How I Met Your Father

Season 1 - 5/10.

While I didn't really have high hopes, I was still intrigued. The concept of HIMYM was just super fun and you can be quite flexible with your story-telling, so perhaps HIMYF will also give us some interesting episodes.

Unfortunately, immediately in the first episode I realized that this is not it. The show just does not have the charm of its predecessor - there is no Barney, there is no Marshall&Lily, there is no Robin and there is no Ted. The new characters are rather bland and boring and definitely not legen-wait for it-dary. The story-telling is not creative and I find the narrator just annoying who also somehow appears in every episode in contrast to the original show. The jokes never managed to make me laugh and many feel rather forced.

The last episode was not bad, however. Especially the part when Robin appeared (which took me by surprise) was nostalgic and actually quite amusing. But so the best part of HIMYF remains HIMYM. This is not a successful spin-off.

Although the 1st episode was good, 2nd ep wasn't. But in comparison to how I met your mother, this show is disappointing. Yes, I will be Watching the upcoming episodes because of Hilary. I liked that they used the same theme song of HIMYM in the starting. I really want to like this show and hope they improve it!

I'll start by saying that I think the original HIMYM definitely had its flaws - while I enjoyed it, I think a lot of people here idolized it (which means no remake can meet their standards). I don't think HIMYM was perfect, so I came into this show with an open mind. In fact, there are a couple parts of this remake that I really appreciated (for instance, having more diversity than just a cab driver with an accent). But ultimately, I think it fell flat. Here are my main criticisms:

1) Too many characters: The core group here has like 6-7 characters. Which would be manageable, expect that they're pretty segmented. Instead of having one group with a couple of outsiders joining in (like Friends or HIMYM), there are like 2-3 separate groups merging. It's hard to keep track of and it's not as interesting because they all already have pre-established connections - part of the fun is seeing someone entirely new come in and form those connections.

2) Boring dynamics: What made the original HIMYM compelling was the dynamics between the characters. You had the main couple (Marshall and Lily) and the weird outlier (Barney). In this show, the main couple is barely shown together and there's no good equivalent for Barney. I think you need that sort of off-color, problematic character to laugh at. This series is too focused on making the entire main cast likable, which backfires because none of them really are.

3) Modern stuff: This show tries way too hard to insert modern references. It opens with a video chat instead of face-to-face convo (like the original), it makes too many Tinder/online dating references, the main character is obsessed with being P. C. (which is like the most stereotypical and boring portrayal of a liberal ever)... There's even a bartender who only speaks in slang.

4) Not funny: Most of the jokes fell flat. It felt like this weird combination of "Disney meets adult humor." It's like 40% kids jokes, 40% forced sexual humor, and then maybe 20% actual funny.

Even if you don't compare it to the original, it's not that good. I think it could work as a one season thing, but I don't see potential for anything more.

EDIT: I also want to add that a lot of the "diversity" complaints are really disappointing. It's one thing to complain about a show being too "woke," it's another thing to act like simply showcasing diversity is being "woke." News flash- POC exist. Showing a black person onscreen isn't a crazy leftist agenda. It's also disappointing to see people assume that these actors only got the job because of their skin color? Like, I didn't know only white people could be actors... Anyways, there's plenty of fair things to criticize this show about (like the unfunny jokes). The fact that (gasp!) a couple of brown people are there really shouldn't be a criticism.

Could be watched as a pass-time show but other than that, the whole thing feels forced. Jokes are too flat and it's like they're forcing the audience to like the characters. When in fact, a character doesn't have to be likable in order to be funny. It felt really fake and overplayed to watch their optimism and "millennial" humor.

The laugh track is so obvious and poorly done that it detracts from the story. I gave up after two episodes because I found the laugh track so annoying. If they would re-release this laugh track free I would give it another chance.

The acting is OK though I don't think any of the characters are even close to what How I met Your Mother characters. Some of the characters are just over the top stupid. Perhaps they are better developed in later episodes, but unfortunately I will never know because the annoying laugh track is intolerable. I read somewhere that Hillary Duff was initially against the laugh track. She should have stuck to her instincts.