At How I meet your Mother stumbling across the finish line after nine seasons in 2014, it seems to have grown in leaps and bounds on its own. Its once youthful protagonists pushed forty. The multi-cam format, which had grown in popularity when it first started, fell out of favor. And its love story has dragged on through the patience of many viewers (including this one), culminating in a finale that seems only to confirm that the show should end soon. more.
However, when it first premiered in 2005, it was like a breath of fresh air – a worthy one But you friend successor with a relatable understanding of young life in New York, and characters that feel almost formed from leaps and bounds. Hulu sequel, How I met your father, tried to recreate some of the original spark for 2022, and in some superficial respects it succeeded. But in the most appreciated ways, it by far feels like a faded sham.
‘How I Met Your Father’
Key point
A game cast’s struggle to get past the tedious jokes.
HIMYF borrows the same basic structure and much of the rhythmic plot of the original. This time, Kim Cattrall plays the narrator Sophie, who in 2050 tells her children stories about her love life in 2022, where she is played by Hilary Duff. Sophie, like Ted Mosby before her, is a hopeless romantic, impatient to find The One and settle down. And where there’s Ted, naturally, there’s Robin. This is Chris Powell’s Jesse, a marriage skeptic but seemingly captivated by Sophie’s seriousness in spite of herself.
HIMYFpilot’s, like HIMYM‘s, which involves both a marriage proposal – Jesse’s best friend Sid (Suraj Sharma) questioning his longtime, long-distance girlfriend Hannah (Ashley Reyes) – and a taxi ride crowded to make one last big romantic gesture. Although HIMYFnarrative connection of HIMYM is a flimsy film (and, according to its marketing team, a spoiler), everything from the tenor of its performance to the coziness of its sets fits perfectly into the human-made universe. its predecessor posed.
But if the old episodes of HIMYM feels like comfort food in 2022, HIMYF like a less updated recipe than the pre-packaged Trader Joe’s version. It’s good enough for a hard pass, but not good enough for a real trade pass. The most obvious advantage of the new series is Duff, who seems to be born to be a rom-com queen. The delicate balance between her starry eyes and her physicality makes Sophie only in this aspect understandable, even as she sighs after 87 consecutive failed first dates that next her first date will be when she meets the man she will be with for the rest of her life. (Forget what such an exhausting track record means for her emotional state, how does she find the time?)
The cast surrounding Duff is equally up to the game, especially Tom Ainsley as Charlie, a British upper-class guy so aggressive that he needs to be reminded not to use “poor” as a noun , but he’s basically going to be very sweet. to Jersey for a bagel. In keeping with the times, populations are considerably more diverse; the core is rounded off by Sophie’s Mexican-American best friend Valentina (Francia Raísa) and Jesse’s Vietnamese adopted sister Ellen (Tien Tran, playing perhaps the most intriguing quirky character). in group). Meanwhile, the middle class of prostitutes was thrown out in favor of Valentina and Sophie admired Jane Fonda for “crushing the dick”.
However, these performers can only do so much, with the insightful observations they make on cleanly curated subjects like Tinder, Grindr, FOMO, and viral “fail” videos. and with features that are too familiar, too bland or, in Sid’s case, both. Vivid personalities, cracking chemistry, and memorable quotes that mark a great hangout show have eluded them so far, even though the show offers glimmers of hope here and there. that it can grow into them.
Notably, those moments tend to appear in the plot that revolves around its pure relationships. Among all the fairy tales provided by HIMYF – and there are many, including Valentina and Charlie getting “Meghan Markled” by his dissenting parents – its biggest appeal may be the ease with which its characters make new friends when mature. In HIMYF, all it took was an Uber ride for Sophie to meet Jesse, and a phone call for their groups of friends to become inextricably linked.
From there, other couples often occur. Posh Charlie begins to have an unexpected connection with regular Sid over paint, about everything, and a surprising relationship with Ellen over their shared status as city newcoms. city. Sid becomes fascinated with “great friend” Valentina as he leverages her expertise in sex toys for his long-distance relationship. The most compelling dynamic that emerges in the first four episodes is not the will-they-don’t-have-to-be-guessed-will-there-to-have-not-have-to-be-guess-will-wills-will between Jesse and Sophie, but the friction between Jesse and Ellen, two Siblings separated during childhood due to parents’ divorce.
But romantic destiny is never far HIMYFof the mind; it is baked right into the premise. It doesn’t take too long to realize that even as Sophie throws herself into what she hopes will be “the first chapter of my next great love story,” the show around her feels too stuck trying to recreate the nostalgic joys of a relic from the past. HIMYF would do well to heed the sage advice of the narrator and work harder to live in the moment.
