Thread by @CoffeeTeachWine, During Quarantine, I rewatched HIMYM. I had really enjoyed it when I [...]

During Quarantine, I rewatched HIMYM. I had really enjoyed it when I first watched it (besides the last season, duh). The re-watch took me about 3 weeks to watch all 9 seasons. Buckle up for a long thread on why the show sucks (and no, I don't care to hear your differing opinion)

Before I rip into it, I will acknowledge that the creators did a great job with planning out the show, because there are many scenes in later seasons that were clearly filmed early on but weren't in episodes until later. Plus the kids don't age, so their response was planned.

Now let's get into it.
First of all, there is NO PLOT in this damn show. The whole premise is that Ted eventually meets his wife and has children. But that's not REALLY a plot, at least not until the final season. He basically just dates a bunch and faces a lot of failure.

Actually, the premise of the show ruins the rest of the potential plots. We know that Ted winds up married to someone, and we also know that anyone with a name in the show is not the mother. This makes it hard to even care about Ted's dating life.

We know he doesn't actually wind up with Robin or Stella or Zoey or anyone else he thinks he might marry. On that note, let's dig into Ted's character.
He is the most annoying character on the whole show. He's not very likable. But aren't you supposed to like the main character?

Ted's choices and personality make it very hard to root for him in anything, honestly. Well that, combined with already knowing that he winds up married with children in the end. Not only do I not root for him, I actually I root for him to STOP doing annoying shit.

He is a self-proclaimed hopeless romantic and apparently this makes him "fall in love" extremely quickly. He is so desperate for love and marriage and a family that any girl he finds remotely pretty, he immediately decides she's "the one" and he wants to marry her.

Also, for someone who supposedly cares a lot about his friends, he's very self-centered. He is constantly seeking attention and reassurance - he needs to be told that he's doing well, he's the best, etc. And whenever he does something decent, he can't stop bragging about it.

He is also extremely particular and anal. I know that's supposed to be a redeeming quality, but it's not endearing. He's interrupting people to mansplain shit constantly and it's not cute. He also rambles a lot and it's like... bro... calm down and get to the point or shut up.

Can we also talk about the fact that Ted doesn't have any character development? MAYBE in the final EPISODE. But throughout the entire series, he stays just as impulsive, annoying, and self-centered as always. Who wants a main character with no character development?!

Speaking of character development... Let's talk about Barney. He's a huge douche, but at least he's a relatively entertaining character. Much more likable than Ted, despite being a sociopath. However, he also stays pretty much the same throughout the whole series -

Challenging himself to hookup with any girl with boobs, basically, but at least he always wants his friends to do the same. The worst thing about Barney is the sudden switch in his priorities - three times. He stayed consistently unattached, and although it's not a great quality,

at least it was consistent. Then he met a girl who wouldn't sleep with him because he wanted to get married, and he suddenly decided marriage might be right for him. It didn't work out with her (thank god she realized she's too good for him!) but then he met Quinn.

Quinn wasn't into him, and because of that he decided she might be "the one" and he wanted to eventually marry her.... like what?! Since when does Barney care about shit like that? It was just such a random transition. Then of course that doesn't work out and we learn he's "still

in love with Robin." Aka both Barney and Robin are innately afraid of commitment and therefore they get pushed together I guess? I will admit, the fact that Ted's future wife convinced Barney to chase after Robin is sweet. That made it slightly better.

However, that whole relationship is a shit-show. The fact that Barney decided the only way he could marry Robin is by lying to her for 2 months and tricking her into thinking he was marrying someone she couldn't stand. Not a good look? That's not mentally stable.

But can we talk about how Robin accepted anyway?? She even had said she wouldn't marry him because of that ridiculous play, but then as soon as he actually asked her, she said yes. Like what the hell, Robin, get it together! Let's talk more about their relationship.

So before we can dig too far into Barney and Robin's relationship, we have to dig in to Robin's "daddy issues." Yes, we hear a little bit about this throughout the series: her dad wanted a son and basically raised her as one. But it kind of starts out as a joke for the show.

Then suddenly, in the final season, Robin continues to talk about her Daddy issues and how everything with him is to blame for her commitment issues. Sure, it makes sense, but what doesn't make sense is how these daddy issues weren't that serious before, and then suddenly are?

Anyway. Barney and Robin: both commitment-phobes. They hook up one night, then wind up doing it repeatedly, until Lily (the best character, we'll get to that) forces them to agree to date. But they lie to her about it. What a surprise: they base their relationship on a LIE

The whole idea that they wind up completely letting go of themselves in their relationship is kind of weird, but we will go with it. They dated for a year and it practically killed both of them. So then, why on Earth would it be a good idea for them to get married??

Throughout their whole engagement, they encounter lots of signs that they don't belong together, or at least that they won't last. They can't agree on things. Barney still hits on other women and keeps saying how "cool" Robin is for letting him do it. Neither of them had been

interested in marriage for many seasons before this. Even the weekend of the wedding (aka the entire last season??) Robin almost runs away. Barney almost runs away. Barney has all of these plans that he never tells her. Scares her into thinking he's leaving. the list goes on.

Then, of course, they get divorced. Robin continues to choose her career over relationships (I'll get more into this soon). Barney goes right back to hooking up with anything with boobs. So.... all of the character development they forced on him wasn't even real. Even dumber!

Then Barney knocks a girl up and winds up "falling in love" with the daughter. Cute I guess. But let's stop forcing strange character development on Barney....

Okay, let's move on to Ted and Robin. Their eyes magically meet on day 1 and Ted of course has his ridiculous "she's the one" moment. He's too afraid to kiss her on their first "date." I'll admit that the blue french horn is kind of cute, a romantic gesture. But also... illegal?

Robin tells Ted right away that she doesn't want children and may never want to get married. These are BIG DEAL TOPICS and they CLEARLY have different priorities. Yet Ted still pursues her.... why would you date someone who doesn't want kids if that's a big life goal of yours?

Sure, people change their mind, but it's really unfair of him to expect her to change her mind. He clearly doesn't plan to change his mind, so why would she? Here, we see Robin choosing her career over her relationships. Multiple times. But can you blame her? Sure, it's shitty.

But she moved across coasts and into a NEW COUNTRY in order to be a news reporter. Of course she's going to choose her career over her relationships. But you'd think she'd eventually learn from this lesson because she keeps getting fucked over, but no. Her friends are too nice.

She's also a huge fucking bitch to Patrice for no reason. Patrice tries to be a good friend and is kind and caring. Robin SCREAMS at her REPEATEDLY and Patrice STILL LOVES HER. Robin does not deserve these good friends.
Now jump ahead to the end... she chooses her career again

It causes her divorce. Then instead of learning her lesson, she keeps choosing her career and basically disappears from the group once she gets divorced, completely ditching Lily, her bff. Robin SUCKS. She can't commit to anything besides her shitty jobs. ugh.

Now let's get into the only good thing about this show: Lily. Lily is basically the only character with a real timeline of life events in this show. She gets engaged, then needs to go find herself (which was shitty but not surprising given the longevity of her relationship)

comes back and eventually gets back with Marshall, realizing she made a huge mistake. Eventually she gets to pursue a career in art like she'd always dreamed. Plus I love that she is a kindergarten teacher and talks to her friends like they're children. Very relatable.

My biggest complaint about Lily is that she constantly makes weird comments about wanting to make out with Robin. It's like she has this secret gay side to her that she's never explored and no one talks about it and it's just strange. Then they finally kiss at the end and she

acts all weird and says she doesn't like it. It's just weird.
Another weird thing about Lily is how hot she thinks Marshall is. I do not think he's attractive at ALL, but it is cute how strong her love googles are. Also, she sucks at keeping secrets which is not a good look.

But Lily is definitely my favorite character. She makes relatively good choices while still being an extremely supportive wife and friend. She is the glue that keeps the group together.
Marshall is okay too but he's just annoying with his job.

Honestly I'm getting tired of this thread lol. I'm sure you are too (if you are even still reading?) I do want to say one thing about Barney though: Why tf does he have to lie to get girls in bed? He's attractive. Just be normal and have a 1 night stand...? Also he acts like he's

so good in bed but if he's only having 1 night stands, maybe he sucks in bed. It would be hard to learn women's needs in such a short time, plus he seems selfish. So he prob sucks in bed.

Here's an overall complaint of the show: They try to make things jokes that were mentioned once like 4 seasons ago, and it's annoying. But also, jokes that have been around for a while for some reason always get explained whenever they were mentioned. Like we KNOW, Ted. Shut up!

The slap bet is stupid too. Why does Marshall take 7 years to slap Barney like 5 times? idk.
This show would have actually been interesting if we got to watch Ted's and the mother's lives simultaneously. The last season was actually relatively entertaining because of her.

Although dragging out one weekend into a whole series is a bit ridiculous. And then after all of that, the final episode fits like 5 years into 30 minutes? It's a big ridiculous. The last episode felt very forced.

I've been typing this for close to an hour lol, I'm over it. The show is not strong, the characters are annoying and make bad decisions and there is no plot. I miss FRIENDS on Netflix. The end.

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