mortalplague

Pretty sure the Alt ending was for season 8 in case season 9 didn't happen. At least that's how it looks to me.

starseed1981

Just saw the alternate ending. I'm in the minority because I really liked the original ending and still think it's better than this one. But this one clearly would've played better with the overall viewership.

I still think that if you cut this show down to six seasons you have one of the most satisfying comedies ever. But extending the length of the show those extra seasons is kind've like the series finale of Lost...it's all people will remember and it will hurt how it ages.

Decker

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/01/19...ash-overstated

Josh Radnor says the HIMYM finale backlash was 'overstated'

Only 60% of viewers were disappointed, he says

by Oliver Gettell • @ogettell




Posted January 19 2016 — 7:12 PM EST

The bombshell-filled finale of How I Met Your Mother may have been one of the more divisive TV episodes in recent memory, but series star Josh Radnor insists it’s gotten a bad rap.

Speaking to HuffPost Live recently, Radnor defended the controversial ending that — spoiler warning — killed off the titular mom and sent hopeless romantic Ted (Radnor) back into the arms of old flame Robin (Cobie Smulders).

“A lot of [the reaction] was great,” Radnor said. “I think the narrative the media got ahold of was that everyone was outraged. I don’t think that was true.”

Radnor added that he often speaks at colleges and takes an informal poll of who liked the finale.

“Sometimes it’s 50/50,” he said. “It seems to be about 60/40 — 60 [percent] disappointed, 40 [percent who liked it]. So I think it’s been overstated, people’s disappointment with it.”

Setting aside the fact that 60 percent is a pretty significant slice of the audience to let down, Radnor said the finale was true to the show itself: “It always upended your expectations, it always made you cry, it always was not what you thought it was. So I think it was in keeping with the DNA for the show. And my suspicion is that it will age pretty well, so let’s talk in 10 years and see what people think.”

Mark your calendars, folks.

fujishig

Oh, so only a slight majority of people were disappointed then. I'm sure it was a scientific poll he took too.

I still don't get how you can spend an entire season on a wedding trying to convince the audience of a relationship (and I'm not even talking about the mother here), only to tear it apart in two episodes, simultaneously ruining/cutting short the titular relationship. If they did the bulk of the last season on anything else, even on a standard season where they slowly introduce the mother, I think the uproar isn't nearly as great.

aktick

I was fine with it. Slightly convoluted? Sure. But it was true to the original premise.

Decker

More accurately : Only a slight majority would readily admit being disappointed with it to the show's leading star's face.

JZ1276

Of course he's going to back the finale, he was the star of the show.

Michael Corvin

Still crap.

Like Lost the writers thought they were so clever when their respective shows started but the fans figured them out in no time flat. Instead of course correcting and letting the characters grow organically and the ending fall where it may, they forced their original idea in there despite it no longer fitting the narrative years later.

I mentioned it in another thread, but the ending has absolutely ruined the show for me. I can't even sit through reruns anymore. The finale/final season ruined how I viewed the characters. So going back, it's just not the same show anymore.

Raul3

I liked the Lost finale :P

But I agree with MC, the finale ruined the show for me. I haven't watch any rerun since the finale, and the show was one of my favorites for years. I know, it's childish, but I'm still butthurt about that finale.

Abob Teff

The show struck a chord with me in a way I never expected. I'm just tickled that I had my real life Buttercup moment last year. You'll never take that away from me.

The finale was what the finale was. You all forget that life is about the journey, not the destination.

By the way, aren't we something like 2 1/2 years removed from the finale now? (I binged the show on Netflix; I may have watched the final season on broadcast, but I don't recall.)

bunkaroo

I don't really have a problem with Ted winding up with Robin, but the whole contrived Robin-Barney wedding over the whole season just made it harder to swallow.

davidh777

I binge-watched the whole series last year after I got hooked on Cristin Milioti in A to Z, so I guess I was predisposed to not like the finale. I was fine with Barney and Robin breaking up because that's what they do. But killing off the mother, telegraphed or not, was such a horrible downer. I prefer the alternate ending that just skips that part.

GuessWho

The show was How I Met Your Mother, not How I Spent My Life with Your Mother.

It delivered as advertised, I guess.

Michael Corvin

Well if we're boiling it down to the title they could have narrowed the entire show down to a half dozen episodes as Ted's serial dating, Marshall's dad dying, and Barney's promiscuity had nothing to do with meeting the mom. As it stands it should have been titled: "How I Dated Robin Off and On and still Married Her After Your Mom Died." Kinda wordy, but honest.

GuessWho

fixed

hdnmickey

How I Always Wanted Robin More Than Your Mother

Goat3001

Man, I forgot how the alternate ending completely nailed it. A few things would have had to been different during the final season but not a whole lot. That would have been the perfect ending. It explains that the journey IS what was most important because the journey gave the ending real meaning, not just for the viewer but for Ted also.

They had everything we needed right there and they still flubbed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoHUs8J7x94

fujishig

... even though I promised your mother over and over through the years I wasn't attracted to her as more than a friend.


Fixed.

... and a very detailed retelling of the start of her failed marriage to Uncle Barney.

I mean if you wanted expectations upended and crying, they could have had him run away with Aunt Lily (or Uncle Marshall) or something, I certainly wouldn't have expected that either.

onebyone

Seeing this thread get bumped just made me grumpy all over again. That finale was a piece of shit, and them being smug about it makes it worse.

I used to love the show, but I haven't watched a single episode since.

starseed1981

I was more than fine with the finale. In fact I liked it. What I did not like was the fact that the show went on three seasons longer than it needed to.

If you take the best episodes of the series and edit them down into five seasons you have one of the best sitcoms ever. But is it stands the thing is a bloated mess.

dex14

I wrote this show off after the finale. I remember the fan made ending that was really good. This "official" alternate ending was great. How the fuck didn't they go with that. Wow. I'm even more pissed.

hdnmickey

Frankly I only blame myself for not bailing many seasons before the final one. The show quality had dropped long before that final season. Mostly to do with when the series broke him and Robin up, yet kept it clear both would never love another the same way as each other.

Double_Oh_7

So only 40% of people liked the finale, and he thinks that's a good thing?!?!

Michael Corvin

Raul3

See, this is one of the problems with today's TV. Social networks can affect shows.

The writers/creators had this ending from the beginning, they always thought this would be the perfect ending. And you always read complaints about other shows, that they have no idea, that they are making stuff without a big plan or something.

But they should've known. The chemistry between Ted and the mom was just magical. It was right there, in front of them. They just couldn't see it.