After the original series ended in March 2014, “How I Met Your Mother” (HIMYM) fans were left annoyed by the ending and wanted a re-do. Well they got it, sorta. Starring Hilary Duff, a sequel titled “How I Met Your Father” is currently on the streaming service Hulu. Its pilot episode aired on January 18.

The premise of this spin-off is similar to that of the original series: Set in the year 2050, a mother is telling her son the story of how she met his father in New York in 2022. Hulu has greenlit ten episodes for the first season.

The episodes start out with a scatting theme song and quick cuts to photos of the cast like the original series did. Then things begin to go downhill.

While set in 2022, there is surprisingly no mention of the pandemic even though the showrunners had to have written it in late 2020. With the pandemic being a prevalent event in current history, it is disappointing to see that they did not add that detail in. It would have been an interesting twist.

Something interesting that I don’t really like is the fact that we see 2050 Sophie (Kim Cattrall). Whereas in the original, we only heard future Ted (narrated by the late Bob Saget) tell his children the story of how he met their mother.

The bar that the characters all hung out at in the original series is also no longer called McClaren’s. It is now Pemberton’s and is owned by Sid (Suraj Sharma), one of the main characters. I can see issues with this ownership; the writers may use it as a crutch when they feel they have exhausted all ideas for the show. The bar also was just a place to hang out for the original cast, so it is a weird dynamic change as Sid and his roommate Jesse (Chris Lowell) run the bar instead of just enjoying time with their friends there.

While there is witty banter throughout the episode, it is just not funny. In HIMYM, there were off the cuff quips sprinkled throughout every episode. The comedy in this series feels forced and unnatural.

Also, the only outward reference to HIMYM is Sid and Jesse living in the apartment from the original, something that is made obviously known when Jesse says they found it through a Wesleyan University Alumni group when a couple posted it. The couple alluded to is Lily and Marshall Erickson. Wesleyan University is the same college where Ted, Lily, and Marshall had gone to school.

All in all, I did not enjoy my 25 minutes of viewing time. It was 25 minutes of my life I will never get back and does not do the original series justice. There have been many failed attempts at a HIMYM remake before this, such as the failed 2014 spin-off starring Greta Gerwig titled How I Met Your Dad, and I expect the same end result– failure.

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