13 Years of How I Met Your Mother: How this 21st-century sit-com has been curing the worst F.R.I.E.N.D.S withdrawal symptoms

Here’s why ‘How I Met Your Mother’ may be uncannily similar to ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’ but it is still worth a watch!

Be it Robin, Barney and Ted’s complicated love story or Marshall and Lily’s marriage woes, a lot has been said about ‘How I Met Your Mother’ drawing its crux from the popular 1990s show ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S.’ However, despite that, ‘How I Met Your Mother’ went on for a historic nine seasons stretch and was even successful in having a consistent viewership of almost 9 million fans with every season. Don’t get me wrong, I am not here to give my opinion on which show is better, but I am rather a loyal viewer of both the series and like both of them just as much. But I also believe that even though the two are uncannily similar, they have their own distinctive attributes.

So, coming back, how did ‘How I Met Your Mother’ manage to have a grip on fans for almost a decade?

Sadly, when we millennials finished binge-watching the ultimate season of ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’, we were left with some serious withdrawal symptoms. Life didn’t feel the same anymore. And that is just where ‘How I Met Your Mother’ scooped in. Ted Mosby sits his son and daughter down to tell them how he met their mother on September 19, 2005, to be precise. And I think the reason behind How I Met Your Mother garnering such a huge fanbase or Ted being able to keep his kids listening to him talk about almost anything for nine years was the uniqueness that the makers added to the show while hitting the resilient ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’ nostalgia.

While ‘nerdy boy’ Ted, ‘career girl’ Robin and ‘playboy’ Barney are definitely involved in a love triangle just like Joey, Rachel and Ross, what makes ‘How I Met Your Mother’ different is that it is more of a 21st-century phenomenon. It has an unexpected ending. Ted and Robin do end up together but not because they chose it or completely wanted it but because life happened. Though, the makers also released an alternative ending where Tracy and Ted and Robin and Barney live happily together and I am not sure which one I like better, maker Carter Bays says that he will still go by the first one.

And that is exactly the reason why I call it more of the 21st-century thing. Because not only the finale shows how unexpected life can be, but it also gives me the hope that somewhere down the line, everything is going to work out fine. There may not be a ‘happily ever after’ but there is definitely a ‘happy here and now.’

Even Lily and Marshall for that matter, decide to go their own ways for a while when Lily moves to San Fransisco, very unlike Chandler and Monica of ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S.’ And sometimes, the characters feel so distinctively similar that it feels that like Chandler, Monica, Ross, Rachel, Pheobe and Joey have all come back with a re-incarnation in this gang of five. And who doesn’t want to watch a show about a group of some twenty-somethings guys, who go through friendships, careers and dating while also happening to have the perfect jokes and wittiest dialogues?

All in all, ‘How I Met Your Mother’ may be downright reminiscent of ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’, but it is still worth the watch and worth our time. Because of the minute details that have been woven into the plot. Because Ted’s story is worth being told. And also because it is similar to ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S.’ Because that is what keeps the ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S.’ spark alive!