10 Great TV Shows That Lost It By The End

7. How I Met Your Mother

CBS

When How I Met Your Mother first began in 2005, the idea and the execution was new, creative and dynamic. The central conceit was that the whole series was a shaggy dog tale told by protagonist Ted Moseby to his children, about €“ yes, you guessed it €“ how he€™d met their mother. Framing devices, callbacks and reference upon reference made the sitcom one of televisions most convoluted narratives€ and as time went on, that would prove to be its downfall.

Come season nine, we€™d had enough. The endless clever-cleverness was grating, the constant gimmickry was tired and irritating: to add insult to injury, this final season of twenty-four episodes would take place over one single long weekend, making it the first time ever that a television show would write into the script the fact that it had worn out its welcome.

Worse, by this point Ted was simply the most repellent man alive, rendered so by eight seasons of some of the most self-obsessed obnoxious behaviour known to man. The only thing season nine did right was to properly introduce The Mother, who turned out to be everything Ted had ever wanted in a woman. Unfortunately, by this point Ted simply didn€™t deserve her.

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Contributor

Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.