I thought of a possible scenario for what they can do to try and maintain some suspense about ‘the mother identity’ after having the wedding episode.
Ted’s depressed about Barney getting married before him, so all of the gang try to fix him up at the reception. He ends up getting phone numbers from three different girls, and there’s no particular expostulations from Bob Saget for any of them. At the end of the episode, “And yes, that was the day I finally met your mother. Which one was she? Well, to tell you that, I’ll have to keep going for a little bit longer…”
I’m a huge fan of this show - but at this point I could give a shit who the mother is and wish the creators/writers would find more interesting things to keep us engaged. The Barney wedding mystery could be a step in the right direction but it’s getting tedious to drag out the Mother reveal any longer.
While I agree that Ted is often unlikable, may I ask how Radnor sucks? I think he does a decent job playing a (deliberately) clueless jerk. That is, I don’t think Ted’s asshole tendencies are either an accident or his doing.
If you say so. I’m not going to nitpick semantics with you. He’s the first billed and the center of the show. I’d consider Grey’s Anatomy to be an ensemble show too, but that doesn’t change the fact that Patrick Dempsey’s role is a leading man role.
I don’t see even the poor acting. He’s not giving a realistic performance, true, but none of the five leads are; Segal comes closest, but even Marshal’s behavior is deliberately farcicial. Ted works for me as a guy who thinks he is a fine fellow but is often a douche and only recognizes that after the fact.
I don’t see how the looks matter.
As for the leading man thing…well, I’m not sure he really is that any more. How I Met Your Mother is pretty much an artifact title; as others have observed it’s really an ensemble show, and the four other characters are just as important.
It’s because he can totally pull off the red cowboy boots look.
The ongoing idea of telling his kids about how he met their mother doesn’t bother me, because Ted is obviously (to me) just blathering on about his young adulthood to his kids. I have no problem picturing Older Ted sitting there just going on and on and his kids walking in and out of the room, going to get sandwiches, going out for the evening, coming back, and him just oblivious.
You know, I recently caught the first episode in syndication and its really amazing how true to the premise the show has stayed.
Everyone seems to bitch and moan that we STILL haven’t met the mother. But it was never about that. Sure, that’s what the title said. But the whole first act in the first episode was about Marshall and Lily getting engaged (and FYI, they’re “Aunt” Lily and “Uncle” Marshall from their first mention). This is what spurs Ted on to want to get married.
The show was never about the “mother,” it was about Ted’s adventures after he decided he wanted to get married. Case in point, the final lines…
The whole series is just him screwing around telling stories of his dumbass early 30s to his kids. But the “mother” got the focus because of the show’s title and the fact that he met Robin in the first episode.
Yea, Ted mentions a couple times that the kids have already heard the actual story of how he met their mother a couple times, so for them anyways, hearing it again probably isn’t the point.
“How I Met Your Mother” is a euphemism for “how I left my wild twenties to settle down and raise a family”.
Don’t know if this adds anything, but I just saw a rerun that showed Robin asking Ted to be her best man whenever she gets married. When Lily comes out at the end she says “there’s another request for the best man” or something like that and we don’t actually see Ted talking to Barney. Could Barney simply be in the wedding party? I honestly don’t recall what he was wearing so apologies if that’s a stupid question, but it seems like a good fake out.
Ted and Marshall are in Tux’s, Barney’s in a suit. All three have identical flower lapel thingys. We do see Ted talking to Barney at the very end.
Ted says to Barney: “I hear the groom needed me”
Barney (very seriously) “What do you think of this tie”?
I guess Ted doesn’t literally point at Barney’s when he talks about the groom, so there’s still an out, but its pretty hard to see how he could’ve been addressing anyone else. Plus, all three are in the wedding party, but Barney’s dressed a little differently, suggesting he’s the groom. Plus plus, there isn’t really anyone else in the show that would have all three of them as groomsmen.