Neil Patrick Harris Defends Much-Hated 'How I Met Your Mother' Finale: 'Big Supporter of It'

Yeah I think that's also a big part of why the finale falls flat too. The whole last season feels like it should be building what will ultimately burn down Robin and Barney's marriage and it just ends up being Robin's job/travel schedule...? It feels like it should be around the idea that Barney cannot maintain the romance around Robin without tricking her or something like that but it's just... not related to anything they've built in the final season.

The magic trick bomb was with Quinn, not Robin

> because he kept doing stupid shit like bringing a magic trick that looked like a bomb onto a plane wasn't this from the girl he proposed to earlier in the show? or did he also bring a bomb to the robin one? its been awhile

That's because Barney didn't really change until he had a child as that was his destiny. One of Barney's biggest issues was around his own dad and his deep deep denial that bled into every aspect of his life so becoming a dad himself and devoting himself to his daughter was what changed him.

It definitely has filler but compared to friends and 2 1/2 men it really has moments that hit you in the heart. Like this is a sitcom but is known for its heartbreaking scenes.

The end game was the mother. Ted and Robin wouldn't be together if the mother hadn't died. It's two older people finding comfort in each other after they've lived their dream and is on the other side of it.

Ted's true love is Tracy. He ends up with Robin because she's the ( distant ) next best thing. You want him to be a single widow forever?

The mother was irritating and not a patch on Robin Scherbatsky.

David was supposed to be Phoebe's endgame too and when they introduced Mike they were still planning on her ending up with David but they realized she worked so well with Mike.

It is the 24 hour news problem.

Nah, more than one of them has said they were done with the show and couldn’t go on. Both Dinklage and Harrington have said they were ready to quit and others have indicated the same. Plus the both of them, Coster-Waldau and Turner have all come out in defense of the ending. From NCWM > “For anyone to imagine or to think that the two creators of the show are not the most passionate, the greatest, the most invested of all, and to for a second think that they didn’t spend the last 10 years thinking about how they were going to end it is kind of silly,” Coster-Waldau said. “And also know that they too read the comments. And it is, even though you sit on your own and go, ‘F****** stupid writers. Assholes.’ They really ― like everyone on ‘Game of Thrones,’ every single person and there are thousands ― we worked our asses off to make the best show we could for the ending.” All this stuff is pretty easy to google, don’t know why people keep repeating it.

Agreed, people were thinking any expression was a show of disappointment. When in fact the majority of them seem to have defended it (i dont blame them, some of them copped hate for it which is weird af).

Even that's somewhat steady work. Plus, he's had a few starring roles since HIMYM ended (A Series of Unfortunate Events, and, more recently, that dramedy that lasted for one season). He probably does okay. He's not a mega star, but he gets work. And he probably doesn't want to stop working because he talked smack about a previous project.

I saw him in a play on Broadway last September. He’s definitely working.

Barely works but has a net worth of 50 million dollars sign me up.

> the dude barely works He’s been in 17 screen projects in the last five years

It's funny how all the successful stars are always talking about how brilliant the Directors or Writers or co-Stars are. In an industry where your next job is by word of mouth, its not surprising that those who are successful play the game. Leo Dicaprio has said that he got introduced to Scorsese by Deniro who worked with DiCaprio on this Boy's Life. It's a very small world in Showbiz. It's insane to burn bridges the way Heigl did.

There was also the time she badmouthed her own movie calling Knocked Up “sexist”. Yeah, pissing off Judd Apatow and Seth Rogan ain’t great for your career.

The original sin of the finale was choosing to focus on the wedding weekend for the majority of the runtime for the final season. It should've been something we checked in on from time-to-time, and the reveal of the mother's death should've happened way earlier so they could trace the arc of those characters.  If you approach it from the perspective of "Ted is asking his kids if it's ok that he ask their surrogate mom (Robin) out, even though they've been down that road already", the whole show (finale included) makes more sense. But treating the reveal that the mother is dead like a surprise means you have to rush through the arcs to get to the moment where Ted asks his kids if it's OK.  Edit: To expand on this a little, if we want to keep the ending (Ted asking Robin out, in a mirror to the pilot), the show needs to show four things: 1. Robin is truly unhappy about not having kids -- but achieves her professional goals 2. Ted is truly happy with Tracey 3. Once Tracey dies, Robin becomes a surrogate mom to the kids, and they love her 4. Ted and Robin are still romantically compatible Points 1 & 2 are really, _really_ important -- for the ending to work, we need to know that Ted and Robin met the life goals they set out for themselves and ultimately caused them to break up the first time. And #2 also needs to established that Ted letting Robin go was genuine -- he can't be hung up on her for 15+ years while "the love of his life" is dying of some unspecified illness.  They say you should know the answer to a marriage proposal before you ask, and this is a similar situation -- it should be Ted warning his kids about everything he and Robin have been through, both together and individually, because him asking will impact them too. We should already be seeing that Ted and Robin work in kind of a weird, unofficial co-parent-y way. We should see that Robin unconditionally loves Ted's kids as much as he does. And only then, it makes sense to have Ted ask someone who's already a major part of his life out on a date after getting approval from his kids.