Review: What’s All The Fuss About How I Met Your Mother?

How I Met Your Mother is one of the most popular sitcoms of the 2000s. It revolves around one guy’s quest to find his soulmate, ‘the one’ whom he can eventually marry.

Soppy as it sounds, the show is a hilarious take on love and friendship. His search for the perfect woman takes him on a journey that is filled with mischievous adventures and heartbreaking truths.

1. Quick Review

How I Met Your Mother is one of the most realistic stories about love. It takes the most romanticised subject in history, romanticises it some more and then cruelly brings it back to reality. A must watch for people who believe in unconventional love stories.

2. Series Info

3. Is It Worth Watching?

How I Met Your Mother has all the classic tropes that a good sitcom requires. But it takes the same formula and weaves a story that is unlike any other sitcom.

I. Plot

The show begins in the year 2030, with a much older Ted telling his children the story of how he met their mother. He recounts his and his friends’ adventures from the time they left college and he started looking for his perfect partner.

Ted Mosby is an architect and a hopeless romantic. He graduates from Wesleyan University and comes to New York with his college friends Lily Aldrin and Marshall Eriksen, who have been dating for a couple of years and are the perfect couple.

They hang out in MacLaren’s, a bar where Ted meets Barney Stinson, a smooth-talking, very confident playboy, who has a variety of tricks to ‘score’ women. Barney makes Ted his best friend and vows to help him find his soulmate.  

Ted comes across Robin Scherbatsky in the same bar and becomes instantly attracted to her. She joins his group, first as his girlfriend and then as a friend herself, helping Ted in his quest.

II. Detailed Analysis

How I Met Your Mother asks all the important questions about love- is there ‘a one’ for everyone? What makes them the one for you? How long should you wait for them? Does love happen only once?

That is what the show tries to answer through Ted’s many relationships.

When Ted starts dating Robin, it is because he likes her for her looks. Soon, he realises that what they want from life is as different as it could possibly be- he wants a simple married life and kids, she wants to become a journalist and travel the world.

Throughout the show, Ted falls for many women and comes away from each of the relationships with pearls of newfound wisdom.

The presence of The Mother is always teased from the very beginning. While Ted is suffering from his failed relationships, he often encounters her- never face-to-face, but through subtle hints and objects.

This gave the audience hope that there was light at the end of the tunnel for Ted because with every passing relationship, he became more and more hopeless that he would ever find his soulmate.

The best thing about How I Met Your Mother is its style of storytelling. Since the whole story is narrated by an older Ted, there are several incidents that are told and retold from different perspectives, which gives it a hilarious touch.

The fact that Ted censors some parts of his adult life capers from his underage children allows the show to have a number of very funny running gags. Ted’s narration is slightly biased. This allows room for the audience’s interpretation of the events occurring in the series.

What does not work for the show is its love triangle. Robin, Ted and Barney’s relationship with each other is pretty weak and just not interesting enough. This is a major fault in the near-perfect sitcom (ending not considered).

III. Characters

All the characters in the series are realistic characters- they have issues that are deep and often become a problem for others.

Ted Mosby, played by Josh Radnor, is an everyman- he desperately wants to find love and he believes there is a person who is perfect for him. Yet, when he is in a relationship, he does so many things that are completely and utterly wrong. But he learns from his mistakes every day.

Lily and Marshall are the constants of the show but even they are prone to ups and downs in their relationship.

Robin is a careerist. She does not believe in getting married early and having kids. In fact, she is not ready to give up on her job for anything. She is a great representation of a strong woman.

Of course, a big draw of the show is Barney and his book of elaborate schemes. All the friends participate in his bits and the results are hysterical. His catchlines and smooth way of justifying his obviously wrong activities are downright hilarious.

Most of all, the theme of friendship is present throughout the series. All the characters had each others’ backs throughout their bad days and good days and that is what makes it so endearing.

4. Grade

5. Final Thoughts

How I Met Your Mother is a genuinely funny show. It is impactful, unpredictable, and notably quotable. It is perhaps to live up to this unpredictability that How I Met Your Mother ended the way it did.

It is one of the most controversial and debatable endings ever, with people on both sides of the matter. Nevertheless, the show is definitely worth a watch for its relatable characters and different take on love.