5 Reasons How I Met Your Mother Finale Is As Bad As You Remember (And 3 Reasons It Isn't)

8. Is As Bad: The Rushed Pacing

One of the best aspects of How I Met Your Mother was its narrative structure. Unlike the vast majority of sitcoms at the time, this was a show that proved right out the gate to have no issues playing with time and mixing up the usual, linear sitcom formula.

Unfortunately, there were moments when this narrative approach hit come snags, and never was that more obvious than in the finale.

Over the course of two episodes (40 minutes in total), Future Ted skips over eleven years worth of his and the Mother's story. To put it in context, everything leading up to the finale covered around nine years of Ted and the gang's lives.

Because of this rushed, forced-together approach, character development and major twists are revealed without build-up, and the whole thing ends up watching like showrunners Carter Bays and Craig Thomas just wanted to get things over with.

Amongst the confusion, Marshall and the Mother come out the worst, with the Mother hardly being a part of the story and Marshall's sudden career progression lacking the emotional gravitas that his story had in earlier seasons.

For a show concerned with meticulous detail and slow-burn storytelling, Last Forever just feels uncharacteristically lazy.