by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
How I Met Your Mother is one of those shows that has a rabid fanbase. In their defense, I do love the show. It has so many classic moments like the slap bet, Robin Sparkles, and that yellow umbrella. All the actors had excellent chemistry, and the viewer was rooting for all the characters to be happy in the end. It lost steam in the middle seasons, and the last season wasn’t as bad as people think. HOWEVER, it showed the central flaw of the show: it’s painfully slow. I loved the concept of a love story in reverse, but the problem we ran into is that it’s not really a story of how Ted met his wife as much as it was a story about Ted, his friends, and how they grow up in New York together. I was pretty conflicted with the ending. It felt a little like a cheat but it had such a memorable moment where Ted and the mother actually met in the rain.
I was just as conflicted when I first initially heard about How I Met Your Father.
I get it. Spinoffs, reboots, re-imaginings, and spiritual sequels are in right now. With so many streaming services in need of content, it’s easy to use IPs that already have a built-in fanbase. It’s an easy win. So what do we make of How I Met Your Father?
It’s pretty great!
How I Met Your Father stars Hillary Duff as Sophie, an up-and-coming photographer living in New York in the age of dating apps. Her future self (Kim Catrell) is telling her son the story of how she met his father. Sophie is guided by a group of her friends like her roommate Valentina (Francia Raisa) and her current boyfriend Charlie (Tom Ainsley). They have a chance meeting with Jesse (Chris Lowell), Sid (Suraj Sharma), and Jesse’s sister Ellen (Tien Tran) on an important night in all their lives. The group quickly become friends and help each other through growing up in an increasingly digital world.
How I Met Your Father is on Hulu, which means it can get away with a little more than the original could on CBS. There are more raunchy jokes and more cursing than I’m accustomed to, but it’s not like they’re overdoing it either. They’re not cursing more for shock value but rather, it just feels emblematic of how people talk in the 21st century. The wrinkle of having dating apps and online presences also makes for interesting new adventures. The pilot talks a lot about how using dating apps actually makes dating a little harder now. It’s more of a volume game, and although it may be easier to meet more people, the relationship we can build online doesn’t always translate to how it is in real life. The pilot talks about this right off the bat with our main character Sophie.
One of How I Met Your Mother’s other issues is the main character, Ted (Josh Radnor). We start out rooting for him, and then as the show progresses, we like him less and less. In turn, we care about his story less and less, which is a huge problem with your main character. How I Met Your Father hinges solely on Duff’s performance and I’m absolutely rooting for her to find love. She crushes it, and I’m totally on board with her leading this crew of friends. We learn a lot about Sophie in a short amount of time. With only 10 episodes for the season, it gives each episode more stakes and requires viewers to pay attention to as much going on as possible. In the 10 episodes of the season, we learn about Sophie’s career, family, love life, ambitions, and struggles. Duff manages to balance being quirky, being a struggling adult, and being adorable all at once. I will continue to watch this show to root for Sophie.
Sophie’s friend group all have their moments to shine. I’m a fan of Lowell from his Veronica Mars days, and his character Jesse is just a great guy. He helps his friends, follows his passions, and does whatever it takes to be successful. Jesse has been hurt and we learn what happens to him pretty early. Turns out the internet can be mean to people in the 21st century. Who knew? If there was a weak link of the show, it’s Jesse’s sister Ellen. Tran is doing what she can with the material given. However, for now, I don’t buy her relationship with Jesse and I’m wondering when she’ll get more time to shine. I was wondering if they’re setting her up to be the Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) for this group, but so far, it just hasn’t worked. I’ll continue to wait for her to develop.
There are two sets of couples on the show, Valentina and Charlie and Sid and Hannah (Ashley Reyes). They’re both in very different parts of their relationship. Valentina and Charlie are in the infancy of their relationship, struggling to figure things out. Charlie in particular is not only struggling with this new relationship, but what it means to be on his own. Valentina and Charlie, both individually and together, manage to showcase how they can work to make their relationship work while also developing individually as characters too. I’m a fan of Raisa and Ainsley’s work. Raisa in particular shows Valentina’s confidence and vulnerabilities really well. In addition to Duff, her performance will also keep me engaged. Sid and Hannah are an established couple and are dealing with the perils of a long distance relationship. The moments we do get to see them are really sweet, but there aren’t a lot of moments either. I feel like we’ll get more in season two, considering where they’re heading for the future. Sid sneakily might be my favorite character. He has unique moments with all the other characters over the course of the season, and he has a strong relationship with everyone. He also might be the funniest of the show. Some of my favorite lines of the season came from him.
One of my favorite things so far about How I Met Your Father is that it’s trying to do something different, while paying homage to How I Met Your Mother. Other than the title, there’s only really one other thing that connects it to the original. It’s talked about early and then that’s it. I do love that it’s not trying to just be How I Met Your Mother 2: Electric Boogaloo, but rather it’s trying to be its own thing. So far, it’s succeeding and I’m cautiously optimistic on where it goes from here.
The final two episodes of the season are great. There’s an incident in the seventh episode that sets the stage for the final two episodes. There are a lot of great moments and all the characters find themselves at a crossroads. The season finale sets the stage for a great season two. My heart was very happy by a guest star that talked to Sophie about her situation. I also appreciated the guts the finale had with what happens with both Sid and Hannah and Valentina and Charlie. They solved two issues that could bog down season two, but it leaves me to wonder what’s next. Sophie is in a bit of an interesting situation after the finale, as she’s at crossroads in her love life and professionally.
How I Met Your Father had a tough task and largely succeeded in its rookie season. Sure, the story of how they became friends is a little crazy, but I buy their friend group and I’m all in on Duff’s portrayal of Sophie. I’ll be excited for more to come, especially since season two will be super-sized to 20 episodes!
Score: 8/10
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