Re: [TV orNotTV] The HIMYM Finale (Spoiler-free)
I would argue that they could've pulled off the ending (Mom dead, Ted to Robin) to far less scorn had they structured that final season differently. By making it all about Barney and Robin's wedding, they minimized Milioti and focused on that as a red herring. The show has never had a problem dealing with surprise death. But by spending so much of season nine on something that was so irrelevant to the ending they planned on, fans felt this was a bridge too far. On Jul 8, 2014 3:48 PM, PGage pga...@gmail.com wrote: On Tue, Jul 8, 2014 at 6:32 AM, Joe Hass hassgoc...@gmail.com wrote: I get what you're saying. The show that *immediately* popped into my head after you mentioned the difference between binge watching and traditional watching was Friends. I wonder how a binge viewer would react to the final three seasons of that show (everything after Rachel is pregnant and Chandler and Monica's wedding), which to me was borderline unwatchable. Rereading the thread, I saw I didn't add either of Alan Sepinwall's reviews: http://m.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/series-finale-review-how-i-met-your-mother-last-forever-how-they-conned-us-all http://m.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/the-how-i-met-your-mother-finale-revisited-how-i-regret-the-mother I think those two items are the definitive takes from the disapprove camp. Interesting. I pretty much absolutely and totally disagree with everything the Sepinwall writes in the first linked review (have not read the second one) - except that of course I agree about how great and perfect Milioti was in that role. One way in which I seem to differ from most of what I have read from fans and critics of this show over the last 12 hours or so is that so many people seem to have really loved the Robin character. I found her by far to be the least interesting and compelling of the 5 main characters, and at no time did I really want Ted to wind up with her. I liked her best when she was with Barney, and one of my two main disappointments was the ending was that they did not stay together - either in or some kind of modern post-marriage relationship. [And now comes the most explicit of spoilers, just in case] Of course I respect the views of those who loved the show and hated the ending, but I can't help suspecting that this is a function of hating the fact that people we love often (make that always) die. This is perfectly captured in this quote from the Sepinwall article above: the two of them (Thomas and Bays) had actually gone through with this horrible, horrible plan for the Mother to be dead in 2030 If you fall in love with someone when you are 35, and they die 16 years later, when you are 51, that would be horrible (horrible), but it would hardly be unusual or implausible. I don't understand how a show about love and relationships can be accused of giving the middle finger to its fans because it is revealed that the character who most wanted to be in love with The One, did fall in love, and lived happily for 16 years with her, until she died - unless what is really meant is that fans (human beings) are accusing God (not the writers of the sitcom) of giving all of us a fuck you for ending the tragic and comic stories of all of our lives in death. That I understand. I wonder if people would have been as pissed if mother had died in the same way, but Ted had not gotten back together with Robin? Is part of the anger that it feels like Ted is betraying Mother, who we were led to believe was the love of his life? But then, it seems like a lot of what I have read is that fans wanted Ted and Robin to get together all along (I did not). I found this ending satisfying thematically - it resolves the opposing positions of Barney's cynical hedonism on the one hand and Ted's romantic idealism on the other. No, there is not just a single The One that we are destined to love and grow old with - there is an array of possible Ones, some of which are actualized by come combination of our choice and blind luck. Ted's kids know this, and give him permission to find another One; the fans of the show were less able than Ted to listen to those kids. For me the main miss in that finale was the call back to the blue horn, which was too pat and too predictable for the show. I was expecting some kind of twist on that - some kind of wry or knowing comment on how the love of mature old friends who have been through so much is likely (if they are lucky) to be much different than the love of callow youth. -- -- TV or Not TV The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TV or Not TV group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message
Re: [TV orNotTV] The HIMYM Finale (Spoiler-free)
I get what you're saying. The show that *immediately* popped into my head after you mentioned the difference between binge watching and traditional watching was Friends. I wonder how a binge viewer would react to the final three seasons of that show (everything after Rachel is pregnant and Chandler and Monica's wedding), which to me was borderline unwatchable. Rereading the thread, I saw I didn't add either of Alan Sepinwall's reviews: http://m.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/series-finale-review-how-i-met-your-mother-last-forever-how-they-conned-us-all http://m.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/the-how-i-met-your-mother-finale-revisited-how-i-regret-the-mother I think those two items are the definitive takes from the disapprove camp. On Jul 8, 2014 12:40 AM, PGage pga...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 7:06 PM, Joe Hass hassgoc...@gmail.com wrote: I did not see the HIMYM finale. But I did just read about it. And I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say this: Good news, Seinfeld! You're no longer the worst series finale in television history. There will be spoilers in this post, but A) I have read other posts in this thread now and there seem to already be spoilers here, despite the subject line an B) it was three months ago. I had never seen a single episode of this program until one month ago. After years of badgering from a family member, I promised to watch the first season on Netflix. I did not love it, but did not hate it, and decided to keep watching it - and somewhere between Season 2 and 3 I got hooked. My 16 year old son did too, and we started binge watching it. We got to the end of Season 8 last week and were horrified to find the last season was not on the 'flix. I bought the last season on Amazon, and we started taking it about 4 or 5 episodes at a time - and just finished it off earlier this evening. There is a different dynamic when you binge watch a long-running show over a short time frame, compared those who patiently live with a show week by week over many years. I noticed when I binged on House a few years ago that I was not as frustrated with the cast changes as friends and family who had watched it all along were (at least, not until the last season). That may be part of the reason that I do not hate the ending of HIMYM. I was genuinely sad as it became pretty clear in Vesuvius what was going to happen to Mother (I did not know what was going to happen, but did know that there was some controversy about it - which probably was enough to cue me into what was going to happen) but not angry at the producers. The ending seems very consistent with the entire show (both in resolving appropriately the trilemma that Robin was not the kids mother, Ted Loved the kids mother, and Ted loved Robin) and with the longstanding themes of the show. It explains why he is telling his kids the story (and why teenagers would sit through such a long story from their Dad). The producers' main mistake seems to have been that of all of Ted's girlfriends over the years, the actress they got to play the mother was by far the most likable (I actually did not very much like any of the others), so even though we only knew her for about one season, we quickly grow attached to her, and feel like all the sentimental stuff Ted has been saying about her in the previous 8 seasons make it seem like we knew her longer than we did. I guess if fans did not like her so much they would not have been so angry. I have read this evening several online reviews summarizing why the fans hated it so much, many of which reach to say something nice about it and say it shows how life is unpredictable. This strikes me as the opposite of the case. Nothing is more predictable in life than that the people we love will die (if we do not die first), so the ending actually shows just how predictable life really is. There are 3 marriages at the core of this show: 1 is fabulously happy, 1 is happy but ends in death, and 1 ends in divorce. The only thing unrealistic about that is suggesting the hit rate for happy marriages is 2 out of 3. I grew to like this show (the last CBS sitcom I watched regularly was probably Murphy Brown), and I really liked the ending. But then, I liked the ending of The Sopranos too... -- -- TV or Not TV The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TV or Not TV group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TVorNotTV group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit
Re: [TV orNotTV] The HIMYM Finale (Spoiler-free)
On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 7:06 PM, Joe Hass hassgoc...@gmail.com wrote: I did not see the HIMYM finale. But I did just read about it. And I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say this: Good news, Seinfeld! You're no longer the worst series finale in television history. There will be spoilers in this post, but A) I have read other posts in this thread now and there seem to already be spoilers here, despite the subject line an B) it was three months ago. I had never seen a single episode of this program until one month ago. After years of badgering from a family member, I promised to watch the first season on Netflix. I did not love it, but did not hate it, and decided to keep watching it - and somewhere between Season 2 and 3 I got hooked. My 16 year old son did too, and we started binge watching it. We got to the end of Season 8 last week and were horrified to find the last season was not on the 'flix. I bought the last season on Amazon, and we started taking it about 4 or 5 episodes at a time - and just finished it off earlier this evening. There is a different dynamic when you binge watch a long-running show over a short time frame, compared those who patiently live with a show week by week over many years. I noticed when I binged on House a few years ago that I was not as frustrated with the cast changes as friends and family who had watched it all along were (at least, not until the last season). That may be part of the reason that I do not hate the ending of HIMYM. I was genuinely sad as it became pretty clear in Vesuvius what was going to happen to Mother (I did not know what was going to happen, but did know that there was some controversy about it - which probably was enough to cue me into what was going to happen) but not angry at the producers. The ending seems very consistent with the entire show (both in resolving appropriately the trilemma that Robin was not the kids mother, Ted Loved the kids mother, and Ted loved Robin) and with the longstanding themes of the show. It explains why he is telling his kids the story (and why teenagers would sit through such a long story from their Dad). The producers' main mistake seems to have been that of all of Ted's girlfriends over the years, the actress they got to play the mother was by far the most likable (I actually did not very much like any of the others), so even though we only knew her for about one season, we quickly grow attached to her, and feel like all the sentimental stuff Ted has been saying about her in the previous 8 seasons make it seem like we knew her longer than we did. I guess if fans did not like her so much they would not have been so angry. I have read this evening several online reviews summarizing why the fans hated it so much, many of which reach to say something nice about it and say it shows how life is unpredictable. This strikes me as the opposite of the case. Nothing is more predictable in life than that the people we love will die (if we do not die first), so the ending actually shows just how predictable life really is. There are 3 marriages at the core of this show: 1 is fabulously happy, 1 is happy but ends in death, and 1 ends in divorce. The only thing unrealistic about that is suggesting the hit rate for happy marriages is 2 out of 3. I grew to like this show (the last CBS sitcom I watched regularly was probably Murphy Brown), and I really liked the ending. But then, I liked the ending of The Sopranos too... -- -- TV or Not TV The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TV or Not TV group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TVorNotTV group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Re: [TV orNotTV] The HIMYM Finale (Spoiler-free)
Well, I did like it and I'm a non-critic. Robin intentionally isolated herself from the gang, telling Lily that she didn't see the gang as something she fit in anymore with a couple with two kids and one on the way, her ex-husband who hits on women in front of her and the guy she probably should have been with kissing the mother of his child. Barney never went anywhere because he didn't have the globetrotting job Robin did. Here's what I wrote for my FB friends... So, here are my thoughts on the finale of How I Met Your Mother. And, really, you're kind of not all there if you don't think this will contain spoilers. Read at your own risk. I liked it. There. I said it. I liked it. I get that some people saw it as a rejection of their patience and time. I respect that they didn't dig it and some are outright angry. But I guess what I liked about it was simple. Life isn't neat. Happily ever afters don't come. Relationships are work. Couples break-up. People get sick and die. Sometimes unexpected people come along and rock your world. Who we're right for at 25 or 30 isn't the same person who we're right for at 50+ with two kids. The message, the real message of HIMYM, is that you have to love the people you love with your whole heart and soul. Because you don't know how long you'll have them. Don't pace yourself with love for the long haul because it might not come for one reason or another. Love big. Love hard. Love legenwait for it---darily. So even if you hated the series finale, I do hope you internalized that message because it will never steer you wrong even if it meanders over several seasons spanning several decades. There will be tears. But there will also be love. On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 10:37 PM, Joe Hass hassgoc...@gmail.com wrote: (I'm going to get slightly spoilery later in this post, FYI) Other than Doug, I have yet to find a single non-critic who has anything positive to say about it. Going back to our previous thread about the episode where everyone suddenly realized that there was a possibility the mother was dead, someone mentioned that they would be surprised that no one at CBS wouldn't have stepped in and said, Um, have you really thought how the fans are going to take this? And when everything blew up, I have to imagine that Thomas Bays (and everyone else involved) who knew exactly how this was going to go down suddenly realized the ship was pointing directly at the iceberg and it was too late to do anything about it, nor could they say Of course we're not going to kill the mother! I find it interesting that no one from the show is standing up at this point and defending it (unlike Robert and Michelle King on The Good Wife, who stepped up to the plate right away after killing off Josh Charles' character to fans uproar). I'm especially looking at Neil Patrick Harris, who was one of the staunchest defenders of the finale prior to it, bragging about how the fans were going to really like it. Um, Neil? Yeah...no. Having finally read a full recap (my comment from last night came from a bulleted list on events on EW.com), I'm even more baffled. I am not the HIMYM fan in my house (that would be my wife, who was still hot when I came home two hours after the episode), but I can tell you the moment when I would've lost it: when they presented the idea that after Barney and Robin divorce, the other three characters would bond around *Barney*, the one each has found to be grotesque at various points through the series. Seriously: Robin's the one who's going to be isolated by the group instead of rallied around? And after the Lily/Robin discussion, I'm pretty sure I'd have either turned the TV off or paused the DVR so I could go buy a gun to shoot it. One last thought: if there was ever an episode that proved the benefit of filming in front of a studio audience, this was it. What popped into my mind this morning was an old episode of Friends, The One Where Everybody Finds Out (where Phoebe finds out about Monica and Chandler, leading to a magnificent farce where Phoebe and Chandler try to seduce each other knowing the other person knows what's going on). The B plot on that was Ugly Naked Guy subletting his apartment, and Ross trying to get it. There's a scene where Joey, staring out the window, says Hey, hey, check it out, check it out: Ugly Naked Guy's got a naked friend! To which the audience lets out a loud scream of laughter as the four others head for the window. Marta Kaufmann, on the commentary track, said that was not supposed to be the laugh line: the laugh line was supposed to be when the five of them realise it's Ross over there (Rachel says Oh my God, that's our friend! It's Naked Ross!). But the audience put the pieces together far faster than the writers thought, and in that case it turned out magnificently. I wonder if Thomas Bays would've realized that had the audience reacted to that final scene from that previous
Re: [TV orNotTV] The HIMYM Finale (Spoiler-free)
I just watched it. Avoided most of the spoilers, although I did know about the fate of the mother before watching it. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a very fitting ending. That said, I wish the last season would have been an expansion of the final episode rather than the weekend of the wedding. -- David Risner Software Engineer MERLOT, California State University On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 2:07 AM, Joe Coughlin inturnaro...@gmail.com wrote: Well, I did like it and I'm a non-critic. Robin intentionally isolated herself from the gang, telling Lily that she didn't see the gang as something she fit in anymore with a couple with two kids and one on the way, her ex-husband who hits on women in front of her and the guy she probably should have been with kissing the mother of his child. Barney never went anywhere because he didn't have the globetrotting job Robin did. Here's what I wrote for my FB friends... So, here are my thoughts on the finale of How I Met Your Mother. And, really, you're kind of not all there if you don't think this will contain spoilers. Read at your own risk. I liked it. There. I said it. I liked it. I get that some people saw it as a rejection of their patience and time. I respect that they didn't dig it and some are outright angry. But I guess what I liked about it was simple. Life isn't neat. Happily ever afters don't come. Relationships are work. Couples break-up. People get sick and die. Sometimes unexpected people come along and rock your world. Who we're right for at 25 or 30 isn't the same person who we're right for at 50+ with two kids. The message, the real message of HIMYM, is that you have to love the people you love with your whole heart and soul. Because you don't know how long you'll have them. Don't pace yourself with love for the long haul because it might not come for one reason or another. Love big. Love hard. Love legenwait for it---darily. So even if you hated the series finale, I do hope you internalized that message because it will never steer you wrong even if it meanders over several seasons spanning several decades. There will be tears. But there will also be love. On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 10:37 PM, Joe Hass hassgoc...@gmail.com wrote: (I'm going to get slightly spoilery later in this post, FYI) Other than Doug, I have yet to find a single non-critic who has anything positive to say about it. Going back to our previous thread about the episode where everyone suddenly realized that there was a possibility the mother was dead, someone mentioned that they would be surprised that no one at CBS wouldn't have stepped in and said, Um, have you really thought how the fans are going to take this? And when everything blew up, I have to imagine that Thomas Bays (and everyone else involved) who knew exactly how this was going to go down suddenly realized the ship was pointing directly at the iceberg and it was too late to do anything about it, nor could they say Of course we're not going to kill the mother! I find it interesting that no one from the show is standing up at this point and defending it (unlike Robert and Michelle King on The Good Wife, who stepped up to the plate right away after killing off Josh Charles' character to fans uproar). I'm especially looking at Neil Patrick Harris, who was one of the staunchest defenders of the finale prior to it, bragging about how the fans were going to really like it. Um, Neil? Yeah...no. Having finally read a full recap (my comment from last night came from a bulleted list on events on EW.com), I'm even more baffled. I am not the HIMYM fan in my house (that would be my wife, who was still hot when I came home two hours after the episode), but I can tell you the moment when I would've lost it: when they presented the idea that after Barney and Robin divorce, the other three characters would bond around *Barney*, the one each has found to be grotesque at various points through the series. Seriously: Robin's the one who's going to be isolated by the group instead of rallied around? And after the Lily/Robin discussion, I'm pretty sure I'd have either turned the TV off or paused the DVR so I could go buy a gun to shoot it. One last thought: if there was ever an episode that proved the benefit of filming in front of a studio audience, this was it. What popped into my mind this morning was an old episode of Friends, The One Where Everybody Finds Out (where Phoebe finds out about Monica and Chandler, leading to a magnificent farce where Phoebe and Chandler try to seduce each other knowing the other person knows what's going on). The B plot on that was Ugly Naked Guy subletting his apartment, and Ross trying to get it. There's a scene where Joey, staring out the window, says Hey, hey, check it out, check it out: Ugly Naked Guy's got a naked friend! To which the audience lets out a loud scream of laughter as the four others head for the
Re: [TV orNotTV] The HIMYM Finale (Spoiler-free)
On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 7:06 PM, Joe Hass hassgoc...@gmail.com wrote: I did not see the HIMYM finale. But I did just read about it. And I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say this: Good news, Seinfeld! You're no longer the worst series finale in television history. I have never seen a single episode of HIMYM. But I have always felt that the suckiness of the Seinfeld Finale has been greatly exaggerated. It was not one of the top 25 episodes in the show's history, but Seinfeld was arguably one of the 3 best Sitcoms in the history of US television, so even an average episode was still pretty good. -- -- TV or Not TV The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TV or Not TV group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TVorNotTV group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Re: [TV orNotTV] The HIMYM Finale (Spoiler-free)
I really liked it.It's a TV show, yet it's not too far from life. Can't say much more without spoiling. On March 31, 2014 10:06:00 PM EDT, Joe Hass hassgoc...@gmail.com wrote: I did not see the HIMYM finale. But I did just read about it. And I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say this: Good news, Seinfeld! You're no longer the worst series finale in television history. -- -- TV or Not TV The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TV or Not TV group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TVorNotTV group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- /mobile -- -- TV or Not TV The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TV or Not TV group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TVorNotTV group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Re: [TV orNotTV] The HIMYM Finale (Spoiler-free)
The same I was fine with the way it was expected to go if it was told in a way that made sense and for me it was. Those that have their faults with it, I can see why they feel that way and I somewhat agree, but for me it doesn't ruin the series in my mind whenever I watch Robin Sparkles in Syndication. On Tuesday, April 1, 2014 5:58:28 AM UTC-4, Doug Eastick wrote: I really liked it. It's a TV show, yet it's not too far from life. Can't say much more without spoiling. On March 31, 2014 10:06:00 PM EDT, Joe Hass hassg...@gmail.comjavascript: wrote: I did not see the HIMYM finale. But I did just read about it. And I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say this: Good news, Seinfeld! You're no longer the worst series finale in television history. -- /mobile -- -- TV or Not TV The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TV or Not TV group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TVorNotTV group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Re: [TV orNotTV] The HIMYM Finale (Spoiler-free)
On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 3:26 AM, PGage pga...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 7:06 PM, Joe Hass hassgoc...@gmail.com wrote: I did not see the HIMYM finale. But I did just read about it. And I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say this: Good news, Seinfeld! You're no longer the worst series finale in television history. I have never seen a single episode of HIMYM. But I have always felt that the suckiness of the Seinfeld Finale has been greatly exaggerated. It was not one of the top 25 episodes in the show's history, but Seinfeld was arguably one of the 3 best Sitcoms in the history of US television, so even an average episode was still pretty good. I think that the thing that people hate about the final episode of Seinfeld is not just that it wasn't a particularly great episode of the show on its own, but that the way it ended broke the series-long conceit that none of the lead characters would ever have to face serious consequences for being the horrible people that they were, which feels like a bit of a betrayal. One thing that the Seinfeld finale has going for it (and I think the HIMYM finale will have going for it as well) is that it's memorable because of how it broke expectations, even if it's disliked for that. There are some fairly long-running sitcoms where the finale doesn't particularly stand out in my memory (e.g., The Cosby Show, where my recollection was basically limited to someone had some big life event until I looked it up a few minutes ago.) -- David J. Lynch djly...@gmail.com -- -- TV or Not TV The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TV or Not TV group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TVorNotTV group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Re: [TV orNotTV] The HIMYM Finale (Spoiler-free)
(I'm going to get slightly spoilery later in this post, FYI) Other than Doug, I have yet to find a single non-critic who has anything positive to say about it. Going back to our previous thread about the episode where everyone suddenly realized that there was a possibility the mother was dead, someone mentioned that they would be surprised that no one at CBS wouldn't have stepped in and said, Um, have you really thought how the fans are going to take this? And when everything blew up, I have to imagine that Thomas Bays (and everyone else involved) who knew exactly how this was going to go down suddenly realized the ship was pointing directly at the iceberg and it was too late to do anything about it, nor could they say Of course we're not going to kill the mother! I find it interesting that no one from the show is standing up at this point and defending it (unlike Robert and Michelle King on The Good Wife, who stepped up to the plate right away after killing off Josh Charles' character to fans uproar). I'm especially looking at Neil Patrick Harris, who was one of the staunchest defenders of the finale prior to it, bragging about how the fans were going to really like it. Um, Neil? Yeah...no. Having finally read a full recap (my comment from last night came from a bulleted list on events on EW.com), I'm even more baffled. I am not the HIMYM fan in my house (that would be my wife, who was still hot when I came home two hours after the episode), but I can tell you the moment when I would've lost it: when they presented the idea that after Barney and Robin divorce, the other three characters would bond around *Barney*, the one each has found to be grotesque at various points through the series. Seriously: Robin's the one who's going to be isolated by the group instead of rallied around? And after the Lily/Robin discussion, I'm pretty sure I'd have either turned the TV off or paused the DVR so I could go buy a gun to shoot it. One last thought: if there was ever an episode that proved the benefit of filming in front of a studio audience, this was it. What popped into my mind this morning was an old episode of Friends, The One Where Everybody Finds Out (where Phoebe finds out about Monica and Chandler, leading to a magnificent farce where Phoebe and Chandler try to seduce each other knowing the other person knows what's going on). The B plot on that was Ugly Naked Guy subletting his apartment, and Ross trying to get it. There's a scene where Joey, staring out the window, says Hey, hey, check it out, check it out: Ugly Naked Guy's got a naked friend! To which the audience lets out a loud scream of laughter as the four others head for the window. Marta Kaufmann, on the commentary track, said that was not supposed to be the laugh line: the laugh line was supposed to be when the five of them realise it's Ross over there (Rachel says Oh my God, that's our friend! It's Naked Ross!). But the audience put the pieces together far faster than the writers thought, and in that case it turned out magnificently. I wonder if Thomas Bays would've realized that had the audience reacted to that final scene from that previous episode and at least given pause to their plan. On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 12:35 PM, David Lynch djly...@gmail.com wrote: On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 3:26 AM, PGage pga...@gmail.com wrote: On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 7:06 PM, Joe Hass hassgoc...@gmail.com wrote: I did not see the HIMYM finale. But I did just read about it. And I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say this: Good news, Seinfeld! You're no longer the worst series finale in television history. I have never seen a single episode of HIMYM. But I have always felt that the suckiness of the Seinfeld Finale has been greatly exaggerated. It was not one of the top 25 episodes in the show's history, but Seinfeld was arguably one of the 3 best Sitcoms in the history of US television, so even an average episode was still pretty good. I think that the thing that people hate about the final episode of Seinfeld is not just that it wasn't a particularly great episode of the show on its own, but that the way it ended broke the series-long conceit that none of the lead characters would ever have to face serious consequences for being the horrible people that they were, which feels like a bit of a betrayal. One thing that the Seinfeld finale has going for it (and I think the HIMYM finale will have going for it as well) is that it's memorable because of how it broke expectations, even if it's disliked for that. There are some fairly long-running sitcoms where the finale doesn't particularly stand out in my memory (e.g., The Cosby Show, where my recollection was basically limited to someone had some big life event until I looked it up a few minutes ago.) -- David J. Lynch djly...@gmail.com -- -- TV or Not TV The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TV or Not
[TV orNotTV] The HIMYM Finale (Spoiler-free)
I did not see the HIMYM finale. But I did just read about it. And I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say this: Good news, Seinfeld! You're no longer the worst series finale in television history. -- -- TV or Not TV The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TV or Not TV group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TVorNotTV group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
[TV orNotTV] The HIMYM Finale (Spoiler-free)
Not a spoiler. Just my two cents: http://youtu.be/Gb4eZ7Z5yk8 -- -- TV or Not TV The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TV or Not TV group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups TVorNotTV group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
