How I Met Your Mother came to its conclusion after 9 seasons earlier this year. The hit comedy has been entertaining audiences and keeping them guessing since it debuted in in 2005. Season 9 has just been released on DVD so fans can relive the final season over and over again.
For it’s final season How I Met Your Mother changed the formula giving both flashbacks and flash-forwards with the central focus on the three days leading up to Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin’s (Cobie Smulders) wedding. When we first heard that the whole season would only span 3 days we were a little sceptical as to how effective it would be but it’s actually an interesting change to the show’s usual story-telling.
The opening episode, The Locket, picks up right where season 8 left off with Robin and Barney travelling to their wedding, Marshall (Jason Segel) still trying to stop Lily (Alyson Hannigan) from finding out he took the judgeship job and Ted (Josh Radnor) still trying to figure out his feelings for Robin.
One of the biggest changes of the season is Cristin Milioti who is a series regular as The Mother. She only appears in 13 episodes of the season but fans finally got to know more about her and the story of how she came to meet Ted is revealed. We don’t want to say too much so we don’t ruin anything for you.
For the final season How I Met Your Mother enlists a lot of guest stars including Sherri Shepherd, Roger Bart, Frances Conroy, Tracey Ullman, Anna Camp, John Lithgow and Bryan Cranston to name a few. Even though the guest star list is extensive it doesn’t distract from the season and each of the guest stars adds to the overall success of the season.
There are plenty of highlights over the course of the season with our favourite episodes including No Questions Asked when Marshall’s secret is almost revealed to Lily and he enlists his friends to stop her from finding out, and Bass Player Wanted where a troublemaker causes problems between the gang during Barney and Robin’s wedding.
The release is packed with special features including an alternate ending, audio commentaries on selected episodes, deleted scenes, a gag reel, Cristin Milioti’s audition and behind-the-scenes of episode Gary Blauman.
As is always the case with any long-running show, the final season divided critics but you can’t please everyone can you? Personally we loved the final season and thought it brought an interesting twist to a story that many fans thought they had already worked out. The alternate ending gives you plenty of food for thought too and may be preferred by some fans. How I Met Your Mother will be sorely missed and TV comedy is lacking a shining gem now it’s over.
