I’ve never been a huge television person as I got older–most of my childhood was a mix of video games and watching cartoons on Nickelodeon and Disney with some other stuff thrown in (Like Sailor Moon and Pokemon) so that is what I grew up with. In fact, I probably watched more shows from when my mother was younger due to Nick at Night than other non-Saturday morning cartoons. As I got older, Television with those kinds of shows became a way to spend time with my family–I’d go up and watch some Lifetime movies and then those Prime Time shows would be on and I’d sit and watch with my family.
That said, there’s always been some I’ve liked, but I’ve found more and more slowly had gone downhill–either during later seasons, character changes (Such as CSI–I miss the original cast group and dynamics–even if some were brought back, it still seemed off without others), or just some things going on for so long. In general, I enjoy a lot of crime scene shows–I like mysteries and things so I tend to find them interesting, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve just started to find them kind of depressing–to see it happening. I still find the characters interesting (thus why I still watch NCIS and Criminal Minds), but I don’t pay as much attention as the cases tend to make me feel down and I don’t want to go to bed with that feeling. Especially with the sadness of Ziva’s Dad and the Director’s wife dying last season in NCIS and Criminal Minds with Reid’s loss when he may have finally found someone and just stop making his life so sad, writers T__T (AND THEY COULD’VE TAKEN THE SHOT AND SHE COULD STILL BE THERE FOR HIM.)
There’s also shows that my boyfriend enjoys that I will watch along with him or some that we both find interesting even if we’re not big fans so those are always random watching experiences, but not enough to get me truly invested–like Sherlock, it’s an interesting show, but I don’t care for the modernization so it’s not really my thing either. I used to watch a lot of Reality Shows with my family which has mostly just gotten down to the Amazing Race and at this point, more because I like to see the cultures and where they go versus whoever happens to be racing. I started to notice that way too often, those who I think really deserve it don’t manage to win (with a few exceptions) and that tends to get saddening too. Survivor, meanwhile, got pulled down by so many returning things that I just stopped caring plus some other odd stuff, but this isn’t really about that either… I still find the challenges interesting though.
Because of that and the few shows I watch nowadays, it’s rare for me to get excited to watch something. To anxiously wait until I get home to see what happens next. Watching the time, anticipating every second… it’s something I haven’t felt in years. And after How I Met Your Mother’s finale, I’m not sure I ever will again.
I’ve seen many series not end completely (Hey Arnold–I still hope for the Jungle Movie, Las Vegas, Moonlight) which is so frustrating as you have so many questions and want to see what happens and then I’ve seen those where the ending kind of stinks, but I can still accept it (Like Chuck. AND SARAH TOTALLY REMEMBERED THERE…). In fact, out of all the shows I’ve seen, I’ve never seen a finale that just broke me as much as How I Met Your Mother’s. I’m just thankful I only started watching a few years ago (though, we had a catch-up of all the seasons we missed before that). The only endings I can think of which I really hated were some Anime’s/Games and I can’t even complain because in some form, they still made sense.
But I have stared at this over and over again and just the short version is I’ve never seen Character development can murdered so fast–with an extra dose of let’s undermine everything. This does include spoilers, so I’m going to go ahead and put the rest under a Read More.
1. For an entire season dedicated to Barney and Robin’s wedding and showing their growth and acceptance for one another just to kill it. I really didn’t like Robin’s sudden nervousness–I felt the things her mother said were odd (I honestly can’t see any of that fitting with what we knew of Robin’s father). Even Robin’s sudden “I want Ted back” just made me think back to her Lobster issue and just… ugh. I mean, maybe it’s because I preferred Robin and Barney to Ted and Robin (especially when you’re told in the first episode she’s not the mother).
2. Robin kind of dropping off the planet for her job. She always had been big on her job, but she also turned down a job for love when she was finally ready. So I do think it was a bit depressing how she put her job before all of that when she was ready to drop it for someone else.
3. Killing off the Mother. I know people said there were hints like the 45 days thing (And when you’re growing old with someone, who wouldn’t want to meet them earlier. I mean, seriously. Alive or not, this was a speech that meant just as much) and him crying at a mother not being there… but she just as easily could’ve been in a risky surgery where there was a high chance she wouldn’t make it AND SHE DOES. And then we see more clips of their life together. Which speaking of which is another thing–I feel like we saw so little of it. I would’ve liked to see more of them together in the finale and all the kids (we never even learned Lily and Marshal’s 3rd kid’s name…)
I don’t want to go too much into it as it really makes me upset/sick to think about as I feel like all the characters were treated poorly and I actually enjoyed this season… up to that. I loved the scene under the Umbrella. I wish they did just remove the “sick” scene (which wasn’t even expanded on… we don’t know what was wrong, we don’t know how they found out, it was just so cheapened), that line, just showed Ted with her under the umbrella and them talking and him being how he met her.
I mean, even Robin and Barney’s looks when Ted finally gets married to the mother really made me feel they’d get back together. Maybe with that baby from whoever.
Regardless, I just feel bad for the Mother, Tracy, and Barney the most. Barney lost seasons of character development while Tracy because more of a stepping stone to the end and had her entire story drifted–for a story that was supposed to be about their romance and how perfect they were, to throw it out the window for something that was repeatedly shown to not work is just so depressing.
That said, I think the petition floating around is stupid. Nobody should have to do that–that’s what the writers wanted… it sucks, but so be it. Sending stuff like that around just makes those disappointed look really immature.
I think I’d have been better with it if they had Robin and Barney work it out rather divorcing (or get back together if divorced)–maybe adopting a kid together (Maybe Barney had gotten one of those who’d carry a baby and then the hospital scene would’ve still worked) so Barney wouldn’t be so lonely when Robin traveled and considering Robin obviously changed her mind about kids (Which Ted mentioned as she did play with his children) to some extent, I don’t think she’d be completely against it. Just they killed both of their characters (though, Barney’s much more than Robin’s) and it was such a slap in the face following the last season…
The mother dying I still would’ve hated, but I would’ve accepted if it wasn’t for everything else. I wish they went more into that though rather than just being all “hey, she died *moves to next thing” if they really wanted to go that route.
And no matter what, even if everything else happened, I don’t think Robin should’ve been with Ted. I don’t think any of the things of her wanting him should’ve happened. I think he should’ve been over her (he finally let her go, didn’t he? She realized Ted wasn’t right for her, right?). We had been repeatedly showed why they didn’t work–heck, it’s part of why their “well, over 40 let’s do it for the heck of it” was ended as well… so the fact that they still did it is just sad and throws out so much of everything that’s been said.