We recently finished watching the 10-episode first season of Hulu’s “How I Met Your Father,” and I have to say, I’m really impressed with how well the show strikes a similar tone to How I Met Your Mother while also forging its own path.
HIMYF features Hilary Duff as the lead, though all 5 other main characters are given ample screentime (though some still have plenty of room to flesh out their stories–I’m hopeful for a good 3-5 seasons at least).
Perhaps most notable (and wise) is that there’s no Barney-style character. I’m not sure how such a womanizing character seemed like the right call for the showrunners in 2005, and it definitely wouldn’t work now. Sex is very much still a topic for the characters, though.
The show uses the same method if having a grown-up version of Duff telling the story to her son, which works well to jump around on the timeline when necessary. I think it’s clever that they don’t show the son so we don’t have any clues as to who the father is.
I also enjoyed the callbacks to the original show. I won’t spoil anything, but an example of this from the first episode is that two of the guys live in the same apartment as a few of the characters from How I Met Your Father. I actually think this is pretty brilliant, as there’s a nostalgic comfort to “hanging out” in the same space that I spent 7 seasons watching.
I look forward to future seasons of How I Met Your Father! If you’ve seen the first season, what did you think?
For me Barney was the only truly funny character in the original, and you can have Barney without womanizing, it could be any type of a trickster. Just give us Cheap Trick, otherwise… what’s the point?