Now, I’m sure there are some people who read the title of this article and already think that I’m an idiot for even making the argument that the How I Met Your Mother series finale wasn’t as bad as everyone says it is. Believe me, I can understand your suspicion that I might be a little insane and have absolutely no credibility to write about television. It’s okay–I get it. However, hear me out real quick. I want to make this first point clear: the How I Met You Mother series finale is a bad, bad episode of television. There’s virtually no way you can fully endorse the decision made by the HIMYM creators to not only kill off The Mother but also have Barney and Robin get divorced just so Ted and Robin can end up together. From a storytelling standpoint, those creative choices were not the smartest moves to make, and they not only angered viewers but also made them feel like they were cheated over the course of the show’s nine-season run.
Yet with saying that, I still have to argue that the How I Met Your Mother series finale is not the worst series finale of all-time. The episode deserves to be called “bad” or “awful,” but unlike what some people claim, it is not the worst finale in recent memory. In fact, I would argue three other shows that ended their runs in the past couple of years had just as bad, if not worse, conclusions than HIMYM. Those series, of course, are Gossip Girl, True Blood and Dexter.
I like to pretend that the entire final season of Gossip Girl was just a terrible nightmare that I had, but unfortunately, it wasn’t. The show ruined several of its central romantic relationships by having characters not remember key information or behave incredibly stupidly (I’m talking about how Chuck and Blair and Dan and Serena ended up together but Rufus and Lily somehow didn’t–and don’t even get me started on how Blair treated Dan during the final season). Also, not unlike How I Met Your Mother, Gossip Girl had a major question (Who is Gossip Girl?) that needed to be answered, and the reveal, which was that Dan was Gossip Girl, wasn’t simply underwhelming but made absolutely no sense. At least How I Met Your Mother‘s answer to its big question, the Mother herself, Cristin Miloti’s Tracy, was fun, charming, and likable, even if the show did make the ill-advised decision to kill her off.
And even though the How I Met Your Mother series finale did feature the death of a major character like The Mother, at least it didn’t, whether it meant to or not, spread the message that “suicide is okay,” which is what True Blood did when it killed off Bill Compton in its series finale. The HBO vampire series had Sookie help Bill stake himself and end his life, framing it as “an act of love,” a way for Bill to find peace. Then, instead of showing us the immediate pain and sadness that Bill’s decision caused his loved ones, the show simply skips ahead in time to when everyone is, supposedly, doing just fine without him, including Sookie who is now married to and pregnant with the child of a man whose face we never see. In my opinion, that’s worse than How I Met Your Mother handled Tracy’s death.
And yes, while it’s a little cruel and insulting to call your show How I Met Your Mother and then kill her off at the end, at least the series provided some sort of closure for the main story it was telling, which wasn’t as simple as “Ted meeting the Mother” but was more about Ted finding the love of his life. We can all disagree about whether or not the love of Ted’s life should have been Robin, but I’ll take a series finale of a show that offers me a real ending (even if its unlikable) than a show that provides me with absolutely no closure to the story it is telling, like Dexter did with its horrible and laughable final shot of Dexter living alone as a lumberjack.
Ultimately, the How I Met Your Mother series finale may not have been the ending everyone (or really anyone) wanted but at least it was an ending, one that, doesn’t stand alone but instead is a part of the large group of recent unsatisfying TV finales.
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I don’t watch those shows you say had a worse ending than HIMYM. The one question I have is did those endings have fans saying they no longer have any interest in rewatching the rest of the series even in syndication? A small and probably insignificant group of fans (myself included) were so turned off by the HIMYM finale that it has left a bad taste for the entire series.
I can understand that it was not the worst ending to a series, but it had the effect of negating much of the personal growth of most of the characters, wiping out years of what we saw on screen to get to an ending that was determined years before the series ended. To return to an ending that no longer fit what the characters had grown to become had ramifications that I don’t think the writers considered.
Totally understand where you’re coming from. What you just said, for me, is exactly what Gossip Girl and True Blood did. Dexter…well, as I pointed out, didn’t really have an ending–it just sort of ended. I agree with you about HIMYM and how the writers treated the characters. As I said, I definitely think it’s a bad finale but when I hear some people calling it the “worst finale ever,” I think that’s a bit of an overstatement. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Dexter didn’t end, it stopped, that’s how I’d put it.
First, Gossip Girl is incredibly popular on Netflix so I think the number of people saying they would never watch it again or hating it after watching it as a whole is pretty negligible.
Check twitter, check Facebook, check instagram, check the series IMDB star meter rating, etc. I’d argue it’s more popular NOW than it was during it’s last 2 terrible seasons. Video on demand is a good litmus test for serialized dramas and Gossip Girl is doing very well. So no, I don’t think the reaction to Gossip Girl’s finale is even close to the negative reaction to HIMYM’s finale.
Here is where I think the author gets it wrong:
Answering “Who is Gossip Girl” is not analogous to answering “How I Met Your Mother”. The former was NEVER a point of interest or focus on Gossip Girl until literally the last episode.
There was one consistent major storyline on Gossip Girl that carried through every single season: Chuck and Blair’s story. Unlike Ted and Robin, whose love story was turned off for LONG periods of time and then reactivated literally out of the blue – Chuck and Blair’s story was NEVER turned off. Even when they dated others there was always three people in the relationship: One was pining for the other, there were hints they weren’t finished like longing looks, etc. Narratively it only made sense that “the drama, the hurt, the gossip” was for something (to paraphrase Blair). The story needed a positive payoff. Especially after Chuck’s development and growth as a character in S5.
Having said that, making Dan into Gossip Girl was absurd, full of plotholes and a last minute OMFG. I think the reason GG remains popular despite that bad writing choice is because Dan was never the emotional core of the series for most fans. IMO he was the writers favorite but the emotional core with fans was Blair and her relationships with Chuck and Serena. I’m not defending the storyline choice. It’s awful. But I think that’s why the show still thrives post series finale. .Lily and Rufus not being endgame was also a dissatisfying decision too. Like Chuck and Blair, they were a series long “great love” love story with lots of obstacles. But perhaps the reason that bad choice didn’t ruin the series for most fans is because LR were more of a B story. Still, it was a depressing ending for them. Like I said, I’m not defending those choices. I’m just speculating why they don’t seem to affect Gossip Girl’s popularity on video on demand or Facebook, twitter, instagram, etc.
Bottom line, if the series was called “Who Is Gossip Girl?” and all the action was derived from answering that question? I’d agree with the author. But it wasn’t. That’s why the “How I Met Your Mother” finale was far worse and far more of a betrayal to the fans. It was basically a giant bait and switch.
I liked the ending of HIMYM. I was secretly hoping Ted would end up with Robin from the very beginning. When I was watching the last season I kept asking myself: Is this whole season mainly gonna be about barney and robin’s marriage?? I knew that it was going to overshadow the big mixture of emotions when Ted finally meets Tracy.. and it DID.. at least in my opinion. I didn’t feel anyhing when Ted finally met Tracy. Tracy felt like a rush developed character with Robin’s persona. I got those mix emotions in a different part, when Robin told Lily something along these lines: The gang is a couple whom is about to have a 3rd baby, my divorced husband, and THE MAN I should have married, who did everything for me to make me happy, who is now married and have kids. It just added a different vibe to the story. A this is real life vibe.. As for Tracy’s death.. It was an illness and i didn’t even get attached to her character. I actually felt more bad for Barney’s lonesomeness rather than Tracy’s death. Good fitting ending, not great but good overall in my opinion
I agree! Although I like the mother, I was also waiting for Ted and Robin’s happy ending. I think it showed how life could really turn out. There may be sad moments like sickness and divorce but come on they had kids(even Barney!), awesome careers and a past to laugh about because they all lived in the moment. The series made me appreciate how the past lead me to where I am now and at the same time look forward to the fuure without having regrets. The finale may not have been a blast as what we expected but it’s not that bad.