HIMYM/Big Bang Thread

[EagleFan]

Basically the mother is not his first choice and is just the rebound from his true love marrying his friend?

[JPhillips]

I hope this works out for Miliotti. She was fabulous on Broadway.

[whomario]

Thought season 8 was in general pretty fun and well made.

It baffles me why people still get so hung up about the when, how and why of meeting the mother in all this. If not for it being an extremely successfull show (or maybe still), i think the writers would deeply regret not naming the show "before i met your mother".

(and yeah, i realize that the authors aren´t helping "my" cause here with how they´ll tackle it, but even so: They again merely use that mystery woman as a vehicle for what Ted has to go through to get to a point where things come together for him)

To me it was never about the actual "riddle" of the mother or his life with her (him meeting her last 5 minutes is exactly what they should do). Between Marshall/Lilly setting an example, him articulating his wishes and us getting to know him we essentially know how Ted´s life will be. Do we really need to see him and the mother on the screeen for a season or 2 for that ?
I mean, the show does the happily-ever-after-but-still struggling-with-life-sometimes couple anyway (Lilly and Marshall) and throws in the should-never-work-but-does version as well in the later seasons (Robin/Barney). What exactly would be the fun in having Ted duplicate either of theese dynamics ?

Even with that said of course there are weak spots (and yeah, the Ted/Robin connection is at the heart of many of theese) but 4 out of 5 episodes i allways found to bet at least either funny, cleverly done or emotionally moving and pretty often even 2 or all 3 of theese criteria were met. Over a 8 year run, that´s quite an achivement imo and i´ll definitely be sad when the final scene is done.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by whomario

4 out of 5 episodes i allways found to bet at least either funny, cleverly done or emotionally moving

I guess you haven't watched the last couple of seasons then.


As for your question about people getting hung up on it. How can people not be hung up on it when that is the whole premise of the show?

The show lost it's sense of entertainment value for me already and at this point I am just along for the ride to see the conclusion. I am willing to bet that several others feel the same way.

[DanGarion]

[EagleFan]

I checked the math, it's right.

[terpkristin]

Holy moly it all makes sense now!

/tk

[RedKingGold]

I think you need a raccoon somewhere in the equation to balance things out.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by whomario

Thought season 8 was in general pretty fun and well made.

It baffles me why people still get so hung up about the when, how and why of meeting the mother in all this. If not for it being an extremely successfull show (or maybe still), i think the writers would deeply regret not naming the show "before i met your mother".

(and yeah, i realize that the authors aren´t helping "my" cause here with how they´ll tackle it, but even so: They again merely use that mystery woman as a vehicle for what Ted has to go through to get to a point where things come together for him)

To me it was never about the actual "riddle" of the mother or his life with her (him meeting her last 5 minutes is exactly what they should do). Between Marshall/Lilly setting an example, him articulating his wishes and us getting to know him we essentially know how Ted´s life will be. Do we really need to see him and the mother on the screeen for a season or 2 for that ?
I mean, the show does the happily-ever-after-but-still struggling-with-life-sometimes couple anyway (Lilly and Marshall) and throws in the should-never-work-but-does version as well in the later seasons (Robin/Barney). What exactly would be the fun in having Ted duplicate either of theese dynamics ?
.

"". This part I agree with. People get too hung up in the literal journey, especially for a show that is a dramedy - the journey is what is important, not the mother.

[Swaggs]

Season 9 Trailer -- HIMYM poking some fun at itself:

[Radii]

Much of the show continues to be mostly un-funny to me, and I still have pretty massive issues with the Barney/Robin relationship, and the general idea that less than a week before Ted meets the mother he's flying out to LA to facilitate a last ditch chance to steal robin away from his best friend... sigh... oh right, that's not why i started this post at all:

The scenes with the mother on the train with Lily, and the flash foward with Ted a year later were both very good. If they manage to give us a year of that, it might just be enough leave me feeling like it was worth sticking with it after all.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by Radii

Much of the show continues to be mostly un-funny to me, and I still have pretty massive issues with the Barney/Robin relationship, and the general idea that less than a week before Ted meets the mother he's flying out to LA to facilitate a last ditch chance to steal robin away from his best friend... sigh... oh right, that's not why i started this post at all:

The scenes with the mother on the train with Lily, and the flash foward with Ted a year later were both very good. If they manage to give us a year of that, it might just be enough leave me feeling like it was worth sticking with it after all.

Only thing even remotely enjoyable last night were the scenes with the mom.

[hoopsguy]

Yep, that was pretty unwatchable TV last night. My wife was lamenting that it was an hour long, given the level of unfunny throughout.

It really is hard to believe that the same people are involved with writing this show as the one I really loved watching the first couple of seasons.

[Logan]

I also enjoyed the scenes with the mother but holy shit are her horrendous fang teeth distracting.

[MrBug708]

The serious parts are pretty good.

The mom isnt very attractive. She looks like JLH

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

The mom isnt very attractive. She looks like JLH

O.o

[Easy Mac]

Mostly boring hour, but it had moments. Good chemistry with the mother. I'm hopeful they continue to parcel out bits of the future, to see why they worked so well together.

Ring bear

[Comey]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

The serious parts are pretty good.

The mom isnt very attractive. She looks like JLH

Hold up.

Also, no.

[EagleFan]

I liked Ring Bear, that that was about it. If it was a drama it probably would have been a decent episode.

Sadly I saw a bunch of episodes from their first couple seasons over the weekend and that really shows how far the show has slipped. I forgot that there used to be some really excellent laugh out loud moments to the show.

[Logan]

Yeah everything is so hokey when they intend for comedy at this point.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Logan

Yeah everything is so hokey when they intend for comedy at this point.

This. The "driving glove" thing? The "cute nickname for when he drives too slow" (yes I saw a review online call it cute). The "hilarious road trip."

All horribly horribly hokey and unfunny.

[Logan]

I'll tell you another thing...that's probably the first time I ever said the word "hokey" and I didn't like it one bit.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Logan

I'll tell you another thing...that's probably the first time I ever said the word "hokey" and I didn't like it one bit.

Technically you typed it...

[BrianD]

I liked the first (two) episode(s). The show hasn't been nearly as good as the first couple of seasons, but it also wasn't all that bad. Some funny moments, including the Kennedy Package. The mom seems nice and is a good fit for Ted. I'm rather hopeful for this season.

[EagleFan]

Dear lord tonight's episode sucked.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Dear lord tonight's episode sucked.

Can't believe we have 19 more episodes of this crap. Talk about a show that hung on way too long. It is like watching Willie Mays in 1973.

[DaddyTorgo]

Yeah - that was fucking brutal.

[DanGarion]

I didn't dislike the episode... and I tend to be more critical than the typical fan.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

I didn't dislike the episode... and I tend to be more critical than the typical fan.

I liked it a lot more than the non-mother parts from the first two (which is, to be fair, a pretty darn low bar). Maybe I'm just a sucker for Princess Bride references and old people jokes, but I thought both worked well enough.

[Alan T]

I thought the episode was fine too.

Of course I also have a pretty low tolerance for most anything since most shows I really like get cancelled

[Lathum]

I'm enjoying it so far

[MrBug708]

It wasn't bad. Made me laugh a few times. I think the low standard for the show is the episode where Marshall decided to speak like a hoodrat for the whole show

[BrianD]

I still think this season feels more like the earlier seasons.

[DaddyTorgo]

I just feel like if they're going to drag the fucking wedding thing out all season then they "owe" us at least one good flash-forward with the mother every episode.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

I just feel like if they're going to drag the fucking wedding thing out all season then they "owe" us at least one good flash-forward with the mother every episode.

I agree.

[RainMaker]

So I take it the only way they could get Jason Segel is to setup a weird schedule where he shoots all his scenes at once and they plug them into the episodes?

[EagleFan]

Since there hasn't been much Big Bang Theory talk in this thread...

Liked last week's episode but then got even more entertainment reading the responses to it. Those Indiana Jones fans sure do get defensive.

[Apathetic Lurker]

HIMYM is still on tv?

[Radii]

I was led to believe we would get to know the mother this season!

[Radii]

dola, the reverend summed up my biggest problem with the last ~3 seasons in one sentence to Barney and Robin: "You're both terrible people!" YUP. They used to be my two favorite characters on the show, and Barney was never a good person to begin with, but they are both now truly awful people...

[EagleFan]

This week was a little amusing with the Ted parts but overall still subpar. I can't take much more of Barney and Robin. Marshal seems like a caricature of himself now, Lilly has some decent moments but a lot seems forced.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

This week was a little amusing with the Ted parts but overall still subpar. I can't take much more of Barney and Robin. Marshal seems like a caricature of himself now, Lilly has some decent moments but a lot seems forced.

Marshall's character is the one that is the most devastating. He's supposed to be a lawyer or a judge? Come on. He use to add so much to the show but his one scene each week is dumb.

[Easy Mac]

I almost turned it off this week.

[Scarecrow]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

I almost turned it off this week.

I did

[DaddyTorgo]

I'm done with this show until the finale unless the episode involves the mother.

Can somebody just post in here spoiler-free and let those of us in similar positions know if the mother is involved in that week's episode?

I'd rather watch the stereotypes and explicit crude bathroom-humor of Two Broke Girls at this point.

[Racer]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

I'm done with this show until the finale unless the episode involves the mother.

Can somebody just post in here spoiler-free and let those of us in similar positions know if the mother is involved in that week's episode?

I'd rather watch the stereotypes and explicit crude bathroom-humor of Two Broke Girls at this point.

Not sure if it's true or not but someone posted on imdb's board that she will be in the following episodes:

Spoiler

8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24/finale. So if true, that would be 13 out the remaining 17 episodes.

[DaddyTorgo]

Why would they backload her in the season so much? I have to imagine there's a number of people similar to me who are tired of not seeing her who may not be savvy enough to tune back in?

[Matthean]

How I Met Your Mother Spinoff in the Works at CBS | E! Online

[DaddyTorgo]

Ugh - from a link in that E! Online story

The How I Met Your Mother Theory We Hope We're Wrong About | E! Online

When we chatted with Bays in the middle of season eight about the series finale, he confirmed that the game plan has been altered and can continue to be altered, but certain things have never veered of course, like the ending.

"There's certain things as you create a show that over the years your expectations of what the show is going to be change and you write it differently and you change your game plan, and we've done that with a lot of things on the show but there are certain core fundamental things that we don't want to veer away from, and one of those is how the series ends. And with that in mind, this decision was made years ago and I don't think we've ever even shaken from how we want to end it," he told us. "I think it'll be a fantastic series finale. The series finale is kind of why we've done the show all along and whenever we do get to do that finale, we're very excited about it because I think it's going to be really heartbreaking, and sweet and wonderful."

Heartbreaking? There are many reasons a series finale could be viewed as heartbreaking, and the revelation that the mother has been dead all along is one of them

Emphasis mine.

Also (and this one I picked up on, as I'm sure most did)

Exhibit B: The episode in season eight which led us to really think about this theory was "The Time Travelers." At the end of the episode, Ted imagines himself running to his future wife's apartment and giving her an impassioned speech about how he will meet her 45 days from now. Most viewers focused on the fact that we finally got an exact timeline of when the mother comes into Ted's life. But hearing the speech again raised some red flags. Here is a snippet:


"Exactly 45 days from now, you and I are going to meet. We're going to fall in love and we're going to get married, and we're going to have two kids. We're going to love them and each other so much. All that is 45 days away, but I'm here now, I guess because I want those extra 45 days with you. I want each one of them…I am always going to love you. Until the end of my days and beyond."

The fact that he wants those extra 45 days with her is kind of telling. Either he's just saying he wants all the time he can get with her because he loves her and has been waiting for her, or she was taken from him too soon and he wants more time with his wife now. And the line about loving her until the end of his days, well, that's part of traditional wedding vows, but it also sounds like a promise to the woman he loved and lost.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Ugh - from a link in that E! Online story

The How I Met Your Mother Theory We Hope We're Wrong About | E! Online



Emphasis mine.

Also (and this one I picked up on, as I'm sure most did)

Overall I don't see that as heart breaking, but that just might be me.

If the mother was a character that we got to know and have a feeling for throughout the show it may qualify as heart breaking but based on the way the entire series has played out it has always been a possibility (how many parents sit down and reflect on how they met their spouse with their kids with such depth unless it is after they have lost that person; especially since the mother is never involved in that conversation).

I could see the heart breaking reference being Lilly and Marshall splitting up because of their career paths.