Dear sirs and madams:
My name is Kevin Whipps, and I’m a writer from Scottsdale, Arizona. I’ve been watching How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) since the beginning, and up until recently, it’s really been quite enjoyable to tune into every Monday night. Recently though, not so much. And it needs to change, or else I’m going to stop watching — and I don’t think I’m the only one thinking that.
Remember Lost? Of course you do, we all watched Lost in the beginning, and some even hung onto the end. Those that did had lots of still unanswered questions left in the lurch, as did viewers of Battlestar Galactica. This creates a frustration with the viewers because we sit there, watching, patiently waiting for the show to put down a question, then answer said question within a reasonable amount of time. The amount varies based on the show, but I can say now with confidence that seven seasons is way too long to know how Ted actually meets the mother of his children.
It’s not that we don’t enjoy the hijinks of Barney, Ted and the gang, but since the title isn’t How Five Friends Spend Time at a Bar we want the story to progress. We want clues dropped then responded to. We want closure, and there’s no reason you can’t give it to us and still give us another five years of quality programming.
Emotionally, we, the viewers, are spent. First we’re getting involved with Ted and his fantastically horrid love life, but now Barney has gone from being the lovable bachelor to a lovelorn puppy who is pining away for Robin — the same person, by the way, who’s supposed to marry a brunette newscaster as per the guideline set a few seasons back. As for Marshall and Lilly, well they’re married and expecting their first child, but because they live out in Long Island now, their involvement in the bar scene is becoming a bit of a stretch. Sure, at least Marshall is in the city every day for work, but is Lilly really making that commute to work at a school when she could do the same thing closer by? Doesn’t seem logical.
Mathematically, you’ve got a problem, too. The conversation with Ted’s children takes place in 2030, at least per the show, and those children are at least 14 years old, give or take. Assuming that’s the case, then one of them was born in 2016, so you’ve got four years at the most to make this thing happen. But in a reasonable world, Ted’s going to want to meet the girl, hang out for a bit and then have children. Does all that happen in a year? Maybe, but Ted’s not getting any younger, so this has to happen sometime soon.
These premises are just becoming such stretches that we’re losing interest. And when you dropped the “love” bullshit between Ted and Robin last episode, I turned off the TV and seriously considered pulling the show from my DVR. Against my better judgement, I watch again this week and at the end Marshall won’t let Lilly concede to the bet, saying “Not yet” in reference to Ted and Robin never working out. You could almost see the disdain on Jason Segel’s face as he spit out the lines, like even he thought it was a stupid idea to keep dragging this thing out. Stop it. Just, stop it.
So how do you fix it? Easy. Give us the girl.
Now we know she has a yellow umbrella, but at this point it’s been years since she lost the thing, so who knows if she cares that it’s missing. And we also know she was Rachel Bilson’s roommate, but that was so long ago that it’s not even a relevant clue. However you do it, we now need to meet her. Let’s make the connection and move the story forward, or else Ted is going to be 65 and looking for chicks at AARP meetings.
Once they do meet though, the story isn’t over. Now we know how he met the mother, but the story can transition. They can break up, get back together, fight, argue, get married — you know, the stuff that couples do. You’ve easily got another year’s worth of stories before the marriage, and for the end of season 8 or 9, that’s where you go. Or maybe to the birth of the kids. Whatever it is, you can draw this out. It works.
But right now, you’re just playing this game where you’re giving us enough to be able to wrap up the show quickly if it gets cancelled, but also not enough to really make any reasonable progress to move the story along. It’s like a seven year long game of “just the tip” — we want more, we’ve been patient, we’ve put in the work. Let us finish, for fuck’s sake.
I’ve been debating if this show has already jumped the shark, but if it hasn’t yet, it seems imminent. Before you go off riding Fonzie’s coattails into television history, consider rewarding those of us that have been watching since the beginning. We want our payoff. I know that if I don’t get it soon, I’m just going to bail on it faster than I did on Lost.
To the Writers of HIMYM
Dear sirs and madams:
My name is Kevin Whipps, and I’m a writer from Scottsdale, Arizona. I’ve been watching How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) since the beginning, and up until recently, it’s really been quite enjoyable to tune into every Monday night. Recently though, not so much. And it needs to change, or else I’m going to stop watching — and I don’t think I’m the only one thinking that.
Remember Lost? Of course you do, we all watched Lost in the beginning, and some even hung onto the end. Those that did had lots of still unanswered questions left in the lurch, as did viewers of Battlestar Galactica. This creates a frustration with the viewers because we sit there, watching, patiently waiting for the show to put down a question, then answer said question within a reasonable amount of time. The amount varies based on the show, but I can say now with confidence that seven seasons is way too long to know how Ted actually meets the mother of his children.
It’s not that we don’t enjoy the hijinks of Barney, Ted and the gang, but since the title isn’t How Five Friends Spend Time at a Bar we want the story to progress. We want clues dropped then responded to. We want closure, and there’s no reason you can’t give it to us and still give us another five years of quality programming.
Emotionally, we, the viewers, are spent. First we’re getting involved with Ted and his fantastically horrid love life, but now Barney has gone from being the lovable bachelor to a lovelorn puppy who is pining away for Robin — the same person, by the way, who’s supposed to marry a brunette newscaster as per the guideline set a few seasons back. As for Marshall and Lilly, well they’re married and expecting their first child, but because they live out in Long Island now, their involvement in the bar scene is becoming a bit of a stretch. Sure, at least Marshall is in the city every day for work, but is Lilly really making that commute to work at a school when she could do the same thing closer by? Doesn’t seem logical.
Mathematically, you’ve got a problem, too. The conversation with Ted’s children takes place in 2030, at least per the show, and those children are at least 14 years old, give or take. Assuming that’s the case, then one of them was born in 2016, so you’ve got four years at the most to make this thing happen. But in a reasonable world, Ted’s going to want to meet the girl, hang out for a bit and then have children. Does all that happen in a year? Maybe, but Ted’s not getting any younger, so this has to happen sometime soon.
These premises are just becoming such stretches that we’re losing interest. And when you dropped the “love” bullshit between Ted and Robin last episode, I turned off the TV and seriously considered pulling the show from my DVR. Against my better judgement, I watch again this week and at the end Marshall won’t let Lilly concede to the bet, saying “Not yet” in reference to Ted and Robin never working out. You could almost see the disdain on Jason Segel’s face as he spit out the lines, like even he thought it was a stupid idea to keep dragging this thing out. Stop it. Just, stop it.
So how do you fix it? Easy. Give us the girl.
Now we know she has a yellow umbrella, but at this point it’s been years since she lost the thing, so who knows if she cares that it’s missing. And we also know she was Rachel Bilson’s roommate, but that was so long ago that it’s not even a relevant clue. However you do it, we now need to meet her. Let’s make the connection and move the story forward, or else Ted is going to be 65 and looking for chicks at AARP meetings.
Once they do meet though, the story isn’t over. Now we know how he met the mother, but the story can transition. They can break up, get back together, fight, argue, get married — you know, the stuff that couples do. You’ve easily got another year’s worth of stories before the marriage, and for the end of season 8 or 9, that’s where you go. Or maybe to the birth of the kids. Whatever it is, you can draw this out. It works.
But right now, you’re just playing this game where you’re giving us enough to be able to wrap up the show quickly if it gets cancelled, but also not enough to really make any reasonable progress to move the story along. It’s like a seven year long game of “just the tip” — we want more, we’ve been patient, we’ve put in the work. Let us finish, for fuck’s sake.
I’ve been debating if this show has already jumped the shark, but if it hasn’t yet, it seems imminent. Before you go off riding Fonzie’s coattails into television history, consider rewarding those of us that have been watching since the beginning. We want our payoff. I know that if I don’t get it soon, I’m just going to bail on it faster than I did on Lost.