How I Met Your Mother: 7 Ways Finale Went So Wrong

3. Falls Into The "Ross And Rachel" Cliché

How I Met Your Mother seems formulaic sitcom upon first glance €“ it has the doted couple, the on-off couple and an eccentric side character. However, a simple twist with the closing line of the shows first ever episode it set itself apart by turning expectations on their head. By revealing that Robin wasn't the titular mother the question of "will they / won't they?" was answered with a no. Over the years to come, through Ted and Robin's various relationships and not being over each other, she was still Aunt Robin. Whereas the show was about the mother of his children, something which was completely ruled out in 'Symphony of Illumination' when Robin finds out she cannot have children of her own. Speculation had always continued that Ted would get with Robin after The Mother but mostly due to the audience having not yet met her and because of sitcom expectations rather than narrative logic. The show's writing and the characters within it endlessly pointed out why Ted and Robin were a bad couple that would never work, all to try and move the pair of them out of that slump of returning to one and other despite it being unhealthy for them. For all the innovative things about HIMYM that set it apart in the field of "friends comedies" they were ultimately for nothing as it fell back into the predictable trope of the "Ross and Rachel" for the sake of what was imagined as the happy ending as opposed to feeling forced on to the end due to being too rigid to original plans.