There are a lot of great things about the show How I Met Your Mother: the continuity, the guest stars, the songs, Cobie Smulders.
One thing they really messed up? The main character. "He's just looking for love and he believes in fate and in finding 'the one' - what's wrong with that?" you might be asking, and nothing is wrong with having those things as some of many characteristics; but when the desire to find "the one" overpowers every other attribute of a character - well, that's when it becomes a problem. Ted's journey starts when his best friends, Marshall and Lily, get engaged. That right there should be a red flag: he sees love happening before him and instantly needs to have that for himself. He wants it so badly that he convinces himself that he has with the next person he dates. He knows going into the relationship with Robin that there is no future there: she does not want to get married and she has no intention of having kids - two things that Ted has a mighty need for. Nevertheless, he tries to force his love onto Robin (at least five different times), who in the end, ends up falling in love and getting married to Ted's other best friend, Barney. (That's another thing this show did well.) "Teds just a hopeless romantic." Yes, he is hopeless. And, yes, he is a romantic. But he is a romantic to a fault. A big fault. The biggest problem about Ted is that he is needlessly this way - he does not have to be so invested in finding "the one"; he does not have to take everything as a sign from the universe; and he certainly does not have to force his love onto anyone. Ted's a catch - save for the hopelessness: he has a stable job as a college professor, he's funny, he's cute, he has a great apartment and really fun friends. But he just gets so invested in his relationships - trying to decide if they're "meant to be" or not. His major characteristic ultimately leads to the demise of every single one of his relationships - not to mention he convinces himself that he's in love with Robin more than he should. Ted's really gotta get a third dimension before he meets the mother.
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O. FedericiI like to like things. Archives
May 2014
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