Last year, at the end of How I Met Your Mother‘s eighth season, we – the viewers – finally met the titular matriarch (Cristin Milioti). Now, 24 episodes and an entire year later, the show’s main character, Ted (Josh Radnor), has met her as well. Even I am not sensitive enough to consider that a spoiler – it is in the title after all – but creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas did have a couple surprises in store for fans (or obsessive haters, depending on your perspective).
Two-hundred episodes is a huge accomplishment for any show, even if you think it has been on the air for a few too many seasons. Think back to the early days of How I Met Your Mother, when it seemed to be on the verge of cancellation every six months; back then the idea of nine seasons would have seemed glorious. But now – in practice – the general consensus is that the show has fallen off, especially in this final year. I am personally of the opinion that season nine is more of the same, equal in quality to what we’ve come to expect the last few years (if not actually a little bit better). While it is disappointing that the show will seemingly never go back to the whip-fast, smart, even edgy comedy that it once was, I’m certainly not going to give up on it with the end so close.
Steven Cohen's 365 Days of Reviews 