How I Met Your Mother

NOT happy about this decision, and I'm voicing my opinion. This insistence on ending the series with the titular meeting, and refusal to show the two of them falling in love and getting to know each other just pisses me off to no end. I might actually quit watching because I just DON'T CARE about Barney and Robin's freaking wedding. Even as a framing device, it'll be a distraction and take time away from the two of them getting to know each other and falling in love.

I actually disagree. They have spent 8 years building up to this meeting and setting expectations for this woman. I just don't think anything they do to show their relationship would equal that build-up. Fans *think* they want to know more of the story of them falling in love, but how could they possibly top 8 years of Ted's stories? Especially in a single season? The show has always been called How I MET Your Mother, not How I Fell In Love With Your Mother. ;)
 
So, what, it's better to just dodge it altogether by having an entire season of filler? Really? THAT'S better than even trying to pay off the buildup?


People think they can't possibly write a couple that loves each other and still have it be interesting, right? Well, what about the stuff Lily and Marshall have gone through? Have they not been entertaining and compelling the bulk of the way through? I don't buy that it can't be done. I think that's just people chickening out. And even if it can't be done as well as folks would like, it's better than coming up with a doofy ploy to dodge it entirely.


And seriously, don't start with the "It's How I MET Your Mother" thing. I'll blow enough holes in that argument to make you think it's swiss cheese. Not trying to be snarky with you, I'm just really tired of that line of argument.
 
And seriously, don't start with the "It's How I MET Your Mother" thing. I'll blow enough holes in that argument to make you think it's swiss cheese. Not trying to be snarky with you, I'm just really tired of that line of argument.

Maybe not trying to be snarky, but certainly succeeding anyway. Good luck with your hate of the final season.
 
Well if the season involves individual episodes for each of the characters to meet the mother first then that won't last a full season...meaning my money is on Ted meeting her halfway through the season. Or more specifically, I see the season going like this:

Episode 1 - Ted almost talks Robin out of the wedding, but just gives her the locket instead because he truly wants her to be happy.
Episode 2 - Continuing on the flashforwards we've seen of the wedding day, ending in Barney and Robin ready to get married.
Episode 3 - Robin meets the mother (Outside the church where the mother helps pump her up before going through the door)
Episode 4 - Barney meets the mother (Where he talks about how he would have made passes at her before today, but she manages to out clever him, like Robin used to do)
Episode 5 - Lilly meets the mother (Where the mother gives her advice on how to choose between the judgeship and Rome)
Episode 6 - Marshall meets the mother (Where she discusses Sasquatch with him/and or uses her previous conversation with Lilly to give him even better advice about the same life choice)
Episode 7 - Reception, Ted is mopey, Lilly and Marshall reveal they're staying, and try to convince Ted to do the same. He still says he's moving and is now MORE mopey. Episode ends with him seeing her on the bass.
Episode 8 - The train station. They never end up getting on the train and go to his place in Farhampton.

Episodes 9-21: Whirlwind relationship, her meeting people, and loose ends

Episode 22: Present day, emotional reveal of something to end the series poigntantly on. (Mother is dead, perhaps) As well as some joke or explanations as to how Ted becomes Bob Saget...like maybe the Mother is now voiced by Becky from Full House. :lol

So even if everyone meets her individually, they still have tons of time to show the relationship...unless they mean EVERYONE will meet her individually, in which case, I can't wait for Ranjit's episode.

-Nick
 
Last edited:
Maybe not trying to be snarky, but certainly succeeding anyway. Good luck with your hate of the final season.

Thanks. And good luck with your umbrage. :D

Well if the season involves individual episodes for each of the characters to meet the mother first then that won't last a full season...meaning my money is on Ted meeting her halfway through the season. Or more specifically, I see the season going like this:

Episode 1 - Ted almost talks Robin out of the wedding, but just gives her the locket instead because he truly wants her to be happy.
Episode 2 - Continuing on the flashforwards we've seen of the wedding day, ending in Barney and Robin ready to get married.
Episode 3 - Robin meets the mother (Outside the church where the mother helps pump her up before going through the door)
Episode 4 - Barney meets the mother (Where he talks about how he would have made passes at her before today, but she manages to out clever him, like Robin used to do)
Episode 5 - Lilly meets the mother (Where the mother gives her advice on how to choose between the judgeship and Rome)
Episode 6 - Marshall meets the mother (Where she discusses Sasquatch with him/and or uses her previous conversation with Lilly to give him even better advice about the same life choice)
Episode 7 - Reception, Ted is mopey, Lilly and Marshall reveal they're staying, and try to convince Ted to do the same. He still says he's moving and is now MORE mopey. Episode ends with him seeing her on the bass.
Episode 8 - The train station. They never end up getting on the train and go to his place in Farhampton.

Episodes 9-21: Whirlwind relationship, her meeting people, and loose ends

Episode 22: Present day, emotional reveal of something to end the series poigntantly on. (Mother is dead, perhaps) As well as some joke or explanations as to how Ted becomes Bob Saget...like maybe the Mother is now voiced by Becky from Full House. :lol

So even if everyone meets her individually, they still have tons of time to show the relationship.

-Nick

TVline has heard from CBS' entertainment president, Nina Tassler that:

Season 9′s entire run will, in fact, span the wedding weekend and just the wedding weekend, as the comedy details “how each character, before Ted, meets the mother. So, they each meet her independently before he does.”

(emphasis added)

Everyone's saying "Oh, I'm sure they'll flash back and flash forward" but (A) the statement above speaks to the contrary, and (B) even if they do, dragging out a wedding that nobody really cares about anymore JUST so that they can end with the literal meeting ("Hi, I'm Ted." "Hi, I'm [The Mother]" -- and that's it, roll credits) is just dragging things out for no reason.


I mean, read the words, man. I wish I could explain it away somehow or say "But...they'd NEVER really do THAT.....right?" But yeah, it looks like that's exactly what they're doing. A season of nothing but wedding hijinks, and everyone BUT Ted meeting the Mother, only finally ending with Ted's literal introduction to her. That's it. That's your show.
 
I agree, that's why I spelled out everything that had to happen before Ted can meet the mother. Hell, let's throw in a few filler episodes:

Filler - Barney and Robin break down on the side of the road and they hitchhike to the wedding with increasingly ridiculous people.

Filler - An entire episode of Barney and Robin opening wedding gifts...and they get TWO punch bowls. THE HORROR!

Filler - Ted attempts to hook up with random girls at the wedding. Fails.

That would still only get us to episode 11, by episode 12 we have to have them meet. The one thing is, there is STILL one more day in the weekend after he meets her, assuming the wedding is on a Saturday. If the wedding is on a Friday, they have TWO days that will occur over the course of episodes 12-21.

I'm not saying I like the idea, I'm just saying, unless we have those weird story within a story episodes (Seriously, writers, he's already telling his kids a story, why would he tell them a story about someone telling a story?!) they have to have them meet by mid-season, leaving them to cover the remainder of the weekend and how they fell for each other over the rest of the season.

Writers had also said that we would be "introduced" to the Mother without knowing it was her during season 7...so I'm willing to bet we don't always get the whole story/they change their minds.

-Nick
 
If 24 can do one day in 24 hour long episodes, i'm guessing they can do the wedding weekend (friday through monday morning) in 24 30 minute episodes. Ted said he was moving/leaving first thing monday morning, so that's the outer limit from what we know.
 
I'm not going to pass judgement until I see the whole season play out for the simple reason that if there's one thing this show has taught me over the years, it's that it can have incredibly powerful moments. If the last episode were nothing more than the camera panning through photo albums that show their courtship, I'd be okay with that if done right.
 
If 24 can do one day in 24 hour long episodes, i'm guessing they can do the wedding weekend (friday through monday morning) in 24 30 minute episodes. Ted said he was moving/leaving first thing monday morning, so that's the outer limit from what we know.

That was also 24's gimmick, and as the show wore on the restraints of the gimmick didn't always work in the writers' favor. It's also a different genre show with different writers and different themes.

Had they not gotten Season 9 they would have ended the show with Ted meeting the mother properly in Monday's finale and called it a day. SInce they have one more year but only a weekend's worth of story they're going to drag things out well beyond what's reasonable. You absolutely know that given what's happened in the last few episodes: we're going to get Ted moping over Robin marrying Barney, Lilly and Marshall 'fighting' over going to Rome, and Robin having cold feet about the wedding. With the season covering the span of maybe three days they'll either really, really drag those storylines out, or it'll be the absolute worst weekend ever for them so that there's enough story and conflict to try and hold on to the attention of the ever impatient audience. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm expecting a lot of pointless filler and retreading the same narrative beats for a few months of the season just because they're so enamored with the idea of the wedding being the entire last season.
 
I agree, that's why I spelled out everything that had to happen before Ted can meet the mother. Hell, let's throw in a few filler episodes:

Filler - Barney and Robin break down on the side of the road and they hitchhike to the wedding with increasingly ridiculous people.

Filler - An entire episode of Barney and Robin opening wedding gifts...and they get TWO punch bowls. THE HORROR!

Filler - Ted attempts to hook up with random girls at the wedding. Fails.

That would still only get us to episode 11, by episode 12 we have to have them meet. The one thing is, there is STILL one more day in the weekend after he meets her, assuming the wedding is on a Saturday. If the wedding is on a Friday, they have TWO days that will occur over the course of episodes 12-21.

I'm not saying I like the idea, I'm just saying, unless we have those weird story within a story episodes (Seriously, writers, he's already telling his kids a story, why would he tell them a story about someone telling a story?!) they have to have them meet by mid-season, leaving them to cover the remainder of the weekend and how they fell for each other over the rest of the season.

Writers had also said that we would be "introduced" to the Mother without knowing it was her during season 7...so I'm willing to bet we don't always get the whole story/they change their minds.

-Nick

I don't disagree, but to me this illustrates the very problem with limiting the action to just the wedding. THat's a LOT of stupid filler for no good reason. Just tell the damn story already and show us the two of them together, falling for each other. Why is the Mother the "One" for Ted? Hell, what's different or good about Ted that would make any woman have him at this point? Why is HE the "One" for her?! We're supposed to buy that this will work based on conversations these two have with other people BEFORE they meet? For 22-24 episodes?

This is a recipe for disaster. And that's why I think NOW is the time for the fan base to come out against it. Once they really get deep into the writing process this summer, and particularly when they start shooting, it'll be a LOT harder to switch gears. I grant you, you could legitimately do the story of Robin and Barney's wedding for maybe 5 episodes and then have them meet. Past that? It stretches credibility, patience, and will, I suspect, wear thin VERY quickly. And that's even if they do side stories and flashbacks and flashes forward.

If 24 can do one day in 24 hour long episodes, i'm guessing they can do the wedding weekend (friday through monday morning) in 24 30 minute episodes. Ted said he was moving/leaving first thing monday morning, so that's the outer limit from what we know.

24 was also a 1-hour format show. It "worked" in that sense. And it was still gimmicky. It's not something that should be repeated by other shows. And anyway, these guys (as far as I know) didn't write for 24.

I'm not going to pass judgement until I see the whole season play out for the simple reason that if there's one thing this show has taught me over the years, it's that it can have incredibly powerful moments. If the last episode were nothing more than the camera panning through photo albums that show their courtship, I'd be okay with that if done right.

They can absolutely hit the high moments when they want to...which is why it's so damn disappointing when they seem content to just spin their wheels endlessly, like they appear to be doing here. Think about this season. There were some AMAZING moments in it...which were subsequently undermined in the following episodes, sometimes even the very NEXT episode.

That was also 24's gimmick, and as the show wore on the restraints of the gimmick didn't always work in the writers' favor. It's also a different genre show with different writers and different themes.

Had they not gotten Season 9 they would have ended the show with Ted meeting the mother properly in Monday's finale and called it a day. SInce they have one more year but only a weekend's worth of story they're going to drag things out well beyond what's reasonable. You absolutely know that given what's happened in the last few episodes: we're going to get Ted moping over Robin marrying Barney, Lilly and Marshall 'fighting' over going to Rome, and Robin having cold feet about the wedding.

Don't forget Robin likely finding out Ted ditched Victoria to keep her in his life, and Ted's delivery of the locket to...someone.

With the season covering the span of maybe three days they'll either really, really drag those storylines out, or it'll be the absolute worst weekend ever for them so that there's enough story and conflict to try and hold on to the attention of the ever impatient audience. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm expecting a lot of pointless filler and retreading the same narrative beats for a few months of the season just because they're so enamored with the idea of the wedding being the entire last season.

Exactly. And this is why it's an awful idea. It won't work. Personally, I think even as a simple framing device for the season, it won't work. It's just the writers being cowardly and not having enough faith in their own ability to write the character of the Mother, put her with Ted, and show them actually being -- SHOCK! AMAZEMENT! -- happy together. And yet, they've been doing the exact same thing with Lily and Marshall for years now, and showing it can be done. Why not get to see a relationship that develops WELL, huh? It just doesn't make any sense.


One theory I came up with is that this is CBS trying to get ammo to tell them "No. you do it differently. Not a whole season of the wedding. You get 1/3 of the season, and then you MOVE ON." So, they leak the info in the terms described above. Which, I might add, are quite precise and definite. This isn't "Oh, you're gonna love how they play with time this season. Stay tuned!" This is "Yes. the season is nothing but the wedding. Deal with it." Perhaps CBS is intentionally stoking fan outrage to make a point to the creators, and to gauge just how much this would hurt ratings and ad revenues.
 
What I don't understand, what kids in real life would still be interested in their dad's story of how he met their mom seriously. This is the longest story ever told. Couldn't he just been like "I met her in a bar".


LOL. That's the story that Ted's dad tells him about how he met his mother. :)
 
...and that's it, roll credits) is just dragging things out for no reason.

Right. Because NINE SEASONS isn't dragging things out for no reason. :facepalm

Don't get me wrong, I love the show, but the whole point of it has been about dragging things out. That's the entire premise the series has been based on and part of its ever frustrating charm. The final season is just going to take that to an extreme.

It's almost poetic.
 
really, the only thing that makes sense is they spent the weekend doing something his kids do not want to hear about, and isn't appropriate for network tv.
also if you look, the scenes with the kids is in 2030. its 2013 now so the first kid could have been conceived during that weekend
 
Right. Because NINE SEASONS isn't dragging things out for no reason. :facepalm

Don't get me wrong, I love the show, but the whole point of it has been about dragging things out. That's the entire premise the series has been based on and part of its ever frustrating charm. The final season is just going to take that to an extreme.

It's almost poetic.

I don't actually disagree with you that the show has been dragged out past a reasonable point. At this point, I think the show should've ended at about Season 5, which was the last really top-notch season. Since that point, much of the show has felt like it's spinning its wheels. They still can bring it when they try, but a lot of the time...they don't seem to be trying. I mean, *****, at this point, the show would make more sense if it was called "How Barney and Robin Met, Fell In Love, And Got Married."

But the thing is, the dragging things out would make sense from a storytelling perspective IF there's a real payoff. I don't think treating the title literally will do that. Just a simple "Hi I'm Ted," "Hi I'm Tracy" moment won't really cut it. (Note: not confirmed her name is Tracy, that's just a theory.)

There's been this build-up to who this woman is and why Ted is so madly in love with her -- and presumably why SHE'S so madly in love with Ted. I don't think they'll be able to convey...well...any of that if they don't show their relationship develop and show them together AFTER the meeting.

Now, a lot of people have said "Well, OBVIOUSLY they'll flash forward to stuff like they do." I don't think that (A) it's that obvious given what little we know about Season 9 (rather than merely suspect), or (B) that it's really as doable if they take every episode and have it center around Barney and Robin's wedding weekend. What we know is that the season spans literally the wedding weekend and only the wedding weekend. We know that for certain. Everything past that is speculation and wishful thinking on the part of fans.

But even if they did just use the wedding as a framing device and frequently deviate from it, I think it's going to end up being this massive distraction. Think about some of the episodes this season that had A, B, and C stories. Frequently, the C story is an annoying distraction that breaks up the flow of the narrative interplay between the A and B stories. Occasionally they weave it back in, but usually it's just an annoyance. Even the most recent episode had this, with Marshall calling Lily all the time just to throw in gags about his Mom being wigged out about missing baby Marvin. That C story kept interrupting the narrative between showing Barney and Robin actually working as a couple (first time I thought we really got to see them be good together), and the narrative between Ted and Lily talking about his situation.

Now try to imagine an entire season of that.

This show is only 22 minutes long. It's not a 3 hour movie like the Godfather II where you can seamlessly interweave a past story about a father growing in power and a current story about a son consolidating his. It's not an hour long drama like LOST or Galactica where you have the time to flesh out these side stories (although Galactica didn't do a terrific job of this either). It's a 22 minute comedy and every minute counts. Spending those minutes on the weekend wedding will be time taken away from other stories, and will distract. Devoting an entire season to it -- and nothing but it -- is absolute madness. I mean, I guess unless you think the fans are all masochists, or you just have contempt for them.
 
It's an interesting premise. Not sure if it will pay off in the long run... it's definitely pushing the envelope of a sitcom.

I'm still torn on the idea, but let's see how it pans out...
 
But the thing is, the dragging things out would make sense from a storytelling perspective IF there's a real payoff.

To me, this is the important part. I don't think, at this point, there is any payoff that will be satisfying.

They have spent 8 seasons so far showing us all of these idiosyncrasies about Ted that make him, if we're being honest, a very difficult person to be in a relationship with. That's an enormous amount of pressure on a character to live up to everything she has to be in order to satisfy this relationship being different from all of the others we've seen.

I just don't think they can pull that off. Not in a single season. Probably not in another three seasons.

Never mind the fact that where does Ted go from here? Part of what makes him interesting and fun is what a self-destructive disaster he is. Presumably, his future wife fixes some of that, but at that point Ted diminishes as a compelling character.

After this long of building it up and dragging it out, I just don't see how the series can show us Ted and The Woman being together without being anti-climactic.

Better to end with the meeting, or shortly thereafter. Will it annoy some fans who want to get to know her? Probably. But at least the show will go out with the initial promise it made to us fulfilled: To tell us the story of how Ted met his future wife.
 
To me, this is the important part. I don't think, at this point, there is any payoff that will be satisfying.

I think we fundamentally disagree on that point, so it's unlikely we'll agree on any of the matters surrounding the execution of the final season. I do think they could do a satisfying conclusion. I'll explain below.

They have spent 8 seasons so far showing us all of these idiosyncrasies about Ted that make him, if we're being honest, a very difficult person to be in a relationship with. That's an enormous amount of pressure on a character to live up to everything she has to be in order to satisfy this relationship being different from all of the others we've seen.

I just don't think they can pull that off. Not in a single season. Probably not in another three seasons.

Never mind the fact that where does Ted go from here? Part of what makes him interesting and fun is what a self-destructive disaster he is. Presumably, his future wife fixes some of that, but at that point Ted diminishes as a compelling character.

What they've shown is Ted being difficult, yes, but also being a genuinely good person in many cases, and someone who, if he can get his act together, and find a girl who finds his idiosyncrasies endearing rather than annoying, would make an ideal and devoted husband. For that girl, anyway.

I think the show has focused for a long time on how Ted got to be in a place where he was finally ready, where he needed to be, for all of that to happen. But let's not forget that for all of that to happen, it'd require finding a woman who finds Ted wonderful. Not just "Eh, he'll do," but wonderful. I think they can do that in a season (Victoria's original run was only 5 episodes with a sixth as an hallucination, and a lot of people LOVED the two of them together). The problem as I see it is that much of Ted's self-destructive behavior is now artificial. He keeps backsliding not because it's what his character would do, but because they don't want to show Ted past that point (e.g. after meeting the Mother) because they believe he won't be interesting or for some other reason.

I don't think Ted needs to be repetitively self-destructive to be interesting. In fact, he's become decidedly UNinteresting when he never exhibits any character growth. It reminds me of the last season of Six Feet Under. I kept hoping the characters would grow and change, but most of them didn't. They just stayed their same screwed up selves, and then they died. The end. That's not interesting to me. I want to see characters grow and change. Ted hasn't been doing that for a long time, but it's been because the showrunners are slow-pedaling his development to spread out the time between when he meets the Mother, and for no other reason.

I mean, this is supposedly Ted's story, but BARNEY has had more character development than him. Seriously. Barney has gone from being a guy who'd bang anything anyway he could to a guy who's grown up, found a woman who loves him for him, and is ready to settle down. ALL the other characters have grown...except Ted. He's still just spinning his wheels. That's not interesting. It's boring. We've seen all of this already. Do you just want another season of Ted being douchey, hitting on women who are wrong for him, and having it fail miserably? Or moping around pining for Robin? I don't. I'm done with that. Apparently the writers are not.

After this long of building it up and dragging it out, I just don't see how the series can show us Ted and The Woman being together without being anti-climactic.

Better to end with the meeting, or shortly thereafter. Will it annoy some fans who want to get to know her? Probably. But at least the show will go out with the initial promise it made to us fulfilled: To tell us the story of how Ted met his future wife.

I see no reason why they can't do both. Meet the Mother. Then show them together. They've written good couples before. They know HOW to do it. I think it's just fear of disappointment that leads to (A) some fans actually NOT wanting to see what happens, and (B) the writers not wanting to show it. A handful of people have heralded this structural decision as "daring." I see it as cowardly. The writers have the capacity to do SO much better than this. I trust them to be able to do it IF they actually set their minds to it. And better that then just another season of treading water.
 
This thread is more than 8 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top