7. The Premise Is No Longer Big Or Clever
The premise of an older Ted sitting his kids down and telling them a story of how he met their mother was originally a fresh and creative way of setting up a TV show. It allowed for interesting narrative techniques within episodes (like how future Ted can't remember why Lily and Barney were arguing in The Mermaid Theory) as well as creating an addictive and compelling narrative arc that spans the entire series. Fans became hooked and genuinely invested in the journey, hoping to be rewarded with the eventual reveal of how he met his future wife. However, this premise lost its novelty in the latter half of the show's nine year run and it became evident the writers were scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas to keep this concept interesting. Instead, loyal fans have just become impatient and the painstakingly protracted story has come to be more frustrating than intriguing these days. With this in mind, How I Met Your Dad will not have a shiny, new concept to hang its hat on. Viewers will know exactly what to expect from the narrative and there will be no shroud of intrigue to capture our imagination. The writers of How I Met Your Dad will have to overcome all of this if they have any hope of luring the fans of How I Met Your Mother because to be quite honest, we've been there and watched that!