Thejambi wrote:As was already said, it should have ended at the train station.
I don't understand this sentiment. It was a great scene to be sure, but the mother was hardly part of the show. If she had been part of the gang for a season or two them I could understand that, but if it would have ended there it would have been hugely anticlimactic for me.
I personally loved the ending I always wanted and thought Ted and Robin should end up together. My only problem with the finale is they crammed too much of the fast forwards into the episode without expanding on them. They should have had the wedding 2 or 3 episodes before the finale to start going into the storylines. That way they could be fleshed out more and there would be more room for comedy, instead of one downer after the other (ie. Marshall' s job, the divorce, Robin breaking away from the group).
Worst finale I've ever seen. I hated the outcome, but it could've been done much better either way. Maybe they shouldn't have made the mother so likeable or built her up so well through the years. Comparitively, Robin was a major douche and they were really a terrible couple. The worst, most selfish person on the show gets everything she ever wanted.
I think the mother dying and that being the reason for Ted telling the story would've worked, but the writers, thinking they were being really creative and tricky had to go for the obvious ending.
I think the best twist was when we realized that Ted and Robin wouldn't end up together.
I don't care two hoots for Robin and Ted being together but I still thought it was a good ending.
In any case, I hardly think the point of the episode was that they end up back together - I think it was still pretty clear that the story was largely about The Mother and that she was the defining relationship in Ted's life.
Oh, Jimmy wrote: Comparitively, Robin was a major douche and they were really a terrible couple. The worst, most selfish person on the show gets everything she ever wanted.
There's the dog. You can't fake that stuff. Confess with your mouth.
I've never really watched much of this show. My wife used to be really into it, especially seasons 1 through 3, but stopped watching after season 5. She recorded the finale b/c she was curious, and we watched it last night. I've seen pretty much all of season 1, and a few episodes here and there. I gotta say, I've typically not been impressed with this show, and I've never really cared that much about it. Like some others here, I was a little perplexed this was a show RM embraced. Having said that, I liked the finale. It was a little corny n'all, but "the good" that was posted earlier is pretty spot on. I actually enjoyed it. Maybe I'll go back to season 2 on Netflix and give this show another try.
It was exactly what I expected it to be. It wrapped up the series exactly how I expected; exactly as the forecast. They made it work, sure. It was the best possible way to do that finale. But it would have been infinitely better if the last moment had been their conversation under the umbrella at the train station. Sure, it wasn't Waits' version, but hearing those words, finally seeing them meet, being equally goofy and spellbound by each other, while Downtown Train underscored was the perfect ending.
The coda certainly didn't ruin the series for me. But it was obvious and predictable and unfortunate. But it is what it is. It was a great series that went on too long and had an exactly fine finale. But it could have been great.
How I used your mother to get the children aunt robin couldn't have.
How, exactly, did Ted "use" the mother? (phrasing, I know). He loved her from the moment they met, through her debilitating illness, even years past the day she died. He loved the mother so much that he felt the need to recount his whole history with Robin, bad parts and all, to his children to help himself rationalize his desire to move on six years after her death. The entire show was Ted telling himself it's OK to try and love someone else. It's a misconception that he was in love with Robin the whole time. Nothing in the story implies that. We are just so programmed to believe that in TV-comedy world it's once in love, forever in love, but that's not life and not what they were going for here. They wanted to show the good, bad, and beautiful moments that build our lives don't last forever but there is always hope, which was the underlying mindset of the Ted character from day one. The mother's previous fiance had died and she moved on and found happiness, why can't Ted? Perhaps the show should have been called "Ted Mosby's Eternal Optimism About Love".
Good:
1.) The mother remembering him from the Econ class, really the whole "first conversation" scene.
2.) They didn't dwell on her death
3.) Barney holding his daughter for the first time (for all you non-dad's, that was exactly what it's like)
4.) "Fudge supreme"
5.) The breakdown of the friendships, again very real
Bad:
1.) The blue french horn thing was beat to death already. I get it, it had to be a grand gesture on par with finding the locket to show they can start again, but if that's what they had in mind they should have let us forget about it for the last few seasons.
Joesanity wrote:I wish they had spent half this season on future stuff like much of the last episode had and not on the wedding.
I agree with.
The most of this final season was wheel-spinning and a good amount of the finale was sort of packed and rushed. Splitting the season so that the first half of the season was the wedding and the second half the future stuff would have been more fulfilling, I think.
doone wrote:Here's how I choose to take the finale.
Ted and Tracy had 10 good years together, she was the love of his life.
Ted has 6 years on his own raising the kids, with Aunt Robin occasionally dropping by; she's a beloved friend, the kids like her, he doesn't want to start from scratch so why not? At that age, starting over with your best friend wouldn't be so bad.
I'd like to think they've both grown from their life experiences and will now make a good couple.
Yeah, this was my take too.
Me too. And it worked because:
1) Penny says, you've told us this whole story and Mom's barely in it. Then the kids give their blessing. They bring it up, not Ted.
Birds in Hell wrote:For a show that leaned so heavily on Ted's quest to find "the one", I kind of like that its end message was that destiny and fate are illusory; you just have to grasp onto whatever happiness you can and hope for the best.
I can live with the ending. I am guessing they had no idea where they were going when this show started.
I appreciate that they addressed the "why would he tell a story about Robin to his kids if the mother is dead?" question by having his kids speak it explicity.
Anyhow, that show's been on a downhill slide for a few years. This wasn't the worst episode of the run.
Everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?
Been rewatching the background and Season 7 Episode 2 has such a great musical cue payoff at the end with teasing “Victoria” by the Kinks the entire episode
