How I Met Your Mother finale

[themufanman]

Did anyone see it? Pretty sure they just pulled off an End of Evangelion on prime time.

[ChaddyManPrime]

Did anyone see it? Pretty sure they just pulled off an End of Evangelion on prime time.

Did someone become God?

[robersora]

Did anyone see it? Pretty sure they just pulled off an End of Evangelion on prime time.

Couldn't have said it better. I've jokingly proposed that idea as an ending to a friend of mine. We both laughed it off and said, that would be awesome, but we didn't believe they would have the balls to go that route. Overall (and obviously for that matter) this series had it's up and downs in its very long run, but with this finale it redeemed itself properly. This was the only sitcom I really followed and it was very well made for that what it was.

[EvangelionFan]

I'm not sorry to say this, but you folks are completely off the mark with your EoE comparison. In fact, I'll go broader: there's nothing GAINAX about the two-part finale of HIMYM.

However, I do wish to apologize for the several big blocks of text that I've written below about my thoughts on the finale.

Of the 'main' plot point that I suspect you are referring to...

SPOILER: Show

In regards to the 'passing away' of the mother six years prior to the time that Future Ted tells the story, there are at least two events in earlier episodes that hint toward this.
The first I'm aware of is a season eight episode in which Future Ted says that, looking back, if he could have done anything would the forty-five days before he the Mother he wouldn't have waited and would have gone to meet her right away so that he could have all of those days (it's admittedly vague, but it's there).
The second is the remark from a more recent season nine episode in which Future Ted and the Mother are back at the wedding venue. In conversation, the Mother makes a remark along the lines of "what mother wouldn't miss her daughter's own funeral?", which causes Ted to go silent (and possibly wipe a tear away) before the Mother changes the topic.

Admittedly these are small things that you almost wouldn't notice - after all, a great deal of content has been packed into this ninth and finale season so it is not surprising that particular plot point (in my opinion) has not been the focus (or central dramatic question, if you prefer) of the the season.

It's also fairer to say that if there is any resemblance to any other "out of this world" twists in television, that similarities and comparisons are better drawn from the finales to other U.S. live-action television series (for instance, Rosanne) than foreign language programs that don't really exist in the same sphere of influence.

Similarly, on the consequential plot point...

SPOILER: Show

That the showrunners elected to go through with the original conclusion that they envisioned - and filmed scenes for - eight years ago isn't anything 'out there' in itself. It is, however, a little awkwardly placed as
(a) Robin and Barney have to separate in the final episode, otherwise Future Ted's kids wouldn't encourage him to go and ask Robin out, which Ted is able to do since Robin hasn't been with Barney for years. Note that the rather abrupt separation of Robin and Barney doesn't do favours for their arcs over the last two to three seasons, which indeed, has counted for quite a lot of work for the writers and a fair amount of investment on the part of viewers.
(b) It lends the overall feeling that the finale is more fragmented than it ought to be. I don't mean on the 'literal' level of its non-linearity, but rather, that the character arcs in the episode are fragmented, particularly for Barney and The Mother.
In the case of Barney, after his decision to ask Robin for a divorce - which in itself feels awkward, given the showrunner's comittment to Robin and Barney's wedding - he reverts to his former ways (and I thought we would have been done with that by now) but does a complete 180* after he meets his daughter (it's a beautiful moment, but somehow it doesn't feel all that grounded in what we know about Barney). And although the absence of the mother of Barney's daughter is sensible given the other focus points of the episode, I am left feeling that Barney's character got the short end of the stick.
... but it's not the short end of the stick that the character of the Mother received, according to some. I felt that the reveal of her fate in the story had been handled as gracefully as it could have been, given all that this season - and indeed, the previous season - set out to achieve. Nonetheless, there is feeling that some work - or some investment - is being undone by the choice to return 'the mother' to the abstract category after specifically structuring a whole season to bring her into the story as a fully-fledged character.
In other words: those people hoping for 'and they all lived happily ever after' conclusion involving Future Ted and the Mother have indeed feeling as if they've been left high and dry by the finale.

For me personally, I had only anticipated that the series finale would show how Ted met the Mother. It did that, and I have no qualms with how that scene played out; it's only how the episode got to that point that has bothered me a little. On a the same note, I have been bothered by a fair number of bumps throughout the shows' run so I don't regard the troubles of this finale as being among the shows' woes.

To return to the Ted and Robin point though - or rather, to finish on it: I have been bothered over the years by the shows' insistence of cycling back to the Ted-has-feelings-for-Robin business. I suppose it began in season five or so when they thought that Ted and Robin, having returned to living together in that apartment, would have sex to solve arguments - I had thought Robin had the intregity not to go back to that, and I thought Ted wouldn't want to repeat it, but the showrunners thought otherwise. Ditto with a few other scenes that cycling back to that plot point, namely one bit in season seven or so involving the rooftop and the kerfuffle in Barney and Robin's engagement party. The season nine stuff handled it rather well... which is why I found myself surprised at the satisfaction I felt when Ted's kids actually told him to go after Robin and then he actually goes to do it and so the show ended on a beautiful note about two friends feeling right about/for each other. It felt right to me that the series should end on that moment, and I feel that way about it suggests to me that maybe all those Ted-and-Robin bits after season four hadn't bothered me because I thought it was the wrong choice for the writers to make, but that I had been bothered because I was worried it would lead to an 'off' moment.

I too am not 'big' on sitcoms, but the characters in this series have been fairly important to me since I started watching it into the third season or so, so that's why I wrote this much

I rambled, you may now ramble back

[Chuckman]

No sitcom ending will ever top Dinosaurs.

[Gob Hobblin]

^

Yeah, that...that took a turn for the dark pretty abruptly.

....didn't effect me at all, though.

Nope.

[Princess Asuka]

The Dinosaurs ending was sad.

[Gendo'sPapa]

[url]http://www.cracked.com/article_18490_the-7-most-soul-crushing-series-finales-in-tv-history.html[/url]

HIMYM doesn't compare to any of these.

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

The only similarity I could see to Evangelion is the manner in which the show led one to believe it was going in a certain direction, only to drastically change course just before the clocks ran out. "Oh, you thought this show was about defeating angels? Nope, it's all about Shinji learning his place in the world." Not necessarily a bad ending- just not the one fans felt that they were promised.

[EvangelionFan]

The only reference[ I could see to Evangelion is the manner in which the show led one to believe it was going in a certain direction, only to drastically change course just before the clocks ran out.

That would be a similarity, not a reference.