This blog post about How I Met Your Mother contains a few spoilers about the show, so stay away if you don't like spoilers. If you're current with the show, there's nothing new here.
I've been a fan of the CBS show How I Met Your Mother from the very beginning. Initially, I found the premise of the show to be very interesting: in the year 2030, the "main" character of the show Ted is telling his kids about how he first met their mother. Ted has a very close knit group of friends with varied personalities and they all get together and hang out at a local bar. The show has proven to be entertaining overall, but I will admit that my love affair with How I Met Your Mother has been a bittersweet one.
During the first couple seasons, it was easily one of my favorite shows. The characters were all likeable in their own ways, the storyline progressed, and things that happened within the story actually mattered. With the beginning of season three, the wheels come off entirely and the episodes become filler. In the third season. the show brings in Enrique Eglesias, Sarah Chalke (the second Becky from Roseanne), and also Britney Spears as major characters. Basically, the entire season is just a big joke where nothing really happens that will impact the storyline, of course, up until the season finale where the show reveals that Barney loves Robin! The story progression in the entire season could have taken place within two episodes. The very next season does the exact same thing, accomplishing nothing, and then taking all season for Robin to learn that Barney loves her. The fifth season does it again, with nothing all that meaningful taking place. Although a few little things happen, the old gang almost completely returns to how it was before anything happened. It is like watching an episode of The Simpsons.
Another thing that really bothers me about these seasons is that if the watcher is keeping current with the show, he/she does not know that the show will be running for 8+ years, and will actually believe that the show is providing clues of substance regarding the maternity of Ted's children. The show basically just plays with you, as it will pull back on every clue to the point where they are meaningless and you really stop caring about both the mother and Ted in general. The show bludgeons you with these pretend clues to a ridiculous extent.
However, even despite the missteps, the show slowly gets back on track and becomes engaging again. The past few seasons have been pretty nice for the most part. Although I wasn't a huge fan of the Zooey storyline, there were things with the other characters that actually moved the overall story forward. Ted has fallen from being the most important part of the show to being the least important character. The show has moved into a more serious, positive direction with life changing events that have caused each member of the gang to mature in his/her own way.
I'm about halfway through the last season, and I'm beginning to regret that I've put off watching it until now. I've recorded the first run of each of last season's episodes, but I just didn't have the desire to watch it as I always fear a regression back into the seasons with no progression. The show is supposed to come back for another season in Fall 2012, but it is not known whether this will be the final season or if there will be subsequent seasons. My hope is that they allow the show to close gracefully. I really do not want to watch a season without all of the cast members present and on-screen as much as they are now. If a cast member leaves, it just wouldn't be the same show.
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