When Knowing The End Ruins A Show

Writers and creators are often told to know where their creation is going. This is so the story can be completed and the ending feels earned by those who invest their time into it. Usually, it's solid advice. 

But there are times when it's important to change course. This usually occurs with TV shows. Once the cast is set, sometimes there is chemistry between two unexpected characters/actors. 

An example of the chemistry changing the direction of the story is Monica and Chandler from Friends. What started out as a short-term fling story was changed to a longer arc when producers, writers, and the audience noticed the heat produced by Matthew Perry and Courtney Cox. 

On the other end of the spectrum, the writers and producers of How I Met Your Mother did not follow the example of the show that theirs was so largely compared to. Instead, they decided on the ending near the beginning of the show and stayed laser focused on it. 

This might sound like a good thing. They were clearly working to an end, and the direction helped shape the stories that they told. Or, in theory, that is what happened. 

But the series finale of HIMYM is an example of how to destroy the legacy of an iconic show. And tell the fans that their expectations mean less than the fantasy of what the producers and writers wanted to happen.

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The premise of the show is Ted telling his kids the story of how he met the titular mother. Sure, it was him dating all the wrong women through his twenties, and some of the anecdotes were highly inappropriate, but there was a clear direction. 

In the first episode, Ted meets Robin. He tells his kids and the audience that she is not the mother. Not a big surprise, why would they play that hand so early in the show's run?

Ted and Robin end up dating several times over the course of the show. Each time their relationship ends with a breakup. And it's usually Ted who pursues their reconciliation. 

During the course of the series, fans and writers noticed that Cobie Smulders and Neil Patrick Harris, who played Barney, had combustible chemistry. 

So Robin and Barney were paired together. 

They mutually broke up. And during season 8, they got back together. Not only did they reconcile, but they also got engaged. A major moment for both characters since they both started off the series as commitment-phobes who really only wanted short-term flings. 

During this time, Ted was shown to be moving on. He dated several women seriously and even got engaged to Stella. The wedding blew up when he brought their mutual exes to the wedding, and his bride ran off with her baby daddy. 

While he considered Robin a close friend, there was no reason for the audience to believe that Ted was still hung up on her. Even if Stella believed that was his motivation. 

There was character growth.

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At the end of season 8, Ted meets the mother. It's an iconic moment for the show and sets up what should have served as the series finale. But CBS wanted more and offered the cast a lot of money to return for a ninth and final season.

The final season revolved around Robin and Barney's wedding. All 24 episodes take place over the course of the weekend of the event. This already seemed like a bad idea. 

But minutes after seeing the couple vow to love one another forever, the show decided to have them break up. Not only that, but they undid all the character work they had put into both. 

Robin reverted to being a workaholic and suddenly decided that she should be with Ted all of a sudden. This even though there were many opportunities for her to have had this revelation, like any of the times they actually dated. 

But it took him being in love with his wife for her to see it. 

Barney also reverted to his former self, being a womanizer. He ended up having a daughter. Many people believe that he redeemed himself by loving his kid, but as shown in How I Met Your Father, nothing really changed with him. 

So what was the point? 

Especially when, in the closing moments of the show, they killed off the mother. We barely saw them have any happiness. It went from them being engaged to having their first baby to getting married, ending with her being terminally ill. 

The writers weren't invested in that love story, so why should the audience be? 

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Which is the real issue with the fact that the writers decided to film the final scene early in the show's run. It proves they were never interested in telling the story of how Ted met Tracy. Rather, they wanted him to end up with unattainable Robin in the end. 

An argument that they did the right thing is that they told the story that they wanted to tell. This is true. And unlike many other creators, they were able to see it through, even more than what they wanted to tell. 

But there's another issue at play. 

Once something is out in the public, it doesn't belong just to the creators. It belongs to the fans who create ecosystems of conversation and derivative works that keep the IP popular. 

It also takes away from the hard work of the actors. Did Barney and Robin need to get married, then divorced within five minutes of screen time? No. That story could have been told over the course of an actual arc. 

If they had told the story of Tracy being sick, the poignancy would have hit harder. We could have seen Ted bond with Robin as he worried about his wife. Then maybe the ending with his kids encouraging him to go after their "aunt" would have made more sense. 

As it stands, the finale ruined the entire show. Across social media platforms, people claim that they are unable to watch the earlier seasons because of how the ending ruined it for them. 

It's a lesson on how to alienate a fan base for one of the few hit sitcoms that have come out during the last 20 years.