How I Met Your Father Can Learn From the Originals Mistakes

How I Met Your Father is still figuring out what kind of show it wants to be. While it would like to pull in the die-hard How I Met Your Mother fans, it needs to stand on its own as well. If they run too many of the same stories, people will eventually lose interest having already seen it all before. In order to keep it fresh, there are a few changes they can make.

Introduce New Characters

How I Met Your Father can learn from HIMYM’s mistakes. When it comes to the love interests in the show, the door was wide open, but when it came to our core cast the Robin/Ted/Barney storyline was great, but was stretched pretty thin. Where they can resolve that in the follow-up series would be adding new reoccurring characters down the road. Adding new faces is tricky, but not impossible. Shows like the Big Bang Theory took the next step by adding characters like Amy and Burnadette in later seasons. If HIMYF wants to honor the original show without being a carbon copy of those storylines, then adding some fresh faces to the friend group over time could expand their opportunities for other stories.

More Entertainment: Is How I Met Your Father Good As The Original?

Introduce the Father Early On

One of the best ways they can pivot from the original is by not keeping audiences on the hook. If season 2 breaks the mold and introduces the father it will allow them to spread their wings a bit more. There’s a good chance they want to keep some of the mystery, but it would make a great change of pace in their storytelling. We could see each series of events play out from two different perspectives.

Maybe knowing the story’s ending would ruin the surprise but it doesn’t have to ruin the show. In Disney’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series we knew Obi-Wan wouldn’t die as he’s in the later movies, but it still didn’t change the tone when he was getting the crap kicked out of him by Darth Vader. Even if you know the ending, a great journey will trump a good ending any day of the week. Just don’t fumble the ending. This brings us to …

Stick The Landing

Okay, How I Met Your Mother’s ending was a bit clumsy. It was a fantastic journey along the way, but where most people were disappointed was thinking it should’ve ended about 2 minutes earlier than it did. Sure, plenty of people wanted to see Ted and Robin end up together, but it was an odd choice of an ending. This big heartfelt moment where we see Ted finally having his ultimate connection, and they tell the story of how Tracy died. Then they follow it up with almost a playful “one that got away moment” when they could’ve given it a bit more emotional push.

If they would’ve gone with the kids’ encouragement saying “it’s time to move on, mom would’ve wanted you to be happy.” it would’ve resonated a bit more echoing the same way she moved on after her lost love. Ted moving on to be happy after she herself experienced the toll of moving on after a loved one passed wouldn’t have cheapened her story as much. There’s a very thin line between knowing when to be funny and getting a heartfelt moment.

Watch On Hulu

How I Met Your Father is already a hit. Some might not love it as much as the original HIMYM, but that’s fine. It’s still early on and they’re already getting a vote of confidence. Season 2 is getting something most streamers don’t, a full 20-episode season. These days most have between 8-12 episodes, but Hulu is going all in with a full 20. Hopefully, How I Met Your Father continues to grow into the show it has the potential to be.