How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014)

NOTE: The show’s been finished for over ten years, but if you are watching it for the first time, don’t read this as it spoils some parts of the last season.

I had this to say after the series finale:

March 31, 2014
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OMG HIMYM. Strangely satisfying. Will say more later out of respect for those who couldn’t watch it tonight.

Only, I never went back and said more.  Lately, YouTube has been showing me short clips of HIMYM and I was reminded that Cristin Milioti played the Mother well before her Emmy-winning performance on The Penguin. (And, wow, two very different characters!)

I was invested in the show as it aired, and after watching a few of those clips I went back and found that the series was on Hulu, and watched four episodes of season 9, their last.

I was bowled over by Milioti’s performance, and the way that she and Ted were perfect together was a joy to watch, especially recalling all of the near misses before they met on the train platform in Milioti’s standout episode 16, “How Your Mother Met Me.”

Watching their near-misses and meet-cute encapsulated reminds me a bit of the opening of Up, when we witness one of the greatest love stories ever, and then we get the rest of the movie.  That’s more appropriate than I first realized, as in HIMYM we see years of loving moments with Ted and Tracy only to find out she died of an unspecified illness.

The show’s creators always intended the ending they left us with (even filming the kids’ parts years before).  I don’t know if I would still call the ending “satisfying.”  I do know that Ted was incredibly lucky to have found his true love.  In my fifties, having watched many relationships around me, I realize that the kind of do-over Ted and Robin get is something incredibly rare and precious.  Maybe I’d be happier with the ending if that came through just a little more.

The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey (1969)

There are certain “classic” books that I have just never read.  I found a copy of this one in a library book sale in New York this past summer and read it this week.  I hadn’t realized that this “origin” story was actually a collection of six shorter works.  This universe posits a time when severely disabled humans, if they qualify, can live a life as the human “brains” for spaceships. (The world also posits a city-controller human brain as well.)

This was an entertaining read and it’s aged fairly well. Except for some references to navigational “tapes” the other technology aspects still read well.

Apparently there are two more short stories featuring the protagonist Helva, and then a follow-on series in the universe.  I don’t feel compelled to seek them out, but if they happen to come into my hands I’d read them. Overall, this is a good book to pass on to the Heinlein for Heroes program as as a really good standalone read.

Gen V S2 (Amazon Prime, 2025)

 

 

If you didn’t watch Season 1, you really should go back and watch it. The “Previously on” won’t give the full flavor of what you need.

After having watched S2, I think it is ESSENTIAL for those who are watching The Boys to watch before the final season comes out.  It’s still coarse and with graphic violence but the hero’s journey the main (and even peripheral) characters take is interesting TV.

I am impressed that the creators and writers (and actors) have made the show as compelling as it is.  The movement of the characters from crass a-hole college students to nascent heroes is probably the weakest link for the show, but I am now very interested to see what happens when The Boys airs.

Original Short Take for Season 1 (November 3, 2024):

This is a spinoff in “The Boys” universe. For best effect watched between S3 and S4. I watched it after. There’s an S2 planned. It is worth watching if you like the main show. It’s coarse and graphic at times but there is some serious commentary and satire in there as well. I assume S2 will come out before S5 of the main show and since I am caught up I will be able to watch everything as it comes out, whenever that ends up being.