As for the mother, the ever-elusive, never completely seen, often referenced, once went to the same party Ted was at which is where Ted ended up getting her yellow umbrella from mother, she's… mentioned at the very least (come on, I'm not going to give that kind of thing away). Which, again, you could pretty much expect from the show.
In general, watching How I Met Your Mother one can see that the sitcom is not yet dead. The series, while perhaps the most ignored on CBS' Monday night comedy lineup, is, for my money, the strongest. It is both funny in single episodes for those who do not watch on a regular basis and yet has fantastic — and fantastically subtle — payoffs for those who do. The show consistently plays with time and memory – and uses those two elements to alter stories midway through — as one might expect from a show told in flashback form, but it never does so in a way that makes the show feel false or untruthful. Old Ted may alter his story in the midst of telling it, as do the other characters, but watchers of the show have come to expect such changes.
My grandfather would refer to How I Met Your Mother as a "shaggy dog" story — a story that gets longer and wilder with every telling. The simple tale Old Ted has embarked on has now spanned a full four seasons of television with hopefully many more to come, and while Ted's life has intersected with the mother's, the two have still not actually met. It may be an unreasonable fear for a show that has created such great humor and wonderful characters, but the only fear I currently have for the series is that the actual meeting can't match the buildup. But then again, the goat does and the whole journey thus far has been great, so maybe I should just enjoy the trip and not worry so much about the destination.
Article comments
1 - Travis Johnson
I'm a little on-again-off-again with this show myself, but I was able to catch the finale tonight, and I loved it.
Meeting the mother might pose a bit of a "David and Mattie" challenge for the show-runners. Once MOONLIGHTING's bickering pair finally hit the sack, the show started to tank, and I wouldn't be surprised if the show's writers weren't taking this into consideration.
Regardless, I'm still going to keep my eye on this one.
2 - Josh G
I liked this show at first, the first few seasons were great, but the longer they delay meeting Ted's wife, the less interested I get (not to mention the fact that the laugh-out-loud jokes are few and far between these days). The characters haven't changed much over 4 seasons and I don't know why I should care, especially after the less than surprising season finale (where we STILL don't know who Ted's wife is, which is supposed to be the point of the show). The producers are stuck in an old school sitcom mentality where nothing can change and all the characters stay the same (unless you have kids in the cast which forces the show to change). Audiences today don't like those kinds of show and appreciate progression and watching characters mature and develop into different human beings. Barney was hilarious at first, but all of his plot lines are boring and predictable now. Lily and Marshal's relationship has pretty much run its course and no longer produces anything cute, quirky or entertaining; Robin...we get it, she's like a guy and they make jokes about her being Canadian... and Ted is neurotic and flakey, never satisfied with anything. At least some the actors are producing hilarious work elsewhere (see Dr.Horrible's Sing Along Blog, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I Love You, Man etc.)
This show either needs a serious overhaul or to be put out of its misery. There are simply too many other comedies out there for me to be interested in this unfortunately one-dimensional never-ending saga that once had a lot of promise and is now wallowing in the depths of redundancy.