Alright, you read the title, let’s get into it.
The 2005 show first aired in September and focuses on the early adult lives of a close group of friends living in New York City.
You may be thinking that that is a dull premise, considering Seinfeld and Friends were already established and successful. However, How I Met Your Mother has a key distinction.
It is narrated by one of the show’s key characters, Ted Mosby, about 25 years in the future, to his kids. As the show’s title suggests, he is telling the children the story of how he met their mother.
Using a dynamic cast of characters, including Neil Patrick Harris as the sex obsessed businessman, Barney Stinson, and American Pie’s Alyson Hannigan as kindergarten teacher Lily Aldren, the show looks at people finding themselves and finding love in such a human and natural way that it puts other shows to shame.
The gang often finds themselves in fairly realistic situations audiences can relate to: dating, career changes, starting a family, and getting older in a fast-moving world.
Aside from its fantastic writing, the show uses a lot of unique storytelling elements, including internal conversations between characters and their past/future selves, intense symbolism, and the crucial decision to not even introduce the maternal figure on whom the show is based until the final season.
The show was created by longtime friends Carter Bays and Craig Thomas in the wake of 9/11. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Thomas shared how the emotional strength of the show was inspired by the tragedy.
Thomas was quoted as saying, “We have to write something bigger and with emotion, and [that] talks about twists and turns in life” in the Hollywood Reporter article about the acclaimed show.
You can’t find a better mix of love, heartbreak, comedy, and characters than How I Met Your Mother.
Don’t believe me? Give it a try, and I guarantee you won’t regret it.
