How I Met Your Mother ran from 2005 to 2014. In that time, it gained a colossal amount of followers. From Ted stealing the blue french horn to Robin and Barney’s growing romance, from the Olive Theory to the Platinum Rule, there’s no denying that the show was beloved with the first season gaining favorable reviews and its popularity only growing from there.
And then the ending happened.
Yeah…we don’t talk about the ending.
This year, however, tv producers Issac Aptaker, producer of This Is Us and Love Simon, and Elizabeth Berger, producer of Love Simon and writer for This Is Us, bring us a stand alone sequel taking place ( again) ten years into the future.
How I Met Your Father, features Sophie, played by Hillary Duff, a dreamer and romantic who hopes to find love in the city and lives with her best friend Valentina, played by Francia Raisa. Rounding up this cast are Jesse, a skeptic who doesn’t believe in true love ( and possibly the Robin to Sophie’s Ted) played by Christopher Lowell, Jesse’s best friend and roommate Sid, played by Suraj Sharma, Valentina’s aristocratic himbo boyfriend Charlie, played by Tom Ainsley, and Jesse’s adopted sister Hellen played by Tien Tran.
High expectations were placed on the show that would follow in the heels of such a known franchise. Finally, on January 18, 2022, it premiered on Hulu. A few days later, I sat down and watched it.
Here are my thoughts.
The writing for the show relies on a lot of the things that HIMYM did, but leaves behind a lot of its horrendously toxic issues such as sexism, transphobia, everything that was unfortunately Barney Stintson was fortunately absent during the entirety of the first three episodes and adds some much needed diversity to the main cast. It also features a lot of throwbacks to HIMYM.
The character dialogue is distinctive for each character and despite it’s few episodes it isn’t afraid to give us some sad moments and character revelations among the more lighthearted moments. It also seems to be putting more focus on platonic relationships within the main six characters. This is a breath of fresh air after the amatonormativity of HIMYM ( not to mention the cringe fest of The Mermaid Theory).
The acting-especially Hillary Duff has been commended, even by people who don’t like the show. The main cast plays the characters great, as well as play off each other (from Sid and Valentina’s contrasting natures to Jesse’s skepticism warning at Sophie’s unrelenting hope, to any combination of casts) and manage to keep the characters human while keeping to the shows more whimsical and silly moments when it calls for it.
Overall, the show manages to bring in nostalgia while standing up as it’s own show. It leaves behind the worst of its predecessor and offers a new cast with kinder writing and with the trappings that made it so beloved. It does a good job of showing how lost you can be in that nebulous time that is your 20s.
The show is only on it’s third episode, with the fourth scheduled to drop on February 1st, but it already shows promise and at least in the opinion of this writer, it deserves to be given a chance.