Ted's endless search for "the one" in How I Met Your Mother eventually lost the audience's patience

How I Met Your Mother may have come to a conclusion back in 2014, but its unique legacy continues to live on. Back when How I Met Your Mother first premiered on CBS, the show presented itself as Ted Mosby reflecting upon his wondrous journey to finally marry "the one," or the Mother of his children. The narrative framework of How I Met Your Mother had Ted telling his future children about his story of meeting his life partner.

Although the CBS show began as such, there was a marked deviation from the original intent of finding out "the one," as the show often digressed into Ted's numerous flings and casual relationships. This often had the adverse impact of causing the audience to lose patience.

Here's everything that we know.

How I Met Your Mother: Ted Mosby's numerous digressions delayed his finding "the one"

For a show that literally began with Ted Mosby relating to his children about how he met and married their mother, the CBS show did venture out into many other directions in terms of its narrative. The beloved show ran for almost nine years, and in between all this time, the writers of the show had to devise one storyline after another to keep the wheels of the daily soap running. Although this usually ended with funny gags and memorable characterizations, it also led to the audience running out of patience at times.

How I Met Your Mother presented Ted Mosby as the protagonist. Ted was a young architect who was navigating his personal and professional life in New York. The focus of the show shifted from Ted's search for "the one" to his interactions with his remarkable group of friends, which included Marshall, Lily, Barney, and Robin. Marshall was Ted's best friend and a lawyer, while Lily was characterized as an art enthusiast and kindergarten teacher. Barney was shown to be a charismatic lover boy, and in complete contrast to him, Robin was portrayed as a reserved and rather emotionless woman whom Ted seemed to like.

Throughout the first four seasons of the show, the audience was treated to an exceptional camaraderie between the above-mentioned group of friends as they dished out memorable gags and one-liners that kept the show at the top of the ratings chart year in and year out. However, things started spiraling downhill with the onset of the fifth season.

This was when the show effected a distance from its original intention of finding the Mother, and occupied itself with chronicling Ted's multiple hookups and casual flings. This, in turn, led the audience to be impatient, as none of the women with whom Ted connected seemed to be worthy enough to be the Mother of his children. Ted, on his part, didn't develop a befitting connection with these women as well, giving off the feeling of foolhardy narrative exposition in more than one instance.

The identity of "the one" continued to be shrouded in darkness for nearly eight years as Ted kept attaching himself inconsequentially to numerous women. Things seemed to change for the better with the arrival of the final season though. However, there was a lot of course correction to be done, especially as the group of friends had gone off in different directions as well on How I Met Your Mother. They no longer frequented their usual spot at MacLaren's. A much-awaited reunion occurred between them as the group came together at Farhampton to mark the occasion of Robin and Barney's wedding.

The character of Tracy McConnell, played by Cristin Milioti, was finally revealed to be "the one" and the Mother. Although her appearance and character were teased in bits throughout the earlier editions of the show, the final season presented her in her full glory. The show then disclosed the shocking fact that Tracy died after succumbing to an unknown ailment six years before Ted started narrating How I Met Your Mother to his children.

Cristin Milloti opens up about How I Met Your Mother

Following the end of How I Met Your Mother on CBS back in 2014, Cristin Milioti spoke exclusively in an interview with Vulture magazine. When asked about her first reaction to the fact that her character, Tracy, eventually dies, Milloti revealed that she cried upon knowing this for the first time:

"Because it was so sad. It was super sad. I just burst into tears as soon as they told me. I had to write an e-mail later that night to (co-creator) Craig (Thomas) being like, “Hey, I’m really sorry I cried all over you at the Christmas party.” The way that he and Josh (Radnor, the actor who played Ted) explained it to me was, “Well, Ted has two loves, and basically what we’re trying to say is that life comes at you in ways you can never expect.” Once they put it that way, I understood it more. I was like, that’s really involved and awesome."

Milloti further added:

"At first I was like, “But wait, no, he finally found her.” I had just caught up on all the seasons, so I said, “But this dude’s been looking for the mother of his kids forever.” They were like, “No, they had a wonderful marriage together and they had these two beautiful children and it’s still super sad, but we want it to be lifelike.” And that’s how this show’s always been. Marshall lost his dad. Robin finding out she can’t have kids. They explained it was their plan from the beginning, and then I was along for it, along for the ride."

The How I Met Your Mother alum was then asked if she kept any mementos from the sets of the show:

Trending

"No, and I regret it. I cried really hard on the last day of filming, and I felt so silly because everyone else had actually been there for ten years, and I’d only been there for four months. But I couldn’t stop crying. And then everyone was like, “What are you gonna take from set?” And I felt embarrassed to take something. What I had wanted was a picture — because the mother had done pictures of robots playing sports — and I was gonna take one, but then I was too afraid to ask anyone."

How I Met Your Mother is available on Hulu and Netflix.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback