The spin-off to “How I Met Your Mother” isn’t as bad as one would’ve thought.
“How I Met Your Mother” (HIMYM), first premiered on Sept. 19, 2005, and centered on a group of five friends balancing love and friendship in New York City. The show ran for nine seasons and the final episode aired on CBS on March 31, 2014. “How I Met Your Father” (HIMYF) recently premiered on Jan. 18 on Hulu. “HIMYF” definitely engages the audience with a brand new cast and a different approach from its predecessor.
In “HIMYF,” Hillary Duff plays the main character, Sophie. Duff’s portrayal of Sophie brings a light of energy to the show as one could make the comparison of her being Ted in this story. Anyone who watched “HIMYM” knows that Ted was an optimistic fool for love who definitely dragged out telling the story of how he met his kids’ mother.
In this spin-off show, one can assume Sophie is nothing like Ted because within the first episode Sophie immediately says she met her son’s father during the first night while she is recalling her story.
With the first episode, viewers see the struggles Sophie is going through with online dating in 2022. Sophie’s close-knit pack of friends is also introduced, setting up a new group of characters to root for.
The unique characters make the story fresh and lively to our current year but can confuse the advent “HIMYM” fans.
When watching the show, it’s natural to compare characters to who they would resemble from the original series. Sophie is really the only obvious character to compare as she is obviously filling the Ted role in the story. It begs the question of whether the intention was to recreate “HIMYF” with the iconic characters from “HIMYM” that we have all come to know and love?
Yes, the show has almost the same concept as “HIMYM,” just told from a different point of view. But the actors involved know that when recreating something with such a dedicated fanbase there will be criticism.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Duff talks about her reservations about joining the cast of “HIMYF” because of the legacy of the original show.
“I got a call from my manager saying that there was this project that they wanted to chat with me about. Then I heard the title and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? What?!’ The original show is so, so beloved and was just so spot-on perfect, that I’m like, ‘Ohh, I don’t wanna do a reboot,” Duff told Entertainment Weekly.
As expected, the reaction of many fans when the reboot was announced was mixed. An initial thought being, ‘It won’t be as good as the original.’ Another thought that came to mind was, ‘Why can they just leave ‘HIMYM’ alone?’
*Spoiler warning if you have never watched HIMYM.* Despite the fact that the ending of “HIMYM” did not do Ted’s future baby mama any justice and he just ended up with Robin anyway, it’s easy to wonder if this reboot could be just as successful as the first one?
Since the cast knows that “HIMYM” was so iconic on its own and the story is still developing, there is plenty of time to gain your prenotions about each character and guess who the father is without being immediately disappointed.
There will be 10 episodes in total this season, and a new episode will be released every Tuesday. For more information on when and where to watch “HIMYF,” click here.
