Warning: Spoilers and cynical opinions ahead

Hulu has officially come out with a new tv series How I Met Your Father, a sequel to the CBS series How I Met Your Mother (which ran from 2005 to 2014). As a passionate How I Met Your Mother fan, I was worried when Hulu first announced the sequel to the original series.

Everyone has their own taste in TV comfort food (I just devoured all 12 seasons of Bones yet again) but HIMYM and its hopeless romanticism, witty jokes and entertaining storyline has made it a sitcom to enjoy for generations.

How I Met Your Mother (also known as HIMYM) is about a group of white twentysomethings turning into thirtysomethings, living and dating in Manhattan, New York.

The pilot of HIMYF, written by creators Isaac Aptaker (Love, Simon) and Elizabeth Berger (This Is Us) and directed by Pamela Fryman (who directed all but 12 episodes of HIMYM) opens, like HIMYM, in the future.

In 2050, the older Sophie, played by Kim Cattrall (best known by her role in Sex and the City), shares the story to her son over the phone of how she met his father in 2020’s New York. Back in 2022, the younger Sophie (Hillary Duff) is a 29-year-old photographer living in Queens with her roommate Valentina (Francia Raisa) and Valentina’s English and naïve boyfriend Charlie (Tom Ainsley).

HIMYM is shot in a traditional sitcom format, with audience laughter frequently sounding more appreciative than the jokes deserve, which only reinforces the sense that Hulu is a strange showing for this new series.

Besides absolutely no feelings of nostalgia coming with this new series, HIMYF does possess the main theme of the ongoing search for your true love, but it doesn’t feel the same as the original hopeless Ted Mosby from HIMYM.

I will give them one thing though. Keeping the apartment set from HIMYM and Ted and Marshall’s swords on the wall was positive connection to the original series and a good attempt at feelings of nostalgia. But, the connections in the story line of the pilot episode of HIMYF that tried to connect to the original HIMYM pilot episode was not done well and was a millennial type of cheesy. 

The mystery surrounding Ted’s dating journey became a part of “Mother’s” appeal, so when the “Mother” was finally revealed in the ninth season, it felt like a breath of fresh air to the audience. HIMYM made the audience feel connected to every character, even the ones not on screen because of how weird and real they were.

For the new series, I have to ask; where is the solid couple that reminds you that true love is real? Where’s Ted Mosby and his honestly pathetic attempts at finding ‘the one? Where’s the “I’m awesome and I don’t care what you think” Barney Stinson attitude, and finally, where is the Canadian pop star turned journalist who does what she wants Robin Scherbatsky?