Seems like only yesterday we were saying goodbye to a group of Friends we had gotten to know over a decade like they were our very own. Now we're doing it all over again with Ted, Lily, Marshall, Robin and Barney. This quintet of quirky, loveable, relatable people have made us laugh, cry and everything in between for nine seasons.
The overall arc of How I Met Your Mother is the story of how Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) met the love of his life and mother of his two children - who we, on the cusp of the final episode, still only know as The Mother (Cristin Milioti). But it's been so much more than that. We've also followed the love story of Lily "Lily Pad" Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan) and Marshall "Marshmallow" Erikson (Jason Segel), college sweethearts who have one of the healthiest TV marriages ever. There's been Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), a career-minded newswoman who had an on-again-off-again relationship with Ted but ultimately ended up marrying reformed player playboy and eternal Bro Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) in the penultimate episode. As for Barney, I dare anyone to tally just exactly how many women he slept with over the course of the series before finding true love with Robin. Most of his conquests were tabulated is his infamous "Playbook," which actually played a role in his elaborate, romantic marriage proposal.
Any fan of the show will instantly know things like "The Bro Code," "Legendary," "Suit Up" and "The Slap Bet." Man, I'll miss these and so much more!
If you haven't seen this amazing, heartfelt, hysterical show, where have you been? Seriously, though, it's in crazy syndication on several different channels daily, and each can very much stand on its own in watching. But it really is a wonderful journey to take, and these actors have chemistry and comaraderie that will still have relevance and be just as entertaining decades from now.
*sniff*
This series is lesser known to mainstream TV but has still been a great ride. Based on a British series of the same name, Being Human has followed the lives (or, in some cases, afterlives) of vampire Aidan (Sam Witwer, Smallville), werewolf Josh (Sam Huntington, Veronica Mars) and ghost Sally (Meaghan Rath, The Assistants), who all live together in a renovated Boston brownstone in what they initially named "the experiment." Could these three supernatural entities co-exist? They did not only that, but actually have become a family, eventually welcoming Josh's wife Nora (Kristen Hager), also a werewolf (turned, actually, by Josh).
(L-R: Rath, Witwer, Huntington, Hager)
This is another example of great casting, with actors who not only gelled really well with each other, but made you root for their characters, despite bad things they may have occasionally done, if only by nature of their creature selves.
These folks have seen a lot of ups and downs over the course of their four-season story, and I'm really hoping the writers give us happy endings for all when the series concludes in two weeks.
*sniff sniff*
Last but not least, there's Psych, the first of the three to say goodbye (tomorrow night). This is one of the looniest, silliest, most playful shows on TV - and it's not even a sitcom! I'm not sure what you would classify it as. It's not a dramedy cause it only got heavy a mere handful of times. It's just in a genre of its own.
Psych follows the adventures and antics of Shawn Spencer (James Roday), a man with such an incredible gift for observation and detail that he parlays it into a career as a (faux) psychic detective (yep, it's kind of like The Mentalist except Psych came first and Simon Baker's Patrick Jane outs himself as a fake psychic - Psych even made mention of that "other" show in an episode). He and his lifelong bro Burton "Gus" Guster (Dule Hill) frequently consulted on cases for the Santa Barbara police department - and solved pretty much all of them - much to the chagrin of head detective Carlton "Lassie" Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), his partner Juliet "Jules" O'Hara (Maggie Lawson) (don't worry ... Shawn and Jules they eventually fell in love) and police chief Karen Vick (Kirsten Nelson). Also annoyed by Shawn's complete inability to take pretty much anything seriously is his father, retired cop Henry (Corbin Bernsen).
(L-R: Lawson, Bernsen, Roday, Nelson, Hill, Omundson)
The fact that Shawn didn't take things seriously gave him cart blanch to do whatever he wanted, consequences be damned, and that meant the show could play at anything - and it did. There certainly has never been a show so dedicated to and celebratory of pop culture, especially of classic (by classic I mean 80s and 90s) TV and music. And this is one show that did a musical episode and got it right. (see also Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Once More With Feeling)
Once again, I have to cite cast chemistry, especially between the male leads. Roday (above, right) and Hill have one of the most entertaining and hysterical bromances on TV. Considering what Shawn has put Gus through over the eight seasons the show has been on, you can't help but wonder "why are you still here?!?" He's there because they are best friends, they are each other's wingman and they'd be miserable without each other. Which poses a wondering ... there have been rumblings that Shawn and Gus may in fact part ways, should Shawn decide to leave Santa Barbara to join Jules up north where she has her new job with Chief Vick. Could it be?? Let's hope not. Batman without Robin? Starsky without Hutch? Turner without Hooch? NO!!
*sniff sniff sob*
So with a sad heart, I bid a fond farewell to these three terrific series, grateful to have them available in syndication, through streaming and on DVD. May I recommend thoroughly checking all three out. You won't be sorry!
How I Met Your Mother series finale airs Monday, March 31 at 8pm on CBS.
Being Human series finale airs Monday, April 7 at 9pm on SyFy.
Psych series finale airs tomorrow, Wednesday, March 26 at 10pm on USA.
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