Season Finale: How I Met Your Mother-"Challenge Accepted"

Barney and Robin stop Ted on "HIMYM"
Credit: CBS

My thoughts on last night's How I Met Your Mother are after the jump.

I'm glad that this season is over. That is a statement that I never would have thought that I'd have to make about this show. Sure the season had its good arcs, like Marshall's father's death and Barney meeting his father, but it was mostly a mess that I really didn't enjoy. And this finale was a fitting conclusion to the season. Sure, they sent everything up in flame (with cheap CGI) but some the story before that was messy and to be plain, unfunny. I really didn't think that this episode was good, but it was a fitting sendoff to this uneven season.

Did they really have to do a plotline about Ted getting back together with Zoey? That was the question that was playing through my head throughout the Ted plotline. Last week I said that I was done with this arc and I hoped that the show could move on from this plotline and just forget it existed. But it obviously didn't know how to move on from it yet, so it had to do this crappy plotline that didn't work at all. Sure it had fun moments, like the Ted getting back with old girlfriends montage, but the majority of it was cheap filler. I don't like that the show wanted to spend more time with this. And on top of that, it piled a metaphor that was so obvious that I could see the hammer hitting the viewers over the head. 

This show REALLY loved its metaphors in this episode, because the Barney/Robin plotline was another metaphor that was SO obvious. They made Robin and Barney's conversations way too metaphorical. It was my understanding that the show didn't want Robin and Barney together back in season five so I don't want the show to screw themselves with this idea. If they're going to get together, let them get together. Don't do a whole love triangle plotline. It's just not necessary. Sure getting married will be a great growth arc for Barney, but if they approach it the wrong way it could send me in the same direction that the Zoey arc did. This could be great, but they have to approach it the right way.

I thought the Marshall plotline had its moments, but it was another case of the show running around the inevitable. Did they really think that there would be any sense of surprise about Lily being pregnant? They've been building to it all season so to have it come up in the finale was not a surprise. The stronger part of the plotline involved Dave Foley ranting about different environmental disasters that his law firm was fighting. That was funny.

Some other thoughts:

• Chi McBride is a capable and talented actor and deserved much more to do then call Ted a "hotshot".
• Did they really have to do that psychout at the Intersection? And is that what we're going to be dealing with over the next two seasons?

Like I said at the beginning of the review, I'm glad the season is over. Now the show can move on from Zoey and into better plotlines. They set up some great material for next season (like Lily having a baby and Barney getting married) and I'm hoping that they are able to use this material to its full potential. This season hasn't been good, but there's the potential for a strong season seven there.

Here's hoping for stronger material down the road.

What did everyone else think?