about nothing" and therefore, trying to craft an episode that tied everything up in a neat bow just never would have worked. So instead they tried to bring back as many self-referential jokes/characters/situations as possible. I'm sure it could have been better, but it also could have been much, much worse.

One thing I did like about it that a lot of people didn't realize is that the very last conversation between Jerry and George is the same as the very first conversation of the pilot episode.



> Jerry: See now, to me, that button is in the worst possible spot.
> 
> George: Really?
> 
> Jerry: Oh yeah. The second button is the key button. It literally makes or breaks the shirt. Look at it, it's
> 
> too high, it's in no-man's land.
> 
> George: Haven't we had this conversation before?
> 
> Jerry: You think?
> 
> George: I think we have.
> 
> Jerry: Yeah, maybe we have.


----------



## scooterboy

pahunt said:


> I've never understood all the hate for the Seinfeld finale myself





DevdogAZ said:


> I never understood all the hate for the Seinfeld finale, either. Given the nature of the show, I don't think there was any way it could have had a satisfying finale. It was a "show about nothing" and therefore, trying to craft an episode that tied everything up in a neat bow just never would have worked.* So instead they tried to bring back as many self-referential jokes/characters/situations as possible.* I'm sure it could have been better, but it also could have been much, much worse.
> 
> One thing I did like about it that a lot of people didn't realize is that the very last conversation between Jerry and George is the same as the very first conversation of the pilot episode.


I hate the Seinfeld finale because bringing back all those characters/jokes for an extremely contrived court case was a cheap and unimaginative way to fill the time.

I immediately realized that their last conversation was the same as the very first. That was a fine last scene. But all the cameos just screamed "gimmick" - that's why I hated it.


----------



## pahunt

scooterboy said:


> I hate the Seinfeld finale because bringing back all those characters/jokes for an extremely contrived court case was a cheap and unimaginative way to fill the time.
> 
> I immediately realized that their last conversation was the same as the very first. That was a fine last scene. But all the cameos just screamed "gimmick" - that's why I hated it.


I can see why people would have that viewpoint but what else could they have done with it? If they had ended with just a normal, non-contrived episode then everybody would have still complained.

The joy of Seinfeld to me is all the recurring jokes and characters and so doing a "greatest hits" for the finale felt like a nice reward for the fans who'd followed it from the beginning.


----------



## TonyD79

DevdogAZ said:


> I guarantee that's not why Wonderland failed. I'd be surprised if that even affected the ratings much at all, and had just as much chance of having a positive effect. The reason Wonderland failed is because ABC was greedy. Instead of sticking with their original plan of airing it in the OUAT slot during the midseason hiatus, they thought they could run both shows at the same time. And then they put Wonderland in the worst possible timeslot, one where ABC hasn't had success in many years, one that is dominated by the highest-rated show on broadcast TV.


Wonderland failed because it didn't have the charm or center of the show that it would attract viewers from, OUAT. I tried to watch it and hated it.


----------



## DevdogAZ

TonyD79 said:


> Wonderland failed because it didn't have the charm or center of the show that it would attract viewers from, OUAT. I tried to watch it and hated it.


I'm sure you're right. I stopped watching OUAT a while back, so didn't even try Wonderland. But regardless of how good or bad it was, the pilot episode got awful ratings because of the brutal time slot they put it in, so not enough people even bothered to find out if it was any good.


----------



## scooterboy

pahunt said:


> I can see why people would have that viewpoint but what else could they have done with it? If they had ended with just a normal, non-contrived episode then everybody would have still complained.


But those weren't the only two choices. They could have come up with something non-normal and final but still clever. Certainly cleverer than sending up characters one after the other to recite their respective catchphrases.

I would have even preferred it if Jerry had woken up from a dream, in bed next to Suzanne Pleshette.


----------



## TonyD79

Adding a good series finale. 

Raising Hope's was tender, funny and gave closure.


----------



## cmontyburns

TonyD79 said:


> Adding a good series finale.
> 
> Raising Hope's was tender, funny and gave closure.


Wasn't it filmed as a season-ender and then it turned out the show was not renewed? Not that it matters, if it functioned well as a series-ender, too; I'm just curious. Perhaps it was one of those things where they weren't sure they were coming back, so they filmed a finale that could work both ways.


----------



## Steveknj

TonyD79 said:


> Anyone who truly followed and watched St. elsewhere would have appreciated the ending. It was full of oddities that bridged reality and the fake world of the show.


This, I loved the St Elsewhere ending actually. I don't remember it that well but I think LA Law had a good ending. It's been a long while. It's actually a show that's kind of fallen off everyone's radar but I thought it was a great show.

I never really liked the first half of the MASH ending, but the second half was pretty good. But by that time I had really started losing interest in the show, which had at one time been one of my favorites (and if they had stopped the series with Blake's death, that would have been one of the best endings of all times.

As for worst, I'd say Lost is #1, but the whole last season was not great. Sopranos, was a WTF moment, and I didn't like it as it told us nothing. Another really bad one was Big Love. I'd say that HIMYM ranks 4th after those three. As I've said, I think Seinfeld's ending, looking at it 15 years later isn't that bad. I am only at the beginning of S3 of Dexter, so long way to go until then.


----------



## Peter000

Even though the series ending of Dexter was subpar, I really enjoyed the journey.


----------



## TonyD79

cmontyburns said:


> Wasn't it filmed as a season-ender and then it turned out the show was not renewed? Not that it matters, if it functioned well as a series-ender, too; I'm just curious. Perhaps it was one of those things where they weren't sure they were coming back, so they filmed a finale that could work both ways.


I wondered that, too. If it was a season ender, they were adding a major character for next year.

If felt more like a true finale, though. The voice over talked about Hope's future but a voice over can easily be re-recorded. But the final scene felt like a "happily ever after" scene.


----------



## Ereth

Babylon 5. When it was over, it FELT over. The shows arc was complete and you were satisfied. (So much so that the spinoff series didn't get the fans back).


----------



## gweempose

Ereth said:


> Babylon 5. When it was over, it FELT over. The shows arc was complete and you were satisfied. (So much so that the spinoff series didn't get the fans back).


Babylon 5 was kind of unique, though. Wasn't there a very specific story arc that JMS had in mind when the show began? He knew exactly where he ultimately going with the story, and how he wanted to end it. In fact, I think JMS wrote a majority of the scripts himself. This is a very rare situation.


----------



## Ereth

gweempose said:


> Babylon 5 was kind of unique, though. Wasn't there a very specific story arc that JMS had in mind when the show began? He knew exactly where he ultimately going with the story, and how he wanted to end it. In fact, I think JMS wrote a majority of the scripts himself. This is a very rare situation.


Yes, it had never been done before, a show with a definite beginning, middle and end, a true arc that was planned out before a single minute was filmed.

JMS talked about how difficult that was, because you had your main story, but you also had to have logical exit points for any and all characters, in case actors became unavailable or chose not to return, and replacements for them so that the story could continue.

Some people point to Lost as the first of the episodic-TV-becomes-season-long-drama type shows where you can no longer watch them out of order and there's an overall arc, but Babylon 5 did it first, and some of the complaints that people often levy against such shows is that it appears they do not have a plan (I'm looking at you, Battlestar Galactica) and a true arc planned out like JMS did for B5.

In the context of this thread that's an interesting observation because HIMYM had a beginning and an end, and multiple stopping points (there's articles on the webs on the various "Mothers" they had for whenever it was going to be cancelled), but no actual middle. They were making it up on the way, based on whether they thought they'd be renewed or not, and so many of us are disappointed that the ending they plotted out way back in the beginning doesn't match the middle they ended up giving us.


----------



## waynomo

gweempose said:


> Babylon 5 was kind of unique, though. Wasn't there a very specific story arc that JMS had in mind when the show began? He knew exactly where he ultimately going with the story, and how he wanted to end it. In fact, I think JMS wrote a majority of the scripts himself. This is a very rare situation.


I thought The Sopranos was the same. I know HBO coerced them into an extra season or two, but I don't think that impacted the planned ending.


----------



## waynomo

Ereth said:


> Some people point to Lost as the first of the episodic-TV-becomes-season-long-drama type shows where you can no longer watch them out of order and there's an overall arc, but Babylon 5 did it first, and some of the complaints that people often levy against such shows is that it appears they do not have a plan (I'm looking at you, Battlestar Galactica) and a true arc planned out like JMS did for B5.


It would be interesting to discuss the effects of the VCR and TiVo on this. I know I would have been lost without my VCR with for the first season of 24. I think I had my TiVo for the second.


----------



## pahunt

Peter000 said:


> Even though the series ending of Dexter was subpar, I really enjoyed the journey.


Subpar is the kindest thing I've heard anyone say about it 

But I agree about the journey, the first 4 seasons were some of the best TV I've seen and while it did drop-off a lot in the later years, remembering just how good it had been kept me watching until the end.


----------



## pahunt

gweempose said:


> Babylon 5 was kind of unique, though. Wasn't there a very specific story arc that JMS had in mind when the show began? He knew exactly where he ultimately going with the story, and how he wanted to end it. In fact, I think JMS wrote a majority of the scripts himself. This is a very rare situation.


It is rare because in most cases, the networks and not the show-runners are the ones in charge of how many episodes there will be and so getting the velocity right is nearly impossible. This was demonstrated perfectly by Lost where they slowed the story down (too much) once they realised they had a hit.

Of course shows on HBO, Showtime, Netflix etc. seem to fare better in this respect but I don't see the main networks following suit any time soon.


----------



## Einselen

2004raptor said:


> Now that the finale is over has any of the actors commented on the ending/show?


NPH did on Twitter the other day.



> @hazteckoe: do you prefer the other ending? as far as I know, there is no other ending. We only shot one.




__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/452906705614299137
and



> @tweetbohn: what was your opinion of the series finale? I'm a massive fan of it. Well written, heartfelt and worthy of discussion. #my2c




__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/452905891189522433


----------



## MikeMar

pahunt said:


> I've never understood all the hate for the Seinfeld finale myself and while I detested the Sopranos finale when I saw it, I've grown to respect it if not actually like it as time has gone on.
> 
> The problem is that I've never seen seen a series finale that I found completely satisfying, although the Wire and the Shield both came close. I always thought that if I were to write a TV show I would come up with a killer ending first and then work backwards from there, after all, how could that go wrong? Except Carter and Bays have now blown that theory out of the water.


Catching up on this thread and I think The Wire was the perfect ending for the show. Not really an amazing ending, but just perfect for that show. It goes on and on and on


----------



## mattack

gweempose said:


> So where do you guys think this falls in the rankings of bad series finales? I'm thinking at least top five, probably top three.


Wow, I'd put this in the *top* ranking of series finales.

I don't know how high, since I can't actually think of all that many at the moment. M*A*S*H, entertaining but significantly different from the original episodes... The Fugitive, basically (if not literally) the inventor of series finales like we know now.. Seinfeld, even that I give maybe a B+ for _effort_ even though it wasn't funny. I give credit for basically trying to meta-Seinfeld itself.


----------



## gweempose

mattack said:


> Wow, I'd put this in the *top* ranking of series finales.


Wait, so you're saying you think it was the best finale you've ever seen, or you would rank it as the #1 worst? If it's the former, I believe you may be the first person I've seen come forward with this view. A small handful of people have said they liked it, but I can't recall anyone else saying they thought it was the best finale ever.


----------



## DevdogAZ

gweempose said:


> Wait, so you're saying you think it was actually the best finale you've ever seen?


You'll have to forgive him. This may be the first show he's ever actually made it to the end of. All the rest of his shows are saved up on his many different hard drives but he's hopelessly behind and continues getting further behind rather than catching up.


----------



## mattack

gweempose said:


> Wait, so you're saying you think it was the best finale you've ever seen, or you would rank it as the #1 worst? If it's the former, I believe you may be the first person I've seen come forward with this view. A small handful of people have said they liked it, but I can't recall anyone else saying they thought it was the best finale ever.


You didn't read my whole post. I answered exactly that...

Just that it goes on the best list rather than the worst list.


----------



## mattack

DevdogAZ said:


> You'll have to forgive him. This may be the first show he's ever actually made it to the end of. All the rest of his shows are saved up on his many different hard drives but he's hopelessly behind and continues getting further behind rather than catching up.


You don't know what the heck you're talking about. I've watched full series of many series.


----------



## DevdogAZ

mattack said:


> You don't know what the heck you're talking about. I've watched full series of many series.


You must have missed the . I'm just busting your chops because of how often you talk about your backlog of shows and your filled up hard drives and losing lots of archived shows when a drive crashed, etc. I know you've watched lots of series through to the end. It was just a joke.


----------



## bobcarn

I hate resurrecting old threads, but when talking about bad series finales, did I miss someone mentioning "Enterprise"? I remember an interview with Jolene Blalock saying, after filming it, that it was atrocious. And I remember before the first commercial break having my jaw literally drop open because I was so appalled.


----------



## jamesl

weren't the last few episodes of Enterprise about



Spoiler



the birth of the Federation ?

the Enterprise got two warring worlds to join together and and form a blockade against a secret Romulan ship that was controlled by a telepath

the Romulans were were trying to cause even more instability in the area

I thought it was pretty good

of course, at the very end (last 10 minutes) you learned it was a holodeck simulation on board the 23rd century Enterprise and Riker was just studying history

so I can see how that ticked people off


----------



## Einselen

NPH will be on Letterman tonight. One topic of discussion will be the finale.


----------



## JYoung

bobcarn said:


> I hate resurrecting old threads, but when talking about bad series finales, did I miss someone mentioning "Enterprise"? I remember an interview with Jolene Blalock saying, after filming it, that it was atrocious. And I remember before the first commercial break having my jaw literally drop open because I was so appalled.


IIRC, she said it was "f****** appalling".
In which she was correct.

Which was also a bit of a shame, as the show under Manny Coto had really started to turn itself around.
Then Bevis and Butthead had to go ruin it.


----------



## Ereth

JYoung said:


> IIRC, she said it was "f****** appalling".
> In which she was correct.
> 
> Which was also a bit of a shame, as the show under Manny Coto had really started to turn itself around.
> Then Bevis and Butthead had to go ruin it.


I would agree with this sentiment. Enterprise is very unusual in that it had a bad beginning, a good middle, and a weak ending. If only Manny Coto had gotten there sooner, and been given free reign.


----------



## Sparty99

jamesl said:


> weren't the last few episodes of Enterprise about
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> the birth of the Federation ?
> 
> the Enterprise got two warring worlds to join together and and form a blockade against a secret Romulan ship that was controlled by a telepath
> 
> the Romulans were were trying to cause even more instability in the area
> 
> I thought it was pretty good
> 
> of course, at the very end (last 10 minutes) you learned it was a holodeck simulation on board the 23rd century Enterprise and Riker was just studying history
> 
> so I can see how that ticked people off


Did you just spoiler something that went off the air 9 years ago?!?


----------



## TonyD79

Sparty99 said:


> Did you just spoiler something that went off the air 9 years ago?!?


Yes, yes he did.


----------



## gweempose

Sparty99 said:


> Did you just spoiler something that went off the air 9 years ago?!?


Hey, a spoiler's a spoiler. 

By the way:



Spoiler



Kristin shot J. R.


----------



## mattack

OK, more Enterprise tangent.. I'm not sure if you guys mean the 9/11 inspired shift in Enterprise.


----------



## Sparty99

Not that it matters since it's been a month since the show aired but can we not talk about Star Trek in a HIMYM thread? Please?


----------



## JYoung

mattack said:


> OK, more Enterprise tangent.. I'm not sure if you guys mean the 9/11 inspired shift in Enterprise.


I mean Season 4, where Manny Coto was the showrunner and Berman and Braga were absent.

In fact, I'm of the opinion that you could watch the pilot then skip next three seasons and start watching with the Season 4 episode "Borderland" and would miss next to nothing.

However, I'd advise not watching the series finale.


----------



## Steveknj

Sparty99 said:


> Not that it matters since it's been a month since the show aired but can we not talk about Star Trek in a HIMYM thread? Please?


:up::up:

It's a month later and still hated the HIMYM finale


----------



## gweempose

I just read today that Meg Ryan has been cast as the narrator for the spin-off. I suspect a lot of people will be so angry about the HIMYM finale that they won't even bother watching the new show.


----------



## TonyD79

They may need to say in the first episode that the dad doesn't die.


----------



## Robin

I really wonder whether the general public is as outraged over this as the TV nerds. 

Meg Ryan is a great choice for narrator. :up: I'll watch.


----------



## billypritchard

Robin said:


> I really wonder whether the general public is as outraged over this as the TV nerds.
> 
> Meg Ryan is a great choice for narrator. :up: I'll watch.


<salute>General Public!</salute>


----------



## busyba

billypritchard said:


> <salute>General Public!</salute>












:up:


----------



## Ereth

Robin said:


> Meg Ryan is a great choice for narrator. :up: I'll watch.


My favorite Meg Ryan line is from "Joe versus the Volcano". She plays many parts and one of them frequently says:

"I have no response to that".

I love that. It's just such a conversation ender.

Having said that.. I won't be watching the new show. Fool me once, shame on you. Also, screw you. You don't get a chance to fool me twice.


----------



## Steveknj

I'm not pissed off enough at the ending to not watch HIMYD. 95% of HIMYM was really good. And really the actual MEETING of the mother was really good. They just went and ruined it all after that.


----------



## JYoung

I'm not pissed off but after seeing how Bays and Thomas essentially tripped and fumbled the ball on the five yard line, my motivation to watch their next show has certainly decreased down to the single digits.


----------



## waynomo

I really enjoyed the 8 year run. It was a lot of fun. I'm not sure why I'd want to deprive myself of potential entertainment because of the ending. It was only a couple of episodes. I'll let the new show stand on it's own. Personally I don't hold out much hope that it'll be a keeper, but I'm at least going to give it a try.


----------



## waynomo

Einselen said:


> NPH will be on Letterman tonight. One topic of discussion will be the finale.


Did anybody watch this? If so, anything interesting to report?


----------



## TonyD79

JYoung said:


> I'm not pissed off but after seeing how Bays and Thomas essentially tripped and fumbled the ball on the five yard line, my motivation to watch their next show has certainly decreased down to the single digits.


We can always hope one of two things.

1. They learned something
2. If they haven't, their show doesn't outlast their vision.


----------



## waynomo

TonyD79 said:


> We can always hope one of two things.
> 
> 1. They learned something
> 2. If they haven't, their show doesn't outlast their vision.


Yes, they've relearned something. That there is no such thing as bad publicity. Think of all the talk this has generated. I think this has to work to their advantage.


----------



## Sparty99

JYoung said:


> I'm not pissed off but after seeing how Bays and Thomas essentially tripped and fumbled the ball on the five yard line, my motivation to watch their next show has certainly decreased down to the single digits.


If we're going with the football metaphor...

I'm a Lions fan. If I gave up on them every time they fumbled the ball on the 5 years line, I would've come up with universal health care in 1993.


----------



## Sparty99

Robin said:


> I really wonder whether the general public is as outraged over this as the TV nerds.
> 
> Meg Ryan is a great choice for narrator. :up: I'll watch.


You know, my honest thought was this was a sign of how far Meg Ryan has fallen.


----------



## DevdogAZ

Being heard but not seen is a perfect role for Meg Ryan since she's completely destroyed her looks with unnecessary cosmetic surgeries.


----------



## Robin

Wow.


----------



## Mr. Soze

Robin said:


> Wow.


Indeed. I had a MAD crush on her when we were both younger, say the late eighties/early nineties. I hate to say it, but I've aged better.


----------



## Robin

My cat has aged better. And she's dead.


----------



## scooterboy

waynomo said:


> Did anybody watch this? If so, anything interesting to report?


I saw it. NPH liked the ending. He thought it was fine that Barney reverted back to being a scoundrel, though he did acknowledge that a lot of people were pissed about the ending.

ETA:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkfGQME8tkY[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkoADTgtx0M[/media]


----------



## Silverman

Has anyone heard if the excellent mother actress has been signed for some new show yet? I would think she would be quite a hot item in casting, with like 100 percent loving her which is really hard to do. By the way, what does the mom in the new pilot HIMYD look like?


----------



## JLucPicard

Silverman said:


> By the way, what does the mom in the new pilot HIMYD look like?


Hopefully NOTHING like Meg Ryan!!!


----------



## DevdogAZ

Silverman said:


> By the way, what does the mom in the new pilot HIMYD look like?


Greta Getwig is the actress who has been cast as the lead. Here she is in "Arthur" from 2011:


----------



## JYoung

Sparty99 said:


> If we're going with the football metaphor...
> 
> I'm a Lions fan. If I gave up on them every time they fumbled the ball on the 5 years line, I would've come up with universal health care in 1993.


How many times did the Lions do it due to their own choices?
Like turning around and sprinting towards the other goal line.


----------



## madscientist

Well... it _is_ the Lions... so...


----------



## jamesl

I'm more interested in finding out who the mother of Barney's kid is and what happened to her


----------



## Silverman

Yeah, they sure left a huge plot hole there and would have better left Barney married to Robin. Thanks Dev, for the picture of the mom in HIMYD, now I wonder if they might go after the excellent actress from this show instead now? It's happened before, look at who played Penny in the Big Bang pilot, for instance.... she got dumped...


----------



## scooterboy

Maybe the D in HIMYD will turn out to be Barney.


----------



## TonyD79

Silverman said:


> Yeah, they sure left a huge plot hole there and would have better left Barney married to Robin. Thanks Dev, for the picture of the mom in HIMYD, now I wonder if they might go after the excellent actress from this show instead now? It's happened before, look at who played Penny in the Big Bang pilot, for instance.... she got dumped...


Except it's not supposed to be about Ted. Besides, she'd have to be a ghost or in her deathbed telling the story. Oh wait, the narrator would look right for a deathbed.


----------



## Neenahboy

Robin said:


> I really wonder whether the general public is as outraged over this as the TV nerds.


I can say that I definitely won't be watching (though admittedly, part of that is because I can't stand Greta Gerwig).

I'm intensely curious to see how CBS will market the show this summer if it gets picked up, though. Wonder if they'll go with "From the creators of HIMYM" or not...


----------



## cmontyburns

Neenahboy said:


> I'm intensely curious to see how CBS will market the show this summer if it gets picked up, though. Wonder if they'll go with "From the creators of HIMYM" or not...


The title is kind of a giveaway on that score.


----------



## Steveknj

I'm going to watch HIMYD. I might not stick with it long, but there's a definite curiosity factor in how they are going to do it.


----------



## waynomo

I was thinking some more about people being upset with the ending and this seems to be mostly based on the name of the show.

Today this reminded me of the movie "When Harry Met Sally." The movie was not about them meeting. They met at the beginning of the film so clearly the film was not about them meeting. Yet I don't see people getting up set at this.


----------



## TAsunder

I would have liked the ending better if we never learned how he met the mother and therefore they didn't sweep a character death under the rug and then rehash a romance that hasn't been interesting for several seasons. So for me it wasn't so much about the title as much as it was about a poorly-written, poorly-conceived finale.


----------



## TonyD79

TAsunder said:


> I would have liked the ending better if we never learned how he met the mother and therefore they didn't sweep a character death under the rug and then rehash a romance that hasn't been interesting for several seasons. So for me it wasn't so much about the title as much as it was about a poorly-written, poorly-conceived finale.


Yup. For me it was never about the title. It was about the show and they just messed up. The ending could've been the ending if they didn't take the Robin/Barney tour.


----------



## waynomo

I would have liked the ending better if Barney was having an affair with the mother and Robin caught them in the act and shot and killed both of them. Ted then visits Robin in jail. (We know that Ted is too much of a wuss to shoot a gun.)


----------



## aindik

waynomo said:


> I would have liked the ending better if Barney was having an affair with the mother and Robin caught them in the act and shot and killed both of them. Ted then visits Robin in jail. (We know that Ted is too much of a wuss to shoot a gun.)


Kids, did I ever tell you the story of how I killed your mother?


----------



## waynomo

aindik said:


> Kids, did I ever tell you the story of how I killed your mother?


I think we have our next spinoff. HIKYM!


----------



## mattack

DevdogAZ said:


> unnecessary cosmetic surgeries


Isn't that redundant?


----------



## Sparty99

mattack said:


> Isn't that redundant?


Not for, say, women who have had to go through mastectomies. But in the case of Meg Ryan, yes.


----------



## DUDE_NJX

For me, it's her personality that makes her unattractive first, looks second.


----------



## verdugan

Robin said:


> My cat has aged better. And she's dead.




That was really funny (and sadly true.)


----------



## Agent86

After watching the finale a couple times, and letting it "sink in" a bit, I've come to appreciate it. That said, it isn't without it's faults.

In a matter of minutes on screen, Ted and Tracy get married, Tracy dies, Ted and Tracy first meet, and Ted rekindles with Robin. It goes really fast and the order leads to the feeling that the Mother is being downplayed.

Stepping back, she's not. Ted meets Tracy and never looks back. For something like 15 years she is his everything. At any point when they were together he could have left for Robin, or pined for Robin, etc. But he doesn't - Tracy is what he wants and what he has. When she dies, he still stays away from dating for 6 years. At that point he thinks about circling back around to Robin again, brining us to him talking to his kids about Aunt Robin in the guise of how he met Tracy.

More time could have given them some more wiggle room to change the order of how things were presented, and perhaps fill in some blanks and create some understanding. We know very little of Ted's life post-Tracy/pre-Robin. There was a publicity shot of the scene where Ted and Robin are in a coffee shop that was seemingly cut from the finale. Timeline wise it may have fallen between Tracy's passing and their rekindling and could explain things more. If such a scene were to exist, my guess is it would have Ted questioning if he ever wants to date again, or if he really wants to go "back" to Robin. But a scene like that would have been hard to fit into the pattern they established and would make the transition to the chosen ending even more awkward.

Many people seem to have preferred leaving Robin and Barney together and Tracy alive. Basically the "everyone's a winner, rainbows, puppy dogs and sunshine" ending. They could have ended it with the train rolling by, music playing, and a final voiceover of "And that, kids, is how I met your mother". It probably would have satisfied more people.

One thing I will say is that the entire final season seems to have really paid attention to closing loops. A lot of the little subthreads and running gags were addressed way better than other shows in recent times have done.


----------



## waynomo

Anybody thought about what a miserable mess Ted would have been after the mother died? I'm sure he would have been a total basket case and really depressed for at least 2 years.


----------



## Steveknj

Agent86 said:


> After watching the finale a couple times, and letting it "sink in" a bit, I've come to appreciate it. That said, it isn't without it's faults.
> 
> In a matter of minutes on screen, Ted and Tracy get married, Tracy dies, Ted and Tracy first meet, and Ted rekindles with Robin. It goes really fast and the order leads to the feeling that the Mother is being downplayed.
> 
> Stepping back, she's not. Ted meets Tracy and never looks back. For something like 15 years she is his everything. At any point when they were together he could have left for Robin, or pined for Robin, etc. But he doesn't - Tracy is what he wants and what he has. When she dies, he still stays away from dating for 6 years. At that point he thinks about circling back around to Robin again, brining us to him talking to his kids about Aunt Robin in the guise of how he met Tracy.


The problem with this is, we never got enough of a sense, in the last episode anyway, that Ted was with the mother long term. You bring out the point that they were together for a long time until she died, but it was so rushed, it just didn't feel like that to me. And since that was the crux of the whole story, it gave you the feeling that the whole thing was brushed aside to make the whole Ted-Robin thing happen.



> Many people seem to have preferred leaving Robin and Barney together and Tracy alive. Basically the "everyone's a winner, rainbows, puppy dogs and sunshine" ending. They could have ended it with the train rolling by, music playing, and a final voiceover of "And that, kids, is how I met your mother". It probably would have satisfied more people.


The whole Barney-Robin breakup didn't bother me as much as some people (only again, it was kind of rushed and you never got the sense they were ever together for a period of time), because I never felt they were that compatible to begin with. But it was what it was. People poo-poo the whole happy ending thing, but why? I think this is a show that screamed for one. This was never a dark comedy or a heavy soap opera or drama. It was a sitcom based on the friendship and camaraderie of the main characters. So why did we need any kind of dark ending? I would have been fine with the ending scene as portrayed in the clips posted here.


----------



## Agent86

Steveknj said:


> The problem with this is, we never got enough of a sense, in the last episode anyway, that Ted was with the mother long term. You bring out the point that they were together for a long time until she died, but it was so rushed, it just didn't feel like that to me. And since that was the crux of the whole story, it gave you the feeling that the whole thing was brushed aside to make the whole Ted-Robin thing happen.


I agree - the episode's biggest issue is probably with pacing. I've read somewhere that there is almost 20 minutes of cut stuff from the finale, which would imply almost an entire additional episode of content. Depending on what it is, it could have dramatically altered the pacing and filled in a lot of holes for people.



> The whole Barney-Robin breakup didn't bother me as much as some people (only again, it was kind of rushed and you never got the sense they were ever together for a period of time), because I never felt they were that compatible to begin with. But it was what it was. People poo-poo the whole happy ending thing, but why? I think this is a show that screamed for one. This was never a dark comedy or a heavy soap opera or drama. It was a sitcom based on the friendship and camaraderie of the main characters. So why did we need any kind of dark ending? I would have been fine with the ending scene as portrayed in the clips posted here.


I agree. I didn't mean to bash a potential happy ending. I would have been fine with it and most people would have preferred it. I think what the writers wanted was a somewhat unpredictable ending - not the ending everyone expected. Their choice to go "dark" to accomplish that is up for grabs.


----------



## TonyD79

Big assumptions being made here. Who said it had to be a happy ending with the Mother. Many of us said the ending made perfect sense a few years ago when the story being told was all about Ted and Robin. But the problem is that the last couple of years were a story about Barney and Robin with Ted growing up and realizing he didn't need Robin. 

The crux of the issue is that the ending didn't fit the story. It so mismatched that it would have made more sense for Ted to have died then to show up in a shower.


----------



## madscientist

A company did a statistical review of the tweets going out during the finale and their conclusion is that the majority of people liked it just fine. FWIW.

Personally I didn't think it was fabulous but whatever. It's just a TV show and while I really enjoyed watching most of the episodes: some were duds. Just because the last one was closer to "dud" than "great" doesn't ruin the whole thing for me. Definitely it won't keep me from watching HIMYD, if it's any good.


----------



## DevdogAZ

madscientist said:


> A company did a statistical review of the tweets going out during the finale and their conclusion is that the majority of people liked it just fine. FWIW.


If the analysis was only on tweets sent during the finale, then that doesn't really tell us much, since there's no way to form a coherent opinion about the finale until it's totally over and you find out Tracy died and Ted is going to try and get back together with Robin.


----------



## waynomo

Well they couldn't tell East coast vs West coast.


----------



## cherry ghost

Agent86 said:


> I agree - the episode's biggest issue is probably with pacing. I've read somewhere that there is almost 20 minutes of cut stuff from the finale, which would imply almost an entire additional episode of content. Depending on what it is, it could have dramatically altered the pacing and filled in a lot of holes for people.


Alyson Hannigan said there was a funeral scene cut

http://www.tmz.com/2014/04/30/alyson-hannigan-how-i-met-your-mother-finale/


----------



## madscientist

Sorry I misspoke; it wasn't just during the finale but after it as well. Link

Interestingly, folks in NY, Philly, and Boston were the biggest haters.


----------



## alpacaboy

madscientist said:


> Sorry I misspoke; it wasn't just during the finale but after it as well. Link
> 
> Interestingly, folks in NY, Philly, and Boston were the biggest haters.


More interestingly,


> The viewers who thought the How I Met Your Mother finale was "sad," for example, were also more likely than the average Twitter user to be teenaged girls interested in Taco Bell.


----------



## waynomo

madscientist said:


> Sorry I misspoke; it wasn't just during the finale but after it as well. Link
> 
> Interestingly, folks in NY, Philly, and Boston were the biggest haters.


I would consider myself a big Twitter user. However, I'm mostly a reader and not a tweeter. I rarely tweet about a TV show and if I do it's most likely do to an error or some other problem. It would have to be incredibly great or terrible for me to tweet about a sitcom.

I wouldn't be surprised if this analysis is skewed towards teenage girls who use Twitter as an extension of texting or Facebook. It's certainly skewed towards a younger demographic.


----------



## scooterboy

madscientist said:


> Personally I didn't think it was fabulous but whatever. It's just a TV show and while I really enjoyed watching most of the episodes: some were duds. Just because the last one was closer to "dud" than "great" doesn't ruin the whole thing for me. Definitely it won't keep me from watching HIMYD, if it's any good.


A thoughtful pragmatic post like that just might get you kicked out of here. Tread lightly.


----------



## busyba

alpacaboy said:


> More interestingly,
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The viewers who thought the How I Met Your Mother finale was "sad," for example, were also more likely than the average Twitter user to be teenaged girls interested in Taco Bell.
Click to expand...

I wish twitter had been around back when they killed Tara on _Buffy_. Teenaged girls all over the country absolutely lost their poop all over the internet in about as hysterical a fashion as you could imagine.

Having twitter would have concentrated the crazy into one place for maximum entertainment value.


----------



## TonyD79

Lovely. Trying to analyze twitter for criticism.


----------



## Sparty99

Looks like HIMYD is dead.

http://tvline.com/2014/05/14/cbs-fall-tv-lineup-2014-the-big-bang-theory-monday/


----------



## Steveknj

Sparty99 said:


> Looks like HIMYD is dead.
> 
> http://tvline.com/2014/05/14/cbs-fall-tv-lineup-2014-the-big-bang-theory-monday/


I wonder if part of this is blowback from the season finale.


----------



## cmontyburns

Steveknj said:


> I wonder if part of this is blowback from the season finale.


Nina Tassler says no. She said CBS wanted changes to the pilot and a re-shoot, and Bays/Thomas/Spivey said no. So CBS passed.


----------



## Amnesia

Steveknj said:


> I wonder if part of this is blowback from the season finale.


Don't know why you would even consider that.


----------



## TonyD79

cmontyburns said:


> Nina Tassler says no. She said CBS wanted changes to the pilot and a re-shoot, and Bays/Thomas/Spivey said no. So CBS passed.


If course, we don't know if one of the changes wasn't telling the "kids" that Dad didn't die!


----------



## waynomo

cmontyburns said:


> Nina Tassler says no. She said CBS wanted changes to the pilot and a re-shoot, and Bays/Thomas/Spivey said no. So CBS passed.


Sounds like it is still being shopped around. I'd be surprised if a different network didn't pick it up.


----------



## Steveknj

cmontyburns said:


> Nina Tassler says no. She said CBS wanted changes to the pilot and a re-shoot, and Bays/Thomas/Spivey said no. So CBS passed.


And we believe everything that Nina says is gospel truth? (and btw, who's Nina Tassler?)


----------



## Steveknj

Amnesia said:


> Don't know why you would even consider that.


Why wouldn't I?


----------



## Azlen

Steveknj said:


> And we believe everything that Nina says is gospel truth? (and btw, who's Nina Tassler?)


She's the chairman(person) of CBS entertainment. So if she says something about why CBS passed on something, you can take it as the truth as she was the one who made the decision.


----------



## waynomo

Just to be clear, it is not dead. 

CBS is passing on it. It is only dead at CBS. It is being shopped around elsewhere.


----------



## Sparty99

Steveknj said:


> Why wouldn't I?


Because it was still a series that ran for 9 years. The show had a built in audience to at least check it out, even if they didn't like the finale. I imagine some would say they weren't interested, but not enough to kill the idea outright. If it was the finale that killed HIMYD's shot, we would've heard about it shortly after the HIMYM finale, not during upfronts.


----------



## brettatk

We can't even assume the majority of people were unhappy with the finale. We all know people who are unsatisfied with something are far more likely to post their complaints online than those who are satisfied. I'd be surprised if it's not picked up by another network.


----------



## DevdogAZ

cmontyburns said:


> Nina Tassler says no. She said CBS wanted changes to the pilot and a re-shoot, and Bays/Thomas/Spivey said no. So CBS passed.


On Twitter, Alan Sepinwall says that he got the sense that it was 20th Century Fox (the studio that owns it) that was against the reshoot, not necessarily Bays/Thomas/Spivey.



Amnesia said:


> Don't know why you would even consider that.


It was enough of a question that Alan Sepinwall asked Nina Tassler about it, and he titled his blog post "CBS doesnt order 'How I Met Your Dad' to series  and not because of 'HIMYM' finale backlash."



waynomo said:


> Sounds like it is still being shopped around. I'd be surprised if a different network didn't pick it up.


According to the stuff I read, the studio will be free to start shopping it around tomorrow. So nothing has happened yet, but it could happen in the near future.


----------



## bareyb

CBS is going to kick themselves if another Network picks it up and it's huge success. I just hope someone else does pick it up. I'm very curious to see what they can do with the premise.


----------



## DevdogAZ

I want to see someone else pick it up as well, just to see how it does. But I really doubt that it would be a big hit. The only thing it has going for it is the name recognition. But that's only going to get people to sample an episode or two. After that, it's got to stand on its own merits and I don't think the premise of just essentially doing the same thing again, just this time with a future female (Meg Ryan) telling her kids about how her younger self (Greta Gerwig) met their father is going to attract audiences. The formula has been used and now it just seems like Bays/Thomas don't have any other creative ideas so they're just trying to milk more money out of their original idea.

It reminds me of how Adam Carolla is always ranting about the creators of all those hit TV shows from the 70s. He complains that instead of continuing to create, they now just sit back and try to figure out ways to create Brady Bunch movies, or Gilligan's Island reunion shows, etc. (obviously these complaints are things he thought about 20 years ago, not today).


----------



## mattack

DevdogAZ said:


> It reminds me of how Adam Carolla is always ranting about the creators of all those hit TV shows from the 70s. He complains that instead of continuing to create, they now just sit back and try to figure out ways to create Brady Bunch movies, or Gilligan's Island reunion shows, etc. (obviously these complaints are things he thought about 20 years ago, not today).


Though unfortunately (IMHO) he also seems to think they're ALL garbage, and were in their day too.

Interestingly, it only came out recently (I've been a listener to the podcast for several years now, and never heard him on the radio/watched/listened to Loveline) that Bald Bryan seems to be against them too.. He's mentioned several times lately how people have (IIRC) "nostalgia for crappy TV shows". I thought that was strange, since he seems like such a pop culture addict... and as us listeners know from the song, he likes Transformers 2, which is generally very disliked. (I haven't seen any of them, or any significant amount of the original cartoon either.)

Heck, I don't deny some of the ones I watched were crappy TV, but heck, the two you mention are IMHO time wasters but among the less crappy old rerun TV that we watched.


----------



## DevdogAZ

Good info here from Joe Adalian on HIMYD and the chances of it emerging elsewhere:

http://www.vulture.com/m/2014/05/why-cbs-passed-on-how-i-met-your-dad.html


----------



## Mr. Soze

DevdogAZ said:


> The formula has been used and now it just seems like Bays/Thomas don't have any other creative ideas so they're just trying to milk more money out of their original idea.


Like most of the last few years of HIMYM?


----------



## Sparty99

DevdogAZ said:


> It reminds me of how Adam Carolla is always ranting about the creators of all those hit TV shows from the 70s. He complains that instead of continuing to create, they now just sit back and try to figure out ways to create Brady Bunch movies, or Gilligan's Island reunion shows, etc. (obviously these complaints are things he thought about 20 years ago, not today).


I listen to multiple podcasts on the Carolla network and his schtick is getting a bit tired. I can't speak to the older TV shows because I have no interest in anything before Cheers, but he does have a point about old TV having so little competition - Dukes of Hazzard was a hit and that show is unwatchable. But to me I lost respect for his opinion on pop culture when he continued praising the merits of John Hiatt and proclaimed that Purple Rain (the album, not the movie) sucked. He's got millions of listeners and I fear that a lot of them, much like Michael Moore's followers, take his word as gospel.



mattack said:


> Though unfortunately (IMHO) he also seems to think they're ALL garbage, and were in their day too.
> 
> Interestingly, it only came out recently (I've been a listener to the podcast for several years now, and never heard him on the radio/watched/listened to Loveline) that Bald Bryan seems to be against them too.. He's mentioned several times lately how people have (IIRC) "nostalgia for crappy TV shows". I thought that was strange, since he seems like such a pop culture addict... and as us listeners know from the song, he likes Transformers 2, which is generally very disliked. (I haven't seen any of them, or any significant amount of the original cartoon either.)
> 
> Heck, I don't deny some of the ones I watched were crappy TV, but heck, the two you mention are IMHO time wasters but among the less crappy old rerun TV that we watched.


To be fair, Bald Bryan has said many times that he's not a TV guy. I wouldn't even say he's much of a pop culture guy, he just likes movies (and his opinions about movies are somewhat sh*tty and blowhard-y).


----------



## gweempose

DevdogAZ said:


> I want to see someone else pick it up as well, just to see how it does. But I really doubt that it would be a big hit. The only thing it has going for it is the name recognition. But that's only going to get people to sample an episode or two. After that, it's got to stand on its own merits ...


Yep. I wouldn't expect HIMYD to fair any better than That 80's Show.


----------



## Steveknj

Azlen said:


> She's the chairman(person) of CBS entertainment. So if she says something about why CBS passed on something, you can take it as the truth as she was the one who made the decision.


Ahhh, ok, I had no idea who she was. Not that she would necessarily admit that she passed because of the blowback, I'm just saying.


----------



## Steveknj

DevdogAZ said:


> I want to see someone else pick it up as well, just to see how it does. But I really doubt that it would be a big hit. The only thing it has going for it is the name recognition. But that's only going to get people to sample an episode or two. After that, it's got to stand on its own merits and I don't think the premise of just essentially doing the same thing again, just this time with a future female (Meg Ryan) telling her kids about how her younger self (Greta Gerwig) met their father is going to attract audiences. The formula has been used and now it just seems like Bays/Thomas don't have any other creative ideas so they're just trying to milk more money out of their original idea.


I wonder if Carter/Bays were put up to making HIMYD or if they did have some other ideas?


----------



## gweempose

Steveknj said:


> I wonder if Carter/Bays were put up to making HIMYD ...


It always seemed like a stupid idea to me. Then again, I thought it was stupid to spin off Frasier into his own show, so what do I know.


----------



## Azlen

Steveknj said:


> Ahhh, ok, I had no idea who she was. Not that she would necessarily admit that she passed because of the blowback, I'm just saying.


If it was passed on because of the blowback then they wouldn't have asked them to redo the pilot, they would have just passed on it. 
The network's request to reshoot a pilot isn't uncommon. Sometimes it's story, sometimes casting and sometimes both. The original Big Bang Theory pilot is floating around out there. It has a different female lead, a different story and no Howard and Raj.

The hangup in this situation is that 20th Century Fox wanted a guaranteed pickup if they reshot the pilot and CBS wasn't willing to give them that.


----------



## JYoung

(Bump)

Apparently, the alternate ending included in the complete series boxed set has leaked online.


----------



## sushikitten

Why Didn't They Use That?! It Was Perfect!

Eta: stupid forum software changed my all caps. I was emphatic, dang it.


----------



## Graymalkin

I can't imagine the decision-making that went into the ending.

Writers: "Here you go. All bases touched. Eloquent and neat and happy for all concerned. Plus one final and fitting sight gag. What's not to like?"

Thomas and Bays: "Nah. We filmed THIS ending years ago. Waste not, want not. So what if things changed? Screw the viewers. Use this one."


----------



## Hunter Green

Bah, blocked already.


----------



## betts4




----------



## Silverman

Well I predicted a poor ending would hurt value of reruns. It wasn't as bad as feared but the writers sure did a poor job, and this video explains all they did wrong really well. 

By the way if anyone does not know---the excellent mother actress has indeed got her own show now. Watch "A to Z" coming up and I think pilot is online. I still have heard nothing regarding HIMYD becoming a series.


----------



## Peter000

JYoung said:


> (Bump)
> 
> Apparently, the alternate ending included in the complete series boxed set has leaked online.


Interesting, and better than the original. Though I don't fault them going with the ending they had planned on all along.

I wonder if they'll syndicate it with the alternate ending.

I was looking at the complete box set on Amazon, and I can't believe they aren't releasing (yet?) a blu-ray set. And they don't seem to have any of the seasons on blu-ray aside from season 4. What's up with that?


----------



## max99

Hunter Green said:


> Bah, blocked already.


Here it is, although I'm guessing it will get taken down soon...


----------



## WO312

Wow, what a much better ending. Thanks for posting that. I tried last night but it was blocked.


----------



## gweempose

max99 said:


> Here it is, although I'm guessing it will get taken down soon...


Thanks for the link! I just ripped it so I can show it to my wife when she gets home. Now *that's* how the show should have ended. I'm curious to know if this ending was already edited and in the can when they aired the finale, or if it is this something they threw together after the fact for the box set.


----------



## DevdogAZ

Silverman said:


> I still have heard nothing regarding HIMYD becoming a series.


The HIMYD pilot was reportedly a bit of a mess and the producers refused to make changes requested by the network. The show was not picked up to series.


----------



## LoadStar

DevdogAZ said:


> The HIMYD pilot was reportedly a bit of a mess and the producers refused to make changes requested by the network. The show was not picked up to series.


Furthermore, it was shopped around, but no one else was interested either.

CBS, however, supposedly remains interested in the *idea* for the series, just not that particular implementation. They may take another whack at it for a future season.

This has some precedent at CBS. "The Big Bang Theory" had a pilot episode developed for the 2006-07 season, but the pilot was fairly weak and not ordered to series. The show was heavily retooled, a new pilot shot, and it was ordered to series for the 2007-08 season.


----------



## Robin

max99 said:


> Here it is, although I'm guessing it will get taken down soon...


This one's down, too.


----------



## Neenahboy

Both S9 and the complete series set will release on the 23rd...once they're out I don't expect Fox to be able to control the ending's dissemination.

I can wait. *shrug*


----------



## Robin

I emailed the link to my husband with a note to watch it ASAP before it was taken down. 

He watched it, then asked what happened in the aired ending. He didn't remember the mother dying. 

So no, not everyone was outraged. :-D


----------



## Ereth

It looks to me like a post-finale edit. It's basically a clip show, with new narration from exactly one character (Ted) and no new scenes with anybody else whatsoever.


----------



## gweempose

Ereth said:


> It looks to me like a post-finale edit. It's basically a clip show, with new narration from exactly one character (Ted) and no new scenes with anybody else whatsoever.


So your theory is that they hired Bob Saget to record some additional dialogue just so they could create this alternate ending as a way to appease the fans?


----------



## LoadStar

gweempose said:


> So your theory is that they hired Bob Saget to record some additional dialogue just so they could create this alternate ending as a way to appease the fans?


Maybe to appease the fans... maybe just to add extra value to the DVD box set by providing a look at a possible "alternate reality" ending to the show.


----------



## LoadStar

waynomo said:


> Another link. Catch it while you can.
> 
> [media]http://vimeo.com/90920106[/media]


Hmm. So, if the comments on this are accurate, it's *not* an "official" alternate ending, just something a fan edited up, and has nothing at all to do with the series/season box set.

Edit: apparently, this Vimeo one is not the one that's suddenly been floating around on Youtube recently. The one that has been making the rounds recently is more likely one that did come from a DVD box set.


----------



## waynomo

Okay, here it really is and I doubt this one will be taken down. Of course you have to download it. Thank you Kicka$$ Torrents.

http://kickass.to/how-i-met-your-mother-himym-alternate-ending-official-dvd-extras-t9548102.html

It's about 14 MBs so I should be able to email it if anybody wants it. PM me.


----------



## Steveknj

waynomo said:


> Okay, here it really is and I doubt this one will be taken down. Of course you have to download it. Thank you Kicka$$ Torrents.
> 
> http://kickass.to/how-i-met-your-mother-himym-alternate-ending-official-dvd-extras-t9548102.html
> 
> It's about 14 MBs so I should be able to email it if anybody wants it. PM me.


AVG kicked up three virus alerts with this download. I don't trust it. Typical for stuff I end up getting from torrents. Download at your own risk.


----------



## waynomo

I prefer the original ending.


----------



## waynomo

Steveknj said:


> AVG kicked up three virus alerts with this download. I don't trust it. Typical for stuff I end up getting from torrents. Download at your own risk.


The warnings are usually for stuff on the web page itself and not the torrent. The torrent passed an Avast scan with no problems. I've uploaded the torrent to my copy.com account. Feel free to download and scan and let me know if it pops up any warnings.

https://copy.com/RyDxBBqUUiXaQUtw


----------



## mattack

LoadStar said:


> This has some precedent at CBS. "The Big Bang Theory" had a pilot episode developed for the 2006-07 season, but the pilot was fairly weak and not ordered to series. The show was heavily retooled, a new pilot shot, and it was ordered to series for the 2007-08 season.


(The Mother is in ads for some other show premiering soon..)

The pilot for "The Big Bang Theory" is one of the few things of that kind that I've seen.. (someone else downloaded it, I guess.) I actually thought it was entertaining, though of course different than the Big Bang we know. I guess similar to the first Star Trek pilot vs what ended up airing.


----------



## Hunter Green

Well, this alternate ending is a bit lackluster; the clip-show droning-list part was kind of bleh. But it's certainly the better ending.


----------



## aadam101

mattack said:


> (The Mother is in ads for some other show premiering soon..)


Oh no. It's on NBC (strike one) and it co-stars Ben Feldman (strike two). As much as I love her, I'm not sure she can save this show.

It's called "A to Z". I'm already annoyed at how this will be difficult to torrent. 

ETA: Looks like the pilot is already streaming. I'll give it a try.


----------



## mattack

aadam101 said:


> Oh no. It's on NBC (strike one) and it co-stars Ben Feldman (strike two).


Looks like he wasn't a regular/recurring character in anything I've seen. (He guested, apparently un-memorably to me, on lots of stuff.)


----------



## Steveknj

waynomo said:


> The warnings are usually for stuff on the web page itself and not the torrent. The torrent passed an Avast scan with no problems. I've uploaded the torrent to my copy.com account. Feel free to download and scan and let me know if it pops up any warnings.
> 
> https://copy.com/RyDxBBqUUiXaQUtw


Nope happened as soon as I clicked on the downloaded file, not when I did the download.


----------



## Steveknj

aadam101 said:


> Oh no. It's on NBC (strike one) and it co-stars Ben Feldman (strike two). As much as I love her, I'm not sure she can save this show.
> 
> It's called "A to Z". I'm already annoyed at how this will be difficult to torrent.
> 
> ETA: Looks like the pilot is already streaming. I'll give it a try.


It actually was pretty good, and had a HUGE HIMYM vibe to it.


----------



## Sparty99

Hunter Green said:


> Well, this alternate ending is a bit lackluster; the clip-show droning-list part was kind of bleh. But it's certainly the better ending.


I liked it. It's a great way to show how one little decision years prior can change the outcome of your entire life.


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## aadam101

I admit I kind of liked it. Cristin is always great. Lea Thompson looks fantastic!


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## Hunter Green

Steveknj said:


> Nope happened as soon as I clicked on the downloaded file, not when I did the download.


That just means you downloaded the wrong thing, which is easy to do when so many ads use download buttons to try to lure you. But a .torrent file isn't going to do anything but open a torrent.

Edit: I suppose it's possible some previous malware you installed could be being triggered by .torrent files. But again, it's not the .torrent that's responsible for the behavior, it's simply triggering something you already have.


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## waynomo

Steveknj said:


> Nope happened as soon as I clicked on the downloaded file, not when I did the download.


Just curious if you downloaded or watched from my copy.com account and had any issues?


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## Steveknj

waynomo said:


> Just curious if you downloaded or watched from my copy.com account and had any issues?


I didn't.


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## Steveknj

Hunter Green said:


> That just means you downloaded the wrong thing, which is easy to do when so many ads use download buttons to try to lure you. But a .torrent file isn't going to do anything but open a torrent.
> 
> Edit: I suppose it's possible some previous malware you installed could be being triggered by .torrent files. But again, it's not the .torrent that's responsible for the behavior, it's simply triggering something you already have.


So when i use something like uTorrent to download, it will download the wrong thing? All I know is about 50% of torrents I've downloaded wind up triggering some sort of Malware. This is over a number of PCs over the years. I'm not expert enough to know exactly what is triggering the malware, but at this point I just don't care anymore. It's not worth the risk or effort to watch an illegal download.


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## Hunter Green

To know where you get the malware requires more information. All I'm trying to say is that a torrent file itself is not going to be it. A torrent file is basically like a URL, it's just instructions on what the file is and where it can be found. That's why it's so tiny.

But using torrents does require some savvy because the sites that offer torrent files are always on the verge of being shut down and tend to sit on the hazy edge of the law (on one side or the other) and thus their advertisers are often doing the same. So you can get yourself into a mess using torrents for the same reason you can get yourself into a mess using any other process to download things of dubious legality.

Specifically:

1) When you find a site that has torrents listed, its advertisers may well play all manner of tricks on you. A dozen download buttons on the download page, only one of which is for the actual torrent. Scripts that are trying to convince you you need to update some software and offer you the update link. Popups galore that try to prevent you from closing them down. You need to a) find a site that is less bad, b) learn how to tell which is the link for the torrent, and c) when you do click it, be sure that what happens is what you meant to happen, and if not, back out. Best thing to do here is look for the "magnet" link, so instead of downloading a torrent file and then having to click it to run it, you are just clicking a link that'll fire up uTorrent directly. (Depending on your browser, the magnet link might need some extra setup to work, but once that setup is done, it's the most convenient and also safest. Doesn't mean advertisers can't put a bad download link in with a magnet image, just means I haven't seen that happen yet.)

2) Sometimes people put bogus or even harmful things up and then label them as much-desired things. Is it phishing scammers who figure you're more likely to download their malware if they call it "Game of Thrones s03e05" than something else? Is it copyright holders trying to "poison the well" to make torrenting dangerous so you'll go buy DVDs? Is it simple pranksters? Doesn't matter, really. It happens, but it can be avoided by the same techniques as avoiding malware in other downloads. (Most important one is to change Windows to show you file extensions, and then pay attention to them.)

3) Once you have the torrent, if it's genuinely something like a video file (see above for file extensions) it should be impossible for that to be malware (or if there are vulnerabilities in some kind of video files having active content I don't know about them, but if so, I bet "don't use Windows Media Player" protects you against most of them). If, however, it's an executable that is trying to make you think it's a video file or a self-extracting archive of a video file, steer clear.

4) If you need all this advice, odds are you may already have malware, and that muddies the waters because the malware is already running and may be interfering with any one of these steps, making it seem like that step doesn't work like how I said. There's nothing for this but to clear the malware first.


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## kettledrum

That is a very good and clear explanation of the risks and pitfalls of torrents. :up::up::up:


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