Among the things my roommate and I have in common are an affinity for Nathan Fillion and a disinterest in HIMYM. However, since there were people in my socia media networks commenting on the ending of HIMYM, I became intrigued as to what the hullaballoo was about. I had seen most of the early seasons, but lost interest around 3 or 4. My curiosity led me to the internet. I forget which article I read first, but I remember it (and the comments below it) mentioned Twitter being in an uproar. Wondering, again, why people might be so passionate about it, I read a few more articles.
I stopped when I read one on huffingtonpost about a petition being started to change the ending.
The next morning, I spoiled the ending for my roommate, and she got a good chuckle over it. I was home when she returned from work, finishing up my Firefly/Serenity March Madness. As the final credits of the movie rolled, she and I began a discussion comparing the two shows. After all, they both share a connection with Dr. Horrible (which has been taken off Netflix instant queues...what the?).
The first thing they both have in common is a large fan base. Unfortunately, there are more browncoats now than there were when the series first aired. Or is it all that unfortunate? The series was one season in 2002, and the fanbase took to the internet, petitioning for more. They got it, in the form of a feature length film that solved the largest mystery of the show. (Although, it would take a comic written by Joss Whedon to fill in the blanks of Shepherd Book's backstory.) Fans love it. We are, for the most part, satisfied with the resolution.
HIMYM was a popular show, making CBS lots of money. I haven't done the research to back this up, but from the commentaries I've read, events that happened in the later seasons made the final ending implausible. It didn't make sense because X, Y, and Z happned in season 7, 8, and 9. It's my guess that the writers, who claim to have had the ending from the beginning, weren't expecting the series to run as long as it did. They were caught off-guard, like trying to write a 2 page story in 20 pages. They had to come up with some fluff, and it ended up reading like a first draft NaNoWriMo project.
My point is, HIMYM fans upset with the ending have greed and the popularity of the show to blame. If it hadn't been so popular, they may have been able to walk away while the ending still seemed to make sense to the fans. Conversely, in my humble opinion, Firefly fans have the same things to thank. I really don't think the show would be as popular without it's martyrdom status, and it's unlilkely that Serenity would have been made had the show lasted a few more seasons.
In conclusion, I really want to finish watching the Psych series, which also ended recently, after it's eighth season (and a musical). Unfortunately, I've only seen through the sixth season, so comparing how it ended to how HIMYM ended would be like comparing french horns to pineapples.
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