I’m totally here for How I Met Your Father! It’s given us all the feels from the original while making it its own thing.
Bringing in Kim Cattrall to narrate was genius! And she has a son, so that’s making the story of meeting his father even more awkward. I also love that she’s drinking wine while telling this story — no better way to do it.
There are a lot of similarities to the original. The pilot follows a similar trajectory as How I Met Your Mother. Sophie, played by Hilary Duff, goes on the perfect date, and there’s even a proposal. The cuts to scenes are the same, and Sophie’s belief in finding the one matches Ted’s.
There are some key differences. HIMYF has diversity. One of the female leads is a Mexican, and one of the males is an Indian, which is nice to see when the show takes place in New York City. It also takes place in the present, so of course, it’s a Tinder date that Sophie is going on, and she’s getting there in an Uber.
This time around, HIMYM is upfront that Sophie meets the father of her son that night, but there are a few possibilities. My money is on Jesse (Christopher Lowell). But that could be too on the nose.
The pilot episode also gave us some throwbacks to the original. The two male leads, Jesse and Sid (Suraj Sharma), live in Ted, Marshall and Lily’s old apartment. It even has the swords still up on the wall! They mention that they got it from an old married couple. Awe, I wonder how Marshall and Lily are doing. To top that off, Jesse and Sid also own a bar, which was a long-time dream of Ted and Barney’s.
I also love that Sophie and Valentina (Francia Raisa) are not super thin. They are healthy and look fantastic. Not to say that the women on other shows that are thin aren’t beautiful, they are, but we need some body positivity, especially when the covid 10 or 15 is a real thing.
I saw some tweets that said this could have been the exact plot of the Lizzie McGuire reboot we all waned, but it really couldn’t be. If you were a fan of How I Met Your Mother, you see that show’s DNA in this one — it’s got the same tone and feel. I wish we could have gotten that Lizzie McGuire remake too, but I love this new installment in the HIMYM world.
This time around, we’re also getting a great female friendship/roommate duo as well as the male one. Of course, we would all love to live with our bestie, but sadly, that doesn’t happen, especially in cities like NYC. But it is a fun fantasy to watch play out on screen. They talk about everything, work out together and even make bad coffee together.
While we don’t know much about Sophie and Valentina yet, I love their introduction. What we’ve seen of Sid so far, I also love. He’s so funny and looks like he will get along with the British guy that Valentina brought home from London Fashion Week. And then there’s Jesse, who is played by Chris from Veronica Mars. I was excited when I saw he was going to be in this. While he was never meant to be with Veronica, I still loved his character on that show, and I’m happy to see he’s found a new home. Speaking of new homes, I’m glad we didn’t have to wait too long to have Hilary back on our screens. I was sad to lose Younger, but this is making up for it.
HIMYF is off to a super fun start. I can’t wait for next Tuesday to continue Sophie’s journey. Have you seen HIMYF yet? What did you think? Tweet me @PrimetimDrama or @MandyTTCarr or comment below.
