How I Met Your Mother quite rightly gets compared to Friends as there are many obvious similarities. This is after all a sitcom about a group of attractive twenty somethings, who hang out at the same venue, who constantly discuss their relationships, is full of one-liners, has a character who is a womaniser……well you get the picture.
However here’s the thing, to the casual viewer HIMYM will always be the poor relation, a Friends-Lite if you will. But as any regular watcher will tell you, since Season One the similarities have grown less and less and HIMYM has very much grown into its own distinctive show. With a quirky story telling device that at first seemed gimmicky but now really makes it stand out from the crowd.
These are my seven reasons why How I Met Your Mother is better than Friends.
7. Surrealism
One of my favourite features of HIMYM is its tendency to be zany and surreal. This aspect of the show does not get enough recognition but it is a key part of what makes it so special. Great offbeat humour that manifests itself in scenes like Barney’s “Suit Song”, or characters revealing that they have “the crazy eyes”.
Another brilliant example of this is the episode “Blitzgiving” with guest star Jorge Garcia (Hurley from Lost). Portraying the gang’s unlucky friend, Garcia is cursed with the title “The Blitz”, which means whenever he leaves the room, he misses something spectacular. As the episode progresses “The Blitz” turns out to be something that can be passed on to another. The whole episode is wonderfully madcap and full of delightful set pieces and one-liners and this is where HIMYM excels.
So maybe the initial idea of the show was to ape “The One Where” format of Friends, but now it has a stylistic flourish and subversive undertow that raises it well above the run of the mill sitcom.
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13 Comments
Whilst I am a loyal Friends fan, and can take or leave HIMYM, I agree that Friends cameos were awfully forced and a bit of too much of a spectacle, especially Brad Pitt. However, I enjoyed Tom Selleck’s role.
I think Friends did do some emotional storylines well, particularly Ross and Rachel’s break-up episode in Season Three. That stands out as one of my most memorable tv scenes. Others include Monica’s and Chandler’s engagement and when Rachel and Ross fall out in Season Nine and she moves back in with Joey.
I agree Tom Selleck was great as Richard and the first time round with Ross and Rachel was an iconic TV moment, one of my favourite scenes in any TV show in fact. Also good use of “With or Without You” by U2 if I remember correctly. Their storyline probably got tired for me by about the 18th time they got back together. Thanks for reading..
That’s cool, I enjoyed reading it :) Yeah, everyone now raves about the epic ‘Ross-Rachel’ relationship but it was just getting frustrating to watch towards the end, especially after they had Emma. This is where American tv shows run into problems. Because they’re so long it’s hard to keep them fresh. With Friends I think all the characters became a bit of a caricature.
I really belive barney stinson is the funniest charechter in tv history .. Even funnier than joey tribiani who was too damn fun by the way …wanna know who’s the new laughter bomb after the end of himym … Its the one and only abd from community … You gotta check this dude out he’s awesome
Over the course of the show, Barney has grown and become more human while keeping his ridiculousness in tact. Whereas watching Joey and Phoebe over the years they turned into emotional equivalent of Benjamin Button. They were overgrown children who’d been reduced to their most ridiculous (and least endearing) qualities.
To me, any show is better than Friends.
How much I love how I met your mother
Its leg
Wait for it
Ennnnn
Ughhhh
Dairy :-D
John Lithgow is awesome but has not won an oscar, he has been nominated for two which is very impressive, but he hasn’t won any.
Sorry, that was meant to say Oscar Nominated actor John Lithgow, nominated for best supporting actor but never won…
HIMYM borrowed a lot of its stuff from friends. the naked man is basically cute naked guy (before he got fat) and five friends goofing around in NY (HIMYM according to the creators) is bascially what Friends achieved with their stories. FRIENDS FOREVER “Could I be any more of a Friends fan”
I definitely still like Friends way more than HIMYM, but you make really good points. I get the characters personalities began to blur during the later seasons, but i still liked ALL of them. I love Ted and Marshall, and Barney is funny, but I just can’t like any of the girls. I love Robin during her “DAMMIT PATRICE”, but when she’s being “real”, i just can’t get with it. Friends is supposed to be a comedy, so the characters CAN get weird and unrealistic, but HIMYM tries to get TOO real, and that kind of makes the girls boring. I love Alyson Hannigan, but Lily has become the worst character, in my opinion. She’s only funny when she has Marshall to work off of.
Sorry for the long comment! :)
I really believe that there are many more then just the seven reason you mentioned why “How I met your mother” is superior to Friends. First of all, while Friends struggled, like many sitcoms do to be funny for just one more season, How I met your mother, have actually been able to increase the momentum. How I met your mother truly is one long story about how I (that is Ted) met the mother. This has framed the series and given it an overall plot that I haven’t seen in any other sitcom, and something we normally only see in movies and books.
I am disgusted, honestly disgusted that TV2 (the most popular channel in Denmark) still plays reruns of this washed up 1990′s show called friends, instead of putting up new fresh, and in every way superior shows like How I met your mother.
I don’t think I’ve ever watched more than one episode of Friends, so I can’t really comment on the comparisons, but everything you listed here is a reason why I love HIMYM.
I actually compare it a lot to Scrubs. Both have the same sort of witty, zany comedy, but also the poignant emotional moments and well-drawn characters. And both have great cameos by famous actors.