It doesn’t matter if you were Team Robin from the beginning or hated the ending of How I Met Your Mother—one thing no one can deny is that the sitcom has been a comfort show for many.
So when Hulu announced its reboot titled How I Met Your Father, fans had quite some expectations. As the first one with Greta Gerwig didn’t even make it past the Pilot, there was no telling which route this second attempt would take.
Now that How I Met Your Father has landed with its first two episodes on Hulu, opinions about it couldn’t be any more divided.
Right from the get-go, the reboot revels in the HIMYM trip down memory lane as a different version of the theme song plays. It starts with the older version of the central character Sophie in the year 2050 video calling her son to tell him the “unabridged” version of how she met his father.
We go back to 2022, where young Sophie is running late for her Tinder date and fate (an Uber) introduces her to Jesse and his best friend, Sid. Sophie goes on her date with Ian, the too-good-to-be-true guy, and he reveals that he’s moving to Australia and a long-distance relationship won’t work.
One of the first hits at nostalgia comes when they’re at Sophie’s doorsteps, and they both want to kiss each other but don’t. Remember when Ted misread the “sign” to kiss Robin?
Then there is Sid’s bar Pemberton’s, which is basically McLaren’s renovated. It is here that Sid proposes to his girlfriend Hannah, and we meet the last of the main characters, Jesse’s sister, Helen, a recently divorced lesbian looking for a new start in NYC. And so, the whole group is assembled.
From there on, a lot of insignificant things happen—mostly quite forgettable at times, to bring the group together on screen.
Sophie’s son is off-screen, so we only hear his voice. If I had to take a wild guess, I’d say it would be to hide his race. As we later see, the show is setting up Ian, a Black guy, to be Sophie’s “Robin” in a way, so they can’t exactly reveal if it’s a white or mixed kid.
Although it would be a safe prediction to assume Jesse is the father. It’s not every day you find two attractive, single people who both have Drops of Jupiter as their comfort song, right? What are the odds!
The series tries to build on its own “inside jokes,” but they fail to land. Then there is the laugh track. With HIMYM, the laugh track blended in with the jokes. Here it seems forced to a point where it feels like it’s cueing us, “That was a joke, laugh now.”
The show does well to add the nostalgia element to it. I might’ve shed half a tear when they walk through the corridor and into Jesse and Sid’s apartment. The old couple who owned the place even leave their swords behind…the same ones that “almost killed” Lily.
Every Sword Fight – How I Met Your Mother:
As far as Easter eggs go, in Episode 2 is the bouncer’s interaction with Sophie when the group goes to a club called FOMO. Let’s be honest, HIMYM fans might’ve seen the wordplay coming from a mile away. After all, nothing can or ever will top this iconic scene:
How I Met Your Mother – Names of clubs:
How I Met Your Father Episodes 1 and 2 are now available to stream on Hulu, with new episodes dropping Tuesdays.
About How I Met Your Father
How I Met Your Father (HIMYF) is a spinoff series of the incredibly successful CBS show, How I Met Your Mother. The original show ran for nine seasons, from 2005 to 2014, quickly making its mark with a dedicated cult-like fanbase.
HIMYF was announced to start production in April 2021 with the Lizzy McGuire star Hilary Duff playing the lead called Sophie, narrating her journey to her children in the future.
The show’s flashbacks will start from Sophie and her close friends navigating love, life and struggles in the modern era of dating, paying bills and more, in 2021.
Created by writers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger of This Is Us fame and directed by the original show’s director, Pamela Fryman, the first season of HIMYF is revealed to have 10 episodes. No further details have yet been released.
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