Why I’ll Always Love ‘How I Met Your Mother’
Yes, it’s been a long time since How I Met Your Mother aired its tragic last episode, but there’s still so much to say about it. The show made its first appearance in the TV world way back in 2005. Since its premiere, it has captured the hearts and interest of thousands of fans across the country with ridiculous scenarios, situational irony, and Ted’s quest for love.
For me, what sets this show apart from others like it is the honest and realistic characters. From the very beginning we have Ted Mosby - the hopeless romantic - who just wants to find his soulmate to get married and have kids with and who does he fall for at fist sight? Robin Scherbatsky, a strong independent woman who not only isn’t super great at relationships but also doesn’t want to get married or have kids. It’s a perfect recipe for tension in the show but also a representation of real life. How many of us can say that we have fallen in love with someone that simply doesn’t match what we want in life? Or how many of us can say we don’t want what conventional society wants and we don’t intend to change? Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, the show’s creators, knew what they were doing when they created this pair.
The next pair of crucial pieces to the show’s success are Lily Aldrin and Marshall Eriksen. Lily and Marshall are the couple every other couple wants to be like. They respect each other, they love each other, and they are simply a match made in heaven. What’s interesting about this couple in particular is they actually exist in real life! That’s right. To all the cynics out there, couples like these two really exist and they are portrayed quite well. With all the wacky, if not unhealthy, couples out there like Marge and Homer Simpson, Doug and Carrie Heffernan, or Maxine Shaw and Kyle Barker, Lily and Marshall are a refreshing reminder that healthy relationships do exist on TV. But just like in real life, there is no such thing as a truly perfect couple. Early on in the show’s history, Lily gets accepted into an art program in San Francisco and leaves Marshall for 6 months which breaks his heart and also breaks them up. Even so they resolve their differences and end up getting married.
Thomas and Bays really capture the struggles of being an ideal couple as crazy as that seems. Lily and Marshall get made fun of and put down for their lack of experience, they get compared to the rest of the group, and they are also difficult to relate to as demonstrated by their constant excitement for couple’s dinner parties. Though Lily and Marshall are the rare relationship candy we’d all love to be, we’re reminded that they are also two individual people. Marshall has a passion for the law and wants to be an environmentalist lawyer while Lily has a desire to paint. His softer personality coupled with Lily’s brash personality make them both the people that inspire us and make us go “aww!” They differ in so many ways yet they still come together and are the Marshmallow and Lily pad we know and love.
Lastly, there’s Barney Stinson — the raging skirt chaser, and perhaps the most awesome and legendary man this side of the world. Barney appears to be the most shallow man on earth. His only concerns are money, women, and being awesome yet Barney is the deepest character out of the gang. Initially and outwardly, Barney Stinson is just another frat guy whose sole purpose is to get in your pants but as the seasons pass, we get bits and pieces into Barney’s childhood and background. He was raised by a single mother, has a black half-brother, has always been into magic, and grew up believing that his father was Bob Barker.
As outrageous as his personality is, Barney also has his demons. He longs for his father and mother to get back together to get a shred of normal life back, he uses women to bury the pain over his first heartbreak, and believes that he is beyond repair. Throughout the show we see Barney’s slow yet steady transformation from obnoxious party boy to a real person again. The transformation is both fulfilling and tearful as you see Barney admitting to his faults and recognizing the error in his behavior. Some of the most profound moments come from Barney. There are so many of us trying to patch up our wounds with awesome titles, epic nights, and lots of alcohol only to eventually come to the conclusion that we feel something is wrong with us. Yet the next day the patches are on once again and the party continues. That’s life and that’s especially Barney Stinson.
How I Met Your Mother is a modern sitcom that’s I believe will remain in the hearts of the adults of today and possibly the adults of tomorrow. The characters are simultaneously beautiful and outrageous portraits of who we all are in some way or another. For me, these characters and their stories are what make How I Met Your Mother an all time classic.
