Fanboys Anonymous

The final season of How I Met Your Mother has started with two episodes back-to-back, titled The Locket and Coming Back.

Rather than run down the episodes in synopsis format, I figured I would do a standard Hits & Misses Reviewpoint-style post.



1. LILY THE DRUNK

One of the things this show has had a lot of fun with in the past is showing Lily as more of a raunchy, disturbed individual than her outside persona would appear. This time around, though, I found it simply annoying. Lily spent the entirety of the hour complaining, looking like a wreck, and just being problematic, despite having the absolute least to complain about and the easiest time out of every character.

2. NO REVEAL OF THE MOTHER'S NAME

The main thing I was hoping to see in this was the reveal of her name. Why? I don't know. I'm just tired of calling her The Mother or Yellow Umbrella or any other pseudonyms.

3. THE TIME FRAME

Maybe I'm jumping the gun, but I don't want to see an entire season of people talking on the phone and traveling. I want to see the How I Met Your Mother that I've watched for 8 seasons, where they interact in their apartments and the bar, can flash back to previous things and flash forward.

Likewise, am I overlooking something, or is there a plot hole with the train situation? Lily and The Mother (name would work so much better there, wouldn't it?) are on the train to Farhampton and we see that Lily has arrived. All leading up to this, we've been seeing The Mother arrive via a cab much later, when it's raining at night and it's either just before or during the ceremony. If she arrived with Lily, why is she re-arriving? Someone fill me in if I'm wrong here, please.

4. TED MOSBY, SAD SACK

Again, I might be jumping ahead, but if Ted spends the entire season acting the way he did in these two episodes, then no wonder a lot of people don't value the character, as he won't be entertaining. I want there to be a huge payoff to the character and this storyline with a lot of emotion, but just because I want drama doesn't mean I want Ted to be a totally humorless, pathetic and pitiful character. That's unnecessary.


1. THE MOTHER TOTALLY WORKS

We haven't seen much of her yet, but I completely buy into The Mother BEING The Mother. She seems to fit well so far in the orchestra of the cast. There's not much to her character as of right now, but I already find her very likable. For someone who has been told more times than he can count that he's extremely similar to Ted Mosby...I can see why Ted would go for her.

2. BARNEY IS SURE OF HIMSELF

I'm sure we'll see something down the line where Barney second-guesses the wedding (after all, we've already seen it with the ducky tie situation), but for now, I like that Barney isn't going straight into that.

3. MARSHAL IS STILL NOT CORRUPTED

Something I've always enjoyed about Marshal's character is that he could have the world shit all over him, but he's still very optimistic overall. Ted can be quite depressed, Lily can get quite psychotic, Robin and Barney can be manipulative and angry, but Marshal is always hoping for the best and expecting that out of everyone.



This was one of my least favorite openers for the show so far, so I'm disappointed. I'm very, very worried that this is going to feel stretched out and too different from the previous seasons. I hope the addition of Daphne to the cast isn't a big deal and she's gone within the next episode or two, as nearly every show that adds a character at the end just focuses on bringing a lot of attention on them and losing it on the main characters that got us to this point.

That being said, if I would put my trust in any show to pull this kind of a drastic thing off...it's How I Met Your Mother. The show has been brilliant so far and I truly think I won't be disappointed by the end. I also fully expect that I will cry when all things are said and done.