General Television Thread

[Rich]

HIMYM

I don't understand how anyone didn't see that ending coming at least 5 episodes ago when Ted and The Mother are at the Farhampton inn and Ted breaksdown when The Mother talking about Robin's mother turning up with something along the line of "What mother is gonna miss her daughter's wedding?" Its been obvious for bloody weeks!

[Hobo]

I, for one, am shocked that a terrible sitcom had a terrible ending!@

It's one of the better sit-coms of the last few years, I think. I always liked the framing device but I stopped watching about a season and a half ago.

I did however watch the finale.

And it was obvious what was going to happen. I think it makes sense as an ending. I don't mind it so much but I think the show should've ended a few seasons ago.

[zero]

HIMYM

I think it was obvious the mother dies, but ending up with Robin seems to be what's splitting people. Most seem to see it as writing off the importance of Barney's growth and Ted's entire relationship with the mother.

I don't see it that way, I think it was a pretty realistic portrayal of how messy life can be. Some people just shouldn't get married, some people don't grow up until they have kids of their own, sometimes life fucks up your happy ending by killing your soul mate, sometimes people have more than one "The One." I think it was a pretty ballsy move for a CBS laugh track sitcom, whereas my wife thinks it was a total sitcom move though.

I thought it was a good way to end a show about a dad telling his kids how he met their mother and that being the cathartic moment he needed and the thing that convinces his kids to tell him to get back out there. I thought it was really sweet because Ted being Ted would be so obsessed with the concept of the one that he would never make the decision to start dating again, but with his kids giving him the push, he gets to answer the big question in his life and reconnect with the only woman he truly loved besides their mother.

The disconnect though, is that it didn't necessarily work as a story told to the audience. The kids knew what happened to their mother, so it made sense to gloss over that part of the story, why would Ted go into excruciating detail about their mom's death when they were there and this is the story of how they met? But for us, the viewing audience, it was a barrage of information flying at us in a rushed 10 minutes, "here's how we met, here's what happened to everyone else, mom got sick, the end." "Dad, do you want to give it another shot with Aunt Robin?" The End. I can totally understand people not liking that, but if you put yourselves in the shoes of the kids, I think it makes a lot more sense, but perhaps I'm just being an apologist.

[Mofoticon]

HIMYM

I don't understand how anyone didn't see that ending coming at least 5 episodes ago when Ted and The Mother are at the Farhampton inn and Ted breaksdown when The Mother talking about Robin's mother turning up with something along the line of "What mother is gonna miss her daughter's wedding?" Its been obvious for bloody weeks!

It was more of an in-denial because of how bad of a decision that could be...Yes, many people were predicting the mother was dead in the future, especially after the episode Vesuvius, but it got to the point where many people (including me) had our expectations for the finale lowered so much that we'd have just been happy if the mother was alive in the future and we as fans of the show got the happy ending for Ted and the Mother after 9 seasons of build-up...but nope, they couldn't even do that. Such a let down

[TKz]

Kind of tanks the idea of How I Met Your Father, really.

I mean, even if we just assume they endured a long fucking story from her too (which makes no sense as to why they'd listen to it again from their dad), it's hard to give a shit about a character we know the fate of.

[livid]

How I Met Your Dad is a spinoff in name convention only. No overlapping characters whatsoever.

[zero]

I think I read How I Met Your Father was about a new character that played a role in the finale... my guess is it's the mother of Barney's child, but that may just be wishful thinking. It's definitely not about The Mother though.

[livid]

I think I read How I Met Your Father was about a new character that played a role in the finale... my guess is it's the mother of Barney's child, but that may just be wishful thinking. It's definitely not about The Mother though.

I haven't seen it yet so I can't confirm but last I heard a character(s) was going to appear but not be involved in the plot because it's still supposed to take place partly at MacLaren's. That could have been changed though, too.

That said, I can't imagine it's the same person since the lead in HIMYD is Greta Gerwig (not exactly an unknown so I would have seen something about it by now).

[Matt]

I'm so glad I gave up on HIMYM a couple of years ago.

Seriously, the ending is "shit is pretty much the same as it was in season one but we're older and some of us have kids now", the entire premise of the show was Ted finding the one, he eventually does that and it's pretty much completely brushed over and then she dies but fuck it, he just goes back to Robin anyway because she's also the one now apparently. And one of the major subplots was Barney becoming more mature and settling down but actually no fuck that, let's scrap that entire story arc and go back to him fucking anything in sight. Lily and Marshall were pretty much useless characters anyway as other then their short break up, they did little to nothing in terms of character development... Really comes across as they had no real idea how to end it so they came up with that to tie up loose ends. Honestly, it'd have been much better if it just ended with "and we all lived happily ever after"

[Crybaby Bunting]

So which show gave viewers the worst finale? HIMYM or Dexter?

[Benjamin]

Seinfeld.

[caucasianheat]

Roseanne.

[Lint]

Roseanne.

This

Also,I saw Enlisted was taken off Fox's schedule and future in doubt. I will miss Keith David on my TV

[CobraKaiEnTai]

HIMYM

I don't understand how anyone didn't see that ending coming at least 5 episodes ago when Ted and The Mother are at the Farhampton inn and Ted breaksdown when The Mother talking about Robin's mother turning up with something along the line of "What mother is gonna miss her daughter's wedding?" Its been obvious for bloody weeks!

It was more of an in-denial because of how bad of a decision that could be...Yes, many people were predicting the mother was dead in the future, especially after the episode Vesuvius, but it got to the point where many people (including me) had our expectations for the finale lowered so much that we'd have just been happy if the mother was alive in the future and we as fans of the show got the happy ending for Ted and the Mother after 9 seasons of build-up...but nope, they couldn't even do that. Such a let down

I guess I got my hopes up that the mother wasn't dead all along. Just seemed like they could've ended the show 2-3 seasons ago if it was going to be Ted and Robin again, instead of wasting 2 seasons on Robin and Barney when it doesn't work out and on telling us all the reasons Ted and Robin wouldn't work and having several episodes dedicated to Ted getting over her. We didn't get more than a glimpse of Ted with Tracy. We got more development of Ted with Stella or Victoria than we did of Ted with the actual mother of his children. They literally went from them getting married, to she's sick, to here's how I first met her, all in the span of like 3 minutes. His meeting her was supposed to be this big pivotal moment, they shouldn't have waited until the last 5 minutes of the finale to show that for one thing, but they also can't put this big moment right after insinuating that she died, that just takes away from the moment of meeting her after making such a sad revelation. I'm not saying I won't enjoy HIMYM reruns now, but the big mystery that hung over the show isn't as intriguing now that we know that the mother really didn't seem like a major factor, at least to the audience watching at home. Seinfeld had a disappointing finale, but it didn't have a clear endgame set up from the beginning, so you could still enjoy all the other self-contained episodes. How I Met Your Mother had all these clues spread out about how he met her, had the mother meet each of his friends individually, and it feels like it didn't amount to much more than a distraction until Ted and Robin are both available again.

Yea, in the story this all happened over the course of a decade or so, but for us watching at home, it was being hit with too many life-changing moments in 3 minutes. As for the Vesuvius episode, I honestly hoped that they were referencing somebody else that would miss their daughter's wedding (like maybe Ted's mother wouldn't be around for his sister's wedding or something). I guess maybe I'm old-fashioned or something, but I just wanted that happy ending, I don't care if its realistic, its a TV show, a sitcom especially, its meant to be an escape from everyday life, not a reminder of it. I guess I just don't like to see any character in a comedy die off-screen, whether it was Dan from Roseanne, Kevin's dad from the Wonder Years, Susan from Seinfeld or even Pierce from Community. Yea, we only really saw the mother during a few episodes of the last season, but she was referenced plenty of times before that, so it felt like a bigger loss than how it was treated.

[Benji]

So which show gave viewers the worst finale? HIMYM or Dexter?

Dexter, it's not even close. HIMYM was bad, but Dexter was downright insulting throughout it's entire last season.

[EddieG]

Roseanne.

This

Also,I saw Enlisted was taken off Fox's schedule and future in doubt. I will miss Keith David on my TV

Noooooooooooooo.

[C-MIL]

What is the general consensus on House Of Cards? I have been told it is great, but that I wouldn't like it...

[zero]

It's not as good as it thinks it is. Don't get me wrong, I like it and Kevin Spacey is a god amongst mere mortals, but there was something missing from the first season, haven't watched season 2 yet though.

It's totally worth watching, but I'd dive into The Americans first if you're looking for a good TV thriller.

[Benji]

Just beware with The Americans - it's incredibly slow to start, but gets really good.

[Hobo]

So which show gave viewers the worst finale? HIMYM or Dexter?

Every show should end with the revelation that it was either

1) A dream Bob Newhart had.

2) All in the mind of an Autistic boy.

3) The characters brought about the end of the world.