Dear How I Met Your Mother Creators,
To say I was disappointed in the series finale of How I Met Your Mother is a gross understatement. I am disconcertingly, irretrievably, unfathomably disappointed in the way you chose to end what used to be my absolute favorite television series of all time, to the point where it makes me physically ill to think about. For nine seasons you taught us to believe in magic, and in destiny, and happy endings, and in the fates always working out in the end, no matter how bumpy the road to get there was. This ending absolutely destroyed everything that was magical about this series. A few things you destroyed:
Barney Stinson. From the moment we saw Barney asking about his tie at the end of season 6, and realized that he was getting married, we have seen the character of Barney Stinson evolve, albiet slowly from a manipulative womanizer to a gentlemen worthy of marrying Robin Sherbatsky. When he finally vowed to always tell Robin the truth the moment before he married her, I was proud of him and the full circle that he had done. And then, in one episode, you destroyed three seasons of character development for Barney and made him devolve into an unfunny, immature scumbag of a guy who knocked somebody up and who wasn't even happy about having a child until the moment he held her in his arms. What a SAD, MISERABLE ending for one of the most diverse characters in the show.
Robin Sherbatsky. Ruined her character as well. So she becomes famous, ditches all of her friends and her husband for her career, and lives an anti-social life where she eventually ends up all alone in her old apartment with more dogs?
I could have lived with the mother dying. I could have lived with this. I could have been happy. I could have made it work.But you decided to take it one step
further.You decided to ruin Ted Mosby. You decided to turn Ted Mosby from a hopeless romantic telling an amazingly beautiful story of how he met the mother of his children into some elaborate ploy to ask his kids' permission to pursue Robin again. Robin. THE SAME WOMAN WHO MARRIED HIS BEST FRIEND AND WHO TOLD TED SHE DID NOT LOVE HIM AND THAT THEY WOULD NEVER WORK OUT EVER BECAUSE THEY WERE TOO FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT PEOPLE. By the way, way to break the bro code, Ted. You shattered Ted's character by convincing us he finally moved on from Robin. But no. Still pining after the same woman after 20+ years. Makes me physically ill.
But the worst thing....You ruined The Mother and her story. You turned her death into a minor part, another hurdle Ted had to jump to finally reach Robin. We did not see ANY mourning from Ted for the death of his wife. We did not see their final moments together. We did not see the funeral. We did not hear any sadness from her kids. All we heard was "Oh by the way, the mother got sick and died, let's talk about Robin instead". Makes me absolutely sick to my
stomach.You ruined the magic. And for that, I will forever be disappointed.
In my mind, the series ended with Barney and Robin's wedding. A snippet of Ted seeing the mother playing bass on stage. Finally meeting her at the train station. Flash forwards of their lives together. Ted proposes. They have an amazing life and two children together. She slowly gets sick and eventually passes away. And in order to honor her memory, he sits his kids down and tells them the long, amazing story of how he met the love of his life. And that's the true story of how Ted met the mother, the love of his life. At least, that's the story I will be remembering.Sincerely,A Disappointed Viewer
