I am a follower of many TV series, ranging from sitcoms, through drama comedies to pure dramas. When one follows a series, and its characters, for an extended period of time (sometimes over a decade) there are of course huge expectations to meet for the writers when they decide on how to end their series, and results range from total failures, like Seinfeld (with its gimmicky "include all our previous successes") to the mindboggingly beautiful (albeit somewhat predictable) Six Feet Under.
Dramas may end in an "open" way (like Breaking Bad) with people loving it, while comedies obviously seem to raise the expectations of very predictable, "clichéish" and hollywoodesque endings, which seems to be the case with How I Met Your Mother (judging from the rankings and reviews).
Personally, I (and my girlfriend) found the ending episodes (watched them as one from a DVD) extraordinarily creative, UNpredictable and also very, very beautiful, making it one (two-in-one) of our favourite final episodes ever.
In an interview we watched (extra material on our DVD) Josh Radnor (aka Ted) said that one of the things he liked about the HIMYM writing was that it was "true to life" and not shying away from the sad things that occur in life. He also pointed out that according to his view things and people in life can be "right" (for each other, like Ted and Robin) but on different time-lines, making "success" impossible. I couldn't agree more! The writers of HIMYM know this, and although several episodes of HIMYM are gimmicky, predictable and almost "slapsticky" at times (the entire Season 7 is a quality drop, methinks), it is different from most other sitcoms in its serious undertones, that pop up now and then.
I find the final episode(s) very beautiful for these reasons: good things happen in life, but you can't expect them to last (everyone can have really nasty surprises out of a clear blue sky!), life is complicated and depends on a huge amount of coincidences and "near misses" (more than we know or even *can* know), and/but finally the timeline adds up for Ted and Robin, ending in a way that is both open (we don't *know* what happens next, but we can be pretty sure) and positive, in the midst of the sad things that we have just been confronted with. Moreover, the end makes sense! Like the children point out: the entire series *has* been about Ted having the hots for Robin, but the timeline has never been right for them. Years and years later, it finally is, and what has been obvious for almost a decade (at least between the lines) happens.
Full score for a true-to-life, creative, unpredictable (while making sense) and very, very beautiful final episode.
Dramas may end in an "open" way (like Breaking Bad) with people loving it, while comedies obviously seem to raise the expectations of very predictable, "clichéish" and hollywoodesque endings, which seems to be the case with How I Met Your Mother (judging from the rankings and reviews).
Personally, I (and my girlfriend) found the ending episodes (watched them as one from a DVD) extraordinarily creative, UNpredictable and also very, very beautiful, making it one (two-in-one) of our favourite final episodes ever.
In an interview we watched (extra material on our DVD) Josh Radnor (aka Ted) said that one of the things he liked about the HIMYM writing was that it was "true to life" and not shying away from the sad things that occur in life. He also pointed out that according to his view things and people in life can be "right" (for each other, like Ted and Robin) but on different time-lines, making "success" impossible. I couldn't agree more! The writers of HIMYM know this, and although several episodes of HIMYM are gimmicky, predictable and almost "slapsticky" at times (the entire Season 7 is a quality drop, methinks), it is different from most other sitcoms in its serious undertones, that pop up now and then.
I find the final episode(s) very beautiful for these reasons: good things happen in life, but you can't expect them to last (everyone can have really nasty surprises out of a clear blue sky!), life is complicated and depends on a huge amount of coincidences and "near misses" (more than we know or even *can* know), and/but finally the timeline adds up for Ted and Robin, ending in a way that is both open (we don't *know* what happens next, but we can be pretty sure) and positive, in the midst of the sad things that we have just been confronted with. Moreover, the end makes sense! Like the children point out: the entire series *has* been about Ted having the hots for Robin, but the timeline has never been right for them. Years and years later, it finally is, and what has been obvious for almost a decade (at least between the lines) happens.
Full score for a true-to-life, creative, unpredictable (while making sense) and very, very beautiful final episode.
