I was surprised, but when I was watching the finale I was actually finding myself satisfied with how things were wrapping up. It’s been several years since I enjoyed watching the show but I really wanted to see how it ended because I liked the first few seasons so much, an continued to watch long after I stopped liking it. The dissolution of the group, or rather the group getting older and being around each other less often, was done pretty well, especially Robin moving on (though Lily’s constant whining was fairly annoying).
I never really cared about the mother plot line; I was interested in seeing who the mother would be but for me the show was just another sitcom about the lives of people in their late 20’s and 30’s. However, they did a really good job inserting the mother into the group. I really ended up liking her and felt appeased by the resolution to that story line, that is until they killer her off and did the whole Ted loves Robin thing again.
It’s strange, but I would have been happier if the show ended on a sad note with Ted’s comment about the mother getting sick, reading to her in the hospital bed and then her death. I wasn’t so surprised by the mother dying off, but I didn’t see the show ending with Ted getting back together with Robin, mainly because I just didn’t want it to happen.
I’ve never really liked Robin as a character so I’ve always been perplexed by the idea that other character’s were supposed to be head over heels in love with her. My ability to be engaged by the story was always compromised when the plot focused or refocused on Ted’s (or Barney’s) love for her. Every time Ted moved on from Robin, I became interested in the character again and when the show would go back to that well, I became disengaged.
In a way the mother only stood as a surrogate to fulfill the desires ingrained in Ted to get married, have kids and live the life he couldn’t with his true love Robin. The mother is essentially a proxy love interests to allow fulfillment of live goals for both Ted and Robin without either sacrificing their core desires, and then once those desires are satiated, she was removed from the story so the actual couple could reunite.
Log in to comment