Alyson Hannigan played the role of Lily Aldrin for nine years on the hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Hannigan starred along with Jason Segal, Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Radnor, and Cobie Smulders. The show was one of the defining sitcoms of the 2000s and is constantly compared with its counterpart of the 90s, F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
However, the series finale was not as well-received as its counterpart. The show was built up to the appearance of the Mother in the last season and many fans considered the ending to be anti-climactic. Hannigan revealed that she too felt that the ending was not as perfect as it was built up to be.
The Last Season Of How I Met Your Mother Was Disappointing
The premise of How I Met Your Mother is an old Ted Mosbey, played by Josh Radnor, recounting the tale of his youth to his two kids, leading up to the time he met his future wife and their mother. The majority of the series shows the friendship that Mosbey shares with Marshall, Lily, Barney, and Robin.
The show teased the appearance of the mother multiple times in the show and the audience finally got a glimpse of her in the last episode of the eighth season. The ninth season saw The Mother, played by Cristin Milloti, as a series regular. The final season also centered only around the wedding of Neil Patrick Harris’ Barney Stinson and Cobie Smulders’ Robin Scherbatsky.
The creators’ decision to center the final season around the wedding received mixed reactions from the fans, who were waiting for more moments between The Mother and Ted. Alyson Hannigan, who plays Lily on the show, also had criticisms regarding the characters getting married. She said to News.Com.Au,
“I didn’t think Barney should have ever gotten married…I liked Barney and Robin. But in my heart, I always wanted her with Ted. I just feel they shouldn’t have gotten married.”
Hannigan also mentioned that the character arc of Barney did not make sense to her. Barney was known as the playboy of the group and multiple episodes of the series are centered around the character’s sexual conquests. Hannigan said that his reformed playboy trope did not work for her.
Alyson Hannigan Did Not Like Ending Of The Show
After nine seasons of build-up, fans finally got to see Ted Mosbey and his future wife Tracy McConnell meet in How I Met Your Mother. Many moments during the season build-up to the eventual meet, with one of the more exceptional sequences being her rendition of ‘La Vien Rose’ on a ukelele being heard by Ted next door.
The duo finally meet at the end of Robin and Barney’s wedding at the Farhampton railway station where they share the infamous yellow umbrella. However, the future of the couple is doomed as McConnell dies of a terminal illness, leaving Ted to be a widower. The show ends with Ted asking out Robin again.
The ending received negative reactions from fans who criticized it for showing too little of the pair and ending it with Ted and Robin again. Alyson Hannigan too had issues with the ending and said that she wished the makers had kept certain scenes that they had filmed. She said,
“There was a funeral scene [that got cut], and all this stuff that I think the audience needed. They needed that time to process that information, instead of having it slap them in the face…The table read for the finale was so good, so right, but it was also like 14 hours long. So when I actually saw the final version of the show, I was like ‘They cut out everything!’”
Alyson Hannigan also mentioned that she did not know who the Mother was until a few days before filming when the cast took a picture with Cristin Milloti.
