Matt Roush (1 question how i met... l'autre sur GG) 4/12/06

Matt Roush

Monday, December 4, 2006
Question: Two questions for you: 1) How I Met Your Mother is really hitting its stride this season. The "Robin Sparkles" video episode had me laughing throughout. I really enjoy seeing Robin and Ted together, but I'm concerned that when the inevitable breakup occurs — we were told in the first episode that Robin and Ted do not ever marry, but she becomes the future children's "Aunt" — it will destroy the chemistry of the show. When viewers get used to seeing a couple together in a show, we bond to them, and the show is ruined if they break up (Gilmore Girls in particular comes to mind). Don't you think we will always want to see Ted and Robin together?

2) As an avid Gilmore Girls fan, I find it increasingly difficult to watch the show anymore. Not only are the dialogue and timing of the show off, but it's also becoming boring and tiresome. What happened to the townspeople and quirky story lines? Did Rory skip a year at Yale and lose what personality she had? I have invested so much time in this series that I feel compelled to watch, even if it's on a downward spiral. Given that the end point of the show was always Rory's graduation from Yale, what are the chances that this is the last season of the show? If the show were to continue for another season, what are the chances that the original producers would come back to finish it?
— Larry S.
Matt Roush: Good question about Mother. From the pilot episode onward, it has always seemed a puzzling risk to let us know in advance that Ted and Robin weren't going to be forever together. But in the most recent episode, in which we jumped forward in time to Barney's gay brother's wedding, Ted and Robin were still a couple, so it doesn't look like the show is going to rush to confront this obstacle. That will be a tricky moment, no question about it, and it will test our allegiance to these characters, depending on the circumstances of their breakup. (You have to assume they all remain great friends.) As for Gilmore Girls: I can only hope that this is the final season. (You're not the only one stymied by how quickly Rory zoomed through Yale, especially given that she dropped out for a while.) I find the show squirm-inducing these days for a variety of reasons. But it's hard to predict if the CW will let loose of its Tuesday anchor this soon. The network may feel compelled to keep it at least another year in hopes of developing more new programming that could potentially fill its shoes. (Not an easy task.) At the moment, it doesn't look as if the Palladinos are poised to return should the show continue. The falling-out was pretty brutal. But nothing would surprise me (except, perhaps, finding myself caring about what happens in Stars Hollow again).

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