“How I Met Your Mother” is now entering its 7th season, making it a senior citizen in the sitcom world. The show has yet to disappoint; millions of individuals tune in each week to witness the antics of Ted, Robin, Barney, Marshall and Lily. And it’s no surprise the show continues to draw large audiences. Its sharp writing and great chemistry has held up consistently for the past seven years.
For those unfamiliar with the CBS hit sitcom, the show has a straightforward premise: Boy meets girl, boy and girl have kids and when the kids are old enough, dad sits them down and tells them the story of how he met their mother. Simple, right? As it turns out, not so much. As the story unfolds it becomes clear just how many steps it took for Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) to meet the woman of his dreams.
Along the way Ted encounters many, often hilarious, obstacles he must overcome. With the help of his married buddies from college, Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) and Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), his former romantic interest-turned-friend Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) and his “bro” and playboy extraordinaire, Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), the audience is able to get an in-depth look at the life of Ted while slowly learning the individual quirks of each member of the group.
In the current season, viewers watch as a love triangle not only forms between Ted, Robin and Barney, but as another one unravels between Barney, Robin and Barney’s current flavor of the week, Nora (although she’s lasted a bit longer than Barney’s other, ahem, conquests). Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily are pregnant with their first child and are preparing for the arrival of the Eriksen bundle of joy. But true to “How I Met Your Mother” fashion, things are not going as smoothly as planned.
The great thing about the show is that the creators, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, really do care about their fans, especially the ones who have stuck around all these years, waiting to find out who the mother is (the audience still doesn’t know). They consistently insert inside jokes, bring back minor characters and refer to incidents that occurred in seasons past. All of this demonstrates a commitment to respecting the show’s loyal fan base.
“How I Met Your Mother” is one of the few sitcoms on television today containing humor that transcends all different ages and audiences, from the college-aged to their parents.
