How I Met Your Father: Decoded

By Jonathan Nguyen

As an avid fan of the acclaimed series, How I Met Your Mother, investing my time in watching its latest spin-off series How I Met Your Father was inevitable. I had become emotionally attached to watching Ted Mosby and his group of life-long friends grow and develop as characters. I mean, after nine seasons, wouldn’t you? 

So, after approximately 8 years since How I Met Your Mother’s final season aired and we at last finally see [SPOILER ALERT] Ted Mosby meeting The Mother and his coping with her unexpected and controversial death [SPOILER ALERT], I was eager see how this spin-off would live up to the original. Though How I Met Your Father had some fun moments, I believe it ultimately fails to deliver the charm Ted Mosby and company had. 

Through Stuart Hall’s dominant, negotiated, and oppositional readings of television text, I explore why How I Met Your Father’s stint on air may have been so short-lived. 

The potential dominant readings of How I Met Your Father is that this is a sitcom set in contemporary times, intricately weaving in references to the technologized, modern world. The clear contrast with having a female lead versus the original series’ male lead alongside a supporting cast ranging from multiple gender and ethnic identities would suggest to a viewer how the television industry is striving towards diversity and inclusivity. The show ultimately aims for its audience to see how the diverse group of friends organically form a friendship that blossoms in parallel to the original while Hillary Duff’s character, Sophie, searches for her soulmate.

An oppositional reading however, might potentially leave viewers finding this contemporary take as dishonoring the original series. How I Met Your Father’s theme of friendship is drowned out by what some viewers may interpret as diversity for the sake of diversity. How I Met Your Father’s cast consists of a white American man, an adopted sister who identifies as Asian and lesbian, two south Asian characters who met in medical school, a British man hailing from a wealthy and aristocratic family, and a hispanic woman all becoming friends with one another while the white American woman searches for the love of her life. Is this diversity or tokenism?

A negotiated reading of How I Met Your Father encompasses aspects from both the dominant and oppositional readings. The expectations for How I Met Your Father–and really, many other spin-off shows from popular series such as Better Call Saul deriving from Breaking Bad and AMC’s The Walking Dead giving rise to Fear the Walking Dead–are set high. No one likes it when the new taints the old. How I Met Your Father had big shoes to fill, naturally. In combination with the high standards set by its predecessor and the series’ need to provide a modern and diverse approach when writing its characters, it’s understandable why a negotiated reading may blend together the show’s periods of enjoyment with projections of modern society’s unattainable ideals.

Though I did enjoy watching How I Met Your Father, my viewing of the show was nothing more than a “filler” I would watch during my meals. I didn’t feel as connected to the spin-off series as I did with the original. Seeing now that the show got canceled, I must say I am a little bummed they didn’t tell us who the father is. With that said though, Jessie is most definitely the father.