I love How I Met Your Mother, but fair warning to new viewers: It has not aged well. Despite this, I find myself rewatching episodes and still enjoying them. There are plenty of laughs and sentimental moments throughout the series.

Absolutely love this show BUT and it's a big one : w/o Barney and Robin the show would be just another " family show " nothing to write home about . Barney & Robins storylines are so hilarious that it just elevates the whole series to: wait for it , legen-dary!

While the ending does somewhat dampen things for me, the journey will always keep me coming back to How I Met Your Mother. Even within its first season, you're completely endeared to the friend group, even when the flaws of Ted and Barney (Especially Barney) are on full display. But, that's what makes this series so endearing, these characters have clear noticeable evolutions and growth, you're watchng them grow as they move closer to narrator Ted's age, and it feels rewarding to see them become better people

Comedy ages quickly, and while I loved this series while it was on, it's hard to revisit some of these jokes. A lot of misogyny and transphobia pop up out of nowhere, marring an otherwise fun series. The famous fault of this show is, of course, its ending. The showrunners had a big ending all planned out, but then it became a hit and lasted for 8 seasons, and characters changed course in those years. But they had already shot the ending and couldn't think their way out, making every viewer furious.

Genuinely creative in how it tells its story, How I Met Your Mother never wastes the core concept that the story is being told in retrospect, incorporating meta humor like missing details and PG-level changes to what 'really' happened. Unfortunately, the show aired during the era where a lot of its more problematic elements changed in the zeitgeist, and characters like Barney and Ted were objectionable before they were even off-air. A major Flanderization problem going on for the whole cast.

I didn't absolutely love the ending but How I Met Your Mother is a hilarious and heartwarming sitcom that is always comforting to come back and to watch, even years later.

One of the most original unique and funny sit coms ever.

Just for context, there is usually a debate about whether Friends or HIMYM is the better show, and I am firmly in the latter's camp.

With that out of the way, let me explain why the show lost half a star. The ending. It flopped, hard, and I will choose to live with the alternate ending as canon, but outside of that, HIMYM was 9 seasons of incredible fun, with a wonderful cast who had chemistry out the wazoo.

The show is meticulously crafted, Ted is my favorite of the hopeless romantics, and I would happily go back and watch any episode in the series and my heart would be full of joy.

Best show ever. I really love this show. I hope in future should be just like How I Met Your Mother.