Since this is my blog, with the title “El Momma,” and I’m a mother, I’m going to take a few minutes to share some of my thoughts on the final season, finale and the show How I Met Your Mother.
First off, the premise and the show had me from the first episode. It began airing in the Fall of 2005 just after our first son was born. I loved the idea of the dad telling his version of how he met their mother in his own quirky way.
Robin and Ted were charming in the beginning. She showed potential to grow into an amazing woman, wife and possibly a loving mother one day. However, at some point, the writers became determined to do two things : 1. make Robin into a character completely opposite of anyone Ted could ever love and 2. insist that she could never be the mother. Apparently, unbeknownst to viewers, they decided in the second season that the mother would die in the end and Ted and Robin would reunite with the blessing of Ted’s children. They recorded this ending with the children of Bob Saget’s voice and then they stuck with it.
I’m fine with that, in and of itself. Really, I am. But, grown up, successful people don’t fall in love for keeps with ideas. Ted fell in love with the idea of Robin when he was young. By the time they end up together, Robin’s character is more than a little flawed. And, Ted has seen it all. She’s selfish, ready to run off on her own wedding day, is possibly a closet lesbian (the final season), doesn’t make time for her friends or family and is alone and lonely. She’s the one you miss when your friends gather together for their annual catch up weekend. She’s not the one you continue to pine after.
So, to the writers of HIMYM, when you had your chance, you could have given Robin a few more redeemable qualities throughout the many seasons we the fans put in waiting to meet the mother. That would have made the ending bearable.
Signed,
el Momma (translation: The Mother)