The Roseanne finale was a LOT worse than the Lost finale, never saw Dexter but I can't imagine it being that bad.

HIMYM finale wasn't nearly on that level. I think people are just angry that Ted and Robin ended up together more so than how the whole thing actually played out. This thread is an example, how several people(myself included) pointed out why it would make sense to end like this based on the format of the show and how things have played out on the show, and people seemed butt-hurt about that possibility and refuted all those opinions.

I really don't know how you could have watched this season of the show and thought there was ANY other possibility on how this was going to end, all of the foreshadowing was extremely heavy-handed(made it obvious mother was going to die before her kids got married, the use of "legendary" to describe Barney/Robin's wedding and impending divorce, fact that the show was 70+ hours of Ted talking about Robin and 2-3 hours of him talking about their mom, etc).

4/1/2014 8:20:25 AM

Quote :

"I think people are just angry that Ted and Robin ended up together more so than how the whole thing actually played out"

pretty much. I don't think many people are that surprised - myself included. People are just annoyed that it was so predictable and really downplayed the mother. Yeah we knew she was going to die (foreshadowed extremely heavily as you alluded to) but him ending up with Robin added nothing for me. They should have ended it with them under the umbrella.

4/1/2014 8:27:29 AM

Well, how would that make any more sense? I get it, I REALLY liked the character of the mother and would have loved for them to end up together with a "happy ever after", but the premise of the show would make no sense.

Why would Ted, who is happily married with 2 kids, just randomly sit down to tell his kids an EXTREMELY long story about how "he met their mother" that didn't immediately start with Barney's wedding or when he found his yellow umbrella? The fact that he started when he met Robin and had hours of stories about his on-and-off relationship with Robin, about how Robin made those comments at the wedding about almost marrying him, about how Robin made that comment about how Ted "was the man she probably should have married", without their being some reason for all of that extra commentary?

I'm totally fine with how it ended, and I'm actually glad that they knew the ending before the series began(unlike Lost). My wife hated it too, so I understand the dislike haha.

4/1/2014 8:37:17 AM

Quote :

"Eh, I've talked a lot of shit but I cried like some sort of woman."

Yeah, you weren't alone in that.

Quote :

"I was fine with it until the very end. I feel like they downplayed everything he and the mother had together. I would have been a puddle if they just left it at that one quintessential moment under the umbrella, but NO. They just HAD to fucking bring it back around to Robin and Ted who were HORRIBLE TOGETHER. God, they were awful. They were much better off as friends, and I think one of my favorite parts of HIMYM was when Barney proposed to Robin because it was the perfect moment to show Ted had finally let go of her. But obviously he hadn't! Ugh. "

Agreed 100%. Everything they showed with Tracey were the happiest moments for him in the entire series. They were shown to be perfect together. Should have ended after the moment at the train station.

Plus you've got to be out of your mind to date some women with 5 dogs.

4/1/2014 9:25:53 AM

I've basically discarded the past few years of the show in my head so the finale worked for me. If you just remove the last couple of seasons from the lexicon it would have been perfect. The true failure is how the creators compromised their art and thus the ending for the almighty $.

Maybe it just makes me emotional to see such great friends fall out of touch since I have recently been hanging out with work friends instead of my good college friends who have all moved. That was what really got me ... seeing that stretch of time.

4/1/2014 9:39:44 AM

The show's been awful for a while--in the way that makes you feel lame for ever thinking it was good. And I didn't watch the finale. But it sounds like a proper ending.

Divorce, death, and eventually settling down with the woman who bwned your best friend? If it was set in a smaller town, I'd say they nailed real life pretty good.

4/1/2014 10:05:30 AM

That article linked on the previous page echos my sentiments pretty well.

4/1/2014 10:18:35 AM

Anyone else think it kind of weird they used Bob Saget for the voice of older Ted telling his kids the story the whole series but ended up with Josh Radnor in the seat across from them telling it at the end? I guess they couldn't use Saget at the end talking to the kids and then going to Robin's apartment, but then, why use him at all in the first place?

4/1/2014 10:20:16 AM

Quote :

"I've basically discarded the past few years of the show in my head so the finale worked for me."

Unfortunately I think this is a show that would have done best with about 5 seasons.
With including the mother near the middle of season 4, give time to get to know her and then make the finale about how he felt about the mother and loves her and is looking to move on.

Hopefully other writers will learn from the mistake of adding too many twists into your pilot.

4/1/2014 10:44:16 AM

Quote :

"That article linked on the previous page echos my sentiments pretty well"

4/1/2014 10:45:32 AM

Quote :

"she died the way she lived: offscreen"

4/1/2014 1:00:52 PM

Rather than stretching the wedding weekend into an entire season they should have stretched all the flashing back & forth from that last episode into a season. But then we would have liked the mother & hated the ending even more.

4/1/2014 2:04:32 PM

Quote :

"Listen, he has described the mom as a love his life. The first time I thought she was going to die, was when he said that he was near her apartment and had he known she were in there he would've rushed over and beaten up her boyfriend, just for the opportunity for him have a few more days with her. When you're professing that sort of love, you don't follow up in the bit with now I'm going to go marry your aunt Robin."

That is my quote from 3/26.

My unhappiness with the episode stems from the sentiment expressed above. We've seen so many incidences that would lead us to believe that Tracy was the love of his life and nothing else matters to him. Not even the big events such as Ted wishing for just one more second but the little scenes with thousands of yellow umbrellas when he Stella fail, the scene with us seeing a little bit of her and on and on.

They could have made that ending without showing us any of the mother at all. It could have been 30seconds to 2 minutes of the mother tops and that would make the segue all the better when the kids said "dad the story can't be about mom".

4/1/2014 2:20:02 PM

the kids really didn't seem to care at all about their dead mom.
don't get me wrong it's usually a sign of maturity when you wish for someone else to have what will make them happy... but geez. it was less "we understand, and as much as we loved mom we want you to be happy" and more "dude go bone her right now... can't believe you wasted all this time telling us about mom."

4/1/2014 3:14:51 PM

i don't know about that, it had been 6 years and they reacted how i have seen kids react in a similar situation.

4/1/2014 3:38:04 PM

If your dad was as annoying as ted, you'd be praying he'd get out of the house and start banging someone else.

4/1/2014 11:13:45 PM

Quote :

"My unhappiness with the episode stems from the sentiment expressed above. We've seen so many incidences that would lead us to believe that Tracy was the love of his life and nothing else matters to him. Not even the big events such as Ted wishing for just one more second but the little scenes with thousands of yellow umbrellas when he Stella fail, the scene with us seeing a little bit of her and on and on. "

Agreed. A lot of people have argued that Ted had a special relationship with Robin that spanned over 9 years (80% of it as friends). But those people are conveniently forgetting that, while Tracey didn't get a lot of screen time on the show (comparatively speaking), in the show's timeline she also spent 9 years with Ted, in a committed relationship, and had 2 children with him.

That trumps what he had with Robin.

4/2/2014 9:03:36 AM

if you are living in the TV world you have to consider that she got sick and died, so they couldn't possibly be together. in the real world she was barely in the show; you can't break the 4th wall and combine those.

4/2/2014 9:43:19 AM

IMO this is the way it should have ended:

http://youtu.be/0caCEG1nH3E

4/2/2014 9:47:41 AM

^I'd have been pissed if that was the ending. Would have been like "Why in the hell did this guy just tell his kids this incredibly LONG story all about his life before he met their mother when the point of the story was how he met their mother? He just told them WAY more about his Aunt Robin, and even more awkwardly his long relationship with her, than he did about their mother. Hell he just told those kids more about his buddy Barney's random hook-ups than he said about their mother, this show makes no damn sense."

4/2/2014 10:08:09 AM

Ted the Narrator was long winded and off-track the entire series, even in the middle of stories about the mother. That's part of his character. Makes perfect sense to me.

They could have made him telling his kids the story part of something bigger like them going off to college or anything that justifies him sitting his kids down and getting a chance to just tell them stories.

4/2/2014 10:14:48 AM

^^Like, the second line of that posted video talks about how long and winding the road was, and hell to get to the end . . . but it was all worth it. That really should be all the excuse needed for why the mother was only in the last small bit of it.

4/2/2014 11:19:12 PM

^^Except we knew from the first episode that the kids were still in their early teens and nowhere near college age.

I get that Ted is long-winded, but 70+ hours of stories to tell his kids about his shenanigans with all his best friends just to tell them his life-story leading up to meeting his mother? I think what they went with actually makes more sense than that. If you watched the show, and took out all the narration about the mother, it would be like Friends and Ted/Robin are just Ross/Rachel without the kids, you knew they'd end up together somehow.

I get it, people loved the mother, hated Ted/Robin, but not sure how you could watch that entire series and not KNOW that they were going to end up together somehow/someway. I mean it wasn't until the last season that you realized the mother was going to die(though the 6-year window was a bit unexpected but I'm glad they gave it plenty of time before Ted moves on), but after season 1 if you'd have said "the end of this show is Ted and Robin ending up together", the response would have been "yeah more than likely."

4/3/2014 8:19:37 AM

Alternate ending anyone?

http://news.yahoo.com/himym-creators-show-fans-shows-alternate-ending-152314037.html

Quote :

"Faced with the frustration of their fans, many of whom were disappointed with the show's ending, the creators of "How I Met Your Mother" have decided to release an alternate conclusion. This second finale will be available on DVD this fall. The conclusion chosen by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, the comedy's creators, did not live up to the expectations of many longtime fans, who had been following the New York adventures of Ted Mosby and his friends since 2005. Aired on CBS on Monday, March 31, the final episode drew a record 13.1 million viewers. But for many of those who tuned in, the ending fell short of expectations, leading to backlash across the internet. Some fans even went as far as launching a petition for a new ending. Now, the creators of "How I Met Your Mother" are responding to their fans' pleas. Carter Bays announced via Twitter (@CarterBays) that fans will soon be able to watch an alternate ending that was considered before the finale was aired. There will be no need for the cast of the show to re-shoot certain scenes, as the alternate ending will be produced by editing pre-existing footage. The result will be available in the bonus features on the "How I Met Your Mother" Season Nine DVD and on the complete series DVD box set, both of which are due for release sometime this fall."

4/7/2014 12:47:39 PM

probably intended just to boost dvd sales

4/7/2014 12:56:05 PM

I'll wait for someone to rip that to the internet. No chance in hell I'd buy that (mostly an) abortion of a season.

4/7/2014 1:11:37 PM

Quote :

"There will be no need for the cast of the show to re-shoot certain scenes, as the alternate ending will be produced by editing pre-existing footage"

i am laughing imagining how shitty this will be.

also, i'd bet they didn't consider it before the finale. only after that shit got panned.

4/7/2014 3:54:13 PM

this reeks of trying to save face

I bet it just cuts off at the last scene at the train station or something

4/7/2014 5:12:51 PM

^that's already out there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_5zxSFQLGk

4/7/2014 5:21:12 PM

Now on Netflix. Thank you, Linus.

10/1/2014 1:40:05 AM

so i am rewatching the series, they tell us the name of the mother in episode 9 of season 1 when Ted jokes with his kids and say that's how he met their mother in a strip club

6/14/2016 11:48:00 PM

They telegraphed Robin as the mother the entire series. The attempts to throw the audience off the Robin trail worked too well and the series went a bit too long to make the Robin Ted ending satisfying. If this had of been like a 5 or 6 season show it would have been better.

6/19/2016 10:25:08 PM

Rewatching is good for laughs, but also reinforces how much of a douchebag Ted is.

6/20/2016 9:33:32 AM

Yeah, Ted liked to think of himself as the good guy but was really quite the womanizing douche. He cheated on girls, completely left them for others, etc ...

As the show went on I found it hard to see redeeming value in Ted.

6/20/2016 9:50:34 AM