Well, that was ... something. If I had to describe the series finale of How I Met Your Mother in a word, it would probably be "ungratifying".
I'm really not quite sure what to think about the HIMYM finale. In a way, I don't think there was really any sort of ending that would have satisfied everyone, but they opted to go the fairly conservative route.
The one-hour finale itself was plagued with the same problem that affected the series as a whole; they dragged it out too long. The finale episode could just as easily have been 22 minutes long, but for whatever reason they decided to stretch it out.
In retrospect, the "weekend in a season" was not a very good idea at all, as it got old very quickly. Many of the episodes found themselves long, drawn out and pointless to the overall story.
At the very end, the writers opted to go the "full circle" route, which has been used umpteen times on television shows (the most recent example I can think of was "Lost"), but in this case it didn't really fit.
If you think about it, the series has been nine seasons of building up towards the penultimate moment of meeting the mother. And then suddenly you realize the mother has died and Ted just ends up with Robin. Not exactly the way you had hoped it would end, right? I kind of feel like the rug was just pulled out from under me.
On that same token, the entire ninth season was built leading up to Barney and Robin's wedding, only to find out they end up divorced shortly thereafter. So what was the point of that?
I thought the scene at the train station was probably one of the best of the season, and am surprised they just didn't end it right there. That would've been a great way to finish off the series; Ted and Tracey huddled under their yellow umbrella. End scene.
Ending on that theme of serendipity seemed very fitting. But again, instead they decided to let it drag on a liiiittle too long.
As an aside, I had three predictions for the finale and two of them came true. There have been hints for years that the mother might not make it, and it seems like the seed was planted long ago that Ted and Robin would eventually end up together.
I thought that the mother (Tracey) might actually end up being Lily's half-sister or something, simply because the two look and act so similarly. Alas, that didn't happen ... but the other two did.
And what was up with Barney suddenly having a kid? For a moment there, I thought the mother might be Robin, and somehow she miraculously was able to conceive ... but we learn that the mother was, nobody?
As great as the scene was in the hospital where Barney was talking to his newborn, that storyline itself just seemed unnecessary. So once again, the identity of a mother is kept a mystery. Was that done on purpose or what? Perhaps that will somehow tie into the HIMYM spin-off.
Overall, I think the series finale of HIMYM was alright. It's not really the one I was hoping for, but I understand why the writers chose to go that route. They obviously had it in their minds from the very beginning that Ted would eventually end up back with Robin ... it was just a matter of when.
Apparently they filmed the scenes with Ted and Tracey's kids on the couch at the very beginning of the series nine years ago, so they knew that was happening from the beginning.
How I Met Your Mother was a great series, but that ending just did not reflect the overall quality of the show. It wasn't the best ending ... but it was an ending.
