J: Week 6 (How I Took a Really Long Time to Meet Your Mother)

For various reasons, my TV-watching schedule has gotten increasingly spare over the past couple of years. I no longer have a problem dropping shows as soon as I lose interest -- even those that I was at one time completely engrossed in (I'm sad to say that I think I've pretty much given up on The Vampire Diaries) -- but for some reason I have not yet given up on How I Met Your Mother.

This topic has been pretty much been beaten to death, but it's pretty ridiculous how long they have been stretching this show out. Back in 2010, Mira wrote this post complaining that it had been five years without meeting the mother. Little did we know that it was actually going to take NINE years!

Thankfully, next season has been confirmed to be the last. But honestly, I'm almost setting myself up for disappointment. With so long of a buildup, there's going to be really a lot of pressure to cast the right actress with the right chemistry. I'm assuming that the writers already have to know this character, but they're going to have to be careful translating her to the screen. But part of me is still hoping that they'll reveal the mother at the end of this season and take next season to develop their relationship. I mean, Ted Mosby is definitely not the most interesting character on the show, but this is the point of the series! We've gotten to see so much of the Marshall/Lily and Robin/Barney relationships that I feel like even just one season of Ted and the Mother would be kind of unfair.

Last week's episode did tell the story of the last woman Ted dated before the Mother though, so there's hope? Maybe?

Anyway, the real question is, why have I stuck with this so long? Part of it is definitely that it's a half hour sitcom and a pretty small time commitment. I guess the other is that I do still like these characters. It's pretty impressive that the show has kept the core five this whole time (especially Neil Patrick Harris whose career has just blown up over the course of the series) and I have definitely enjoyed seeing Lily and Marshall go from dating to engaged to married to parents. That at least feels realistic. Barney will probably never not be funny, and actually I feel like Robin is the least annoying now that she and Barney are basically settled. The innovative storytelling that used to be a trademark of the show isn't so much there anymore, and there are a lot of episodes that are just plain stupid, but the tone of the show and characters have been pretty much been consistent over the years. There are some people who have all along claimed that they don't care about meeting the Mother and just enjoy the show for what it is so I guess I do kind of understand what they're saying.

But really, as Mira said like 3 years ago, C'MON, I WANT TO MEET THE FRIGGIN' MOTHER!