Neil Patrick Harris’ Refreshing Take On ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Series Finale

Neil Patrick Harris is here to explain the How I Met Your Mother series finale. Even though most viewers hated the last ten minutes of the show, to Harris it makes sense, and the reason for it is kind of endearing.

Harris stopped by Bravo’s Inside The Actor’s Studio to sit down with James Lipton. The first time he appeared on the show, it was ahead of the series finale of How I Met Your Mother, with the rest of the cast. This time around he’s pulling double duty, speaking about his acting career, and his new gig hosting the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony.

A large part of his reintroduction into pop culture was because of How I Met Your Mother, and as some of you know, James Lipton leaves no stone unturned.

When asked what he thought about the series finale, Harris gave a surprising answer. “I loved the ending, yeah.”

As most of you know, Ted winds up with Robin years after “the mother” Tracy dies. At the end of the story, the kids call Ted that this wasn’t a story about how he met their mother, but rather how he fell in love with Robin, over and over again. The kids pointed out that this was just a story told to them so Ted could get permission to start dating Aunt Robin.

One of the arguments about the series finale is the creators completely ignored and threw away Barney and Robin’s relationship, after they spent seasons building up to their reunion, and a whole season on their wedding. Neil Patrick Harris addressed this, but sees it in a different way than most viewers.

“[Robin and Barney] didn’t belong together. She was meant to be with Ted … I loved the circles about the show and I love that whole season nine was trying to want them to be together and thinking that they’re perfect together.”

The star continued, “I would have loved for them to end up together, but it’s not in Barney’s DNA to be together with her or the same person, so he leaves her and ends up being crazy and wanting to be even more insane and shag more people.”

Harris’ version of why things didn’t work out was much sweeter. In the end the only woman worth committing to was his daughter. “I really valued what that meant for Barney Stinson. I just don’t think there’s an adult female that will tame him, and yet a great conclusion to his journey that a woman—a female—ends up taming him and taking his heart.”

[Photo by Frazer Harrison / Getty Images]