How I Met Your Mother: If Robin was the Star... ✨

How I Met Your Mother was a great ensemble show, but everything was framed through Ted Mosby’s perspective, and Ted’s perspective is, well, a little suspect, to say the least… It's interesting to think about how the entire show might have changed (for the better) if it had been centered around Robin Scherbatsky instead of Ted – and how it could have also led to a much more interesting, fulfilling ending for everyone. It would have, obviously, been a quite different show – but, that’s not necessarily a bad thing!

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:44 Chasing big dreams
03:03 A different perspective on love
05:38 Actual personal growth
07:46 A better ending (for everyone)
10:26 Shifting focus can be fun

The Take was created by Debra Minoff & Susannah McCullough

[thetake]

Thanks for watching! ❔Are there any shows or films that you think would be interesting to see from a different character's perspective? Let us know!

[emem]

"How I Briefly Met My Second Husband's Dead Wife" is sending me

[trinaq]

I agree, it might have been interesting had Robin been the main protagonist instead of Ted. Not all women automatically want to be mothers, and we could have dedicated more time to her perspective, as well as her relationship with Barney, without having to be filtered through Ted's memories.

[kitarodos]

Thinking about it, there is a version where Robin is the protagonist: that's Friends. It's still an ensemble, but if we are looking for a protagonist, that's Rachel. She starts as an outsider of the group and she is the one who goes through the most radical changes during the show.

[kB]

Something would be interesting about a show titled "How I Met Your Dad" where the twist is that the person telling the story isnt the biological mother

[marinamiranda]

I would love a movie from a perspective of Summer from 500 days of summer even though it’s a movie rather than a show.

[Nightmank]

Seeing Poor Patrice through the eyes of Robin would be something else. She was so nice to Robin but Robin hated her so much lol.

[whatdidclaysay]

I think one of the major flaws of the show was that instead of the last season being a nearly real-time depiction of Robin and Barney's wedding, it should have essentially been a season that told the story of the finale. We could have seen the dynamics of the group drifting apart, Ted and Tracy actually starting a family and living the happy and fulfilling life it's implied they had, and then Ted grieving and moving forward so that the "it was always Robin" ending didn't come out of left field and wouldn't have been so jarring. In TV time it was a few minutes going from "Ted has the love of his life and she died" to "But you really love Robin and that's what this was about." Where as if that happened over the course of most of a season it would have felt more earned.

[nosipho]

Growing up in that time when HIMYM was playing and having a character like Robin on tv was v important. EYE don't identify with her but getting older I met tons of Robins that I was able to relate to. The show disappointed me by "punishing " her for wanting a career over prioritising romantic relationships

[heatherstephenson]

Robin definitely deserved better (as did all the women on the show, tbh). HIMYM isn't quite TBBT bad in this regard but Ted and Barney getting away with so much sexism and Ted getting everything he wanted with Tracy being treated as more of a device is frustrating.

[nilevinsmoke]

I think we can all agree Barny was the unofficial main character without him there would have been no season 2

[timy]

“How I met your mother: if the ending made sense”

[a.munroe]

I find it ironic that they nailed the Canadian Dad: if something doesn't work for you, treat it like it does and wait... Preferably with a beer.

[jessedellross]

Robin gets too much hate imo. She was career focused with relationships being more a side thing. That’s a great lesson for women today: you can have a career and completely satisfied with life. If you can have both a career and family, fantastic.

But it doesn’t have to be one or the other

[mel]

Friends from Phoebe's perspective

[surferzapper]

I feel like all the story beats could have stayed the same with Robin as the lead, just end the show with the wedding and don't let the audience know she eventually divorces Barney. Or even just end it after the first few seasons. Would be nice to focus in on HER inner monologue as she slowly integrates into the friend group while constantly dodging Ted's obsessive behavior, starts to fall for him in spite of knowing they're incompatible as partners, giving that a chance, then allowing the show to focus on her self discovery & career growth after that relationship inevitably fails.

[bravemoon]

I like Robin a lot and I can relate, I’m a dreamer myself, I’m very ambitious, and I hit pause button on this part of my life to have two kids because I had a medical condition and was told by my doc that if I wanted to have kids in perspective I should hurry. It was smth like “now or never”. I went for it. Few years later, two kids, no relevant working experience, I’m in my early 30s and even more ambitious. I understand that doc couldn’t see the future. Maybe i was wrong to have listened to her. I understand I may never gain the goals I wanted in my career. But I don’t regret that decision because knowing myself eventually I would regret a lot not having kids. And Robin while being career-centered and awesome could become sentimental and lonely one day, why not. Who knows, maybe it was eating her alive.

[jessilla]

This would have been a good remake of the show.

HIMYM fell into the “well, it’s popular so we might as well give it more seasons” trap. The ending was planned years in advance, but it didn’t make sense after all of the added episodes. In addition, Neil Patrick Harris kinda forced the relationship between Robin and Barney as he really enjoyed, and had a good chemistry, with Cobie Smulders. As the entire last season was about B&R’s wedding it felt like a waste of time as they threw everything they had worked for in order to get married out of the window. I am not saying that they had to stay together, just that the focus of it all made it unsatisfying. Who knows, if the show had ended way earlier, and if they had given us more time with the mother, it might have made sense. But personally, the show ends for me with Ted meeting the mother at the train station.

[WhitehouseTransit]

I really want to see a video that's centered on Emily Gilmore from the Gilmore Girls a.ka. the third Gilmore girl and her growth as a character from the tv show to the year in the life!!

[Shelbadelbasingsong]

I will never forgive the creators for making us sit through that scene where Ted metaphorically lets Robin go, and she floats away (???) only to have him go back to her in the end.