The Value from How I Met Your Mother: Season 1
A Look into the Lessons and Wisdom from Season 1 of HIMYM
How I Met Your Mother was one of the first shows I really fell in love with, particularly because it told such a great story. Along with a great story, it explored incredible themes. So I wanted to devote some of my writing to the show, highlighting what I think to be some of the best lessons and insights to take from it.
To make it easier for me and readers, I decided I’d divide it up season by season, and possibly write something about the whole series (I did this in high school but it ended up being very long, so we’ll see). If you don’t watch How I Met Your Mother, I highly recommend it as it’s easily one of my top 3 favorite shows. Hopefully I can effectively show why. This is my season 1 analysis:
*Contains spoilers to season 1 of How I Met Your Mother
Briefly, the show is a frame story, meaning a story inside another story. The outside story takes place in the future, 2030, where Ted Mosby tells his kids how he met their mother. He starts in 2005 and recounts his adventures with his friends in New York City.
For this, I’ll evaluate two of my favorite themes (and the ones I think best displayed) from season 1: faith and imperfection. Additionally, I’ll mention my favorite episodes and quotes.
Faith
After being introduced to Ted Mosby, it’s evident that he’s a man of faith, believing in fate and listening to “the universe.” In episode 1 “Pilot”, Ted’s two best friends, Marshall (his roommate) and Lily, get engaged, which prompts Ted to go out and find “the one,” since he believes he’s behind on life when comparing himself to Marshall. Another one of his best friends, Barney, forces him to talk to a girl named Robin. Future Ted (the one talking to his kids) explains that this night was significant because it started his development of becoming the man he was when he finally does meet his mother. He recaps it by saying “That’s the funny thing about destiny, it happens whether you plan it or not.”
More faith elements are shown in episodes 6 and 7 “The Slutty Pumpkin” and “Matchmaker”, respectively. Ted waits on a rooftop party to see a girl he met four years ago on Halloween, but it isn’t likely because he’s done the same thing every Halloween since then. His friends constantly criticize him for it, but he doesn’t give up:
“This is not about the odds. It’s about believing. This girl, she represents something to me. I don’t know, hope.” Later in the night he explains that it isn’t likely she’ll appear, but the rooftop “seems as nice a spot as any to just, you know, sit and wait.” — Ted Mosby, (“The Slutty Pumpkin”)
With his faith, Ted is able to be patient in life, especially in terms of finding the right person, which is something I’m sure some of us can be more patient with.
In “Matchmaker” (one of my top 3 episodes from the season — see at the end of this article), Marshall and Lily think that there is a “cockamouse,” a mix of a cockroach and a mouse, in their apartment. Robin quickly states, “That’s impossible. That simply can’t happen.” Throughout the season, Robin is displayed as a skeptic. On the other hand, Marshall and Lily are far from skeptics: “We’re believers. We believe. Yeah, look around. The universe is mysterious and awesome.” Faith can be displayed as believing that a cockamouse can exist or believing that you’ll find the right girl, as we see in Ted. After a matchmaker service fails for Ted and a doubtful love analyst says he’ll never find anybody, he reassures her that he will. She asks how he knows and he responds:
“I don’t know, but I believe. Hell, if a cockroach and a mouse can find love in this crazy city, then damn it, so can I! The point is, something good’s gonna happen to me. I mean, maybe your computer will help, maybe it won’t, but it’ll happen.” — Ted Mosby, (“Matchmaker”)
Ted doesn’t let negative people or his friends occasionally teasing him to give up on his confidence and faith in the future.
Ted additionally had faith in a long-distance relationship with his girlfriend Victoria in episode 16 “Cupcake”. Not one to give up, he says “We can beat the odds.” Future Ted quickly breaks down this hope for his kids by saying that long-distance didn’t work, but what matters is that present Ted believed.
In episode 22 “Come On”, the season finale, Barney tells Ted that “the universe clearly does not want you and Robin to be together” after he tells his friends that he wants to try to ask out Robin (even though they haven’t ended up together after knowing each other for a little less than a year). Again, though, Ted doesn’t let non-believers get to him, so he crafts an idea to perform a rain dance in order to have Robin’s company camping trip cancelled, preventing her from going on a date with a coworker. During the dance, Barney continues to ridicule Ted for this “crazy” idea. “It’s the thought that counts” he explains to Barney. Still believing, he stops the dance and shouts, “Do you hear me universe? This is Ted Mosby talking! Give me some rain! Come on! Come on! Come on!” His prayer is answered and rain finally appears! As it was planned, Robin’s trip was cancelled, allowing Ted to make his final move for Robin, which works and causes them to start dating — something Marshall, Lily, and Barney especially didn’t seem optimistic for.
HIMYM reiterates how the skeptics don’t matter. Faith is an excellent theme throughout the whole series, and season 1 does a great job of introducing it. One of the shows greatest strengths is the frame story; it’s reassuring to have a future character to show that no matter what things work out. The incredible Steve Jobs quote comes to mind: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future,” which is something Ted does well. He wants his kids to do the same (and the show wants this for the viewers).
Imperfection
“I don’t want perfect,” Ted says to Marshall and Lily in episode 21 “Milk”, “I want Robin.” He says this after he blew off a date with the “perfect girl” he found from the same match making service in “Matchmaker”. This is a great quote to represent HIMYM, especially in season 1, because it shows that nothing is perfect.
In episode 1 “Pilot”, Ted explains one reason why he thinks Marshall and Lily are a great couple, and this is the olive theory — he hates olives, she loves them, giving them the “perfect balance.” Later in the episode, Barney points out that he saw Marshall eat some a couple weeks ago, forcing him to confess he actually does like them (he nervously told Lily on their first date that he hated them and he was still scared to admit the truth). While a small thing, the show quickly established it was out to break perfection. On that night too, Ted didn’t kiss Robin after their date since he was waiting for the perfect moment/signal. The gang explained to him that there will never be a perfect moment; he just has to take the leap, which can apply to all aspects of life — there will never be a perfect moment for anything.
Ted struggles with overthinking; he’s a perfectionist, wanting somethings to be just right (such as with wanting the signal from Robin). In episode 10 “The Pineapple Incident”, Ted is thinking too much about Robin, so Barney tells him that his brain screws him up and has him drink to power down his brain for a night. Throughout the season, Barney doesn’t let Ted overthink often, especially when quickly introducing him to girls. Overthinking is a form of perfection, so it’s another way the show displays imperfection.
The greatest sign of imperfection is in Marshall and Lily’s relationship. They’re a couple that’s been together since their first year of college, so almost 10 years, and they’re regarded by friends and others as the “perfect” or “greatest” couple. Yet, in the season finale “Come On”, they split up because Lily wants to pursue her dream of being an artist and leaves to San Francisco. Marshall is seen alone on the front steps the next morning holding her engagement ring while Ted comes home after spending his first night with Robin. It was supposed to be perfect timing for them to both be in relationships, but it didn’t happen.
This is another area where the frame story helps since future Ted can offer lessons on these imperfect moments. In episode 4 “Return of the Shirt”, he explains, “So that’s the upside of hurt. Sometimes it happens for a reason,” and adds “Not every night has a happy ending, but all of it’s important. All of it was leading somewhere,” in episode 11 “The Limo”.
My Top 3 Season 1 Episodes
- Milk (Episode 21)
- Matchmaker (Episode 7)
- Come On (Episode 22)
My Top 3 Season 1 Quotes
- “Okay, yes it’s a mistake. I know it’s a mistake, but there are certain things in life where you know it’s a mistake, but you don’t really know it’s a mistake, because the only way to really know it’s a mistake is to make the mistake, and look back and say, ‘Yep, that was a mistake.’ So, really, the bigger mistake would be to not make the mistake because then you’d go your whole life not really knowing if something is a mistake or not.” — Lily Aldrin (“Milk”).
- “Love is not a science. You see, sometimes in life you just have to accept that certain things can’t be explained, and that’s kind of scary.” — Ted Mosby (“Matchmaker”).
- “You know what? I’m done being single. I’m not good at it. Look, obviously you can’t tell a woman you just met you love her, but it sucks that you can’t. I’ll tell you something, though. If a woman, not you, just some hypothetical woman, were to bear with me through all this, I think I’d make a damn good husband because that’s the stuff I’d be good at. Stuff like making her laugh and being a good father and walking her five hypothetical dogs.” — Ted Mosby (“Pilot”).
As you can see, I think there’s a lot of value in How I Met Your Mother’s first season, but there’s much more. I encourage you to watch the show and think about it as more than entertainment; a lot can be taken away, which is why I’m writing about it. I believe it’s a great topic, so stay tuned for more, and thank you for reading! HIMYM even encouraged me to take my leap of writing:
