There are some series endings that frustrate fans to this day. Many probably think directly of Game of Thrones or most recently Stranger Things. For MeinMMO editor, the title of the worst ending of a legendary comedy series goes to the one he rewatched after over 10 years.
Although I dislike rewatching movies, it’s different with series. I could watch comedy series over and over again. However, there’s one series I hadn’t dared to touch for almost 12 years: How I Met Your Mother. The finale first aired on 27.08.2014 on ProSieben (source: fernsehserien.de) and it ruined the entire series for me.
Now that I’ve rewatched all 9 seasons, I can say with certainty: The endings of Game of Thrones, Dexter, or Stranger Things are not as bad as the ending of How I Met Your Mother, because it’s not just about a bad season or episode.
More than just a bad season
Initially, the rewatch of How I Met Your Mother felt comfortable. Many of the episodes I had nearly forgotten were entertaining (even though some jokes haven’t aged well). But the closer I got to Season 9, the more frustrating some storylines became.
The episodes before Season 9 weren’t necessarily worse, but the development of the characters made me angry, keeping the ending of the series in mind. A problem is Barney and Robin.
Later in the series, both characters don’t just develop; they end up together. Two people who seemingly cannot have a normal relationship find each other and give up things for one another. That’s romantic and ultimately leads to their wedding, which the entire Season 9 is dedicated to.
The story between Robin and Barney is, in retrospect, a huge waste of time. In the universe of the series, Robin and Barney get divorced after 3 years. However, that’s not presented as part of the storyline, but merely mentioned in passing.
This could generally be told as a story, after all, Robin’s career has always been a major focus for her. The problem is why the divorce exists in the series, and it all ties into the series finale.
That damn ending
The relationship of Barney and Robin is not the only frustrating thing about the ending of How I Met Your Mother. At the very end of the series, after learning that Ted’s wife is dead, his children point out that he loves Aunt Robin
and now he wants permission. He gets it, and in the end, he stands with the blue horn again in front of Robin’s apartment. Romantic, right?
No, it is anything but romantic, especially when you have to kill a woman and ruin a marriage for it. I found the 16th episode of Season 9, How Your Mother Met Me
, really bad during the rewatch. The episode itself isn’t so bad. You see a glimpse of the mother’s life and how she came to Ted. The problem is the underlying idea of the episode: After her boyfriend dies, she learns to open up again.
Exactly what Ted does in the last episode. What was not a bad episode turns into a justification for Ted’s later behavior.
Don’t get me wrong: You can tell a story like that, about how one deals with love after a death, but not only as an element to indicate the ending. How I Met Your Mother is in this twist not romantic, but disrespectful – towards its own character development and ultimately also the audience.
This also doesn’t make the alternative ending better, which was later included in the DVDs for Season 9. Tracy survives and everyone is happy, but it is clearly shown in Season 9 that Ted loves Robin and that remains. And to be honest: He wants to tell his children about their mother but mostly talks about Robin and his friends. The ending was somehow doomed to fail from the start.
The greatest strength of How I Met Your Mother
Even though I am mostly negative in the previous sections, the rewatch was not pure agony. Especially until Season 6, the series was still truly fun, mainly because the friendship of the group remains a central theme. They make jokes about each other but are always there for one another. The cast fits well together as a group and overall the depicted friendship is one of the best I’ve seen in series.
That’s why it’s so frustrating that the ending is so bad, as it makes characters like Ted look worse in hindsight. Many situations can be related to the ending in advance, which ruins some individual episodes for me. The series often manages to be romantic, but ultimately fails on that at the end.
The ending was filmed back in 2006 (source: Vulture). This is generally a good sign because it means you can work towards it and not suddenly have to come up with an ending. Unfortunately, Season 9 feels like it has to finish the series.
And that is even worse than the endings of Dexter or Game of Thrones. Those are also really not good, but they don’t retroactively ruin a lot of other seasons and episodes for me. Marshall is also a problem in Season 9: A YouTuber explains how “Marshall” ruined the last season of How I Met Your Mother
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